The annual Main Stage Dance/Theatre Festival returns with six exciting new choreographies by graduate and undergraduate students at UC Davis: In I, Saint John, the Speaker, Tyler Eash examines how we translate the mundane into the profound; Hillary Feineman-Klausner challenges society’s portrayal of the perfect family in Picture Imperfect Portraits; award-winning choreographer Jess Curtis presents Symmetry Study #15 where limbs entangle and create an inter-corporeal kaleidoscope of flesh; Kelly Fleischmann’s Aller/Arret describes life’s constant and unpredictable movement; Life Among the Institutions by Nina Galin is an interactive meditation on the individual in our mass-oriented culture; Lucas Macdonald’s Computer Games explores the incorporation of the human element into symbolic machines. Main Stage Dance/Theatre Festival plays April 10 - 11 and April 17 - 19 with special one hour matinees on Picnic Day, April 18. All performances are presented by the Department of Theatre & Dance at Main Theatre, Wright Hall.
Artistic Director and Department of Theatre & Dance Chair David Grenke remarks on this year’s festival, “There is a wide substantial range among the stories being told and the issues being explored, from personal and cultural relationships, to scientific principles. The interactions among the graduate and undergraduate choreographers are greater than ever before. This has a positive influence on the type of questions the undergraduate choreographers are asking. PhD candidate Keith Hennessey has been a driving force as an instructor in composition for the undergraduates this year.”
I, Saint John, the Speaker by undergraduate Tyler Eash asks why we gather meaning from our physical and mentally cultivated environment. It examines how we find value and potential spectacle in mundane performance. The work’s creative catalysts include perceptions of common ideas, unfiltered thought processes, translations through forms of measurement, early iconic Christian art, and grandiose exaggerations of pedestrian movement.
Creating costumes for I, Saint John, the Speaker, has been rewarding for undergraduate Costume Designer Christina Moore, “My designs contributed to Tyler’s storytelling in a subtle deconstruction of street clothes mixed with dance wear. My biggest challenge was finding a balance between innovative design and dance practicality.”
Costumes also play an important role in Hillary Feineman-Klausner’s Picture Imperfect Portraits rendering a cartoon-like quality. “I had fun designing exaggerated clothing and hope the audience enjoys the humorous effects,” says Olufunmilayo Alabi, Costume Designer. Circus tent, clown, and ringmaster elements are reflected in the brightly colored designs.
Picture Imperfect Portraits uses stereotypical family roles to deconstruct the concept of an ideal family and its expectations. The choreography explores how idiosyncratic members of a family form a unit and the relationships they have with one another.
The music for Picture Imperfect Portraits is created by Composer/Sound Designer Isaac Blackstock whose influences are from Romantic and contemporary composers including Gustav Holst, Danny Elfman, and the electronic music of Hirokazu ‘Hip’ Tanaka. This variety of stylistic influence lends an eclectic and modern edge to the score.
Symmetry Study #15 by MFA candidate Jess Curtis is the most recent installment of The Symmetry Project, an ongoing series of installations and presentations by Jess Curtis/Gravity built around the concept of symmetry. Curtis describes The Symmetry Project as a journey through perception. “Bodies interact through a highly structured improvisational score, constricted in a specific physical habit; that of moving symmetrically, relative to themselves or to each other. In this space, bodies are constantly tuning, reformulating the perception of the self and of the other. Limbs entangle and intertwine, blending, merging, and then again differentiating, they become ‘unfinished entities’ - improvising new habits, ‘perceiving the possible.’”
Exploring and manipulating perception, Symmetry Study #15 reveals the body’s awkwardness, monstrosity, and potential failure and limitations. Symmetry Study #15 also presents the possibility of the unknown, the wondrous, the ecstatic, and the infinite.
Kelly Fleischmann’s Aller/Arret translates from the French into “go/stop.” Aller/Arret is the direct reflection of life’s constant state of momentum which inevitably stops to change direction. The piece was inspired by the choreographer’s many trips to France and Europe where vast amounts of open tranquil space create a suspension of time; and her realization of how individuality is further explored when given just a moment. Fleischmann notes, “Life takes us on a journey that can often times be monotonous until we’re given the chance to just be free.” Aller/Arret suggests that everyone has the opportunity to embark on a means of expression, if only briefly.
Fleischmann has chosen a French style for all elements of Aller/Arret including lighting in shades of amber and leaf patterns. “My lighting underscores Kelly’s theme,” says Catherine Frye, Lighting Designer, “I accentuate the back and forth of the dancers with variations in color and intensity.”
Life Among the Institutions is both created and performed by MFA candidate Nina Galin, an artist and educator whose works integrate theatre, dance, and classical and contemporary music. Life Among the Institutions playfully blurs boundaries among these genres with a contemporary score. It jumps off of Shakespeare's famous "to be or not to be" text and proceeds as interactive meditation on the individual in today’s mass-oriented culture.
Galin is concerned with the relationships between individuals and institutions, both in the administrative and cultural sense. Galin explains, “Narrowly, the institutions on my mind are the California educational system and Shakespeare. More broadly, I am concerned with how the mass-production and distribution of goods and services has become institutionalized in our culture, and how I (and my fellow citizens) may relate to these cultural, political, and economic institutions.
