D.I.R.T. Festival: Dance In Revolt(ing) Times
Dance Mission Theater
February 6 & 7, 2016
Tickets on sale at www.dancemission.com
“You know, people who design airplanes and machines, no matter how much they believe that what they do is good, the winds of time eventually turn them into tools of industrial civilization. It’s never unscathed. They’re cursed dreams. What I mean is, how do we even know art is worth while? Is this not just some grand hobby? Maybe there was a time when you could make art that mattered. But now? Most of our world is rubbish.” -The Kingdom of Madness and Dreams
Truth /tro͞oTH/ noun: A fact or belief accepted as true.
True /tro͞o/ adjective : To be in accordance with fact or reality.
I think as artists making work in the present social and political climate, we are bound to question the validity of our work and whether it truly is all “worth it”. So, we began with the specific ideas of art, art making, what it means, and why or if it actually means anything. Looking at those ideas, we could see and define the truths we held and may still hold about art and dance making. Just as in any truth, we found lightness and darkness, hope and despair. We found new uncovered truths lurking in the shadows poised and waiting to prey on the crumbling structure of our old realities. What other truths in our lives are based on hope and how do we come to terms with their shadows? What does it feel like to find our own darkness, to come to terms with the ways we exploit things and others in our own lives? What kind of environment is necessary for us to feel safe exploring all of our selves?
For this work, the movement, the quality, the choreography, the costuming, the sound score, the structure, are not explicit in their meaning. Rather, we’re using each of these as a tool to create an environment. How, by each individual dancer employing the choreography, do they find, express, and create what it feels like to exist in the shadow of a truth?
Clearly these questions of truth are not limited to discussion of art. But rather, they can and should be expanded to other issues. Issues of race, equality, and income. Issues of class mobility, safety, and education. We so often think our long-held ideas about all of these things are hard and fast truths. But, in reality, each of us exists in a fog where selective vision and experience define our viewpoints. It’s often the case that the fog only begins to clear as more and more experiences inform the individual. Hope springs eternal, but we must come to terms with the fact that the hopes of our truths create partial, incomplete realities. It’s only when we find the darkness and the shadow that our world vision can shift.
We’re talking about losing those things that we thought were true. In reality, we’re talking about coming to terms with a new truth: that those old truths were never real.
Are our individual realities constructed of truths we believe are universally held while in actuality we’re in the process of understanding that those “truths” are subjective ideas, those truths are fallible, that there is no “true” when it comes to our ideas?
If true is fact or reality, maybe by losing our truths we’re simply shifting our realities. If that’s the case, then we just have to accept that things are true only in relationship to and in accordance with our reality at that time.
Dancers
ASHLEIGH ADAMEC, a native of Sarasota, Florida, ventured out to San Francisco nearly two years ago. She holds an Associate of Arts in Dance from Santa Fe College in 2011, where she studied with Alora Haynes, Tari Kendall, Rodney Brown, and Sonia Alonso. Ashleigh then transferred to Florida State University, where she performed in works by Gerri Houlihan and Rick McCullough, in addition to receiving exceptional guidance from Roger Belman, Dan Wagoner, and Anjali Austin. She graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts from FSU in 2013. Since her move to the Bay, she has had the pleasure of working with The Anata Project as an administrator under the direction of Artistic Director, Claudia Anata Hubiak. She is thrilled to be working with Harper and fellow dancers on this compelling project.
ROSEANN BAKER, is a dancer and movement educator who loves to move and is compelled by the complexities of the human body. She received her BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase College. In New York, she danced with NØA Dance and Roadwork performing in notable venues such as The Barishnikov Arts Center and Jacob’s Pillow. She recently performed with Garrett+Moulton at YBCA. She is currently on faculty with the Youth and Teen Program at ODC. In addition to teaching dance, she is also a certified GYROKINESIS® trainer at San Francisco GYROTONIC®.
KRISTEN BELL, a native of New Jersey, received her early dance training at the School of American Ballet and later at Princeton University while earning her BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Kristen continued her studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, from which she received her MFA in Dance. In New York, she has performed with TAKE Dance, American Repertory Ballet, Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, Dishman + Co., and Riedel Dance Theater. She continues to collaborate with JenEd Productions and Skybetter and Associates, where she is the Rehearsal Director. Since relocating to the Bay Area, Kristen has danced with Robert Moses’ Kin and GERALDCASELDANCE. She enjoys teaching, making dances, and facilitating stress/reactivity training workshops.
STEPHANIE HARVEY is a native of Pittsburgh, PA where she earned her BFA in Dance from Point Park University (’09). She spent three years in San Diego performing with Malashock Dance, Blythe Barton Dance, Michael Mizerany, Khamla Somphanh, and the San Diego Opera. Here in San Francisco, she has enjoyed working with Ziru Dance, the Anata Project, Catherine Liu, and Garrett+Moulton Productions. Stephanie spreads her love of movement by teaching dance and acro classes throughout the Bay Area.
HAYLEY BOWMAN is originally from Charlotte, North Carolina where she trained with Charlotte Ballet (formerly known as North Carolina Dance Theatre). In 2012, Hayley traveled with the JUNTOS Collective to Guatemala to create an exchange of culture through dance. She has also attended established schools across the country, including the National Ballet School of Canada. Hayley came to California to earn her degree in Dance with the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program at Dominican University of California in 2014. She is currently a freelance dancer in the Bay Area, a teacher with Nagata Dance, and the LINES Ballet BFA Program Coordinator.
Harper Addison 