Jennifer Kayle and Lisa Gonzales at Links Hall: A Choreographic Match Made in Heaven

Feb. 13, 2008 - PRLog -- CHICAGO, IL -  Jennifer Kayle and Lisa Gonzales announce KINETIC EVIDENCE, a collaborative dance concert at Links Hall, February 29 & March 1, 2008 at 8pm and March 2, 2008 at 7pm. Two women dance elaborately around their own blind spots, a preacher puppet sells his soul in the depths of a Louisiana swamp, in a post-industrial, post-paradise fall from grace, seven (a divine number?) figures celebrate the miracle of plastic. Tickets are $15 or $8 for students. Reservations can be made through the Links Hall box office 773.281.0824.

KINETIC EVIDENCE, a collection of dances revealing the complexity of one’s inner experience, features Jennifer Kayle’s world premiere Heel, with an original electronic score by Carlos Cuellar, costumes by Juliana Waechter, and dancers Joanna Rosenthal (Same Planet Different World Dance Theatre), Alison Riazi, Trevor Szuba-Schneider and Aya Wilson - all from the Chicago area, Anna Stark from Bloomington Normal, Rachel Barger from Texas and Philip Ollenburg. As Mr. Cuellar’s eerie music envelops us in plastic dissonance, the piece comments on our perfunctory wastefulness, and the physic consequences of our callous disregard for our physical environment.

Fugitive  a collaboration by Ms. Kayle and Lisa Gonzales, is an expression of the tension between our internal and external selves, and the negotiation inherent in reconciling that. The highly acclaimed Fugitive was performed in Helsinki, Finland, and St. Petersburg, Russia and includes original music Columbia Dance Center alum, Susan Aldous.

In Lisa Gonzales’ new work The Sound That Escapes from Light (excerpt), a preacher grapples with issues of identity and place in the context of post-Katrina New Orleans. The work, conceived and performed by Lisa Gonzales, is collaboration with puppeteer Mathew Acheson, and includes a sound landscape by Ms. Gonzales.

A Question of Distance , choreographed by dance artist Peter Schmitz (New York), plays with the placement of figures –Ms. Gonzales and Pam Vail (Chicago) –as they negotiate the unexpectedness of internal rhythms. The original score is composed and performed by Brandon Evans and Patrick Broderick of the New York City based band called Ghastly City Sleep.

“Improvisation, ensemble by nature, is a democratic partnership, one of things that I find enticing about it.” says Ms. Kayle.  At the core of both choreographers work, a highlight of the evening will be an improvisation with Ms. Kayle and Ms. Gonzales, joined by Ms.Vail, Mr. Schmitz and the composer/performers Brandon Evans and Patrick Broderick.        
                       
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JENNIFER KAYLE is as an independent choreographer, dancer, improvisational performer, and currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa and Artistic Director of Kayle + Company. Her work often includes movable sets, original text, direct audience interaction, and amplified vocal soundscapes.  Ms. Kayle’s choreographed and improvised work has appeared from Jacob’s Pillow, MA to St. Petersburg, Russia to the Kennedy Center in D.C. She will present work this winter in the Dominican Republic and at Joyce Soho in NYC this July 2008. Her dancing has been referred to as having “muscular presence” (Dance Source Houston), while her choreography has been called “inventive, tightly crafted” (Vox Fringe), and from the Hampshire Gazette, “distinct…affecting scenes, looping and episodic.”

Jennifer Kayle’s Chicago Collaborations – In addition to her ongoing collaboration with Lisa Gonzales, Jennifer Kayle’s work, At the Receding Edges  will be performed by Margi Cole’s Dance COLEctive at the Dance Center of Columbia College, February 22-24, 2008 (the weekend before the Link’s Hall presentation.) This dynamic work was selected for the presentation gala at the American College Dance Festival North Central Conference, by a panel of professional adjudicators, including NY Dance Critic Elizabeth Zimmer.

Ms. Kayle has also been chosen for Same Planet Different World Dance Theatre’s 2008 Guest Artist Project (G.A.P.)  She is setting a piece on the company and will also be teaching an SPDW Dance Theatre Master Class Workshop in upcoming months.

LISA GONZALES is an independent dance maker, improviser and performing artist. She is a lecturer at Columbia College Chicago and on faculty at the annual Movement Intensive in Compositional Improvisation, at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. In 1999, with Pamela Vail, Katherine Ferrier and Jennifer Kayle, she founded the Architects, a collaborative dance company that performs nationally and internationally. Ms. Gomez has shown her work in New York at venues such as DTW, Danspace Project at St. Mark's and Joyce Soho among others.  She has shown her work in various cities across the United States and most recently in Taiwan, Finland, Russia and the Dominican Republic. Wendy Peron of Dance Magazine says Ms. Gonzales’ choreography is “a wonder of wit and subtle excitement.” The New York Times’ Jennifer Dunning describes Ms. Gonzales’ work as “a performance of stunning power and nuance.”

Lisa Gonzales’ Chicago Collaborations –Ms. Gomez is currently plans to present the full version of The Sound That Escapes from Light  at Choreographing Coalitions (curated by Peter Carpenter) at Links Hall March 21-23, 2008.  She is also beginning a new duet with Darrell Jones to be performed in the fall of 2008.


DETAILS

Jennifer Kayle and Lisa Gonzales
in collaboration with Links Hall
present

KINETIC EVIDENCE

featured collaborators
Choreographers Lisa Gonzales and Jennifer Kayle
Dance Artist Peter Schmitz
Composers Susan Aldous, Carlos Cuellar and Brandon Evans
Puppeteer Mathew Acheson
Costume Designer Juliana Waechter
Musicians Brandon Evans and Patrick Broderick
Lighting Design/Technical Director Josh Weckesser

with dancers
Rachel Barger, Lisa Gonzales, Jennifer Kayle,
Alison Riazi, Joanna Rosenthal, Philip Ollenburg, Peter Schmitz, Anna Stark,
Trevor Szuba-Schneider, Pam Vail and Aya Wilson

at
Links Hall
3435 N. Sheffield in Chicago, IL

Fri & Sat, February 29 and March 1, 2008 at 8pm
and
Sun, March 2, 2008 at 7pm

Tickets $15 or $8 for students
Reservations 773.281.0824


Links Hall at 3435 N. Sheffield in Chicago is on the NE corner of the six-way intersection of Sheffield Avenue, Clark Street, and Newport Street, two blocks south of Wrigley Field. CTA: Red Line Addison stop, Brown Line Belmont stop or Clark Street Bus to Newport Street. Visit  http://www.linkshall.org for more information.

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