MR Festival 2004: Improvisation is Hard



program events
*Asterisked events were was funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of our 25th Anniversary Season Celebration.

MONDAY, 11/29

Contact Jam
8:15pm-11:15pm, The Children's Aid Society
$5

Opening Night
MC: Carla Peterson
  • Heather Kravas and Tonja Livingstone
  • Jonathan Kinzel
  • Keith Henessy
  • Omyth Video by Foofwa D'Immobilite, Vincent Bilotta and John Mussai
    8pm, PS 122, First Floor
    $12

    TUESDAY, 11/30

    The Next Night
    MC: Guy Yarden
  • Scott Heron and Corey Dargel
  • Marga Guergue and Hahn Rowe
  • DD Dorvillier
  • Shasta Cole
  • Interference by Magnetic Laboratorium
    8pm, PS 122, First Floor
    $12

    WEDNESDAY, 12/1

    Studies Project- The Space of Dance
    The Movement Between Inner and Outer Landscapes
    Moderator:
    Margit Galanter
    Panelists: K.J. Holmes, Robert Kocik, Yvonne Meier, DD Dorvillier and koosil-ja hwang
    This Studies Project will explore the role of space and place in movement construction. Our focus will be on the in-between: the unique interactions of the inner and outer poles of experience. Our mental furniture and imagination affects how we understand the exterior and how we make movement. A layer of observation on space provides tools for improvisation and shows that our actions are, in fact, all creative inventions, but how? What are the similarites between virtual and kinesthetic space? The panelists and participants will investigate the space of dance in dialogue and in action.

    8pm, Judson Memorial Church Gym
    Free

    THURSDAY, 12/2

    Two Groups
  • Monsoon Orchestra with DD Dorvillier, Lisa Frisari, Scott Heron, John Jasperse, Jennifer Monson, Michelle Nagai, Hahn Rowe, Aki Sasamoto, Jim Staley and Ryuji Yamaguchi
  • Timing Place by Bebe Miller Company with Kathleen Fisher, Angie Hauser, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Darrell Jones, Bebe Miller, David Thomson and musician Albert Mathias
  • Interference by Magnetic Laboratorium
    8:30pm, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church
    $12

    FRIDAY, 12/3

    Friday Night's Alright Too
  • Osmany Tellez in Descending Matter with Astrud Angarita, Becky Serrell and Sigal Bergman
  • Morgan Thorson and Douglas Henderson
  • Sally Silvers, Pooh Kaye and Mark Dendy
  • Kenneth King with Louise Burns, Sean Curran, Sara Skaggs, and guests Carla Peterson and Lucy Sexton
  • Interference by Magnetic Laboratorium
    8:30pm, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church
    $12

    SATURDAY, 12/4

    Contact Jam
    2-4:30pm, Eden's Expressway
    $5

    Saturday Night Double Feature
    Co-MCs: Nancy Forshaw-Clapp and Chris Peck
    Feature One:
  • Asimina Chremos
  • Motion Lab/Kathleen Hermesdorf & Albert Mathias
  • Katy Pyle and Eleanor Hullihan
  • Karinne Keithley
  • Cori Olinghouse and Susan Sgorbati
  • Sara Rudner with Jodi Melnick, Vicky Shick and Rocky Bornstein
  • Michael Portnoy
  • Jim Self
    8pm, Aqui The Bushwick - Come early, space is limited
    $10
    Feature Two:
    Metamorphosis... merge with space, disappear in the virtual, sleep over, see the sun come up, feel real
  • koosil-ja hwang
    Public Sleep/Sleep Over invites participants to spend the night with artists. The dancers will dance a pillow close to you. Live video and sound artists and dancers will perform solos all night to examine how our sensibility and energy will re-shape in order to suspend "performance" overnight while tuning in to an environment that is intimate and quiet. The participating artists are Charles Cohen (sound), Geoff Matters (sound), Sarah Michelson (dance), Michael Portnoy (dance), koosil-ja (dance), and live video artists to be determined. Please bring whatever you need to feel comfortable sleeping over. We will serve Chai and snacks all night.

    Public Sleep/Sleep Over has received funding from The Experimental Television Center's Presentation Funds Program, which is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, a public agency.

