Michael Bodel 

Part of the Dream Music Puppetry Program

 
Bellini's pastoral opera, La Sonnambula is peeled back to reveal the experience of young Amina on the day before her wedding, surrounded by her village but lost in her own mind. A sleepwalker, Amina exists in the space between sleeping and wakimg, vibrant and lifeless. Visceral choreography of two dancers converges with puppetry on multiple scales. Amina's world decomposes. Soprano Mme. Giuditta Pasta, is brought to life, moments before she steps onto the stage of La Scala, 1831.

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More @ mbodel.net

Listen to Michael Bodel and Casey Cole discussing their work Sonnambula

Help Support Sonnambula

 Sonnambula is made possible by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Swing Space program; space at 14 Wall Street is donated by Capstone Equities.

Laura Peterson

Wooden is made possible by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council`s Swing Space Program. Space  at 14 Wall Street is donated by Capstone Equities.

Presented on a shared bill with The Venus Riff

Johari Mayfield

The Venus Hottentot struts in a cage as a sideshow freak and scientific specimen in 19th century England. Fast forward to the present day where a young woman solicits men in elevators. The Venus Riff blends irony and social critique in a twisted commentary on the fall and resurrection of womankind. Dance, music, and burlesque intermingle in a theatrical exploration that shines an informed light on scientific and religious urgings to pin women down as types, as species, and as good or evil. Directed by Jose Zayas.

"...and the buttocks of the Hottentot [are] a somewhat comic sign of the primitive, grotesque nature of the black female." --Charles Darwin

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food...she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and also gave unto her husband." Genesis 3:6

Developmental support from the Harlem Stage Fund For New Work
Presented on a shared bill with Wooden

More @ joharymaifield.com

Listen to Johari Mayfield discussing her work The Venus Riff

Help Support The Venus Riff

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? a post-show discussion series

Moderated by Pete McCabe, HERE Resident Dramaturg

1/13 : Choreography with Johari Mayfield, Laura Peterson and Michael Bodel

1/23 : Musical composition with Kamala Sankaram, Yoav Gal & Rima Fand

1/26 : Puppetry with Lindsay Abromaitis-Smith & Erin Orr

Following the 8.30pm shows

Free | Open to the public

Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya

An installation of strings and water, real-time video projection, and live electronic music converge to create a stunning, seamless landscape in which a single Butoh artist moves. Every motion of the dance is reflected in the surface of water, creating waves, which in turn, affect the light and projected image. Floating Point Waves explores the unstable and interconnected nature of our world. The adult human body is approximately 60 percent water. By heightening this perception and emphasizing the significance of its weight in our body, the dance emerges as an interplay between the body and gravity. Projected video functions as visual music. The world transforms until our only standing point is instability and we are but an interconnected floating point.

More info @ leimay.org

Help Support Floating Point Waves

Co-created by Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya, artistic directors of CAVE and The New York Butoh Festival. Additional developmental support from The New Hazlett Theater residency, The Silo dance residency and CAVE.

Toni Dove

"The Future of Cinema?" -- Quebec Micro

Lucid Possession is a schizoid duet between a woman with a head like a radio receiver and her own avatar. The uncanny manifestation of a virtual multiple personality plagued by ghosts from the past, this automated video pop-up book forges an entirely new form: let's call it cinematic bunraku. Live performers animate video bringing characters to life through motion, voice, and robotics. On-stage, Toni Dove and composer and violinist Mari Kimura control the physical and virtual movements of video and robotic entities. Performer, Hai-Ting Chinn sings and speaks through the Avatar, alongside songs and musical interludes by Elliott Sharp and Mari Kimura. Software designer R.Luke DuBois and roboticist Leif Krinkle control additional layers of light, sound and movement.

More @ toni.dove.com

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 Listen to Toni Dove discussing her work Lucid Possession

Help Support Lucid Possession

Addiitonal residency support from EMPAC; co-commissioned by "Connections", a group of European co-producers and presenters.,Shown as work-in progress at Republique and Spielart Festival, Munich, Nov 2009.

