In the early stages of Rooming House, this physical prompt was based on magnetic pull, exploring the action of body parts repelling and attracting one another to emphasize an environment where the law of physics doesn't make sense. This idea eventually developed into a section in which the dancers enter the underworld.
Flashback Friday: Surrelium
Surrelium (2003 premiere; 2005 remount) was initially inspired by a child’s fascination with a helium balloon—an object that both delights and provokes tension through its fragility. The Chicago Sun Times described Surrelium as a “transformed, alternate reality with optical illusions, complex composition, and delicate yet powerful movement that seems to take place in another stratosphere.”
We-Support Wednesday: Rachel Damon
Rachel Damon is the director of Synapse Arts, a dance-theater company based in Chicago.
Artists across the country are creating Crosswalk Dances, a series originated by Synapse Arts. These “fancy street crossings” incorporate improvisation and set choreography to the flow of traffic, forging public space for movement expression, and setting dance in unexpected places. Catch them live or on Synapse Arts’ social media, and do your own #crosswalkdance!
Seen here (in order of appearance): Steph Anderson, Jamila Kekulah Kinney, Dylan Roth, Kait Dessoffy, Kara Brody, Nora Sharp and Grace McCants, Rachel Damon. We’re only halfway through the month-long series. Watch artists dance through crosswalks in New York City, Seattle, Taos, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, and Synapse Arts’ home base of Chicago.
“Crosswalk Dances” is a popular street performance series that began in 2008. We’ve brought it back as a means to support artists and make dance happen. We welcome donations towards our Pandemic Artist Support Campaign: https://synapsearts.networkforgood.com/projects/97355-dance-will-keep-us-together-synapse-arts-pandemic-support
Making-It Monday: SuperStrip 2016
This Monday, we’re looking back at the making of SuperStrip. This section focuses on comic sounds as part of the “whack-a-mole” section during Mission 1. It features ensemble members Meghann Wilkinson, Daniel Gibson, Michel Rodriguez Cintra, Melinda Jean Myers, Benjamin Wardell, Marc Macaranas, and Elizabeth Luse.
Flashback Friday: She|Three
Flashing back to rehearsal outtakes from 2006! She/Three is an evening-length choreographic triptych centered around 3 Shakespearean women—Juliet, Lady Macbeth, and Ophelia—presented in 3 distinct works: Bloodlines by Brian Jeffery; til the last syllable of recorded time by Marianne M. Kim; and Referencing Ophelia by Peter Carpenter. Artistic Director Julia Rhoads shares a distinct history of collaboration with these artists from 1995-2000 through XSIGHT! Performance Group, a dance-theater company that was a unique and vital part of Chicago’s dance community.
Ayako Kato: ETHOS Trilogy Project
“During these moments of uncertainty, I feel I am very much challenged and encouraged to practice letting go. Yet, it almost equals with gaining new perspectives and hope, making even some small changes by following the new wind of ethos within and around myself.” -Ayako Kato
To the Shore: ETHOS Episode I
Episode II & III
This year, I have been planning to present Inception: ETHOS Episode II through the Night Out in the Parks. Due to the current unprecedented condition, I am waiting to catch the right timing and the way to offer Episode II while I am preparing and rehearsing to make a preview video at the beach. As Tagore’s poem recited by Tuli Bera both in Bengali and English during the Episode I suggests, I haven't seen the face of new ethos, but we are starting to hear the voice and the footsteps. Until the third Final Episode of ETHOS is realized, I hope to be able to recognize or recall the face of our (new) ethical values on lives and nature. Valuing the beauty of being of all the existence on the earth, ETHOS keeps seeking the actualization of nature-multicultural-centrism or, more simply, multi-centrism through a holistic bird's eye view.
Why ETHOS
My artistic practice involves music and dance improvisation and compositional work which I may take five years to complete. I also create choreographic work all in between. I launched the ETHOS trilogy project in 2018. I envisioned this ambitious theme after my father passed away in 2014. He named my elder sisters and me as the child of pathos, Kanako, the child of logos, Riko, and the child of ethos, Ayako. I guess I subconsciously wanted to figure out what ethos means, does, and how it is working through me and others in the society while I still have energy in my body. During the creative process, as a female of color originally from the far east who has been practicing dance, I could encounter the conscious recognition that I myself and even my ancestors have been gone through a long world history of westernization/Euro-centrism and human-centrism. Even I noticed recently that I must have been unconsciously working on the decolonization of the body and mind since I dropped my focus on classical ballet practice 30 years ago. Yet at the same time, respecting the fact that we are all different beings, I also want to keep seeing what we have in common.
Making-It Monday: Rink Life 2019
Catch a glimpse into an early song-making process for Rink Life. Each group was tasked with turning source material from various plays into lyrics for a song off! Featuring ensemble members Kara Brody, Jacinda Ratcliffe, and Liz Luse.
Flashback Friday: Lulu Sleeps
One of Lucky Plush’s early evening-length works, Lulu Sleeps (2005) journeys through the poetic and absurd nature of dreams. The work was made with support from Chicago Dancemakers Forum and premiered at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago.
This video features dancers Meghann Wilkinson, Zachary Whittenburg, Joanna Read , Kathleen Matuszewich, Elizabeth Lentz, Krenly Guzman, and Mikey Rioux