DTW April – May 2005

EYE-FULL
DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP CONCLUDES
SPRING SEASON WITH TWO PREMIERES
PREMIERES BY CHAMECKILERNER (APRIL 27–30) AND PAT GRANEY COMPANY
(MAY 4–7); PLUS MOLLY DAVIES/SAGE COWLES (APRIL 18- & 19)
AND FRESH TRACKS (APRIL 22 & 23)

      Dance Theater Workshop concludes its 2004/05 season with a visual bang. Consider the surreal fantasy of Carnaval conjured up in ChameckiLerner’s world premiere, “Costumes by God” (April 27–30); or the paintings by an outsider artist central to Pat Graney Company’s New York premiere, “the Vivian girls” (May 4–7). Add to that, Molly Davies/Sage Cowles (April 18 &19) and Fresh Tracks (April 22 & 23).
      ChameckiLerner: Eroticism, chaos and impulsiveness define ChameckiLerner’s world premiere, “Costumes by God,” inspired by the spirit of Brazil’s Carnaval. During this vibrant and decadent celebration in the choreographers’ native country, social rules are altered; seduction and madness are permitted, even preferred. Interestingly, the dance is an about-face for the artistic pair, who traditionally employ a deconstructed, neutral image of the body. To explore the ritual of Carnaval, however, Rosane Chamecki and Andrea Lerner chose to focus on the body as an agent that provokes feelings of desire and repulsion. In another shift for the choreographers–this time away from the electronic accompaniment of past works–Brazilian-born Béco Dranoff arranges songs for this dance featuring four performers (plus special guests).
      Pat Graney Company: Seattle-based Pat Graney once again takes visual art as a point of departure. In “the Vivian girls,” a New York premiere, she is inspired by the gorgeous, yet disturbing paintings by reclusive Chicago artist Henry Darger (1892-1973), many of which are projected as part of the performance. Discovered after his death, Darger’s 15,000-page book, “The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal,” is filled with his beautiful watercolor collages illustrating the often violent adventures of the girls. Drawing directly from these images, the choreographer creates a movement vocabulary specific to the subject and costumes her five dancers as Darger characters; they emulate the Vivian girls with brunette wigs and white dresses, and appear en pointe wearing colorful butterfly-like wings, as another crowd of creatures from Darger’s imagination. Taking place amid a clutter of giant books, the work is accompanied by an original score for accordion and fiddle by Amy Denio and Martin Hayes.
      Molly Davies/Sage Cowles: Filmmaker Molly Davies and dancer Sage Cowles will present “Space, Time and Illusion–Issues of film with performance,” featuring excerpts from “Sage Cycle” (1976–1980), a series of four film projections juxtaposed against live, onstage movement performed by Cowles, Jodi Melnick and Neil Greenberg. The film performance pieces will be accompanied by a discussion with the artists.
      Fresh Tracks: This spring also brings a fresh crop of Fresh Tracks performers, in the series that has been introducing up-and-coming young choreographers since 1965. Look for new works by Jennie Marytai Liu (“Bloodwork”); Alex Escalante (“Wind Lays Waste”); Ayako Kato (“Land the land – standing point”); Kelly Bartnik (“Infatuation”); Michael Helland (“Endless Matter”); and Juliana F. May (“Lola’s Moves”).

