Amazing what happens when you start to look beyond ballet for your dance fix.
There’s some massively cool stuff out there, including this promo video of Relatively Real (2005) by Seattle’s Lingo dancetheater.
A friend of mine sent me Lingo’s most recent press release, in an effort to help me broaden my horizons. Their one-night show on July 25th looks like just the thing, in part because LINGO Artistic Director KT Niehoff is going to “contextualize” each of the performers. I’m hoping that the context will include content-info, such as “This piece is about x,y,z” or “I like x,y,z about this artist/work.” I know that kind of talk is reductive, but it give us non-mod folks an access point.
Hope to see you there. (Tix are $15 at 206-349-8772, http://www.lingodance.com/, or at the door) In the meantime, LINGO’s press release follows verbatim (sans formatting, sorry), and there’s a link to their website at the left now.
“LINGO dancetheater presents LINGO LONGO, a night of performance celebrating the lineage of current and former Lingo performers
KT Niehoff, artistic director of LINGO dancetheater, is celebrating the imaginative talents of some of Seattle’s favorite performers in Lingo Longo, a one-night show featuring choreography by current and former LINGO company members. The show features Pablo Cornejo (LINGO company member from 2000 – 2004), Bianca Cabrera (2003 – present), Aiko Kinoshita (2005-2007), Aaron Swartzman (2005-present), Scott Davis (1999-2007), Dustin Haug (2005-2008), Ricki Mason (2006-2007), Sarah Murat (2007-2008) and Ilvs Strauss (2008-2009). Lingo Longo traces the lineage of LINGO dancetheater, spotlighting original compositions by many of the incredible artists who have worked with Niehoff’s company over the past decade.
Emceed by Niehoff, Lingo Longo will offer insight into the creative voice of each performer. Niehoff will contextualize each piece by introducing the audience to the performer and providing a brief background on their involvement with LINGO and their current performance endeavors.
In honoring the work created by many of the performers laced into LINGO’s history, Lingo Longo provides a symbolic glimpse into the history of the company, resonant not only as a story into itself, but also in the larger context of Niehoff’s legacy in the Seattle dance community. Thirteen years after Niehoff co-founded Velocity Dance Center (the non-profit dance center responsible for much of the growth and vibrancy in Seattle’s dance scene) Niehoff will present what is likely the last performance in Velocity’s original theater, before the organization moves into their new home in the fall of 2009. Performed in Velocity’s original MainSpace Theater in the Odd Fellows Building, Lingo Longo makes reference to the history of the space itself, which echoes with Niehoff’s roots in this historic building.
EVENT AND TICKET INFO:
Performance: LINGO dancetheater – Lingo Longo
Time/Date/Place: 8pm, July 25, 2009 at Velocity MainSpace Theater, Odd Fellows
Building, 915 E. Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122
Tickets: $15/available 206-349-8772, www.lingodance.com, or at the door
SPECIFIC DESCRIPTIONS OF SELECTED WORKS
Current Lingo member Bianca Cabrera performs “arrangements – 1” – an intricate, three minute blur of a solo, set to an acoustic guitar arrangement of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson.
Ilvs Strauss and Jody Kuehner contribute another quirky film created by their ongoing collaboration, Mouse Bones.
LAUNCH dance theater director and cabaret artist Lou Henry Hoover, Ricki Mason performs “Jonny”, a solo inspired by Fox News Host Oliver North, RuPaul’s Drag Race runner-up Nina Flowers and Lingo’s director KT Niehoff
LINGO BIOGRAPHY
Lingo is an inspired group of contemporary artists, athletes, actors, bravehearts, lunatics… and yes, dancers. They are drawn to the circumstances that provide common ground, inspire surprising connections and shift the entry point of how the public interfaces with dance. Based in Seattle, WA, and under the Artistic Direction of KT Niehoff, Lingo’s work has been presented internationally in Canada, Japan, Ecuador and Cuba. Nationally, the company has been presented by venues including On the Boards in Seattle, The Joyce SoHo in NYC, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Inside/Out in Massachusetts, Alverno Presents in Milwaukee, The Southern Theater in Minneapolis, SUSHI performance gallery in San Diego, The Oregon Britt Festival and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, among others. The company was one of four chosen to represent the U.S. at the 2004 Tanzmesse in Düsseldorf, Germany. The company’s artistic integrity has been recognized by such institutions as The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Dance Project, The National Performance Network, Meet the Composer, Seattle, Washington and King County Arts Commissions, Arts International, among others.”
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