presents ADELE MYERS AND DANCERS First Lady Michelle Obama, 2014 Honorary Chair Monday, June 30 - Wednesday, July 2 at 8:00pm Reynolds Industries Theater EINSTEIN’S HAPPIEST THOUGHT (2013) Conceived and Directed by Adele Myers Choreographed by Adele Myers and Dancers Performers Tara Burns, Raphaëlle Kessedjian, Kellie Lynch, and Amber Morgan, with Morgan Griffin as “The Walker” Original score composed, performed, and arranged by Josh Quillen Costume Design and Creation by Heidi Henderson Film Direction and Editing by Emmanuelle Pickett Lighting and Visual Design by Kathy Couch Dramaturg Ain Gordon What is this dance about? If you want to know the answer read on. If not, skip this part. This dance is mostly about anticipation and risk. The dance is personal within an abstract frame. The abstract frame is the aesthetic designed by the collaborators. The personal is marked primarily by the presence of “The Walker.” The way she marks time and space is the narrative. I wondered what she was thinking and feeling. I answered that question with the presence of the four dancers. The dance is peppered with a surreal presence of three additional figures. They are architects of space. They are also thought experiments. They are a wink. The title refers to a thought experiment that Einstein claimed was the happiest thought of his life. His happiest thought was about the different ways we experience the same amount of time and space in relation to gravity. The live performance is a collaborative thought experiment about what happens to our sense of time, space, and gravity as we anticipate taking a risk. Where do dances come from? The stork. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) Every dance maker will have a different answer to this question. The dances I like to make come from a question I have in my life. I try to figure it out through choreography and by collaborating with other people. I usually begin by developing a movement vocabulary with the dancers inspired by the burning question. Once the dancers “wear” the movement with the familiarity of an old favorite t-shirt, I then begin to arrange them in space, much like an architect but with people dancing. The craft always comes first. At first it feels abstract, but eventually the personality of the dancers and their chemistry melts the severity of lines and softens the specificity into a more personal presence. From there I pay attention to what the dance is becoming. This part of the process is delicate. It can’t be forced to be something it is not. (Patience! Patience!) The next step is to edit to necessity—to rid the choreography of riff-raff. My favorite part is at the end, when I get to direct the presence of the performers. At this point, the dance is theirs and I give it to them. It is a pleasure to try to figure out life through people dancing. ADF’s presentation of Adele Myers and Dancers’ Einstein’s Happiest Thought was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. ABOUT THE COMPANY Adele began her company, Adele Myers and Dancers (AMD), in 2000 as part of her MFA thesis project at Florida State University. The company is (usually) made up of 4 to 5 female company members (though there once was a man). The work, brimming with robust athleticism, wit, and a personalized theatricality, tends toward a humanist perspective that emphatically emphasizes people dancing, not simply dancers moving. After a decade of being dually based in NYC and CT, Adele recently relocated the “official home base” for the company, celebrating her home as a New England based choreographer. As a curator of chemistry, Myers invites the collaborators involved in each of her dances to draw inspiration from personal experience and then later examines how these experiences intersect with the greater notion of popular culture. In each of her works, the end result is a work that is rich in sensation, understanding, and realness. The mission of Adele Myers and Dancers is to collaboratively create, teach, and perform dance that is engaging and relevant to a range of people. AMD has been presented at theaters and festivals throughout the eastern seaboard including Bates Dance Festival (ME), Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out (MA), Danspace Project’s FSU alumni Academy Dances (NY), Dance New Amsterdam (NY), Vermont Performance Lab (VT), and New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas (CT), among many others. AMD was awarded a National Dance Project grant for the creation and touring of Einstein’s Happiest Thought which premiered September 28th 2013 as part of the onStage at Connecticut College series kicking off the 2013-14 touring season to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston, Coker College, SC, New Haven International Festival of Arts & Ideas, CT, The American Dance Festival, NC, and The Redfern