The Long Arc encompasses the work of three artists— Emily Navarra (The Movement Kitchen), Anjal Chande (The Soham Dance Project) and Maya Odim (Community and Cosmos Dance Company)---searching & finding, molding and re-placing. "A Substance Displaced"— presented by artist Emily Navarra, focuses on the new iconic image of the economically insecure working mother. For the millions of women who live this way, the dream of having it all has morphed into just hanging on. By replacing what we are told about ourselves with who we really are, Emily re-places women in the global narrative. In "This Is How I Feel Today", Anjal Chande weaves movement improvisation, mundane humming, and a multitude of journal entries together to acknowledge, reflect upon, and feel the nuances of each day. Chande considers our contradictory experiences, and our privileges, convictions, and complicity, in a era that often demands we hold the mirror up to ourselves. And with the use of props, writing and movement, artist Maya Odim presents: "Reach, Bury, Catch, Move, Hold". Maya smuggles in the history while exploring rituals— and labor processes, amongst options to forget them. *Anjal Chande’s Soham Dance Project premiered Pay No Mind at Links in 2014 and shared an early draft of “This Is How I Feel Today” in 2017’s Willing to Feel: Works in Progress. Emily and Maya are making their Links debuts.
Performance Schedule:
Thursday, 9/20, 7pm - Emily Navarra
Friday, 9/21, 7pm - Anjal Chande + Maya Odim
Saturday, 9/22, 7pm - Emily Navarra + Maya Odim
Sunday, 9/23, 7pm - Anjal Chande + Maya Odim
Performer Bios / Info:
Emily Navarra is a B.A. Dance Studies graduate from the University of South Florida. She has worked under various choreographers such as Iñaki Azpillaga and Wim Vandekeybus (Ultima Vez) and Lloyd Newson (DV8 Physical Theatre) as well as presented her work in the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, North Africa and the United Kingdom. She formed Standpoint Theories in 2012, a collaborative project which began as an experimental multimedia performance. From 2013-2015, it transformed into its next installation – “Legends of Vietnam” which retold six Vietnamese legends through dance, visual art, text and live music featuring singer/songwriter Le Cat Trong Ly. In 2015, she founded The Movement Kitchen which offers creative experiences and movement based workshops in a welcoming environment by spreading knowledge about movement as a therapy, bringing cultures together and encouraging self-expression. Emily was also a TED Talks key note speaker in 2016 speaking on the topic of The Importance of Collaboration in the Arts. She resided overseas for the past decade in North Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia - and recently moved back to Chicago with her better half and their cat named Chicken. https://www.facebook.com/themovementkitchen/
Anjal Chande is a dance artist, composer, writer, and researcher who innovates and introspects through multidisciplinary dance. Described by The New York Times as a “gifted stylist” and by Time Out Chicago as “arrestingly poetic” and “breaking out of the box of ethnic dance,” Chande’s contemporary bharatanatyam work has been commissioned/presented by the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., West Wave Dance Festival in San Francisco, Drive East in New York City, the World Music Festival in Chicago, and more. She has been recognized through the U.S. Fulbright Fellowship, Ragdale Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and Illinois Arts Council. She is the founder of Soham Dance Space and currently finishing a year of artistic research in Berlin. http://www.anjalchande.com/
Maya Odim is both a teaching and performing artist—poetry, movement and agricultural work, and a new founder of the dance company Community and Cosmos. Maya works independently and collaboratively to host workshops, participate in exhibitions, write curriculum, and publish. Maya smuggles histories into the movement, writing and agricultural work she does because it’s important— knowing from where, how, when and why. Maya\'s most recent works can be viewed online: www.mayaodim.com/freerange.html Holding a B.A. in African American Studies from Wesleyan University ‘10, Middletown, Connecticut, Maya currently lives and works in Chicago, traveling often.
