News Releases
News from Lane Community College Department of Music Dance and Theater Arts
For Immediate Release October 12, 2011
"Fold, Spin, Fall" dance concert Oct. 28 and 29 at LCC
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LCC Dance instructor Bonnie Simoa rehearsing the dance "Fold" |
Eugene, Or - The Lane Community College Dance Program presents the Fall Dance concert "Fold, Spin, Fall."
The concert will be held on October 28 and 29, 2011 in the Ragozzino Performance Hall on the LCC Main Campus. Curtain for both performances is 7:30 pm.
The concert features a collection of new work by local and national dance and music artists. The work presented represents a broad range of artistic expression, including film, dance, and live music.
Admission is $10. Advance tickets are available online at 2011sitearchive.lanecc.edu/tickets, or can be purchased at the door.
Information about the performances:
Alito Alessi will premier "Another Story", danced by Karen Daly and Laura Hiszczynskyj. Karen and Laura were acquaintances first. A few years ago, Karen participated in Laura's Masters thesis entitled "An Exploration of Dance in the Lives of Cancer Survivors". Both are childhood cancer survivors. Accompanied by live guitar performed by Kenji Ota, this intimate duet reveals the dancer's shared history and experiences through simple gesture and relationship.
Christian Cherry, Director of Music at the University of Oregon's dance program will perform improvisational piano. One of Eugene's musical treasures, Cherry's performance promises to move and inspire the audience.
"Reverie of Forgotten Landscape" with video, costume and performance by Mizu Desierto and an original music composition by Jean-Paul Jenkins. Desierto describes her piece: "Before dying, my grandfather told me that the greatest regret of his life was leaving his farm to work for the highway department. This piece is dedicated to the many people who have lost their relationship to land and to the simple joys of being connected to the source of their food and water. Butoh has a million meanings and none, but the one that is clearest to me today is the insistence that we as humans return to a more simple, connected way of life. It is fundamental to our survival."
"Until the Last Leaf Falls" is a solo choreographed and performed by Sarah Nemecek to honor the tenacity it takes to hold on and the courage it will take to let go. This piece is inspired by autumn, with rich movement textures transitioning into spare gestural ideas. Video footage created by artist John Watson is featured in the piece.
Inspired by the forms of origami, and the soft organic folds of Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings, Bonnie Simoa's new solo "Fold" is a study of moving sculptural forms. Accompanied by an original score of the same title by Michael Wall with percussion by Albert Mathias, the dance reveals a series of shifting shapes and textures, evoking an emotional tone that is both eerie and nostalgic.
"and so it goes…" is a series of duets choreographed by artist in residence Christopher Watson with Jordan Klipzke. Watson writes: "Thirty U.S. state constitutional amendments banning legal recognition of same-sex unions have been adopted. In November of next year Minnesota voters will decide whether or not to become the 31st state to join these ranks. It is astounding that love produces such fear in people. Why are we inclined to so narrowly define which two people can love each other? Why do older men routinely take younger wives, yet the marriage of an older woman and a younger man raises eyebrows or can lead to shock or scorn? "and so it goes…" simply states that any two people may find in each other the magic and fulfillment which we seek in a committed, caring relationship."
Choreographer Biographies:
Alito Alessi is the Artistic Director of Joint Forces Dance Company and DanceAbility International. He began forming the DanceAbility method in 1987. He has received National Endowment for the Arts, Oregon Arts Commission and Hong Kong Choreographer of the year awards. He is a Fulbright Senior Fellow, Ashoka Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow.
Christian Cherry is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser and composer who has been making noises with dance professionally since 1983. His incantations of music from near and far have led him on a joyful stroll arm-in-arm with lots of interesting folks and with technology. He is an Associate Professor/Music Director in Dance at the University of Oregon, and lives in Springfield with his life-long dance partner, Sarah Ebert and their son Rhys and daughter Talia. When he isn't musing around the piano, he revels in the beauty of Oregon.
Mizu Desierto is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Portland's Water in the Desert and The Headwaters Theatre. She is a performer, choreographer and educator whose work explores themes of personal truth, ecological sensitivity and transformation. Mizu has worked with Human Nature Dance Theatre (AZ) for 14 years and was a founding member of The Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theatre (S.F.). She has performed with Harupin-Ha Butoh (S.F.), Yoshito and Kazuo Ohno (Japan), & Diego Piñon (Mexico) and her solo work has been presented internationally. She is a frequent collaborator with Portland State University's foremost expert on Japanese Performance, Laurenz Kominz, PhD. She has also been a recipient of grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, Oregon's Regional Arts & Culture Council, Oregon Arts Commission, The Multnomah County Cultural Coalition & The Oregon Cultural Trust. In 2010, she worked as a choreographer for Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon and The Circus Project. Mizu has taught butoh for over a decade and served as adjunct faculty member at Prescott College (Arizona). In July of 2011, she initiated and co-taught a course in Permaculture and Butoh at Portland State University.
Sarah M. Nemecek is a dance artist who plays with collaborative methods in composition. She is faculty member at Lane Community College in Eugene where she teaches a variety of styles of dance and Pilates. Sarah received her Bachelor of Sciences degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Biomechanics and a minor in Dance. Sarah went on to complete her Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oregon with emphases in artistic collaboration and kinesiological integration into dance pedagogy. Her research has been presented at the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science and published in the Journal of Dance Education. Locally, she serves on the Board of Directors for Sparkplug Dance, a non-profit dedicated to igniting a passion for dance and making it accessible for people of all ages, incomes, and abilities. The practice of respecting collaborators individual artistry and trusting unique voices within a defined framework is fundamental to her process and manifests itself in the work as a richness in the spectrum of experience. Sarah is interested in the process of collaboration, and how people and art forms can come together to work toward a common goal, and sees this not just as a way of working but a way of being in life.
Bonnie Simoa was born and raised in California. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Dance with emphasis in Choreography and Performance from Mills College in Oakland in 1990, and is a certified Continuum Movement teacher. While in the Bay Area, she studied with several respected dance figures including Ellen Bromberg, June Watanabe, Joe Goode, Margaret Jenkins, and Martin Kravitz. In 1990, she formed the Bonnie Simoa Dance Company, with performances throughout California, in Germany and Indonesia. She has danced with Walter Kennedy, Christopher Watson Dance Company, the Ellen Webb Dance Company, the Ellen Bromberg Dance Ensemble, and the Mills Repertory Company. In 1996, Bonnie began her regular travels to Indonesia where she studied traditional dances of Bali (Legong, Teruna Jaya, Gambuh, Rejang); and Pribadi (Individual) Movement Art, dancing in temples, sacred places and Nature with Suprapto Suryodarmo in Java.
Bonnie has taught in colleges, universities and in the community since 1990 and has created over 30 dance works. Bonnie is Lead Dance Faculty at Lane Community College.
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Source: Jennifer Salzman, Gallery Director, 541-463-3431, salzmanj@lanecc.edu
Submitted by:
John Watson
Marketing and House Manager
Department of Music, Dance and Theatre Arts
Lane Community College
4000 East.30th Avenue
Eugene, OR 97405-0640
541-463-5161
watsonj@lanecc.edu
Online Box Office: 2011sitearchive.lanecc.edu/tickets
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