ODC Presents Catherine Galasso In The World Premiere Of ALONE TOGETHER

ODC Theater is proud to present former Resident Artist Catherine Galasso in ALONE TOGETHER, the third installment of her multi-chapter performance series, Of Iron and Diamonds, inspired by Boccaccio's 14th-century collection of tales, The Decameron. A collaboration with San Francisco-based composer Dave Cerf, Alone Together runs December 6 - 8, 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.

Created specifically for ODC Theater, Alone Together flips the orientation of the proscenium, placing the audience on the stage and the performers in the seats. "The work speaks to the current cultural climate of how togetherness happens in a digital realm," said Galasso. "It also explores how audiences experience alone-togetherness when watching performance, uniquely alone and removed in their perception of the 'show' while sharing space with others in close proximity."

While based in the Bay Area from 2006 to 2012, Galasso developed and premiered Bring On The Lumière! A work commissioned by ODC Theater as part of Galasso's artist residency, Bring On The Lumière! was nominated for a 2011 Izzy Award. The work is currently featured in the Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies. Her collaboration with choreographer Andy de Groat at Danspace Project in New York, get dancing, was nominated for a 2016 Bessie Award.

As ODC Theater serves as a crossroads for local and touring dance artists, this project features a Bay Area cast working in collaboration with Galasso, who is now based in New York. The ensemble includes Arletta Anderson, Eric Garcia, Cookie Harrist, Hien Huynh, Phoenicia Pettyjohn and Karla Quintero. Joining the cast is 12-year-old Galicia Stack Lozano, a seventh-grader at Millennium School in San Francisco.
The first chapter in Galasso's Of Iron and Diamonds series premiered at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange last year. It featured a sextet of performers including Galasso's then eight-month old son. This past summer, Galasso unveiled the second chapter, Of Granite and Glass, as part of the River to River Festival in New York.
"Each chapter is uniquely site- and cast-specific," notes ODC Theater Director Julie Potter. "For Alone Together, Galasso returns to ODC Theater, a space she fondly considers the location where her choreographic career launched. Galasso has since mentored with artists including Ralph Lemon, evolving her contemporary approach to performance rooted in the avant-garde, while maintaining elements of physical humor and a cinematic gaze that are her trademark."
Of Iron and Diamonds, the series, is made possible by Arts Brookfield,

Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, ODC Theater and the Assets 4 Artists Program. This project is funded, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The project was developed through residencies at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, ODC Theater and through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Extended Life Dance Development program.

ABOUT CATHERINE GALASSO
Catherine Galasso has been creating live performance at the intersection of dance, theater and installation since 2006. Her work has been seen at venues like Joyce SoHo, La MaMa, SFMoMA, Bibliotheque National in Paris, Harvard University's Carpenter Center and MoCA Santa Barbara, as well as underground bank vaults and decaying four-story homes. Galasso has been awarded residencies from The Watermill Center, Headlands Center, Kaatsbaan, ODC Theater, as well as commissions from Danspace Project, The River To River Festival, San Francisco Foundation, among others. While based in the Bay Area from 2006 to 2012, Galasso developed and premiered Bring On The Lumière! A work commissioned by ODC Theater as part of Galasso's artist residency, Bring On The Lumière! was nominated for a 2011 Izzy Award. The work is currently featured in the Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies. Her collaboration with choreographer Andy de Groat at Danspace Project in New York, get dancing, was nominated for a 2016 Bessie Award. Galasso was a 2015-17 Extended Life Artist with Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and a 2016-18 Artist-in-Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange. More information at catherinegalasso.org.

ABOUT DAVE CERF
Dave Cerf works across time-based media: photography, film, sound and music. His aim is to make these media feel more alive and present via live performance and hands-on software interfaces. Over the last decade, Cerf has collaborated on a tour of abandoned drive-in movie screenings, a live documentary (Utopia in Four Movements with Sam Green), Shirley and Spinoza (a never-ending internet radio stream), and Pop-Up Magazine, a "live magazine" based in San Francisco. Cerf and his chamber ensemble Threnody Ensemble have composed music for Sam Green's The Weather Underground and the experimental films of Pat O'Neill and Jennifer Reeves. Deeply dissatisfied with the available tools, Cerf worked for eight years at Apple as an interface designer for Final Cut Pro X and wrote several editions of the 2400-page user manual. Still deeply dissatisfied with the available tools, he began investigating alternative sound and video representations with Robert M. Ochshorn at Alan Kay's Xerox PARC reboot CDG in San Francisco, helmed by Bret Victor. At the same time, he assisted sound and picture editor Walter Murch on two feature films: Hemingway & Gellhorn (HBO) and Brad Bird's Tomorrowland (Disney). There was also a six-month detour to volunteer at the Dalai Lama's video archive in Dharamsala, India. He recently completed the editing, sound design and music for Mexican filmmaker Natalia Almada's fourth feature film as well as a performance about his personal history told via the rise and fall of public pay phones.

ABOUT ODC THEATER

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. FACT SHEET WHAT: ODC Theater presents Catherine Galasso in collaboration with Dave Cerf in Of Iron and Diamonds V3: ALONE TOGETHER.

Choreography: Catherine Galasso Music & Sound Design: Dave Cerf Performers: Arletta Anderson, Eric Garcia, Cookie Harrist, Hien Huynh, Galicia Stack Lozano, Phoenicia Pettyjohn, Karla Quintero

WHEN: December 6 - 8, 2018 Thursday - Saturday at 8 p.m.
WHERE: ODC Theater 3153 17th Street San Francisco, CA 94110
TICKETS: $30 To purchase tickets call 415-863-9834. Or online visit odc.dance/tickets.

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