DCASE's 'OnEdge' Live Performance Series Begins Next Week

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) presents the third annual OnEdge, the experimental live performance series, February 19 - March 4, 2016. The FREE admission series will feature Chicago and world premieres from national and international artists and companies at venues including the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington St.), the Storefront Theater (66 E. Randolph St.) and Links Hall (3111 N. Western Ave.).

OnEdge performances include Bronx Gothic by Okwui Okposkwasili, Yellow Towel by Dana Michel, and Mon, Ma, Mes by Jack Ferver. Additionally, OnEdge features performances of My Voice Has an Echo In It by Temporary Distortion and Broken Red Balloon Dog by The Institute of Failure, which are also a part of the fourth edition of the popular IN>TIME Festival. A convergence of performance practices in Chicago, the IN>TIME Festival takes place January 29 - March 4, 2016, in 18 venues throughout the city including the Chicago Cultural Center. Additionally, during OnEdge workshops and discussions will take place with select participating artists to complement their performances.

OnEdge is FREE and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis 60 minutes before each performance. For a complete schedule, visit cityofchicago.org/dcase.

Bronx Gothic by Okwui Okpokwasili
February 19-20, 2016, at 7 p.m.
Links Hall - 3111 N. Western Ave.
A solo creation at the intersection of theater, dance and visual art, Bronx Gothic gives palpable force to the charged relationship between two girls on the verge of adolescence in 1980s outer-borough New York City -where Newports are bought in singles at the corner bodega, sex saturated notes are passed in class and Orchard Beach erupts in flame. Okwui Okpokwasili's acclaimed piece is a performance of psychic and physical collisions that threaten to break the body-an unflinching look into the exquisite turbulence of one woman's memory. Created in collaboration with director and visual designer Peter Born, Bronx Gothic draws inspiration from Victorian-era novels and West African griot storytelling to reveal a dark and powerful tale of sexual awakening, the body in transformation and the accompanying humor, love, strangeness and terror. Okpokwasili is a recipient of the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project Touring Award, 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. Support to the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events also provided by New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project.

Broken Red Balloon Dog by The Institute of Failure
February 23, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center, Claudia Cassidy Theater (2nd Fl North) - 78 E. Washington St.
Broken Red Balloon Dog is a series of monologues in adoxography, the art of praising worthless things, written by Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment), Matthew Goulish (Every House Has a Door) and invited Chicago writers and performed by members of acclaimed UK performance company Forced Entertainment.Broken Red Balloon Dog takes its title from a shattered Jeff Koons sculpture, which embodies The Institute of Failure's study of failure in all aspects of human behavior. Broken Red Balloon Dog is part of the fourth edition of the IN>TIME Festival and is presented in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art.

My Voice Has an Echo In It by Temporary Distortion
February 26-March 1, 2016, from noon to 6 p.m. (Viewers are encouraged to come and go throughout)
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago Rooms (2nd Fl North) - 78 E. Washington St.
My Voice Has An Echo In It is a six-hour durational performance of live music, spoken text and video set within a large-scale freestanding, sound-proof installation. While viewing the performers through two-way mirrors, audience members listen to music ranging from drifty ambient sounds to erasure poetry to raucous punk-inspired anthems through headphones along the outside perimeter of the installation. Complex and densely layered, Temporary Distortion creates an intimate experience where everyone has a front row seat. Viewers are encouraged to come and go throughout the six-hour duration of the event and are welcome to spend as much time in the installation as they like. My Voice Has An Echo In It is part of the fourth edition of the IN>TIME Festival

Yellow Towel by Dana Michel
February 26-27, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.
Storefront Theater - 66 E. Randolph St.
As a child, Dana Michel would drape a yellow towel on her head in an attempt to emulate the blonde girls at school. As an adult, she now revisits the imaginary world of her alter-ego in a performative ritual free of cover-ups or censorship. Blending austerity and absurdity, she digs into black culture stereotypes, turning them inside out to see whether or not she can relate. We witness her allowing a strange creature to emerge from this excavation in a slow and disconcerting metamorphosis that we follow with fascination. Strongly influenced by the aesthetics of fashion, music videos, queer culture and comedy, Dana Michel quickly stood out as an emerging dance artist. With Yellow Towel, which was developed in Vienna, Brussels, New York, Toronto and Montreal, she decidedly asserts herself as an artist to watch. Grant support provided by the Illinois Humanities Council. Yellow Towel also is a part of the black I body performance series

Mon, Ma, Mes by Jack Ferver
March 3-4, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park Room (5th Fl South) - 78 E. Washington St.
Jack Ferver's solo examines the permeability between the real and the fictive, utilizing performative constructs to deconstruct where, how, and why we make personas for ourselves. Originally created in 2012 for FIAF's Crossing the Line Festival, this stylized lecture-performance has been built to grow, adapt, and change alongside Ferver's concerns and larger creations, creating a humorous and disarming retrospective of his life and work. Through sudden shifts in style and form, blurred boundaries emerge between the realms of grand theatrics and stark naturalism, the persona and the self.

Some performances include sexual themes and adult content. Not recommended for children under the age of 15.
The schedule of performances is subject to change.

OnEdge Workshops and Discussions:

Embodied Practice Workshop with Okwui Okpokwasili
Sunday, February 21, 2-4 p.m.
Gallery 400 - 400 S. Peoria (5th Fl Great Space)
How does a body make narrative? How does one build a movement vocabulary around the psychic condition of a character? This workshop for artists at all levels focuses on finding an embodied practice at the intersection of performance and dance. In collaboration with the UIC School of Art & Art History Free Art School and the "Everyone is An Artist" Initiative. RSVP is required for this free workshop by e-mailing uicartandarthistory@gmail.com.

Discussion with Dana Michel
Friday, February 26, 2016, immediately after 7:30 p.m. performance of Yellow Towel
Storefront Theater - 66 E. Randolph St.
Dorchester Art Center - 1456 E. 70th St.
A public dialogue with artist Dana Michel immediately following the Yellow Towel performance as part of "Open Dances" sessions curated by Baraka dè Soleil of the black I body performance series.

Art School with Dana Michel: An Activator Class in Choreography
Sunday, February 28th, 2016, from 2-5p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center, Dance Studio (1st Fl North) - 78 E. Washington St.
Performer and choreographer Dana Michel will teach a three-hour course that gives insight into her practice and gets attendees up on their feet. This class is a part of Illinois Humanities' Elective Studies series for artists. RSVP is required for this free workshop by e-mailing electivestudies@ilhumanities.org.

For more information on OnEdge and all programs presented by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, visit cityofchicago.org/dcase and join the conversation on Facebook (Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events) and Twitter and Instagram, @ChicagoDCASE.

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