How much do artists’ native cultures
continue to influence their work after becoming expatriates? Premieres
at Dance Theater Workshop by Amanda Loulaki (March 2–5) and
Yin Mei (March 9–12) will suggest diverse possibilities. From
the home front will be a shared program of new works by American-born
and bred Mollie O’Brien, Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs (March
16–19).
Amanda Loulaki: Chaos rules in Amanda Loulaki’s
“La la la la, Resistance (The Island of Breezes),” a
quintet the Crete-born artist created in collaboration with her
four-member company, Short Mean Lady. In “Resistance,”
a world premiere, Loulaki hints at both individual experiences and
world events by using intense, physical movements echoed in brief
glimpses of black and white images in Jason Akira Somma’s
stark video installation. Moments of irony and sarcasm surface in
the complexity of political and emotional references. Georgios Kontos’s
accompanying score combines music with an original sound collage.
Yin Mei: Having grown up during China’s
Cultural Revolution, Yin Mei emerged with a singular choreographic
style, which preserves traditional Chinese ideas of space and movement
and incorporates them within the rubric of contemporary dance theater.
Guided by the principles of the I Ching, an ancient Chinese system
of divination, Mei attempts to resolve her dark childhood memories
of the Revolution and come to terms with the duality of good and
evil in “Nomad: The River,” a world premiere. To universalize
and communicate this search for spiritual understanding, Mei turns
toward her experiences visiting China’s Yellow River and India’s
Ganges River–two bodies of water simultaneously perceived
as sacred and destructive. The work for five dancers, including
Mei, is accompanied by Christopher Salter’s sound and media
design.
MOB Productions & robbinschilds: Presenting
a shared program of world premieres are MOB Productions and robbinschilds.
Created by Mollie O’Brien with her company, MOB Productions,
“This is what I would have felt” confronts feelings
of alienation and miscommunication. Four women inhabit the stage,
repeatedly attempting to find connection among themselves. The work
is set to Shawn Onsgard’s live, original wind and string score.
Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs’s “half space”
suggests the ethereal imprint left behind by visitors in public
places. With intricate, discrete movements, five dancers navigate
through piles of banquet chairs, an angled carpet runner and a large,
low-hanging chandelier–all reminiscent of a hotel. The original
score combines Dan Crane’s songs with sound recordings manipulated
by Rosten Woo.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Amanda Loulaki & Short Mean Lady: Founded in
2001 by Amanda Loulaki, the project-based company has performed
in venues throughout New York City, including Danspace Project at
St. Mark’s Church, Dixon Place, The Kitchen, Dance Theater
Workshop and Movement Research at Judson Church. Internationally,
the company has been seen at the 11th Biennale for Young Creators
in Athens, Greece and the International Contemporary Dance Platform
in Hania, Crete.
Amanda Loulaki: Born in Iraklion, Crete in 1968,
Amanda Loulaki earned a B.A. in education from Crete’s Department
of Pedagogy in 1990. She moved to New York in 1994 when she received
a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio.
Loulaki has performed with Victoria Marks, Yin Mei, Yasmeen Godder,
Sigal Bergman, Karl Anderson, Clarinda Mac Low, Veronique Guilland,
Nina Winthrop and White Oak Dance Project, as well as in improvisation
projects by Jeremy Nelson, Luis Lara and Bill Young. She has also
collaborated with Curt Haworth and visual artists Kana & Olympios,
and programmed the Improvisation Festival/NY. Loulaki has served
on panels for Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, P.S.
1 and Movement Research at Judson Church. Programming director at
Movement Research since 1998, she was also an artist in residence
from 2001 to 2002.
