Performed in a mutable set of living plants, lanterns, lamps, and earthen pots, O.O.F. (studies in the opposite of fear) brings together improvisational solo and group movement scores, performance lecture with audience participation, and full-out group circle dancing. O.O.F. explores how we might ground and activate ourselves in an environment of xenophobia.
The project attempts to acknowledge this climate of hate, and cultivate an alternate emotional state to the pervasive anxiety we experience as immigrants. In solo sections, she travels through multiple vocabularies of dance, performed inside distinct configurations of plants. She also interrupts the dance with a tongue-in-cheek monologue advocating for a new vowel for our English alphabet.
Her collaborating dancers arrange plants in space and move inside those configurations. Together, we gradually build a collective energy through circle dance. Through each phase in the process, dancers bring their own movement voices and stories into our shared vocabulary.
Ensemble [70 min] presented December 2018 at CPR - Center for Performance Research. Solo [20 min] presented 2017–18 at La Mama Theater, 92nd St Y, Movement Research at Judson Church, and in 2019 at Asia Society.
Photo of Parijat by Kathryn Butler | Photos of Collaborators by Parijat Desai
PERFORMERS
TrINITY DAWN BOBO
Trinity Dawn Bobo is a New York based performer, dance maker, and visual artist. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance from Columbia College Chicago in Spring 2016. As a creator, Trinity values the practice of improvisation and is interested in the sensually-potent nature of vulnerability in movement. As a queer person, Trinity is also interested in queering all of the spaces and elevating the voices of under-represented people.
www.trinitybobo.com
QUeNTIN BURlEY
Quentin Burley is a dance and video artist based in Brooklyn, New York. His choreographic works have shown throughout New York City, including Triskelion Arts, The Alchemical Theater, Dixon Place, Dance NOW Raw Series, SPRING/BREAK ART SHOW, and Flux Factory. He has had the pleasure of performing with Brendan Drake Choreography, Parijat Desai Dance Company, Danté Brown | Warehouse Dance, The Moving Architects, Jung-In Jung, Ellen Maynard, and The Median Movement. He hails from Youngstown, Ohio and received a BFA in Dance and a BA in Philosophy from The Ohio State University. He received a Mertz-Gilmore Late Stage Production Stipend for his work But Enough About Me, presented by Triskelion Arts in 2017. He is also co-founder of The Fleet NYC, a video production company specializing in the documentation of performance art as historical archive.
thefleetnyc.com | quentinburleydancegroup.com
StANLEY GAMBUCCI
Ocean-bred, Black, and femme, Stanley Gambucci is a dancer and maker passing through.
CARLO ANTONIA VILLANUEVA
Carlo Antonio Villanueva was born and raised in Wallington, NJ. He has been a dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company since 2015. He received his primary movement training from Scott Chandler and TJ Doucette while touring with the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps of Concord, CA. He received his BFA summa cum laude from Mason Gross School of the Arts, studied Dance abroad at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and continued his training in classes and workshops provided by the Merce Cunningham Trust. Carlo is roused by the work of Doug Elkins and Netta Yerushalmy, and collaborates with Miriam Gabriel. This season, he is also working on projects with Abby Zbikowski and Ashley Yergens.
Annie Wang
Annie Wang trained at Martha Graham and at the Boitsov School of Ballet. She is a dancer with Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group and has also worked with Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch, Pia Vinson, and MADArt Productions. Her choreography has been presented at BRIC, Five Myles, the 92Y, WestFest Dance, Triskelion, the Chocolate Factory Theater, and Hot Wood Arts Gallery. Annie has been artist-in-residence at BRIClab, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Marble House Project. She was a selected choreographer for Doug Varone’s 2015 DEVICES choreography program. Annie was awarded a 2017-2018 Brooklyn Arts Council grant to develop her work, “Marigram”, a collaboration with Cairo-based dance artist Mohamed Yousry Shika and lighting designer Tuce Yasak. She will show new work as part of a curated series by Daria Fain at BKSD in 2019.
PHILIP MAYER
NYC based drummer and percussionist Philip Mayer has performed and/or recorded with Natalie Merchant, The Band's Visit on Broadway, Kishi Bashi, OfMontreal, Coleman Barks and many more.. www.philipmayer.net
DESIGNERS
GIAN MARCO LO FORTE
Gian Marco Lo Forte is a NYC-based writer, director and set designer dedicated to performance and social practice that reflects queer perspectives and vulnerability. He directs Pioneers Go East Collective, an ensemble of performance and visual artists in residence at La MaMa ETC, and dedicated to interdisciplinary projects that include storytelling of real events with interview-based video technology. Gian Marco’s projects have been presented in NYC at La MaMa ETC, Dixon Place/ Hot! Festival, Galapagos Arts, Incubator Arts Project/ Ontological Hysterical, HERE Arts with Performance Mix/NDA; Governors Island/LMCC, Art on Air/ Clock Tower Gallery; St Ann’s Warehouse; Chashama Gallery in Harlem, Goethe Institut; A.R.T./New York; Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance; JACK; The Exponential Festival; and Judson Church. Gian Marco is in residence with Great Jones Repertory and he has designed at Biennale di Venezia and toured in Europe. Gian Marco is recipient of numerous awards including New York State Council for the Arts (2017–18); St Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab residency (2014); LMCC’s Creative Engagement (2016–18); Opera America Director Award (2010), Process Space Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2013–14). Since 2013 Gian Marco teaches performance, dramaturgy, installation, and production design. www.pioneersgoeastcollective.org
TUCE YASAK
Lighting designer Tuce Yasak graduated from the Department of Industrial Design at Middle East Technical University, Turkey. She designs for dance. She is interested in site-specific performances, light installations, architectural and urban lighting. Credits include: Gutai Card Box Project, Guggenheim Museum; MEX I AM Festival with Vicky Araico, Yerba Buena Arts Center; David Dorfman Dance and Korhan Basaran Company, DanceMotionUSA at BAM and Bates Dance Festival; Feath3r Theory/Raja Feather Kelly at Dixon Place, JACK, Danspace Project, The Kitchen; Shasta Geaux Pop at Bushwick Star, Under The Radar Festival; Four Nights of Dreams, Alec Duffy and Mimi Lien at Japan Society; Memoirs of a Unicorn, Marjani Forte Saunders, Aroundtown, David Dorfman Dance, Next Wave Festival/BAM Harvey.
micoluco.com