KT Niehoff / Lingo Dance Collaborates with ACT Theatre and Seattle Art Museum for Three Month Project

A ground-breaking new work designed to challenge audience/artist proximity - practically, metaphorically, emotionally, and psychologically, A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light is a three-month (March 1-May 15, 2010) performance art piece created by Lingo Dance (KT Niehoff, Artistic Director) and presented in collaboration with ACT Theatre and Seattle Art Museum.
Multiple events will happen in multiple locations throughout the city, providing opportunities for the public to participate in four unique ways, ranging in intimacy. These various interactions between performer and public will come in the form of four separate stages, all capable of existing on their own; however, designed to culminate at the final ACT Theatre performance. A journal on the Lingo Dance web site (www.lingodance.com) will track each experience - a platform for the performers and participants to share their thoughts, insights, and unique experiences for the public to respond to or just observe.

The four components of Glimmer include:
1. One Performer, One Recipient, One Public Place (March 1-31)

2. Seattle Art Museum Sightings (February 26, March 18, 25, April 1)

3. Pre-Function with a Performer (April 22-May 15)

4. Final dance event at ACT: A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light (April 22- May 15)

"The impetus behind this project stems from a specific desire on my part," said Lingo Artistic Director KT Niehoff. "After 10 years of making dances for the proscenium stage, I began investigating the relationship between audience and artist with the primary goal of creating a more tangible intimacy between the two. This search has lead me to seek out more potent environments that ask the performer and the witness to confront each other as unique individuals who bring to the exchange their personal histories and desires. A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light, in all of its forms, is an outcropping of the shift in my creative process."
Below is a comprehensive description of each of Glimmer's components (including dates, cost and how to be involved):
One Performer, One Recipient, One Public Place - custom one-on-one solo performances
March 1-31
Tickets: FREE! Enter to receive a solo at www.lingodance.com. Submission deadline is February 14.

Thirty people will be selected by Niehoff and her company to receive a tailor-made, one-on-one solo by a Glimmer cast member, performed exclusively for each individual in a public location. An email correspondence between performer and participant sets up a chain reaction for a personal connection. Dialogue unfolds, with questions from Lingo designed to find out what inspires the participant, what meaningfully connects him to the world, and what kind of art speaks to him, shaping the composition for the customized performance experience. Though each piece is for one individual, they will be witnessed by whoever happens to be in the vicinity, creating a random artistic occurrence for bystanders. Signing up for this personal gift establishes a personal connection with Glimmer - participants will officially be in the inner circle!

Seattle Art Museum Sightings - "live" installations in the galleries at SAM
February 26, as part of SAM Remix, 8:00 p.m. Tickets: $5 - $10
March 18 & 24, April 1 Tickets: Suggested admission, $12 - $15
www.seattleartmuseum.org or (206) 654-3100

The performance continues its evolution at Seattle Art Museum (SAM), where the public is invited to the next level of exploration with Lingo. Spanning February 26-April 1, the cast of Glimmer will be "installed" as kinetic sculptures amongst the Permanent Collection in the Seattle Art Museum galleries, framing live performance in a museum setting. Niehoff will challenge people's expectations around live and static art and how intimate the connection between watcher and doer is in the historic world of objects.

*Pre-Function with a Performer - pre-show connection with Glimmer cast members
April 22-May 15, Thurs-Sat 6:00 p.m. (pre-show)
Tickets: FREE! Reserve at ACT with ticket purchase, phone only (206) 292-7676
*30-person maximum per show; drinks and/or food not covered by Lingo or ACT and is responsibility of attending patron.

With a paid ticket to the final performance of A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light at ACT, participants and patrons are invited to join a character of the cast pre-show. A small group of audience members (six maximum) will join a member of the cast at a bar near ACT. From there, patrons and performers will take a Seattle spring stroll over to ACT's Bullitt Cabaret to share in the final event of the journey.

A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light - final dance-performance at ACT Theatre
April 22-May 15, Thurs-Sat 8:00 p.m.
Tickets: $18 or included with ACT Basic and Charter Memberships, www.actheatre.org or (206) 292-7676.

Commissioned by ACT's Central Heating Lab, this is the culmination dance-performance event based on the experiences influenced by the preceding solo performances, SAM Sightings, and pre-function connections. Situated in the labyrinthine chambers of ACT's Bullitt Cabaret space, A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light mines one of Seattle's finest art venues for its history as a creative container and its fertility for hosting more. Niehoff and her expanded posse of vibrant performers (including live music from Ivory and Ice World) begin with the premise that every interaction holds untapped potential, then sculpt uncommon encounters, moody collisions, raucous spectacle and virtuoso dancing - asking for more resonant connection and embracing the success or failure that ensues.

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