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Yin Mei: A native of China, whose formative years
during the Cultural Revolution continue to shape her choreography,
Yin Mei began her professional dance career by studying traditional
Chinese dance. In 1985, she moved to the United States to break
away from the dance form’s limitations and began to concentrate
on modern dance. A graduate of New York University’s Tisch
School of the Arts with both B.A. and M.F.A. degrees, her contemporary
dance theater works resonate with elements of traditional Chinese
dance movement and spatial ideas. Mei premiered her most recent
work, “/Asunder,” at Danspace Project in 2001, subsequently
touring the dance to 11 cities throughout the United States. Her
work has also been presented throughout New York in venues such
as Dance Theater Workshop, Movement Research, the Knitting Factory,
the Asia Society and Mulberry Street Theatre, as well as at the
Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors Festival and as part of City Center’s
Fall for Dance Festival. National and international performances
include: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Bard College, the
Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin, University of California at Santa
Cruz, Theater X in Tokyo, the Hong Kong Town Hall Theatre, the BBB
festival in Potsdam, Germany and the Indonesian Dance Festival in
Jakarta. Mei was one of ten international choreographers chosen
to participate in the American Dance Festival’s 50th anniversary.
____________________________________________________________________
MOB Productions: Since 1995, Mollie O’Brien
has been performing throughout New York with her company, now called
MOB Productions. In addition to appearing at New York venues such
as Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s
Church, Movement Research and Brooklyn Arts Exchange, the company
has performed in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Studio 303 in
Montreal and the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Mollie O’Brien: A native of Ohio, Mollie
O’Brien trained for five years at the School of Cleveland
Ballet, and in 1995, graduated from The Ohio State University with
a B.F.A. in dance. Her dance studies included work with Nicole Slowinska,
Vicki Blaine, Martha Meyers, Christine Wright and Zvi Gotheiner.
O’Brien’s performances at numerous New York venues include
full-evening works at Joyce SoHo, the Cunningham Studio and Williamsburg
Arts Nexus. Her recent work has included “Triptych”
for frequent collaborators Jennifer Dignan and Gina Jacobs Thomas;
and “Swimming Lessons,” a solo for herself. O’Brien
was awarded residencies at Virginia’s Workspace for Choreographers
in 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2004. She also teaches choreography to cancer
survivors at The Creative Center, works with the Dancer’s
Forum and created and taught a workshop for dance majors planning
to move to New York City.
____________________________________________________________________
robbinschilds: Based on a common interest in dance
and installation pieces, frequent collaborators Sonya Robbins and
Layla Childs created robbinschilds in 2001. The company’s
most recent production was “Broque,” a quartet performed
at Triskelion Arts.
Sonya Robbins & Layla Childs: While studying
dance at Bard College, San Francisco-born Sonya Robbins met Layla
Childs, a native of New York City, and the pair began collaborating
on dance projects. Both graduated from Bard with B.A. degrees in
choreography, and in 1998, Robbins and Childs co-founded the New
York-based Kick Stand Dance collective with three other choreographers
they had met at Bard (Cary Baker, Abby Bender and Anna Luckey).
The group, which has created works for various New York venues and
showcases, opened Triskelion Arts in 2000 as a performance and rehearsal
space for both themselves and other local artists.
LOCATION & TICKET INFORMATION
The evening curtain at Dance Theater Workshop is at 7:30pm. Tickets
to Amanda Loulaki & Short Mean Lady, Yin Mei and the shared
program with MOB Productions and robbinschilds are $20. 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.
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“La la la la, Resistance (The Island
of Breezes)” was commissioned by the Bessie Schönberg/First
Light commissioning program of Dance Theater Workshop with funds
from the Jerome Foundation.
“Nomad: The River” was originally commissioned by the
Bessie Schönberg/First Light commissioning fund of Dance Theater
Workshop, and was funded in part by the National Dance Project of
the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from
National Endowment for the Arts and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Additional funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and
The Ford Foundation.
“This is what I would have felt” and “half space”
were originally commissioned by the Bessie Schönberg/First
Light commissioning fund of Dance Theater Workshop with funds from
the Jerome Foundation of St. Paul, MN.
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