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Event
Blessed Unrest
The National Network of Ensemble Theaters has provided a second grant for the ongoing collaboration of Dandelion Dancetheater's Bandelion ensemble (Oakland, CA,) Theater Grottesco (Santa Fe, NM) and choreographer Randee Paufve of Paufve|Dance (Oakland, CA.)
Blessed Unrest explores an artistic realm that blurs the boundaries between dancers, actors, and musicians; birthing rigorous moments of presence and direct communication.
Performances Dec. 18th and 19th at the Temescal Art Center, Oakland
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Bandelion has a long history of collaboration with both Randee Paufve and Theater Grottesco. All three are also connected through choreographer Della Davidson. Exploring Davidson's interdisciplinary legacy, since her untimely death in 2012 is an important challenge. The three companies met in the studio in 2012 and have been in conversation ever since about pushing the limits of each of their artistic forms.
The artists are exploring and sharing the methods used by each ensemble. Blessed Unrest will have two intensive creation periods, one in Santa Fe and another in the Bay Area. Currently, each ensemble is creating material to bring to the others. Bandelion is bringing their evolving DanceSing technique, in which performers execute complex choreography while singing songs with multiple harmonies; along with ongoing experiments combining body percussion, voice and word play. Randee Paufve is currently teaching evocative movement from past productions to Bandelion, and then working with the artists to innovate and expand this choreography, enabling Paufve to see "pure movement" in new ways, while encouraging Bandelion to work with unfamiliar movement styles.
Theater Grottesco is creating a theatrical framework and developing exercises, improvisations and short scenes based on elements of acting that transcend the categories of theater, dance and music, and return the practitioner to raw stage presence. They are preparing to guide the Bandelion artists and Paufve into theatrical modalities, taking into account the dancers' greater comfort with dance and music, and more tentative experience with acting.
A showcase of these explorations will happen in Santa Fe on November 7th. Each ensemble's material will be deconstructed and reconstructed to find an energetic and narrative through-line of the obvious and hidden intersections for Blessed Unrest. Randee Paufve (Paufve|Dance), John Flax (Theater Grottesco,) Kent Kirkpatrick (Theater Grottesco), and Eric Kupers (Bandelion,) will co-direct the work, which will be collaboratively created and performed by nine Bandelion artists, three Theater Grottesco artists and Randee Paufve.
Each ensemble is expected to confront questions of form that will profoundly affect their work for years to come.
Blessed Unrest takes deep creative risks in the pursuit of potential excellence. Bringing three ensembles together, with three different styles, four different directors, and 13 performers with and without disabilities is risky simply because of the sheer volume of people, opinions, and ideas that will be synthesized.
Description of Collaborating Ensembles
Bandelion is Eric Kupers' core ensemble within Dandelion Dancetheater. Bandelion is a tribe, a found family committed to pushing and being pushed by each other, past familiar edges. Bandelion collaborates. All ensemble members develop movement, sound, theatrical & design elements. The artists are inspired by Physically Integrated Dance, in which people with and without disabilities figure out how to move together, create together, and set up accessible structures for performance.
Theater Grottesco creates visual & explosive original works that rekindle interest in live performance by juxtaposing classical & modern theatrical styles while giving voice to marginal elements of contemporary society. The company shares their techniques with students, professionals & the general public.
Paufve|dance is committed to exploring the embodied aspects of human relations. Choreographer Randee Paufve rigorously investigates the ways bodies, histories, and spaces interact in the service of communication and expression. The work operates in the gap between the technical body and the everyday body, the orderly and wild, presenting an aesthetic of the unruly and uncompromisingly precise.
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LocationTemescal Art Center (View)
511 - 48th Street
Oakland, CA 94609
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: Yes! |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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