Next year Nancy Karp + Dancers returns to ODC with the world premiere of MEMORY/PLACE. Inspired by the current era of human mass migration, Artistic Director Nancy Karp has made a work in three parts, the first two movements set to newly commissioned scores by Kui Dong and Robert Honstein, respectively, and the third to the late Lou Harrison's almost 30-year-old Grand Duo for piano and violin.
A sextet of dancers will be accompanied by three award-winning musicians including cellist Gianna Abondolo, pianist Sarah Cahill and violinist Kate Stenberg. Memory/Place runs February 10 - 12, 2017, with performances Friday andSaturday at 8 p.m, and Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets at $35 and $45 will become available afterNovember 1 at odcdance.org/tickets.
Since forming Nancy Karp + Dancers in 1980, Karp has choreographed more than 70 works, appearing in venues around the globe. Over this time, the company has earned a reputation for striking interdisciplinary collaborations, commissioning numerous composers, visual artists and designers in the creation of new dances. Next year's season features the commission of two musical scores, and Karp's first collaboration with Abondolo, Cahill and Stenberg. It also features a collaboration with Bay Area visual artist Thekla Hammond, one of whose large-format abstract paintings will serve as a primary element in the evening's scenic design.
While Karp has known and admired Hammond's work for many years,
Memory/Placemarks the first time she has invited the artist to take part in one of her dances. "My new project draws on the experiences of people who have moved into new circumstances, whether by choice or necessity," said Karp. "The focus of the piece is ultimately about boundaries. I've been interested to explore the boundaries of the human body, taking its shape from the inside out, letting the movement develop from this exploration."
"And I was immediately drawn to the way Thekla summons these concerns in the paintings that make up her
Full Life Story series," she added. "The painting we use in
Memory/Place represents contradictory elements all at once: there's stasis and movement, darkness and light, a solid foundation and liquid motion over it, and the boundaries between these opposites often appear mutable."
Leading the scenic design of
Memory/Place is veteran lighting designer Jack Carpenter, whose work has appeared around the Bay Area for over three decades, from partnerships with the San Francisco Ballet to the Kronos Quartet.
Born in China and currently on faculty at Dartmouth College, Dong has earned accolades for her avant-garde compositions influenced by jazz, classical and traditional Chinese music. Her work uses both acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Among her numerous commissions are works performed by the Central Ballet Group of China, Spain's National Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Arditti Quartet, Ars Electronica, Del Sol Quartet, Volti and many more. For
Memory/Place, Dong has written a duet for violin and cello.
Honstein is best known as a co-founder and director of the Fast Forward Austin music festival. As a composer of orchestral, chamber and vocal pieces, Honstein has been praised for his "daring innovations, stylistic range and acute attention to instrumental nuance," (WQXR). His music has been performed by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, eighth blackbird, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Del Sol Quartet, The Sebastians, and the Bel Cuore Saxophone Quartet, among many others. For
Memory/PlaceHonstein has composed a score for solo violin and electronics to be performed by Stenberg. The work, titled
Marking Time, was co-commissioned by Stenberg and Nancy Karp + Dancers.
The final section of
Memory/Place is set to three movements of Lou Harrison's
Grand Duo(1988) performed by Cahill and Stenberg. Harrison was a longtime friend of Karp's, and the choice to use his music is in recognition of the centenary of his birth next year. The six company dancers performing this season are Janet Collard, Sonsherée Giles, Sebastian Grubb, Katie Kruger,
Amy Lewis and Kevin Lopez. For more information about Nancy Karp + Dancers, visit
nancykarp.org.
ABOUT NANCY KARP + DANCERS
Since forming Nancy Karp + Dancers in 1980, artistic director Nancy Karp has choreographed more than 70 works. She and company members have performed together in many distinguished venues, here and abroad including The Washington Project for the Arts in Washington D.C., The Kitchen in New York, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle, the Fur Augen und Ohren and Sprachen der Künste Festivals at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, Kyoto College of Art in Japan, and the Zagreb Experimental Theater Festival. The company has remained committed to interdisciplinary collaboration, commissioning numerous composers, visual artists and designers in the creation of new dances each season. Among these collaborators are Charles Amirkhanian,
Alvin Curran,
Paul Dresher, Ingram Marshall, Sandra Woodall, Carol Law, Bill Fontana, Lutz Bacher and Wolfram Erber.
The world premiere of Memory/Place is made possible with generous support from the Rainin Opportunity Fund of ODC Theater; the Lighting Artists in Dance Award, a program of Dancers' Group; and many individual contributors.
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