Soon at Joyce SoHo!

Misnomer Dance Theater and Joyce Soho are teaming up to create online discussions in anticipation for Misnomer's upcoming two-week run of Being Together, December 4-7th and 11-14th, 2008. For more updates as the show approaches, check out www.misnomer.org and read our blog.

Being Together is an evening featuring three world-premieres: Too Late Tulip, Rock.Paper.Flock, and Zipper. Zipper includes an original score by Evan Ziporyn, to be performed live during the first week of the run by the Real Quiet ensemble. Misnomer asked the dancers what they thought of Being Together.

"The strength of this season lies in its depth of perspective; in its ability to cross boundaries of taste and preference to reach out to everyone, and touch all" - Jen Harmer, Misnomer Dancer

Dancer Dorian Nuskind-Oder reflects on the new dances:

Too Late Tulip:

"The rehearsal process for creating these works has been very rich. I really feel like we have developed a distinct approach and history for each piece. Too Late Tulip was originally created in residence at The Yard on Martha's Vineyard. That peaceful and beautiful location left a lasting impression on the work. Every time we run the piece, I feel transported back to that time and place.

Rock.Paper.Flock:

"Rock.Paper.Flock. is, in a lot of ways, a response to our creative process as a company. The elements of improvisation and conversation between the dancers and Chris is a representation of how we function as a group. I'm especially excited about sharing those ideas with the audience in a performance setting."

Zipper:

"Zipper was begun during our Concord SummerStages/ Baryshnikov Arts Center residency. In both locations we had the pleasure to rehearse in very large studios. As a result, there is a sense of spaciousness and architecture in the work. I am very aware of my presence within a large pattern on the stage, and this drives my relationship with the other dancers. "

The upcoming season is certain to be a fun and engaging affair. "The three pieces cover so much territory, and yet they feel so satisfying as a contrasting whole," says Jen, "We begin the evening with a lyrical, folk like movement poem, and then we get to switch hats entirely, to a piece about 'making decisions in the moment, with coaching from our choreographer', and finally end the evening with a piece that is abstracted and linear, and driven by a live musical sound score."

Creating Being Together, has been a highly collaborative experience for both the dancers and musicians. "Hearing the demo in yesterday's rehearsal of Evan Ziporyn's composition for Zipper has me so excited," says dancer Brynne Billingsley, "I can't wait to dance this incredible piece with the musicians next month."

Audiences are encouraged to linger after the performances to meet the dancers. On December 5th, Misnomer will host a very special event - the Post Performance Soiree. This is an opportunity to party with the Misnomer family and enjoy more live music from Real Quiet, inside the beautiful Joyce SoHo theater. Click here for more information. On December 12th there will be a Q&A session with choreographer Chris Elam.

Join Misnomer for what Coco Karol describes as "fascinating, from its start, where we as a company were learning what "being together" as a family and in the studio meant, up through. Look forward to seeing everyone at Joyce SoHo!

On the first day of Eiko's class, she announced that we would address just one question throughout the semester. Students gazed up at her eagerly, pencils poised to scribble down what they were sure would be a page's worth of syllabus-speak. When she posed the question-what is art?-pencils dropped and a palpable fear set into the faces of the students. Eiko & Koma don't avoid the tough questions-in fact, they embrace them.

For years, Eiko & Koma's art has celebrated and questioned humanity, using their own bodies as canvases for these elemental concerns. This process can hardly be codified, but Eiko & Koma have developed a teaching system to share their dance philosophy: Delicious Movement. In Spring 2007, I enrolled in "Delicious Movement for Forgetting, Remembering, and Uncovering," which Eiko taught to 30+ students at Wesleyan University-dancers, soccer players, and frat boys alike. Eiko guided us through various non-human states, using images from the natural world. She encouraged students to delve into their own discomfort with the movement, creating an environment of emotional rigor that was rare in our liberal arts classrooms, or, for that matter, in any classroom.

Eiko & Koma will be at the Joyce next week, for the New York premier of Hunger, Oct 28-Nov 2. They made Hunger in collaboration with the young painter/performers Charian and Peace, and all four dancers will share the stage, along with Gamelon player Joko Sutrisno. Charian and Peace attended the Reyum Art School in Phonon Penh, Cambodia, where Eiko & Koma met them in 2004 in a Delicious Movement workshop.

It is still a rare occasion for Eiko & Koma to share their stage with others (although this has been the direction of their work as of late). I can't wait to see how the intimacy between Eiko & Koma extends to four. Many choreographers choose to infuse their work with dancers younger than themselves, but I suspect that Eiko & Koma's choice is more conceptual than anything else. In the onstage world of Eiko & Koma, future and past are intimately connected. It seems only natural that their world would grow to include multiple generations-celebrating both the memory of youth and the process of rebirth.

I am curious about the way in which Charian and Peace relate to Eiko & Koma as students. The process of learning the highly specific and emotionally rigorous Eiko & Koma technique must have been no easy task. When art and teaching are so intertwined, the gift of teacher to student is enormous-both to the drop-in participant and the lifelong dancer alike.

Lydia Bell is an artist and dancer based in New York. lydiabell.wordpress.com

Choreographer's notes: HUNGER



In 1983 we premiered Grain in a small loft downtown in New York. It was a dance about how our lives-bodies, spirits, and death-relate to an essential food (in Asia it is rice). For several years we performed Grain on tour and moved on to create other productions. In 2004 when we were in residence at Reyum Art School in Phnom Penh, not being able to present our more theatrical works, we performed a short section from Grain in the schoolyard. The Reyum children responded strongly and our friendship had begun. Though our communication was very limited, a group of older students, including Charian and Peace, decided to work with us. During the rehearsals and the tour of Cambodian Stories: An Offering of Painting and Dance (2005-2006), we cooked and ate many many bowls of rice together, sharing stories and learning each other's lives. For example, every day in Japan people offer a bowl of cooked rice to a family shrine to feed the deceased. In Cambodia, people throw rice balls to graves on festive days. We all seem to recognize that dead people also become hungry and need to be attended. In 2007, at the invitation of Charles Reinhart of the American Dance Festival, we asked Charian and Peace to learn Grain. It was a first time anyone else performed a dance we made for ourselves. Watching them, we remembered what motivated us to make Grain. With these beautifully hungry young friends, we wanted to create an evening of Hunger. At any age, we are all hungry not only for food but also for knowledge, intimacy, and life. In our wanting, we can be self-absorbed and sometimes even act unkindly to others. Dancing our hunger, however, we hope to not only address our desire to live but also mourn for those, dead or alive, whose hunger still haunts their spirits.
                                         
                                                                                         

                                                                                           
                                                                                                 –Eiko and Koma

Hosted By: The Joyce Theater Chelsea
When: Tuesday Jun 10, 2008
at 7:30 PM
Where: The Joyce Theater
175 Eight Ave
New York, New York|33 10011
United States
Description:
The Joyce Theater Chelsea

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