BUY TIX to MIRANDA on

Jan 22nd or on Jan 23 or 24th (on a shared bill with Mosheh)

Kamala Sankaram

Pop-opera meets Reality TV. Miranda is a multi-media chamber opera where the audience becomes detective, judge, and jury for an unsolved murder. An innovative mix of original music inspired by hip-hop, tango, Baroque counterpoint, and Hindustani classical ragas, Miranda is set during the live taping of a hit Court TV show. Miranda explores the way that we spin our own stories about ourselves and others, and the devastation that can result when we discover those stories aren't true.

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Yoav Gal

 "And that you may tell in the ears of thy son, and of your son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that you may know that I am the LORD."

Mosheh is a videOpera re-enacting the seminal Biblical saga of Moses through highly stylized, original music, movement, and video projections. A choir of four 'mother figures' who nurtured and protected Moses in his evolution recounts the text of the ten plagues that God had wrought upon Egypt. "The Plagues" are the concluding episode of Mosheh and will be presented in concert form.

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More @ yoavgal.com

Help Support Mosheh

Presented on a shared bill with Miranda

Lindsay Abromaitis-Smith & Emma Jaster/ Aeolian Theatre

Carnal and spiritual collide and entwine through the dawning of the first day and the moonshine of the first night. Inspired by the fantastical imagery of Magical Realist painter Remedios Varo and the poetry of Rumi, Aeolian Theatre presents a new creation myth told through puppetry, dance, ritual and song. Born of a collective wrestling to find the story that belongs to all of us, we offer a world that seeps in through the senses, flooding our hearts, inviting performers and audience alike to peel back some of the many layers around our hopes, sorrows, fears, and secret delights to reawaken the purity of our primitive selves.

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Help Support Epyllion

A new solo performance piece by Lake Simons and Chad Lynch that combines clown, puppetry, and dance. Simons unravels this silent tale by communing with the inanimate objects that surround her on stage. With imaginative child-like perception and innocence Simons brings these objects and puppets to life. Simons and Lynch channel the stylistic qualities of silent film stars and pantomimic gestures of the prima ballerina from days of yore. Both ridiculous and poetic. At Long Last: Phrase one, is part of a larger piece being developed by the duo and will include a Phrase 2 and Phrase 3. 

This piece has been given a Creation Residency at the performance space One Arm Red in Dumbo, Brooklyn and will be presented in the New York City area in 2010. It will also be part of the 34th season at the Hip Pocket Theatre in Ft. Worth, Texas. Presented on a shared bill with Deke Weaver. 

Deke Weaver

A Peace-Corps-volunteer-turned-office-worker-drone transforms into a social superhero: a brilliant conversationalist, an exquisite chef, a passionate lover, a shrewd and compassionate corporate titan.  He is unstoppable.  And then, one night, during a spectacular dinner party filled with heartfelt tributes, deeply moving songs and transcendent dancing, the worm begins to turn.  With a hint of Spalding Gray and a dash of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Weaver's grapplings with shadow and light are simultaneously disturbing and hilarious.  

A Small Leashed Monkey is part of The Unreliable Bestiary, a series which presents a performance for every letter of the alphabet, each letter represented by a particular animal or habitat. With support from Creative Capital. Presented on a shared bill with At Long Last

More @ dekeweaver.com

Nick Brooke & Jen Rohn

Border Towns explores how recordings have reeningeered the psychological landscape of the US, stitching together hundreds of recordings collected along the borders. Seven performers lipsync, sing, and move precisely with a dense map of song fragments, ambient sounds, and border broadcasts. Along the way, musical Americana gets reconstructed into a surreal theatrical collage reflecting on recording, location, and culture.

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More @ nbrooke.com

Help Support Border Towns

 Border Towns is made possible by Bennington College, The Field, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council`s swing Space program; space at 14 Wall Street is donated by Capstone equities.