Lucas Macdonald’s Computer Games explores the interaction of six simple rules in the making of dance. Macdonald explains, “Each dancer is given the same set of basic commands based upon the actions of the dancers around them. Like a game of chess, the simple movements of many pieces create a deceptively complex system.” Computer Games is performed on a grid with seven dancers who follow Macdonald’s rules including: if there is an invader in your square move once space forward; if the person in the square in front of you has their back to you, enter their square.
Organizing the elements for Computer Games and the five other choreographies has been a challenging learning experience for Stage Manager Sarah Norton. “Being so involved in every aspect of the festival makes me realize how crucial every part of the production team is, and that even small details cannot go overlooked.” Norton is pleased with the process. “It is an amazing feeling to know that everyone is on schedule, and that everything is going as planned.”
Choreographer Biographies
Jess Curtis (Symmetry Study #15), living and working in San Francisco and Berlin, has created a body of work ranging from the underground extremes of Mission District Warehouses with Contraband (1985-1994) to the formal refinement of European State Theaters with Jess Curtis/Gravity (2000-present). Along the way he has co-created ground breaking circus works with the Franco-American Circus project Cie Cahin Caha, Cirque Batard; and has been commissioned to create works for companies such as FabrikCompanie in Germany, the English Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company, ContactArt in Italy, and Croi Glan Integrated Dance Company in Ireland. He founded Jess Curtis/Gravity in 2000 as a research and development vehicle for very live performance. At Gravity, he has created four full-evening performance works: No Place Like Home (2000), fallen (2001), Touched: Symptoms of Being Human (2005), Under the Radar (2007), and a variety of smaller repertory works and site specific installations. Mr. Curtis’ work has received awards and support from (among others) the NEA, Germany’s Hauptstadtkulturfonds, the San Francisco Arts Commission, SF’s Grants for the Arts, and the Creative Work Fund (2007). Gravity’s work has received six Izzies (Isadora Duncan Dance Awards). In 2002 he received a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for “fallen.” He is currently working toward an MFA in Choreography at UC Davis and has taught as a guest lecturer at UC Berkeley and the University of the Arts in Berlin. More information: www.jesscurtisgravity.org.
Tyler Eash (I, Saint John, the Speaker) is a third-year undergraduate at UC Davis. He is pursuing a double major in Dramatic Art (Dance emphasis) and Landscape Architecture. He attended the Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts, where his emphasis was visual arts. His focus of study ranges from spatial design, fine art, theatre, writing, dance, voice, and architecture. He has been studying dance for the last three years at UC Davis. I, Saint John, the Speaker is his third choreography. Eash recently received the Young Artist Award scholarship to attend the American Dance Festival.
Hillary Feineman-Klausner (Picture Imperfect Portraits) is a fourth-year Psychology and Dramatic Art (Dance focus) double major at UC Davis. Hillary has been passionate about dancing since she took her first modern class at UC Davis. She most recently danced in John Jasperse’s Beyond Belief. Upon receiving her BA, Hillary plans to further her education in graduate school and then become a dance therapist.
Kelly Fleischmann (Aller/Arret) is a December 2008 graduate of UC Davis with a major in Dramatic Art (emphasis in Dance). Aller/Arret is her first self-choreographed piece performed at UC Davis. Not a stranger to the UC Davis stage, past performances include: Measure for Measure -Orangina/dancer, Main Stage Dance Theatre Festival 2008 - Assistant Stage Manager, Fate and Spinoza - Video Technician, THIRDeYE Theatre Festival 2007 - Echo April; Man of La Mancha 2006 - Sancho Panza/Puppeteer. She enjoys taking modern, tap, and ballet classes, working, as well as teaching dance at the Woodland Opera House.
Nina Galin (Life Among the Institutions) has been developing works that integrate theatre, dance, and both classical and contemporary music, since 1987. From alternative venues in New York City to the converted warehouses of San Francisco's Mission District, to the formica tabletops of southern California Starbucks stores, Galin blurs boundaries between audience and performer, and incorporates explicit awareness of place into each performance. As an artist, educator and citizen, she explores connection and complexity on somatic, aesthetic, social, political, and economic levels of experience. A broad concept of musicality underlies Nina Galin's approach to performance. She is currently pursuing her MFA at UC Davis Department of Theatre & Dance.
Lucas Macdonald (Computer Games) is a graduating senior at UC Davis who abandoned computer science for dance. Computer Games is his first choreography.
What: Main Stage Dance/Theatre Festival - Six new choreographies by undergraduate and graduate students
Where: Main Theatre, Wright Hall, UC Davis
When: Fri 4/10 ~ Sat 4/11, 8pm
Fri 4/17, 8pm
Sun 4/19, 2pm
Sat 4/18 -- Special 1 hour Picnic Day Matinees 1pm & 3pm
Tickets: $14/16 General; $10/12 Student & Child; Picnic Day Special $5
Purchase tickets: (530) 754-2787, or toll-free (866) 754-2787 orhttp://theatredance.ucdavis.edu
Special Group Tickets:
School and youth groups of 10 or more receive a special rate of $5 per ticket at the teacher or group leader’s request. Call the UC Davis Department of Theatre & Dance at (530) 752 -5863 to make arrangements for this discount.
More information: http://theatredance.ucdavis.edu