The Reflective Surface Summary Bay Area choreographer Amy Seiwert pushes AXIS to a new level of rigor - beginning with a ballet foundation and transforming it with her unique quirkiness, kineticism and layered partnering. This quartet incorporates new risks for both AXIS and Amy. Information The Reflective Surface (2013) is made possible by Leadership support for New Music USA’s MetLife Creative Connections program generously provided Photo: David DeSilva by MetLife Foundation. Additional support is provided by ASCAP, BMI Foundation, Inc., Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The William and Hewlett Foundation, Jerome Foundation, mediaThe foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation and the Virgil Thomson Foundation, Ltd. Duration: 15 minutes Cedits Choreography: Amy Seiwert Rehearsal Assistant: Juliana Monin Dancers: Joel Brown, Emily Eifler, Sonsherée Giles, Sebastian Grubb Original Score: Darren Johnston Recording Performed by: Dan Cantrell, Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa, Matt Szemela Costume Design: Christine Darch Lighting Design: Jack Carpenter The Dancers Sonsherée Giles, Associate Artistic Director and dancer with AXIS, originally from New Orleans, LA, she moved to the Bay Area to attend Mills College and receive her MFA in Performance/Choreography. Since 2005, AXIS has become a home for her where she can explore her passion for movement, push boundaries and work with extraordinary choreographers and dancers. Sonsherée has received an Isadora Duncan Award for Ensemble Performance of To Color Me Different choreographed by Alex Ketley. In 2010, she was honored to receive a Homer Avila Award for Excellence in the field of Physically Integrated Dance. She has toured and performed for audiences throughout the United States, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Russia and Austria and has taught contemporary dance in public school systems, universities, institutions and dance festivals throughout the country. Sonsherée makes dances based on observations of animals, landscapes, art history, and daily life experiences. She formed this sweet nothing as a container for her dance art and has been generously supported by Zellerbach Family Foundation, CLOROX Company Foundation, CA$H grant, and East Bay Fund for Individual Artists. Joel Brown, Dancer, grew up dancing and doing gymnastics. At 9, Joel was paralyzed in a car accident. He returned to dance at the encouragement of his older brother Graham who created a duet The Better Half commissioned by Dance Exchange and performed in Salt Lake City, UT; Takoma Park, Silver Spring, College Park, MD; and Washington, DC. Joel studied vocal performance/jazz guitar at the U. of Utah. In 2011, he released his first album In Retrospect under Spy Hop Records Label. Joel began dancing with AXIS in April 2012. Most recently, Joel was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Performance for his 2013 Season with AXIS Dance Company. Sebastian Grubb, Dancer & Choreographer, is a movement artist and fitness trainer based in San Francisco. He has toured nationally and internationally with AXIS Dance Company since 2009, and with Scott Wells & Dancers since 2008. His choreographic work has been shown extensively in California and also in Washington State, Wyoming, Minnesota, Washington DC, Florida, Russia, and on FOX TV’s So You Think You Can Dance. www.sebastiangrubb.com Choreographer Amy Seiwert, serves as the Artistic Director and primary choreographer of Imagery. Her collaborations with artists of other disciplines and commitment to experimental work from a classical base make her a unique voice in the Bay Area dance community. As Rita Felciano wrote in the SF Bay Guardian, “She quite possibly is the Bay Area’s most original dance thinker, taking what some consider a dead language and using it as a 21st century lingo to tell us something about who we are.” She was named one of 25 to Watch by Dance Magazine, one of the Hot 20 under 40 by 7x7 Magazine, was honored with a Goldie award from the Bay Guardian, and twice her choreography has been listed in the Top 10 Dance Events of the Year by the SF Chronicle (2007, 2010). Twice she has worked with dancers from the New York City Ballet, participating in the NY Choreography Institute at the invitation of Peter Martins. In addition to creating for Imagery, her creations are in the repertory of Ballet Austin, Ballet Met, Atlanta, Smuin, Washington, Colorado, Louisville and American Repertory Ballets as well as Robert Moses KIN. She is honored to be the Choreographer in Residence for Smuin Ballet as well as an Artist in Residence at the ODC Theater. www.ASImagery.org The Collaborators Jack Carpenter, Lighting Designer, designs lighting and scenery for dance, music, theater, museum exhibits and opera. His work can be seen with the Bishop Museum, Oakland Museum, SF Ballet, SF Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Diablo Ballet, Kronos Quartet, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Oakland Ballet, Joe Goode Performance Group, ODC/SF, Zaccho Dance Theatre, Project Bandaloop, and Eureka Theatre. His work has been in The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Davies Symphony Hall, Macau, and Honolulu. Notable productions for Mr. Carpenter include design and direction for Inspired By America for Cypress String Quartet; the world premiere of Angels In America, for the Eureka Theater Company; Ghost Architecture, Invisible Wings and Arrival and Departure for Zaccho Dance Theatre; Bound (less), for Project Bandaloop; Beauty Queen of Leenane for Berkeley Repertory Theater; Sightings and Thirsting for Oakland Ballet; Traveling Light and Rambler for Joe Goode Performance Group; Concerto Romantique for San Francisco Ballet; and MLADA for SF Symphony. Mr. Carpenter has received four Bay Area Critics Circle Awards, and five Isadora Duncan Awards. Christine Darch, Costume Designer, has enjoyed a prolific collaboration with Amy Seiwert, designing and often building costumes for her commissioned works with Atlanta Ballet, Washington Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Imagery, and now AXIS Dance Company. She has also designed ballets for many lauded choreographers including Julia Adam, Robert Dekkers, James Kudelka, Edwaard Liang, Matthew Neenan, Gina Patterson, David Palmer, Brian Reeder, Dwight Rhoden, and Merian Soto. Her work has been featured in Pointe Magazine and on the cover of Dance International. www.christinedarch.com Darren Johnston, Composer & Musician, since settling in San Francisco in 1997, Canadaborn trumpeter/composer/songwriter Darren Johnston has collaborated and recorded with an extremely diverse cross-section of artists, yet always finds ways to be true to his own unique voice in each context. From straight-ahead jazz luminaries such as bassist/ composer Marcus Shelby, to experimental icons like Fred Frith and Myra Melford, rising star in the singer/songwriter world like Meklit Hadero, or traditional Balkan brass band giants Brass Menazeri. As a bandleader he has made his mark with the award winning The Nice Guy Trio, The Darren Johnston Quintet, the category defying Broken Shadows, and more. For an upcoming commission by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Letters From Home, Johnston will be forming a mutli-generational chorus with over eighty participants. www.DarrenJohnstonMusic.com AXIS Dance Company Contact Details www.axisdance.org Judith Smith - Artistic Director E: [email protected] P: 510 625 0110 Robin Anderson – Community Engagement Manager E: [email protected] P: 510 625 0110 Pat Mahoney - Production Manager E: [email protected] P: 650-368-1330 C: 650-740-2333 .