An Evening of Dance Film Curator/Artistic Director Brandon
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Landscapes: An Evening of Dance Film Curator/Artistic Director Brandon Whited June 17, 2021 Center Stage Theater Director’s Note It is with great joy and pleasure that we welcome you back to the theater. It goes without saying that this has been an incredibly challenging year. While many industries have been effected by the pandemic in significant ways, the performing arts—and dance in particular—have endured devas- tating economic and structural ramifications. COVID’s impact on the arts has been widely un-addressed at the governmental level and it is due to the unshakeable support of arts advocates, donors, and community organizers that we are here today. As I tell my choreography students when they lament the narrow parameters of an assignment or creative prompt: Limitation liberates pos- sibility. Restriction activates creativity. The restrictions and limitations we have endured as a creative community over the past year offered a radical example of this lesson. With the whole world turning to digital, screen- based platforms for so many facets of our lives, the dance world made a collective pivot to dance film and live digital performance in order to continue to create and connect through art. While these efforts should be applauded and celebrated for the adaptability, ingenuity and perseverance they represent, we should not ignore the fact that for many in our commu- nity dance filmmaking has long been a central aspect of their practice. I say this is not to discount the creative shift that so many of us have nec- essarily embraced, but to honor and celebrate the rich history of dance on film. Dance Film can offer a visual experience that transcends space and time—the capacity to transport us. Film can rocket us across the globe; manifest imagined landscapes; evoke the familiar and nostalgic; and open doors to intimate, personal spaces. It has the power to destabilize our rela- tionship to time, and offer unique perspectives from which we can observe its chosen subject(s). Tonight’s offerings represent many of the different aesthetics, per- spectives and formats that emerge from the craft of dance filmmaking. I invite you to let the visual imaginary wash over you, and allow yourself to be moved. Thank you so much for spending the evening with us, and for your ongo- ing support of the performing arts. We hope to see you again soon! —Brandon Whited, Curator/Artistic Director Landscapes: An Evening of Dance Film A Vanished Day / The Errant Sea Robin Bisio Films/Katia Lepore Mrazek Creators: Robin Bisio & Katia Lepore Mrazek Music: Billy Winger Best Existence / Park For Animals Performer: Katia Lepore Mrazek Sylkies Psychopomp Dance Theater/Ryan Howard Direction: Ryan Howard Choreography: Shenandoah Harris Music: Riley Smith Production Assistant: Melissa Hartman Performers: Abigail Chuah, Nicole Flores, Shenandoah Harris & Erin White Lizard's Mouth HR Moves/Hannah Ruth Brothers Movement, Video & Editing: Hannah Ruth Brothers Sound & Editing: Simon Blondell Performer: Hannah Ruth Brothers Out There Victoria Finlayson Choreography & Video Editing: Victoria Finlayson Videographers: Hannah Ruth Brothers, Victoria Finlayson, Lydia Lamberth, Susan Shaberman, Mark Srednicki Original Score: Simon Blondell Performers: Hannah Ruth Brothers, Kara Le, Susan Shaberman, Eloise Uranga Ride UCSB Dance Company/Joshua Manculich Choreography: Joshua Manculich Music: Julia Wolfe Costumes: Beatriz Borbon Performers: Amity Beardsley, Jayne Butler, Kelly Gao, Erick Martinez, Sera Shahgholian, Dakota Smith, Jenny Thach, Andrew To, Sophia Yacap Intermission Desert Picnic Wild Beast Dance/Tammy Carrasco Direction & Choreography: Tammy Carrasco Video & Editing: Megan Davis Bushway Drone Operator: Stephen Sugden Photographer: Can Burns Lighting Director: Benoit Beauchamp Costume Designer Emma Scholl Music:Adam Crawley, djplie.com; Dr. Panayiotis, Kokoras, Magic Piano (Excerpt) Performers: Tim Bendernagel & Chloe London Renewal Psychopomp Dance Theater/Erin White Direction & Editing: Erin White Assistant Direction & Videography: Jacque Hartman & Ashley Wright Performer: Erin White #danzarestless Performed by Mauricio Vera (in 4 parts) Restless - Chilean in Alicante Spain Direction, Editing & Choreography: Eduardo Zúñiga Music: Ludwig Van Beethoven Orilla - Mexican in Montreal Canada Direction & Choreography: Edgar Zendejas Editing: Eduardo Zuniga Music: Ludwig Van Beethoven & Ernersto Sebastian Arias Cruzado Music Editing: Esdras Hernández Villar & Eduardo Zúñiga Ocaso - Spanish in Santiago de Chile Direction, Editing & Choreography: Esdras Hernández Villar Music: Ludwig Van Beethoven Mauricio - Uruguayan in Montevideo Uruguay Direction & Choreography: Ernersto Sebastian Arias Cruzado Music: Ludwig Van Beethoven & Esdras Hernández