Site-Specific Dance/Art Piece QUEEN GEORGE Set for Think Tank Gallery in LA, 1/21-25

Batsheva Dance Company alum Danielle Agami, artistic director of Ate9 dANCE cOMPANY, called "one of Los Angeles' hottest cultural commodities" (Victoria Looseleaf, FJORD Review), visits Think Tank Gallery in the historic Fashion District in Downtown Los Angeles to unveil a site-specific performance called Queen George, featuring her Ate9 dancers in an intimate and highly curated exhibition space. Agami has created a unique multi-disciplinary event, collaborating with Israeli designer and carpenter Amir Raveh for his U.S. debut (commissioned by Santa Ana Sites + Santora Building) and LA-based abstract expressionist artist Avi Roth. Queen George will be held January 21-22, 24-25, 2015 at Think Tank Gallery.

Queen George will feature Ate9 dancers performing duets throughout the gallery, with private one-on-ones that break off into tiny rooms in the gallery for one dancer and one viewer. Raveh's colorful, one-off furnishings, which incorporate workshop leftovers and remnants to create a patchwork of old and new, allow Agami to build a playground that encourages exploration of both the visitors and the dancers as they intermingle in navigating the raw venue. While Agami counters Raveh's real-world musings with physical interactions from dancers, it is Roth's ethereal, expressionist responses in his coffeegraphs that complete this piece. Each coffeegraph is a journey of imagination, reflection, and discovery, which begins with a pigment meticulously crafted from roasted coffee and textured into abstracted works by an inventive and awe-inspiring process.

Agami has designed a performance that absorbs these distinctive reflections and thrusts them in the face of her audience, challenging "normalcy" and everyday materials, while embracing its importance to our connection with one another. "I hope this performance can awaken something inside of all of us," says Agami, who is known for her visceral works informed by her years of dancing in Batsheva under world-renowned Choreographer Ohad Naharin. To play up this attack on normalcy, Agami expertly combines three separate genres to engage one another for this select engagement, providing a unique and highly curated experience. While the art pieces themselves will live on, the instinctual response crafted by Agami will be observable for a few select nights of engagement.

The furniture featured in Queen George will be imported from Raveh's studio in Israel for this one-time event. Select pieces from Roth's coffeegraph series along with all of the custom furnishings will be for sale via online auction from January 16-25, 2015. To view the auction items, visit www.thinktankgallery.org/queengeorge.

Queen George is an ongoing performance with a run time 180 minutes. Guests may enter and exit at any time.

Think Tank Gallery is located at 939 Maple Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90015. To purchase tickets, go to www.thinktankgallery.org/event/queen-george/.

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