NEW YORK LIVE ARTS and FIAF present Ivana Müller's "We Are Still Watching" and "Partituur"
Company:
NEW YORK LIVE ARTS and FIAF
NEW YORK LIVE ARTS
and the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s
Crossing the Line Festival 2014
present
Ivana Müller’s
We Are Still Watching and Partituur
September 30 – October 5
New York, NY, August 8, 2014 – New York Live Arts presents Ivana Müller’s We Are Still Watching and Partituur, September 30–October 5, 2014, in the Third Floor Studios at New York Live Arts. Co-presented with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s Crossing the Line festival 2014, Müller, known for her imaginative, “lucid approach” (The New York Times), returns to the Live Arts theater for the first time since the 2008 Dance Theater Workshop performances of While We Were Holding It Together (also presented in partnership with FIAF’s Crossing the Line festival), to deliver these two diverse productions.
A deceptively simple work in which the idea of “spectacle” slowly shifts to where we least expect it, We Are Still Watching assumes the form of a theatrical “read through.” Described by Andrea Stolowitz of Oregon ArtsWatch as a play that assumes “a life of its own,” the work is determined by each audience member, who, given a script, assumes his or her own individual role in the play. Devoid of actors or set, We Are Still Watching reflects on the idea of theater and its place in contemporary society, and was partly inspired by cultural policy and contemporary democracies. Navigating the text collectively, the audience members form a temporary mini-society in which all spectators are the only participants. Reading the script aloud together, the audience helps to build a subtle spectacle and instant community, created anew for each performance.
Müller’s only project made for children to date, Partituur (which appropriately translates to “score” in English) presents a performative, systematic game for participants from the ages of seven and up. An inventive work that breaks down classical terms and invites kids to run, jump and play, each “partituurist,” given headphones, instructions and a box of props, is called upon to assume decisions, reactions and positions that inform the shape that each unique performance takes. Commissioned in 2011 by the Tweetakt Festival in Utrecht, Partituur is a rare conceptual piece of social choreography, essentially intended for children yet creating a playful environment lending itself towards reflection.
Performances will take place in New York Live Arts’ Theater. A Stay Late Discussion will also be featured as part of We Are Still Watching (see complete schedule below). Tickets start at $20 with select $15 seats available (We Are Still Watching) and $10 for children/$20 for accompanying adults (Partituur). Tickets may be purchased online at newyorklivearts/season, by phone at 212-924-0077 and in person at the box office. Box office hours are Monday to Friday from 1 to 9pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 8pm.
Listing info:
Ivana Müller
Co-presented with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s Crossing the Line festival 2014
Partituur: October 4 at 11am and 2pm, October 5 at 12pm and 3pm
Third Floor Studios, New York Live Arts
Tickets start at $10 for children/$20 for accompanying adults
We Are Still Watching: September 30, October 1 & 3 at 8pm
Tickets start at $20 with select $15 seats available
T: 212-924-0077 | www.newyorklivearts.org
219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011
Box Office hours:
Monday-Friday 1 - 9pm | Saturday-Sunday 12 - 8pm
Schedule of Related Events:
Oct 1 Stay Late Discussion: Social Theater: When Spectators Become Participants, Simon Dove, co-curator of Crossing the Line, in conversation with Ivana Müller.
About Ivana Müller:
Ivana Müller is a choreographer, artist and author of texts. She grew up in Croatia but lived and worked most of her life as a foreigner. Müller’s dance and theatre performances, installations, text works, video-lectures, audio pieces, guided tours and web works have been presented in venues and festivals such as Rotterdamse Schouwburg, STUK Leuven, brut Vienna, Frascati Theater Amsterdam, Kampnagel Hamburg, La Villette Paris, Wiener Festwochen, Theatertreffen Berlin, DTW New York, National Museum of Singapore, Saddler’s Wells London, Springdance Festival Utrecht, HAU Berlin, Centre nationale de danse Paris and Kaaitheater Brussels.
Some of the recurring subjects in Müller’s work are body and its representation, self-invention, place of imaginary and imagination, notion of authorship and the relationship between performer and spectator. In 2007, Müller received the Charlotte Koehler Prize from the Prins Bernhard Funds (NL) for her œuvre, as well as the Impulse Festival and Goethe Institute Prize for her piece While We Were Holding It Together.
Next to her artistic practice, Müller curates festivals, organizes debates and teaches as a guest lecturer at, amongst others, Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdams (MA in visual arts), School For New dance Development, Amsterdam (BA in Choreography, Master of Choreography). Müller lives in Paris and Amsterdam and works internationally.
New York Live Arts is a reserved seating house.
Tickets are available for purchase by calling the box office at 212-924-0077 and will be available online at newyorklivearts.org.
New York Live Arts Members, Associated Artists, Students, and Seniors are eligible for
20% discounts to theater performances.
Box Office hours:
Monday – Friday 1 - 9pm and Saturday-Sunday 12 - 8pm.
Unless otherwise noted, performances take place at New York Live Arts located at
219 West 19th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues.
ABOUT NEW YORK LIVE ARTS
New York Live Arts is an internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry offering audiences access to art and artists notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation and active engagement with the social, political and cultural currents of our times. At the center of this identity is Bill T. Jones, Artistic Director, a world-renowned choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer.
We commission, produce and present performances in our 20,000 square foot home, which includes a 184-seat theater and two 1,200 square foot studios that can be combined into one large studio. New York Live Arts serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, provides an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people and supports the continuing professional development of artists.
Funding Support for New York Live Arts
The Brownstone Foundation; Con Edison; The Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; The Ford Foundation; The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; French American Cultural Exchange; The Grand Marnier Foundation; The Howard Gilman Foundation; Jerome Foundation; Lambent Foundation; The Samuel M. Levy Family Foundation; MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Mertz Gilmore Foundation; Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation; New England Foundation for the Arts; The Jerome Robbins Foundation; The Scherman Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. New York Live Arts is supported by public funds administered by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
About the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)
The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) is New York’s premiere French cultural and language center. FIAF's mission is to create and offer New Yorkers innovative and unique programs in education and the arts that explore the evolving diversity and richness of French cultures. FIAF seeks to generate new ideas and promote cross cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of expression. fiaf.org
About Crossing the Line
Crossing the Line is the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s annual fall festival, presenting interdisciplinary works and performances in New York. The festival explores the dialogue between artist and public, and examines how artists help re-imagine the world as critical thinkers and catalysts for social evolution. Crossing the Line is initiated and produced by FIAF in partnership with leading cultural institutions. The festival’s eighth edition takes place this year from September 8–October 20, 2014.
Since its inauguration in 2007, Crossing the Line has cultivated an increasingly large and diverse following, and received numerous accolades in the press. The festival has been voted “Best of 2009,” “Best of 2010,” “Best of 2012," and “Best of 2013” by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TimeOut New York, Artforum, and Frieze, with performances earning an Obie and several Bessie awards. The New York Times states, “For terrifically unusual, unpredictable, unnameable performance, we’ve come to expect a lot from … the curators of the French Institute Alliance Française’s interdisciplinary festival,” and The New Yorker says, “This interdisciplinary festival, focused but not exclusively devoted to contemporary French culture, goes from strength to strength.” For more information, visit fiaf.org/ctl.
