Danspace Project Presents Melanie Maar
Company:
Danspace Project
Danspace Project Presents
Melanie Maar
Our Other
October 17-19, 2013 [Thu-Sat] at 8PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, New York, NY, October 8, 2013 - Danspace Project presents the latest work by Melanie Maar entitled Our Other. "Ms. Maar is breathtaking, her body home to a riotous but firmly governed variety of styles and impulses." (Claudia La Rocco, New York Times, Dec. 2, 2010) A New York based dance artist originally from Vienna, Austria, Maar's performance and choreographic work are influenced by studies of movement disorders and philosophy, the practice of Qi Gong, and, in her own words, "a desire to communicate and experience common depth in the given form and ability."
As a dancer, Maar has worked with luciana achugar, RoseAnne Spradlin, Daria Faïn, and Luis Lara Malvacias. Over the years she has developed a close relationship to the sound within dance, forming collaborations with musicians and composers such as Kenta Nagai and Anthony Braxton. She is part of Quartet Collective, an interdisciplinary sound and movement collective she formed with dance artist Rachel Bernsen and composer/performers Abraham Gomez-Delgado and Taylor Ho Bynum. The group practices spontaneous action as a way to experience and share composition and choreography. Through her own work Maar seeks to evoke the cyclical in nature and encourages a listening to sounds and images from realms of myth and shared experience.
Furthering an exploration of the opposites of light and dark as motivational aspects of being, which began with Maar's Same Selves (2012), Our Other works from ideas of object transformation to question choreography and situation. Maar considers observation and experience - who is watching whom? - as informed by time spent observing animal presence and zoo life. Maar and dancers Laurel Atwell and Marilyn Maywald relate to their other selves as they inhabit the devotional space of Danspace Project inside St. Mark's Church as scenes of sexual and animal nature morph in carefully crafted light installations, created by lighting designer Carrie Wood and Maar.
Sound composition and performance by Maar, Abraham Gomez-Delgado, Atwell, and Maywald.
Tickets: Admission is $20 General and $15 for Danspace Members.
Tickets on sale at www.danspaceproject.org or call (866) 811-4111.
Location: Danspace Project is located inside of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery at 131 East 10th Street (at 2nd Avenue), New York, NY 10003. Phone: (212) 674-8112.
Melanie Maar is a New York based choreographer and dancer originally from Vienna, Austria. She lives in a loft space in Brooklyn where rehearsals and classes are happening. Same Selves, her last work, was performed at Baryshnikov Art Center in 2012 through self- production and is the prequel to Our Other. Prior pieces are Spaces and Bones, presented by The Chocolate Factory in 2010, by ImpulsTanz Vienna in 2011 and Next Move Festival Troy NY in 2013. Her quartet Phenomenal Bodies premiered at Dance Theater Workshop in 2009. The duet LOWER was presented at Danspace Project's DraftWork series in 2008. Frictious solo was performed at Berlin Tanzfabrik and Vienna Tanzquartier in 2007. Between 2005-2007 Maar toured her solo Off and On, a dance activated by her father's Parkinson's Disease, to various international Movement Disorder Congresses. The experience continued with studies in cognitive science and changed her perception of movement and aesthetics. Maar is currently co- curating the Moving Sounds Festival for the Austrian Cultural Forum NY. She co-curated the 2010 Movement Research Festival HARDCORPS and is currently on the MR Artist Advisory Council. Maar was a 2006/2007 Movement Research Artist in Residence, Collaborations with musicians include several projects with Kenta Nagai, as well as performances with Anthony Braxton, Doug Henderson, Shelley Hirsch and continuous work with Quartet Collective, an interdisciplinary ensemble with Rachel Bernsen, Taylor Ho Bynum and Abraham Gomez-Delgado. Maar teaches Qi Gong classes and workshops based on awareness of sound, Situation, meaning and movement in performing. Most recently for Movement Research and ClassClassClass. As a dancer Maar has worked with New York choreographer luciana achugar as well as RoseAnne Spradlin and Luis Lara Malvacias among others. Maar is from a family of dancers, musicians and Psychologists. She began taking Ballet and Flamenco at a young age in her mother's Tanzstudio and later studied contemporary dance in Vienna. In New York since 1997, she studied at The Trisha Brown School, Movement Research and The Hun Gar Kung Fu Academy. Her teachers include Janet Panetta and Daria Faïn.
ABOUT DANSPACE PROJECT
Danspace Project presents new work in dance, supports a diverse range of choreographers in developing their work, encourages experimentation, and connects artists to audiences.
Now in its fourth decade, Danspace Project has supported a vital community of contemporary dance artists in an environment unlike any other in the United States. Located in the historic St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, Danspace shares its facility with the Church, The Poetry Project, and The Incubator Arts Project. Danspace Project's Commissioning Initiative has commissioned over 450 new works since its inception in 1994.
Danspace Project's Choreographic Center Without Walls (CW²) provides context for audiences and increased support for artists. Danspace Project's presentation programs (including Platforms, FOOD FOR THOUGHT, DraftWork), Commissioning Initiative, residencies, guest artist curators, and contextualizing activities and materials are core components of CW² that offer a responsive framework for artists' works. Since 2010, we have commissioned 86 emerging and established artists, produced seven Platforms, published seven print catalogues and five e-books, launched the Conversations Without Walls discussion series, and explored models for public discourse and residencies.
