Translated Shadows
Translated Shadows is a dynamic, multifaceted evening length program of clyde forth’s original choreography based on graphic (visual) scores. The show is comprised of two new pieces (described below) for Clyde Forth Visual Theatre’s five dancers, two live musicians, video artist and guest collaborators; designer, Marian Schoettle (Mau), composer, Kevin Salem and painter, Arthur Yanoff. Choreographed by clyde forth, fulfilled and performed in close collaboration with Katie Chakey, Alex Cohen, Mathew Heggem, Shoko Nagai (piano), Jane Rigler (flute), Tatyana Tenenbaum and Bart Woodstrup (video).

title: Called to the Sky
duration: variable

description:
Layered, overlapping themes are pulled directly off the pages of the scores into the music, the video projections, and the dancers' skillful and athletic improvisation. The first work, "Called to the Sky" (2008), explores narratives of hope, loss, patriotism and skepticism in the many periods and places where war makes citizenship a confounding privilege. The majority of the music for “Called to the Sky” was composed by Kevin Salem specifically for this work. Its haunting themes and embedded “news bites” contrast with the use of Tracy Bonham’s ‘Tell it to the Sky’. The dancers create fragile, intensely physical relationships through synaesthetic translation of the choreographer’s improvised drawings as well as more conventional composition techniques. The dance elements reference militaristic rigor, uncertainty, genuine respect and loss of control.

Bart Woodstrup’s cgi video created for the piece provides the dancers with an ever changing “set” onstage: from a desolate and dusty plane, to outer space and back (with a bang) to the earth.

collaborators:
Choreography: clyde forth, Music: Shoko Nagai and Jane Rigler, Video: Bart Woodstrup, Lighting: Thomas Dunn, Paintings: Arthur Yanoff, Costumes: Mau Conceptual Clothing, Dancers: Alex Cohen, Katelyn Chakey, Tatyana Tenenbaum, Mat Heggem, clyde forth

price: N/A
format: Live Performance
exhibitions:
2009 Translated Shadows, Merce Cunningham Studio, NYC, NY
2007 Byrdcliffe Theater, Woodstock, NY

title: Refractions
duration: variable

description:
"Refractions" is an ambitious and optimistic new work based on the large abstract paintings of collaborating artist Arthur Yanoff. His painting process for the project began by creating in-studio installations based on Paul Schoenfield’s composition for piano, clarinet and cello. He then made some 30 plus paintings based on these “set-ups” while studying the music. clyde forth chose four of the paintings in the series to use as scores for structured improvisations, and began her synaesthetic translation of the paintings’ (and therefore the music’s) formal and emotional themes. Two live musicians, Shoko Nagai on piano and Jane Rigler on flute and electronics, join the five dancers in interpreting the scores. The music and the choreography are derived solely from the painted scores and the group’s rehearsal process together, with no direct influence of the original music. Through that process certain aspects of the original are retained and heightened, while others diminish. Bart Woodstrup’s interactive video program captures and transforms the dancers’ movement in real time. Layered images of the paintings and the dance reveal themselves in different ways in each of the dance’s five sections, create dynamic afterimages, and add Mr. Woodstrup’s own interpretation of the scores.


collaborators:
Choreography: clyde forth, Music: Shoko Nagai and Jane Rigler, Video: Bart Woodstrup, Lighting: Thomas Dunn, Paintings: Arthur Yanoff, Costumes: Mau Conceptual Clothing, Dancers: Alex Cohen, Katelyn Chakey, Tatyana Tenenbaum, Mat Heggem, clyde forth

price: N/A
format: Live Performance
exhibitions:
2009 Translated Shadows, Merce Cunningham Studio, NYC, NY