    10pm until dawn, Chez Bushwick - Sleeping spots are limited, reservations highly recommended. For more information and ticket reservations: 212-375-0186.
    $10

    SUNDAY, 12/5

    Hothouse

    A nineteen-year old, informal, low-tech vehicle for high-risk experiments in the spontaneous.
  • Arturo Vidich, Lily Skove, and Aki Sasamoto
  • Kathy Westwater, Abby Block, and Peter Kim
  • Ted Johnson and Roel Seeber
  • Colin Rusch
    1pm, PS 122, 2nd Floor
    $5

    Sunday Night Special
  • Simone Forti*
  • Chris Aiken, Andrew Harwood, and Peter Jones
  • Jeremy Wade
  • Yvonne Meier's Gogolorez with Miguel Gutierrez, Ishmael-Houston Jones, Heather Kravas, Jennifer Monson, and Nami Yamamoto
    Performance followed by a Benefit for Movement Research to honor Simone Forti
    8:30pm, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church
    $12 Performance
    $50 Benefit including Performance

    MONDAY, 12/6 - K.J.'s Birthday

    Contact Jam
    8:15-11:15pm, The Children's Aid Society

    $5

    TUESDAY, 12/7

    Night at Brick Theater
    MC: Ishmael Houston-Jones
  • Chase Granoff and Jon Moniaci
  • Angie Hauser and Darrell Jones
  • Juliette Mapp
  • Ayo Janeen Jackson
  • Paige Martin and Justine Lynch
  • Judith Sánchez-Ruiz with Michelle Boulé, Danielle Goldman, and Sari Nordman

  • Everything Smaller with David Schmidt, Donnell Turner, and Jessica Jolly
    8pm, Brick Theater - Come early, space is limited
    $10

    WEDNESDAY, 12/8

    Studies Project: Outside in the City*
    Moderators: Jennifer Monson and Gillian Lipton
    Panelists: Simone Forti, Marisela Lagrave, Alejandra Martorell and Yves Musard
    Reframing the Kinetic Experience of the Urban Environment
    This Studies Project brings together four artists who have engaged the urban environment through dance. We'll discuss the ways that each artist uses teh context of city as material and metaphor for their work and how the moving body, in particular, cna incorporate, appropriate, interpret and reframe the ecology, geography and geometry of the city.
    8pm, Judson Memorial Church Gym
    Free

    THURSDAY 12/9

    Exquisite Corpses
    Names are drawn from a hat for unexpected on the spot performances, hosted by clairvoyant, extra-terrestrial guest, Technopia. With a solo dis-appearance by Douglas Dunn.
  • Christal Brown, Loren Dempster, K.J. Holmes, Susan Honer, Chris Lancaster, James McGinn, Yves Musard, Chris Peck, Anna Sperber, Fabio Tavares and Leslie Ross
    8pm, Chez Bushwick - Come early, space is limited
    $10

    FRIDAY, 1
    2/10

    Jam - Open Movement
    Open Movement, a space for improvising, used to happen weekly at PS 122 in the 1980s and early '90s. Peter Rose, a PS 122 co-founder, writes, The authentic and dynamic alliance Byrd Hoffman Foundation Birds and Grotowski's Active Culture became Open Movement. This event was at the source of (PS)122. It was 122's original event. Thorugh the work of many... Open Movement became the labo-ratory pool for the living bodies. It offered a meeting place for the social needs yet offered a set of conditions which made artistic challenges and demands. It was serious fun and also asked serious questions about life and art. This evening will be a beginning of finding what Open Movement might be in the present.
    7-10pm, Panetta Movement Center
    $3

    SATURDAY, 12/11

    Afternoon Delight: Tryst
  • Tryst is Alejandra Martorell, Paul Benney and Clarinda MacLow
    1:30pm, St. Mark's Church Courtyard
    Free

    Contact Jam
    2-4:30pm, Eden's Expressway
    $5

    Almost Closing Night Performance Party
    Co-MCs: Potty-mouths Ann Liv Young and Miguel Gutierrez
  • Daria Fain's Gift-Horse with Kenta Nagai and Annie Lanzillotto
  • Beth Gill and Neal Beasley
  • Nicholas Lechter
  • Isabel Lewis and Erika Hand
  • Diane Madden
  • Wally Cardona
  • Paule Turner, Duchess
  • Wendy Perron and Bill Young
    8pm Bill Young's Studio - Come early, space is limited
    $10

    SUNDAY, 12/12

    Hothouse
    Another Sunday, another brunch, but never the same Hothouse twice.
  • Levi Gonzalez, Luciana Achugar and Chris Forsyth
  • Ryuji Yamaguchi
  • Karl Anderson and Chris Lancaster
  • Jennifer Allen, Juliette Mapp and Chris Peck
    1pm, PS 122, 2nd Floor
    $5

    *
    Asterisked events were was funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of our 25th Anniversary Season Celebration.