ODC Theater Presents AN IMPROVISATION - as part of their WALKING DISTANCE DANCE FESTIVAL (may 15 - 20) - featuring
Phillip Greenlief (woodwinds),
Shoko Hikage (koto), Claudia LaRocco (voice, text), Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener (dance) - two evenings (may 19th and 20th) - show starts at 6:30 pm
Tickets on sale here: http://odc.dance/AnImprovisation
Phillip Greenlief (b. 1959, los angeles)
Since his emergence on the west coast in the late 1970s, Evander Music founder and saxophonist
Phillip Greenlief has achieved international critical acclaim for his recordings and performances with musicians and composers in the post-jazz continuum as well as new music innovators and virtuosic improvisers. He has performed and recorded with Fred Frith, Meredith Monk, Nels Cline, and They Might Be Giants; albums include THAT OVERT DESIRE OF OBJECT with Joelle Leandre, and ALL AT ONCE with FPR (Frank Gratkowski, Jon Raskin,
Phillip Greenlief). Recent residencies have included Headlands Center for the Arts and from 2012 to 2014 he was the curator at Berkeley Arts, a home for progressive music. He is the recipient of a San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award.
Shoko HikageShoko Hikage studied the koto with Chizuga Kimura, Seiga Adachi and Shizuga Adachi of the Ikuta Ryu Sokyoku Seigen Kai. In 1988, She graduated from Takasaki College with a major in koto music, and was immediately accepted as a special research student in Sawai Sokyoku In under Tadao Sawai and Kazue Sawai, where she subsequently received her master's certificate. In 1992, she moved to Honolulu to teach at the Sawai Koto Kai Hawaii. Currently she is an artist in residence at the JCCCNC where she teaches koto and furthers her interest in improvisational dance and music. First solo original compositions & improvisations CD released on 1997.
claudia la rocco
Claudia La Rocco is the author of The Best Most Useless Dress (Badlands Unlimited), selected poetry, performance texts, images and criticism, and the novel petit cadeau, which was published by The Chocolate Factory Theater as a print edition of one and a four-day, interdisciplinary live edition. She edited I Donʼt Poem: An Anthology of Painters (Off the Park Press) and Dancers, Buildings and People in the Streets, the catalogue for Danspace Projectʼs PLATFORM 2015, which she curated. She has been presented by The Walker Art Center, The Kitchen, The Whitney Museum of American Art, et al., and is also the first writer-in-residence at On the Boards theater in Seattle. She is a columnist for ARTFORUM and a contributing editor to Emergency Index (Ugly Duckling Presse). Her collaborators include the choreographer Michelle Ellsworth, the performance company Findlay//Sandsmark and the musician/composer
Phillip Greenlief, with whom she is animals & giraffes. In February 2016 she became editor-in-chief of Open Space.
rashaun mitchell and silas riener
Since 2010 Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener have created dance in response to complex and active spatial environments, often merging elements of fantasy, absurdity, and quiet contemplation into challenging multifaceted performance. After working together for years in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Mitchell and Riener developed a keen interest in the way abstraction and representation coincide in the body. Their collaborative work takes many forms, from site-specific installations, improvisational dances, and traditional proscenium pieces to highly crafted and intimate, immersive experiences. Historical influences and aesthetic forms collapse into a visually charged hybrid physical language. Together they have been part of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Dance Development program, the New York City Center Choreographic Fellowship, and have been artists in residence at EMPAC, Mount Tremper Arts, Wellesley College, Jacob’s Pillow, and Pieter. Their work has been presented at MOMA PS1 as part of Greater NY, The Chocolate Factory, New York Live Arts, Danspace Project, the Vail International Dance Festival, REDCAT, ICA Boston and Summer Stages Dance, the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, On the Boards, and the O Miami Poetry Festival.
Cost: $20 - $60 for full festival pass