Liss Fain Dance Premieres YOUR STORY WAS THIS at ODC Tonight

In association with ODC Theater, Liss Fain Dance is delighted to announce the premiere of Your Story Was This, a performance installation inspired by two short poems by Jane Hirshfield.

Your Story Was This continues Fain's yearlong exploration of themes of perception, cognition and the gulf between the public and private selves. The piece also represents Fain's latest experiment in partitioning space and altering the traditional relationship between audience and dancer. Collaborators on the piece include set and lighting designer Matthew Antaky, composer Dan Wool, costume designer Mary Domenico and production manager Frédéric Boulay.

Your Story Was This opens tonight, October 22 and runs through Sunday, October 25 at ODC Theater in San Francisco.

"As an unofficial coda to this year's Litquake Festival which comes to a close on October 17, I wanted to feature the work of a local writer, and Jane Hirshfield is a poet I've long admired," explains Fain. "I jumped at the choice of two poems, Hirshfield's 'China' and 'It Was Like This: You Were Happy,' first because these are spare texts which speak to the unpredictability of life and to the unknowability of people. And they work well in repetition where the simplicity of the language becomes more and more trenchant and personal."

As a poet, translator and essayist, Hirshfield has earned numerous honors, including election as chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She has been described as "one of the finest, most memorable contemporary poets," (David Baker) her poems praised for their "sensuously philosophical art that imposes a pause in our fast-forward habits of mind" (Rosanna Warren). For Your Story Was This, composer Wool will overlay a recording of Hirshfield's poems performed by the actor Val Sinckler with an electronic score commissioned for the work.

For more than four years Fain has rigorously mined the format of immersive installation. In April this year she premiered a shared installation, titled A Space Divided, with choreographers Amy Seiwert and ChristIan Burns. Other recent work includes The Imperfect is Our Paradise (2014) and After the Light (2014), described as "intelligent" and "wondrous" (San Francisco Bay Guardian).

Liss Fain company dancers performing in Your Story Was This include Jeremiah Crank, Aidan DeYoung, Katharine Hawthorne, Megan Kurashige and Shannon Kurashige. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door and $20 for students and seniors. Tickets may be purchased online at odcdance.org/tickets, or by calling 415-863-9834, Monday through Friday between 12-3pm.

ABOUT LISS FAIN DANCE - Liss Fain Dance (LFD) tours nationally and internationally with work for proscenium stages and performance installations. The company has performed and taught at festivals and venues in Poland, Germany, Belarus, Russia and the UK, as well as colleges, universities, festivals and presenting organizations in the US. In addition, LFD performs in free outreach events throughout the Bay Area. LFD has collaborated with numerous composers, lighting and set designers, videographers, actors and technologists. In recent years the company has focused its energy in creating performance installations that bring the audience inside the set and close to the performers. Non-narrative, highly structured and emotionally resonant, her work fuses modern dance's forceful energy with the kinetic precision of ballet. Since its founding in Boston in 1988, LFD has premiered over 45 works by Fain and collaborated with individuals and creative organizations that include MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies, The Exploratorium and The Apple Multimedia Lab.

LFD was one of four US companies invited to perform at Internationale Tanzmesse NRW. The company's site-specific work has been sponsored by Amerika Haus for a performance installation at the prestigious Beck & Eggeling Gallery in Dusseldorf, Germany; The Brower Center, Berkeley, CA; Theater Artaud, San Francisco, CA; and Mobius Theater, Boston, MA. In addition to these venues, the company has performed at and been presented by, among others: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Z Space, Powerhouse Arena, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Mill Valley Library, West Wave Dance Festival, ODC Theater, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Open Look Contemporary Dance Festival in Russia, Silesian Dance Festival, Zawirowania Festival, the US Embassy, Contemporary Dance Forum in Poland, Belaya Vezha International Theater Festival, Minsk Philharmonic Society and Grodno Drama Theater in Belarus, California State Summer School of the Arts, International Computer Music Conference, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, Downtown Dance Festival, NYC, Dance Umbrella Boston, Harvard University, University of Massachusetts, Colby College, Clark University and the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT.

In addition to its busy performance schedule, LFD conducts an outreach and education program to provide opportunities for middle and high school students from a broad spectrum of communities to combine dance and movement with creative writing. By working with Fain and company members, students expand their creativity, imagination, and ability to communicate and interpret both abstract and concrete ideas through movement and writing. FACT SHEET WHO: Choreographer Liss Fain Visual Designer Matthew Antaky Costume Designer Mary Domenico Poet Jane Hirshfield Composer Dan Wool Voice Actor Val Sinckler Production Manager Frédéric Boulay Dancers Jeremiah Crank, Aidan DeYoung, Katharine Hawthorne, Megan Kurashige, Shannon Kurashige

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: In association with ODC Theater, Liss Fain Dance presents the world premiere of Your Story Was This inspired by two poems by Jane Hirshfield.

WHEN: October 22 - 25, 2015 Thursday - Saturday @ 8pm Sunday @ 2pm

WHERE: ODC Theater 3153 17th Street San Francisco, CA 94110

TICKETS: $20 - $35 $20 students and seniors $30 in advance $35 at the door To purchase tickets call 415-863-9834, Monday through Friday between 12-3pm. Or online visit: odcdance.org/tickets.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: lissfaindance.org

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