2010, the Year of Live Dance & Music: The Distance of the Moon

This is shaping up to be quite the year of dance for me. In June was the premiere of one part of To Begin the World Over Again, a collaboration with Edisa Weeks and Delirious Dances, based on the writings of Thomas Paine (I will post the video from that showing later this month) with the full evening length showing including symposium, premiering June 2011 as a co-production with the Irondale Theater in Brooklyn. And now later this month will be a long-awaited collaboration between Takehiro Ueyama's TAKE Dance and the composer federation I founded and lead, Pulse.

The Distance of the Moon features the 6 composers of Pulse writing compositions for the 4 choreographers of TAKE Dance, performed live by the 6-musician Pulse chamber ensemble. From the official blurb:

Ueyama pairs his "forceful, fluid movement" (Bloomberg News) with Joseph C. Phillips Jr.'s "The Distance of the Moon", a pas de deux depicting the love story between the Moon and the Earth (inspired by the short story "The Distance of the Moon" in Italo Calvino's phantasmagorical 1965 book Cosmicomics).  Set to music creating a sense of wonder, mystery, and beauty, the work is a metaphor for two lovers, like the Moon and the Earth, slowly moving apart and never feeling closeness again.  Ueyama's second work, "And Dance By the Light of the Moon", is a men's quartet portraying quasi-human creatures who discover the Moon set to the music of composer/saxophonist Joshua Shneider. 

Jill Echo, a former Paul Taylor dancer and founding member of TAKE Dance, brings two works that illustrate the various effects that the Moon has on us.  In "Moonshine", theatrical choreography and funk-laced music by composer/guitarist Jamie Begian together portray the enigmatic influences the Moon has on a group of seven people.  Add a bar scene with the effects of alcohol and you get a comedy of mayhem and uninhibited behavior.  In contrast, Echo's second piece depicts the Moon's luminous beauty and its ability to ignite one's unconscious.  Set to music by Japanese composer Yumiko Sunami, the piece is a reflection of the Moon's ethereal power on a quintet of women through four phases – "New Moon", "Ascending Moon", "Full Moon", and "Descending Moon". 

Similarly, choreographer/dancer Julie Tice, a fellow Paul Taylor alumnus, is also captivated by the changing phases of the Moon in a new piece entitled "Lunar Cycles".  Set to music by composer/trombonist JC Sanford, it symbolizes the Moon's transformations and how they affect people's characters. 

Rounding out the program is the choreographic debut of TAKE Dance member Kile Hotchkiss.  His section, "Imperfect Syzygy", features a quintet of dancers outlining the alignment and dissolution of a lunar eclipse.  Moving with the principles of observation and obstruction, the dancers explore the measures of shadowed darkness from astral projections as well as from within.  Topping the "Composer Rising Star" and "Arranger Rising Star" categories in the 2010 DownBeat Critics Poll, composer Darcy James Argue sets the tone with his much talked about "wickedly intelligent dispatch from the fading border between orchestral jazz and post-rock and classical minimalism" (New York Times).

We hope you can come out and support us in this wonderful project. How often do you see and hear modern dance choreographed to LIVE music! You can order tickets at the link below or get them at the box office. And if you are able, we do have a Kickstarter page where you can donate; even a small amount can go a long way to make this possible! Spread the word: Take & Pulse Live is a big WIN!

TAKE Dance and PULSE present
the world premiere of
THE DISTANCE OF THE MOON
Featuring choreography by Takehiro Ueyama, Jill Echo, Kile Hotchkiss & Julie Tice 
Music by Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider & Yumiko Sunami

October 14 & 15 at 8:00 PM
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South at Thompson Street
Purchase tickets online now at: BROWN PAPER TICKETS

Help us meet our fund raising goal !!!
visit our project at: KICKSTARTER

DANCERS
Kristen Arnold, Elise Drew, John Eirich, Kile Hotchkiss, Gina Ianni, Mariko Kurihara,
Clinton Edward Martin, Nana Tsuda Misko,  Jake Warren, Marie Zvosec

MUSICIANS
Woodwinds: Ben Kono
Guitar: Pete McCann
Violin: Ana Milosavljevic
Cello: Will Martina
Bass: Eva Lawitts
Percussion: Max Jhin Jaffe

For more information contact TAKE Dance
[email protected]  |  917.591.1413

(Photo credit Take Dance by Quinn Batson; Pulse by Marcy Begian)

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 12:00 PM