Villar Edited: Esdras Hernández Villar Interpreter and camera: Mauricio Vera Window Ballerina: Julia Bengtsson Director’s Pick Cygnus Direction: Cara Hagan & Robert Uehlin Choreography: Cara Hagan Cinematography & Editing: Robert Uehlin Music Gesture 1 by Mike Wall Performer: Cara Hagan Cygnus by Cara Hagan was selected by the Artistic Director to be featured in the Re:Emerge Festival. Fresh off the Film Festival Circuit—with screenings in over 26 film festivals—Cygnus offers a prime example of the simplicity and nuance of masterful cinematography, serving as a foundation for vulner- able, transcendent expression of the human form. Ms. Hagan’s film offers a depth of vision and mastery of the craft of dance filmmaking, and also features her riveting performance and presence as the subject of the film. Directors-Choreographers-Filmakers Robin Bisio: Kaita Lepore Mrazek and I found ourselves suddenly cut off from studio rehearsals and film production protocols during the pandemic.We decided to have some fun and make two iPhone films at the beach across the street.The beach was solace and spoke of mysteries that it carried for those who sat on the shores to listen. We did and are so glad to present A Vanished Day and The Errant Sea. Hannah Ruth Brothers seeks to discover what can be created with the materials at hand. Creating dance films with nothing more than her iPhone, she has danced on beaches, trails, and subway platforms, and in parking lots, grocery stores, and Am- trak bathrooms, as well as on many stages. She graduated with High Honors from Marlboro College, VT, with a BA in Dance, and has trained extensively in ballet, modern dance, contact improvisation, dance improvisation, West African dance, and yoga. Her work has been presented in New England; Orlando, FL; Berkeley, CA; and her hometown of Santa Barbara, CA, where she current- ly resides. Since 2016, Hannah Ruth has managed her private practice, Hannah Ruth Massage for Wellness, serving clients in the Santa Barbara area. View her live performance work and dance films, includingLizard’s Mouth extras, at vim- eo.com/hannahruthbrothers, or find her on Instagram @hannahruthiedancequeen- machine. Tammy Carrasco is a dance artist and educator based in Phil- adelphia. She received a MFA from The Ohio State University, BFA from University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and is a Walnut Hill School alum. Her professional work has been presented by Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, Dixon Place, Dumbo Dance Festival, Houston Ballet’s Frame x Frame Film Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church, and Triskelion Arts, among others. In academic settings, her work has been featured in ACDA Gala and National showcases. She has taught and staged work as a guest artist nationally and internationally, and held a full-time position for SUNY Brockport’s Dance Department. Outside of teaching, Carrasco imagines, creates, and clears space for possibility by making dances and fostering collaborations under the umbrella of Wild Beast Dance (wildbeastdance.com), and is co-orga- nizer of The Landingspace Project (landingspaceproject.org), a virtual maker’s space created for and by artists during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ernersto Sebastian Arias Cruzado Graduated from the ballet division dance school, BNS Ballet Nacional del SODRE Montevideo Uruguay Corps de ballet and Corifeo from 1998 to 2020. Dancer Corps de Baile del ballet of the Munici- pal Theater of Santiago (CHILE) 2004-2006, dancer of Laura’s Company Alonso (CUBA), 2009 and 2015. 2008 Choreographer of channel 10 Exhausted Local- ities, winner of the selection of choreographers of the BNS (Tory). 2014-2015 Represents Cuba as the first dancer in a cultural exchange with China, visiting 15 cities in the Asian country. In 2018 he was appointed master of the Julio Bocca company in the National Ballet of Sodre Uruguay. 2019 summons him to dance Onegin with Nadia Mara (principal of Atlanta ballet) Reid Anderson and classi- fies it as the best performance he saw in his life being the person who premiered that role and going back for 50 years. Victoria Finlayson (dancer/choreographer/actor) is new to videodance on the production/choreography side. She was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1984-1992 where she appeared in videodances by Merce Cunningham and Eliot Caplan, then she worked with the Lit Moon Theater Company from 1992-2020. She is currently working on independent projects and seeing where her move- ment and theatrical interests lead next. Cara Hagan is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice is informed by movement, words, digital space, contemplative practice, and community. Hagan is director and curator for ADF’s Movies by movers, an annual, international screendance festival under the auspices