Kate Weare's MARKSMAN to Make West Coast Debut at ODC Theater

ODC Theater will present the West Coast premiere of Kate Weare Company's MARKSMAN, October 5 - 7.

Hailed as one of the company's "most significant works" to date when it premiered in 2016 at The Joyce Theater in New York, the sextet features set design by acclaimed artist Clifford Ross and an original score from composer Curtis Robert Macdonald.

Performances run Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m., with an artist talk to follow the Friday show. Tickets are $30, and may be purchased online at odc.dance/tickets or by phone at 415-863-9834.

Adopting the metaphor of "aim" to examine how we form, and are formed, over time, "Marksman acknowledges not only the beauty but also the futility of our own willfulness," said choreographer and Artistic Director Kate Weare, who cites Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery as one of her inspirations in making the work. Marksman zeros in on the magnetism and electricity between bodies, revealing ancient signals about presence, power, attraction, hierarchy and vulnerability.

In addition to Ross and Macdonald, collaborators on Marksman include lighting designer Mike Faba and costume designer Brooke Cohen. The dancers are Julian De Leon, Kayla Farrish, Douglas Gillespie, Thryn Saxon, Ryan Rouland Smith and Nicole Vaughan-Diaz.

Ross is an acclaimed painter and photographer, best known for his large-format, multimedia renderings of ocean waves and landscapes. Ross's work has been exhibited widely in galleries and museums in the United States and internationally, and can be found in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. MASS MoCA presented Landscape: Seen & Imagined, a major mid-career retrospective in 2015.

Macdonald is a Brooklyn-based saxophonist, composer and producer whose works blend sound design and improvisation. In addition to Kate Weare Company, he has won commissions from Aszure Barton & Artists, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Hubbard Street Dance, Bayerisches Staatsballett and Larry Keigwin choreographing for The Juilliard School. For his collaborations with choreographers, Macdonald has received awards from the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation and New Music USA. He has also released three albums as a bandleader, authored a book on saxophone technique, and teaches at The New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music.

Marksman was co-commissioned by American Dance Festival and The Joyce Theater and was created, in part, with commissioning funds and a residency provided by The Joyce Theater Foundation, New York City, with major support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 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, Marksman and its creation was also supported by New Music USA, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York Community Trust, The CalArts Evelyn Sharp Summer Choreographic Residency Program and was created in part at The Tisch Dance Residency Festival.

For more information and to view a preview video of Marksman, visit odc.dance/marksman.

Established in 2005, Kate Weare Company is a New York-based contemporary dance company known for its combination of formal choreographic values and visceral, emotional interpretation. Weare's dances explore intimacy, both tender and stark, by drawing on our most basic urges to move and decode movement. The company has been presented nationwide by Jacob's Pillow, American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, ODC Theater, ArtPower at UC San Diego, Ringling Museum of Art, Dance Celebration Philadelphia, Spring to Dance St. Louis, Northrop Concerts and Lectures at the University of Minnesota, Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, among other venues and festivals. In New York, the company has been presented at Brooklyn Academy Of Music, The Joyce Theater, Fall for Dance at New York City Center, The 92nd St. Y, Symphony Space, The Skirball Center, Dancemopolitan at Joe's Pub, Dance Theater Workshop and Danspace Project. Company teaching residencies have included NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Long Island University, Marymount Manhattan College, Brockport College, Bates Dance Festival and Hobart and WilLiam Smith Colleges.

Kate Weare Company has also been supported through artistic residencies awarded by the Joyce Theater Foundation and Joyce SoHo Residency, BAM, Dance New Amsterdam's A.I.R. Program and ODC Theater. The company has commissioned original music from One Ring Zero, Argento Chamber Ensemble and The Crooked Jades, and performed live with both Argento (Danspace) and The Crooked Jades (The Joyce Theater). Major support has been received through private foundations such as The Greenwall Foundation, Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, Manhattan Arts Community Fund, The Hellman Foundation, American Music Center Live Music for Dance, The O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, NYSCA, New York Foundation for the Arts BUILD and NEFA's National Dance Project.

ODC Theater participates in the creation of new works through commissioning, presenting, mentorship and space access; it develops informed, engaged and committed audiences; and it advocates for the performing arts as an essential component to the region's economic and cultural development. The Theater is the site of over 120 performances a year involving nearly 1,000 local, regional, national and International Artists.

Since 1976, ODC Theater has been the mobilizing force behind countless San Francisco artists and the foothold for national and international touring artists seeking debut in the Bay Area. The Theater, founded by Brenda Way and currently under the direction of Julie Potter, has earned its place as a cultural incubator by dedicating itself to creative change-makers, those leaders who give the Bay Area its unmistakable definition and flare. Nationally known artists Spaulding Gray, Diamanda Galas, Bill T. Jones, Eiko & Koma, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Karole Armitage, Sarah Michelson, Brian Brooks and John Heginbotham are among those whose first San Francisco appearance occurred at ODC Theater. For more information about ODC Theater and all its programs visit www.odc.dance.

Pictured: Nicole Diaz, Kayla Farrish, Ryan Rouland Smith and Thryn Saxon. Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang.

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