Esoteric Dance Project presents Venture, a performance series highlighting two premieres from Co-Artistic Director Brenna Pierson-Tucker and EDP’s inaugural Choreography Mentoring Program recipient, Joanna Paul. Also mounted is a reexamined duet originally debuted February 2014. The weekend long series promises an array of ideology, movement and complexity through the use of audience participation. Variable elements in the choreography promise a different artistic experience each night. Venture runs Friday-Sunday 7pm, May 13th-15th. Tickets are $20 in advance/$25 at the door and $15 student/senior. Weekend Packages available for all 3 performances: $40 General Admission/$30 Student. For more information and to purchase tickets visit www.Linkshall.org or www.Esotericdanceproject.com
Pioneering Esoteric Dance Project’s Choreography Mentoring Program, Joanna Paul explores the nature of human façade and thus the performance that is everyday living with Hints of Reality (Premiere). Throughout the work, four dancers assess and deconstruct the masks they portray and the power surrendered in hiding the most honest part of oneself. The piece spans the nuanced movement of the presented appearance, building into a highly physical ruse. This exposes one’s ability to shape shift affectations through changing landscapes and the limitations encountered. In Hints of Reality, Paul draws from the 21st Century act of image crafting and the control a viewing eye has to shape actions.
The concept of Translate to 2 (Premiered February 2014) began while choreographer Christopher Tucker was walking two dogs that were leashed together. The external restriction forced both subjects to find ways to navigate through space as one unit otherwise causing disparate and jarring moments for both. The piece evolved through the examination of these natural movements and tendencies with their strategies for resolving the constraint and how that can be adapted to human moving bodies. By being tethered together, the two dancers are forced to maneuver their movement in conjunction with another body. Even when free, the connections and influences continue, as if the physical attachment had also bound their decisions.
With movement created utilizing Trisha Brown’s Alphabet Cube and inspiration from Merce Cunningham’s innovative works employing chance procedures, Random Acts of Phrasing (Premiere) explores the unforeseen and its ability to spur multiple outcomes. Upon entering the theater space, the audience will be encouraged to make seemingly inconsequential decisions that will shape the totality of the piece. Music, costumes and section order will all be guided by the audience members’ choices and thus alter each evenings performance in both subtle and significant ways. Through contrasting scores and variable choreography Pierson-Tucker challenges her dancers to be flexible yet cohesive as they work within the fluctuating outcome of the audiences’ influence all while offering the public a unique opportunity for a sense of ownership in what they are viewing.
