PS 122 Presents World Premiere of 'Death' by Sara Juli

Performance Space 122 presents the world premiere of Death, a dance-theater piece by solo performance artist Sara Juli that addresses the taboo topic of death.  After losing her father tragically to cancer, Juli experienced first-hand our culture's inability to deal with death.  She was amazed that something inevitable was so uncomfortable for people who, in particular, seemed to struggle to find the right thing to say and do.  In this 50-minute solo performance, Juli uses movement, text, song, gesture, sounds, humor and audience interaction to present a reflection on the awkwardness of death.  Juli will be six months pregnant during the performance adding a layer of a piece about death while pregnant with life.

This piece marks Juli's first full-length work following the success of her internationally acclaimed show, The Money Conversation in which she cashed out her life savings of $5,000 and distributed it to audience members each night.  In general, Juli's mission is to explore her own personal struggles through the medium of performance.  In sharing her work, Sara is hopeful that others will understand an aspect of her personal turmoil, and be able to relate it to their own.  Her introspective solo performance fuses movement, text, song, voice and gesture to both acknowledge the gravity of her burdens as well as to simultaneously laugh at their reality.

Named a "light of the downtown dance and theatre scene" by The New Yorker, Juli's newest work asks audiences to reflect upon their own relationship with death.  Brian McCormick formerly of Gay City News has described her work as "Superbly played for maximum comic impact…" and The New York Times says that Sara Juli "gives of herself".  Juli has created a performance vocabulary that combines personal work with public interaction surrounding universal issues.  Death is receiving direction by multi-media artist Chris Ajemian with lighting by "Bessie" Award winning designer, Owen Hughes and Costume Design by Maggie Dick.

Sara Juli has been creating and performing innovative solo work in New York City for the past seven years.  Her work has been performed at New York City venues including Dixon Place, Performance Space122, The Ontological Theater, Manhattan Theater Source, Williamsburg Art NeXus, The Flea Theater, Joyce SoHo and Joe's Pub as part of the Dancenow/NYC Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church, Danspace Project at St. Marks Church and American Dance Festival, where her work was selected as one of "The Best of Dance 2003" by the Independent Weekly.  In February 2006, she created and performed her first full-evening solo show, The Money Conversation, where she gives away her life savings, in a sold-out run at Performance Space 122.  The Money Conversation was an instant hit and has been touring nationally and internationally over the last two years to sold-out houses in Gronigen, The Netherlands, Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand, and around the United States. 

The piece has received notable press coverage in The New York Times, The New York Post, Time Out (New York & New Zealand), Fox Five News, National Public Radio and in major publications, television and radio spots abroad.  In June 2006, Sara created and performed, Deep Throat at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina.  She has collaborated and/or performed with Debra Fernandez, Deborah Hay, Roxana Ramseur, Melissa Riker, Hana van der Kolk, and Chris Ajemian.  She graduated from Skidmore College with a degree in Dance and Anthropology.  Sara also works in the world of arts administration and is the Director of Development at Dance Theater Workshop.  Sara Juli's show, The Money Conversation, is represented by Elsie Management.  More information can be found at http://www.elsieman.org/artists/sara_juli.html

Chris Ajemian (Direction) writes and directs live and recorded works that fuse popular art with experimental form.  Chris has demonstrated success in a range of mediums, including theater, film, television, and dance.  A graduate of Boston College, Chris's training has brought him to the Advanced Directing Program at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, the Professional Directing Internship at Actors Theater of Louisville, and the Jonathan P. Alper Directing Fellowship at Manhattan Theater Club.  In addition, Chris has worked for New York Theater Workshop, The Wooster Group, Anne Bogart and Richard Foreman. Since 2000, Chris has presented new work at major live arts venues such as the New York International Fringe Festival, New Haven Festival of Arts & Ideas, Actors Theater of Louisville, PS 122, Joyce SoHo, The Noorderzon Festival, and The American Dance Festival.  At the same time, Chris has successfully pitched projects to companies such as Paramount, Showtime, NBC, CBS, and Bravo that have landed him multiple options for his work, including a development deal with Paramount Studios for a new one-hour network television series.  In 2007, Chris presented his latest piece, The Irresistible Urge of Fancy, a full-evening music video with dance and animation, as well as Sara Juli's most recent dance theater works, The Money Conversation and Deep Throat, in the US and abroad.

Owen Hughes (Lighting Designer) has designed for Eiko & Koma, Peggy Baker, Roseanne Spradlin, Catey Ott & Eun Jung Gonzalez, Juliette Mapp and others.  His theatrical designs have been seen at a variety of downtown hot spots, including the Ontological Theatre, PS 122, HERE, and others.  As a Production Manager, he has worked for the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre, the Foundry Theater, and Arts at St. Ann's, and has toured to festivals throughout Europe and Asia.  He received a Bessie Award for Lighting Design in 2003.

Maggie Dick (Costume Designer)  Recent NYC designs include All the Bad Things at LAByrinth Theater Company, The Gun Play and The Female Terrorist Project at the Chocolate Factory, Murdering Marlowe at the Access Theatre and Pale Idiot at the NY Fringe Festival.  Regional work includes designing Amadeus, Cymbeline, The Cherry Orchard and The Wives of Windsor at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and assisting at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.  She was the assistant designer for Bubbling Brown Sugar starring Diahann Carroll and for the Montreal production of Beauty and the Beast.  She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

More about Performance Space 122

Performance Space 122 is New York's ultimate destination for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and cross-media.  Founded in 1979, Performance Space 122 is dedicated to supporting and
presenting artists whose work challenges the traditional boundaries of dance, theatre, music, and performance.  Committed to exploring innovative form as well as material, PS 122 is steadfast in its search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures and points of view.

Death runs Friday, October 24 - Sunday, November 2 on the following schedule:  Wednesday – Sunday at 8:30pm.  Tickets from $20 each, $15 (students/seniors), $10 (P.S. 122 members).  Tickets may be purchased online at www.ps122.org or via phone at (212) 352-3101.  Performance Space 122 is located at 150 First Avenue at East 9th Street, New York, New York 10009.  www.ps122.org.

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