Wagner College’s Annual Dance Project Features Claire Porter, 4/26-5/1

Each spring, the final production in Wagner College's Stage One studio theater lineup is a new program of choreography called the Dance Project. The 2011 Dance Project is an original piece called "Looking for the Remote," created by world-renowned performing artist Claire Porter, Wagner College Theatre's first artist-in-residence. "Looking for the Remote" will be staged from April 26 through May 1.

"Looking for the Remote" deals with the interaction of space and movement, the physical and the metaphysical, Porter said.

"In life," said Porter, "we're always in search of the little things - a book, a set of keys, a remote control - but we're never taught to look for the bigger, more important things like trust, patience and loyalty."

Avante garde accordionist and composer Guy Klucevsek, a Staten Islander and a 2010 recipient of a United States Artists Fellowship, has collaborated with Porter to create original music for "Looking for the Remote."

Claire Porter is best known for her solo work, "Portables," a collection of solo comedic movement monologues performed individually and in concert. She has taken "Portables" around the world, leaving audiences in tears of laughter.

Porter combines text and movement into an art form that forces audiences, critics and the theater community to question their definition of the word "dance." It is this unique approach to text and movement that places her at the forefront of contemporary theater and dance. She uses this approach to inspire her dancers at Wagner, both in the Dance Project and in the movement workshops she is hosting for faculty and students this semester.

Porter is teaching a class entitled "Text and Movement" to help students understand how deeply a text can be entwined with dance, and how the creative process can begin with movement rather than a script.

SHOW TIMES
· 8 p.m. - Tuesday, April 26 through Saturday, April 30
· 2 p.m. - Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1
For tickets, call the Wagner College Theatre Box Office at 718-390-3259.

To post a comment, you must register and login.