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

ChameckiLerner: Created and co-directed by Rosane Chamecki and Andrea Lerner, ChameckiLerner has been presented in New York, as well as both nationally and internationally. Dance Theater Workshop produced the company’s first evening-length work, “The Butterfly Effect,” in 1994, and has presented the company several times since. ChameckiLerner has also performed at venues including The Joyce Theater and P.S. 122, as well as at the American Dance Festival. Their work has been presented at other dance festivals and venues in the U.S., Brazil, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Portugal, The Netherlands, Austria and Canada. The pair’s most recent work was “Visible Content,” which premiered at Dance Theater Workshop in 2003. ChameckiLerner’s current plans include choreographing a commissioned work for the students at Women’s University in Texas and touring Brazil with “Hidden Form/Visible Content.”
Andrea Lerner & Rosane Chamecki: Natives of Curitiba, Brazil, both received a B.A. from the Pontiff Catholic University of Paran before moving to New York City. In addition to choreographing for their own company, they were commissioned to create two original pieces for the Venezuelan dance company Espacio Alterno and for Brazil's Teatro Guaira Ballet Company, Finland’s M.A.Dancers and Denmark’s WOO Co. They are also curators/artistic directors of Casa Hoffmann, a center for movement studies in Curitiba, Brazil, where they invite artists, critics, scholars and curators to exchange ideas with the local community.
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Pat Graney Company: Created in 1988, the Pat Graney Company is based in Seattle, WA, and headed by Artistic Director Pat Graney. In addition to touring to most major American cities as well as internationally, the Company has appeared four times as part of Seattle’s On the Boards “New Performance Series.” In 1992, the Company began the Keeping the Faith Project, which offers performances, lecture-demonstrations and workshops to incarcerated women and girls nationwide. In 2000, the Company developed a National Model of Keeping the Faith, working with local artists and social workers in four U.S. cities to set up local programs based on the original model. The program had its first international presentation in Dublin, Ireland in May 2004.
Pat Graney: Pat Graney has been choreographing in the Seattle area since 1979, creating over 40 works for both her own Company and others. Her most recent work, “Tattoo,” which toured to 11 U.S. cities and to Valparaiso and Santiago, Chile, completed the triptych that includes “Faith” and “Sleep.” Graney has also been commissioned by Pacific Northwest Ballet and has created several large-scale gymnastic performance works, including “Seven/Uneven” with visual artist Beliz Brother and “Pier 62/63,” which featured 150 gymnasts aged 8-50 and was presented as part of the Goodwill Games Arts Festival in 1990. In 1996, Graney presented the Movement Meditation Project, which featured 150 female martial artists in a work presented at Seattle’s Magnuson Park. The recipient of a 2000 Golden Umbrella award for lifetime achievement in dance, Graney has also received Choreography Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts for 11 consecutive years, as well as from other institutions, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Currently, Graney is collaborating with Japanese fabric designer Reiko Sudo. The work, commissioned by University of Oregon’s Museum of Art and set to
premiere in Tokyo in 2006, involves a site-specific performance installation, as well as a documentary about weavers and their families from Kiryu, Japan.
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Molly Davies: Molly Davies began making experimental films in the late 1960’s in New York City, collaborating on multi-media performance pieces with artists including John Cage, David Tudor, Alvin Curran, Suzushi Hanayagi, Sage Cowles, Polly Motley, Jackie Mattisse and Ann Carson. Her work has been presented both nationally and internationally, and is in the collections of the Getty Research Institute and the Walker Art Center. Davies also teaches courses in design for inter-media performances at universities in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Sage Cowles: A student of ballet and modern dance, Sage Cowles performed with the Wisconsin Dance Group, on Broadway in “Bless You All” and on television in “Lucky Strike Hit Parade.” Later, she served as an advisor to the Creative Leadership program at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota and was the choreographer for Suzanne Lacey’s performance piece “Whispers.” She has collaborated with Molly Davies on six film performances and toured as a guest artist with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land.” In June 2004 she received an “Ernie” award from Dance USA.

LOCATION & TICKET INFORMATION

The evening curtain at Dance Theater Workshop is at 7:30pm. Tickets to ChameckiLerner, Pat Graney Company, Molly Davies/Sage Cowles and Fresh Tracks are $20, or $12 with member, student and senior discounts. All tickets, including 4 for 40% Club discounts, may be purchased at the box office, by calling 212-924-0077 or online at www.dtw.org. Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219 West 19th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues.

Please note: Pat Graney Company’s “the Vivian girls”
is spelled with a lowercase “t” and “g.”

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