ODC Theater Presents Bobbi Jene Smith In The World Premiere Of WITH CARE

ODC Theater is proud to present dancer and choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith in collaboration with violinist Keir GoGwilt in the world premiere of WITH CARE, November 1 - 3. Co-commissioned by ODC Theater and American Modern Opera Company, With Care is a follow-up to the artists' first collaboration, A Study on Effort, performed at ODC Theater in 2017. With Care runs Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30, and may be purchased online at odc.dance/tickets or by phone at 415-863-9834.

Building on the cross-disciplinary work performed in the final section of A Study on Effort, Smith and GoGwilt's newest project explores ideas of care and caregiving through music, dance and spoken word. Conceived as a drama between two twinned characters, a caregiver and a wounded spirit, With Care features a quartet of performers inhabiting the two roles. Joining Smith and GoGwilt are dancer Or Meir Schraiber, like Smith a veteran of the illustrious Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv, and violinist Miranda Cuckson, "a prodigiously talented player" (The New York Times) and "one of the most sensitive and electric interpreters of new music" (Downbeat).
For nearly a decade Smith enjoyed stardom dancing with Batsheva.

To pursue a solo career she moved to New York in 2014, and last year she earned wide recognition with the award-winning documentary film Bobbi Jene, directed by Elvira Lind. Last year, Smith also made her West Coast debut as a choreographer with A Study on Effort, an event co-presented by ODC Theater and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. A dialogue between Smith dancing and GoGwilt on violin, the piece "transposed different physical and emotional tasks between music and movement...finding pleasure at the boundaries of the two artistic disciplines," wrote GoGwilt and Smith in a program note.

Among the premiere's musical selections is a new composition by Matthew Aucoin, artist in residence at Los Angeles Opera. Aucoin has worked as a composer and conductor with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the American Repertory Theater, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Music Academy of the West. He also serves as co-artistic director of the American Modern Opera Company.
Not quite 30 years old, Aucoin has often been called a "wunderkind," with two well-received operas, which he also conducted, in addition to a growing body of orchestral, instrumental and vocal music that has been performed by soloists including Yo-Yo Ma, Alexander Hanna and Jennifer Koh, among others. An active pianist, Aucoin regularly performs with Renée Fleming.

Aucoin, together with Cuckson, GoGwilt, Schraiber and Smith, are five of 17 artists who comprise the American Modern Opera Company, dedicated to collaboratively creating "new, discipline-colliding music-theater works."

"What feels groundbreaking to me in With Care is that a boundary has been dissolved between the musicians and the dancers," said Aucoin. "The musicians are fully fleshed characters, too; they move with and against the dancers."

On the stage at ODC Theater before each performance, Smith will teach a free Gaga/People Class from 6:30 - 7:15 p.m. Gaga/People classes are open to all ticket-holders, regardless of their background in dance or movement. No previous dance experience is needed. Gaga - the movement language created by Ohad Naharin, artistic director and choreographer of Batsheva - is a continuous, sensation-based movement. These classes are part of the ODC Theater Institute series of shared practice sessions with season artists.

For more information, visit odc.dance/WithCare.

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