Arts Center, NH. For more information please visit: adelemyersanddancers.com or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you! BIOGRAPHIES ADELE MYERS (Artistic Director) Adele Myers’ formative life as a mover began with ballet, track and field events, baton twirling, balancing on top of big red oil drums rolling down steep hills, and other fearless feats of childhood daredeviltry, all of which seriously informed the kind of dancer and choreographer she later became, an athlete of the heart. Decades later, after studying choreography with Viola Farber at Sarah Lawrence College, Adele moved to NYC in 1992 where she continued her athletic theatrics with Joy Kellman/Co. for six years and was a guest artist with many other companies including MOMIX. Fleeing to Florida State University (FSU) to pursue warmth and an MFA in Dance, she met Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women (UBW). Adele served as Jawole’s choreographic assistant for several UBW residencies at FSU and after graduating in 2000 assisted in resetting work on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater with Jawole. Adele’s time at FSU sparked the formation of her company, Adele Myers and Dancers. Now a New England based contemporary dance company of four women, the company has been presented in NYC and in over 50 venues in all six states in the New England region. To boast further, Adele Myers and Dancers has received support from MANCC, Vermont Performance Lab, Bates Dance Festival, Summer Stages Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, NEFA, the City of New Haven, the State of Connecticut, and the LEF Foundation. Having received a 2012 National Dance Project (NDP) Production and Touring Award, the company is currently embarking on their seven-city adventure throughout the eastern seaboard with their second evening length-work, Einstein’s Happiest Thought. At the turn of the century, Adele earned a PhD (ABD) in Performance Studies from NYU. From 2006 until 2013 she was on faculty in the Dance Department at Connecticut College and prior to that taught for two years in the Dance program at Tulane University. Adele currently lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children. TARA LEE BURNS is honored to have been a part of Adele Myers and Dancers since 2006. She has performed throughout Germany, the UK, and the US and has worked in New York with Alexandra Beller, Philip Montana, Milvia Pacheco Salvatierra, white road Dance Media, Andrea Haenggi/AMDaT, Kelly Drummond Cawthon, Kelly Donovan, and in Florida with Voci Dance Company. Her own choreography has been seen in Connecticut, NYC, the UK, and throughout Florida and most recently at DNA in NYC in Raw Material. Tara received a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of Florida and an MA in Digital Performance at The University of Hull/Doncaster, UK. She also designs materials for creative clients including Adele Myers and many others. taraleeburns.com. MORGAN GRIFFIN graduated suma cum laude from Connecticut College in 2012 where she studied dance and performed in works choreographed by David Dorfman, Robyne Watkins, Heidi Henderson, Lisa Race, Adele Myers, and Shani Collins-Achille, as well as guest artists Nicholas Leichter and Kyle Abraham. In the summer of 2012, Morgan attended Bates Professional Training Program where she studied with Michael Foley and performed in a work by Adam Baruch. Morgan also choreographs and presents her own work. Her piece Last Chance for Bronze was recently performed in a RAW Artists production at Public Assembly in Brooklyn. Morgan is currently apprenticing with Adele Myers and Dancers and is excited to perform the role of “The Walker” in Einstein’s Happiest Thought. RAPHAËLLE KESSEDJIAN is a native of France and received her dance training at the Centre Choregraphique Veronique Thery, the Rick Odums Institute in France, and on full scholarship at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. Raphaëlle has been a member of Graham II, Nu Dance Theater, Caliince Dance, and was a guest artist with the Martha Graham Dance Company for their Italian production Cercando Picasso. She has performed worked from Robert Battle, Pearl Lang, Stuart Hodes, Peggy Lyman, and Virginie Mécene. She is a certified Pilates and Gyrotonic® instructor and currently teaches Graham- based technique at Peridance Capezio Center. KELLIE ANN LYNCH has been dancing and touring with Adele Myers and Dancers since 2008, and she is thankful for another opportunity to make art with this amazing company. Kellie also dances, and has toured nationally and internationally, since 2010, with Doug Elkins Choreography. In New Haven, Kellie co-founded Elm City Dance Collective, an organization that provides a platform for an experiential and collaborative approach to dance creation, education, and performance.