We Support Wednesdays: Irene Hsiao

Allure from Home

Merely a Mistake:
A Score for your Door

Now streaming via theallureofmatter.org

This experimental community art project based on a score from Irene Hsiao brings physically distanced participants together through overlapping at-home performances.

Inspired by Liu Wei’s Merely a Mistake II No. 7—a sculpture made from layers of recycled and cut up doorframes—the project is one of several developed by Hsiao, a Chicago Dancemakers Forum 2020 Lab Artist, for the Smart Museum of Art and theallureofmatter.org. 

Words from Irene:
I keep jabbering about a quality I don't yet know how to describe. It's something like Everyone Can Dance! and People Even Apart Are Together! And Humans Are Beautiful! And Brains/Bodies/Brains! Almost all of the people in the project have never met or danced together before, and everyone interpreted the score on their own. This project was for anyone who wanted to join -- so it includes teens from the south side of Chicago, museum workers, dancers, neighbors, friends, and strangers. And pets :)

“It was such a pleasure being a part of this project. I’ve been having a  difficult time finding motivation to move my body lately. Home has turned into a place of isolation and make-shift work space. The simple score that Irene provided was surprisingly healing and helped me re-shape the limitations I held for my space. It demanded little but was accessible to so much. The creation process of impromptu decisions was a delight but what was really fascinating was seeing the clips of overlapping footage with familiar AND unfamiliar faces, bodies, beings. It was a lovely reminder that we are all still connected even though we aren’t holding physical space together. “ - Kara Brody

For more information and to view all 10 videos, visit here.

Merely a Mistake: A Score for your Door Irene Hsiao with Kara Brody and Amanda Maraist Commissioned by the Smart Museum of Art in conjunction with 'The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China.

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Making-It Monday: SuperStrip 2016

SuperStrip premiered at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago in 2016. As part of the process, director Julia Rhoads taught an initial phrase that each ensemble member changed to be “in the style of” their superhero character, which came out of a writing prompt about their character’s backstories and imagined powers (or “super techniques”). This duet with Professor Visionné (Elizabeth Luse) and Rapid Glitch (Daniel Gibson) didn’t end up in the show, but the movement qualities were definitely part of the show’s DNA. 

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Flashback Friday: Voyaging (2004)

We’re taking it back 16 years ago to one of our earliest evening-length works.

Launching from Charles Darwin’s voyage on the HMS Beagle, Voyaging tacks between historical and contemporary culture, looking at social behavior, class structure, and physical attraction in light of Darwin’s concepts of natural and sexual selection. Lucky Plush partnered with Walkabout Theater Company in the development and presentation of Voyaging.

Created & Directed by Julia Rhoads & Stephan Mazurek
Choreography: Julia Rhoads
Video Design: Stephan Mazurek
Composer & Sound Design: Mark Messing
Costume Design: Sue Haas & Lara Miller
Puppet Design: Illia Vihos & Jeff Grafton
Performers: Leila Breton, Charlie Cutler, Kate Elswit, Nicole Garneau, Dennis Grimes, Krenly Guzman, Simone Jubyna, Misha Kaschock, Elizabeth Lentz, Kathleen Matuszewich, Kaleb Mazurek, Amy Page, Aaron Preusse, Mikey Rioux

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We-Support Wednesday: Ethan Kirschbaum

This week, we send our support to a member of the Lucky Plush family, Ethan Kirschbaum, and his new endeavor: Chicago Movement Collective. Show some love to Ethan! Venmo @Ethan-Kirschbaum-1.

Ethan is the founder of Chicago Movement Collective which held its first classes in September 2020. In 2021, he has plans to launch the Claire Bataille Legacy Program to continue to provide a home for talented and passionate pre-professional dancers.

Ethan danced in Lucky Plush’s 2018 Tab Show, which included Curb Candy and an early iteration of Rink Life. He has also performed with Hubbard Street 2, River North Dance Chicago, the Lyric Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera, and danced internationally including Canada, Mexico, Holland, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, Luxembourg, France, and Russia. In 2011 Ethan moved to Saarbrücken, Germany to dance with Donlon Dance Company at the Saarländisches Staatstheater under the direction of Marguerite Donlon. Until its abrupt closure, he was on faculty at the Lou Conte Dance Studio since 2012 and was recently named the Scholarship Mentor, delegating scholarships to promising pre-professional and early career artists.

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Making-It Monday: Cinderbox 2007

To kick off our first Making-It Monday, we're throwing it back to Cinderbox, which premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2007. This work was made with a specific curiosity in the purportedly unscripted and fly-on-the-wall observational style of reality TV, the work both exploits and makes indistinct the live and virtual, private and public, observer and observed, improvised and choreographed, and the highly presentational and minutely subtle. 

This rehearsal footage is of a sequence that ultimately was not incorporated into the final product. This clip features dancers Meghann Wilkinson, Kim Goldman, Ben Wardell, Francisco Aviña, and Matthew Kessler-McMunn.

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Pink Polo ft. Zachary Whittenburg

Flashback Friday

In honor of Lucky Plush’s 20th anniversary, former ensemble member Zac Whittenburg created the video "Pink Polo,” which thoughtfully layers memories, movements, and other material that he performed during his time in the Lucky Plush ensemble (2004-2007). 

About Pink Polo:
Performance, video and editing by Zachary Whittenburg. Created March 31, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. “Pink Polo” includes material from and references to multiple works produced and premiered by Lucky Plush Productions created in whole or in part by Julia Rhoads including “Surrelium,” 2003; “Shift,” 2004; “Lulu Sleeps,” 2005; the “She/Three” trilogy, 2006 (“Referencing Ophelia” by Peter Carpenter, “Bloodlines” by Brian Jeffery, and “til the last syllable of recorded time” by Marianne M. Kim); and “Cinderbox 18,” 2007.

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OUR LP FAMILY IS GROWING!

We have two new additions we'd like to introduce: ensemble babies Sacha Rodriguez Reinwald and Carla Luse Bell Burn. Thee rest of the ensemble, LP kiddos and fur-children are healthy and moving whenever possible! 

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20th anniversary

20 YEARS THEN, 20 YEARS TO COME.

This is a space to archive & share the bits of treasure we have accumulated in the past 20 years. Throughout the next few months you will get a glimpse of how we devise our uniquely hybrid dance-theater work through unseen rehearsal footage & video clips from our extensive body of work in dedication to our 20th Anniversary Season.

As we continue to add content, you might feel so inclined to toss a tip our way! As we continue to deal with cancelled performances & tours, we are finding other means to help raise money to keep the company going. Click the ‘make a tip’ button throughout this blog to make a contribution to the company.