Exploring the
Inter/National in
a Regional Venue
Curating a Season for
ONtheBOARDS
“Founded by artists in 1978, the mission of On the Boards is to introduce audiences to international innovators in contemporary dance, theater and music while developing and presenting new work by Northwest performing artists.”
Upon arriving in Seattle, Washington in the summer of 2006, I was immediately immersed in a vibrant performance community. For my first two months in the city, I lived two blocks away from a recently refurbished brick building which is home to one of the country’s leading performing arts curatorial specialists, OnTheBoards. Since their founding in 1978, OtB has engaged the Seattle audiences with the most innovative minds in performance. The list includes Bill T. Jones, The Wooster Group, Zoe Scofield & Juniper Shuey, along with a collection of regional performers headlined most recently by Reggie Watts.
In my curatorial proposal, I’m staying true to the OtB mission statement by seeking ought the foremost pioneers in dance, theatre, music, multi-media performance and, in some cases, a combination of all four. As I outline the project and each selection, I will address issues regarding contextualization, mediation, selection, interpretation, navigation, synthesis and collaboration, discovering the perfect blend of international, national and regional works.
To give context, OtB is located in the neighborhood of Queen Anne, immediately north of downtown and placing it in an ideal central location. The neighborhood is teeming with the arts; home to two of the largest regional playhouses in the Northwest (Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman), Seattle Children’s Theatre, the Center House Theatre (Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Repertory), Marion Oliver McCaw Hall (Seattle Opera, Pacific Northwest Ballet), the offices of Theatre Puget Sound and the Seattle International Film Festival Cinema.
OtB’s source of funding comes from various sources and they receive a large portion of their backing from some of the largest corporations in the world (Microsoft, Boeing, US Bank) allowing them financial flexibility to bring in some of the most high profile names in the international performing arts scene.
OtB divides their season into three sections; Inter/National Performance Series, Northwest Performance Series and 12-Minutes Max. The Inter/National Performance Series includes work from both international and national performance groups. In my deliberations, I sought to have representation from every continent and through a variety of performance forms and to supplement this with some of the finest work being done in New York City at the moment. The Northwest Series seeks to expose audiences to the next frontier of performance artists in the region, while 12-Minutes Max is a incubator for talent on the rise and allows groups an opportunity to demonstrate their work in a showcase setting.
Having exposure to cutting edge international performance is such a vital part to understanding the world outside of our immediate periphery and, in the process, discovering new lenses through which to view our own landscapes. The space OnTheBoards provides is not only a platform for innovation in the arts, but a call to artists to be in a constant state of exploration and discovery.
OCTOBER & NOVEMBER
– Dancing with Josef and Crystal, Seeking Out New Northwest Talent
JOSEF NADJ • SHO-BO-GEN-ZO
OCT 6 - OCT 9 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* The season begins with the work of international dancer Josef Nadj. In his piece, Sho-Bo-Gen-Zo, Nadj takes on one of the major works of Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher, Master Dogen. Two dancers, along with two musicians, explore time and the metaphors of great poetic power. Seattle is inhabited by a highly experimental dance community and this would be a fantastic piece of intercultural dance to bring to the city. When I was assembling the season there was no question that Josef Nadj would be included. The only question was, “What piece?” I chose Sho-Bo-Gen-Zo, created in 2010, because Josef took a piece of literature from outside his own culture and provided a new, inter-cultural adaptation of the famous Zen work.
OCT 23 - OCT 24 • 12 MINUTES MAX
Curated by Chris Bell
* 12 Minutes Max is a program runs several times throughout the course of their season in an effort to provide performance artists in the Pacific Northwest with a stage to experiment with new works. Each performer is given 12 minutes to present a piece which can be dance, theatre, music, multi-media or a combination of the aforementioned. The selection of the performers in 12 Minutes Max is done through an audition process and would include myself and one other curator making the final decisions.
KIDD PIVOT FRANKFURT RM • DARK MATTERS
NOV 17 - NOV 20 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* The Inter/National series continues with the work of Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite and Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM. Combing dance, music and puppets, Pite’s recent work explores the ideas of creation and destruction, the conflict in manipulation and the question of free will. Dark Matter brings a cutting edge mix of dance, music and puppetry to the city of Seattle.
DECEMBER & JANUARY
– Redefining Masculine, Experimental Approach to Opera & Mr. Bold
DEC 1 - DEC 4 • NORTHWEST SERIES
* The Regional Performance Series begins with The Ritualistic Performance Ensemble. The ensemble was formed in 2008 by Seattle artist Shawn Belyea and is comprised of six male performers who deconstruct and reconstruct what it means to be masculine in today's America using a creative mix of monologues, music and video. This is a highly humorous and touching exploration into the emotionally vulnerable masculine world.
THEATRO DE CIERTOS • EL GALLO
JAN 19 - JAN 21 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* We return to the Inter/National performance series with a performance by the Mexico City based performance group, Theatro De Ciertos. Their production of El Gallo offers insight on the intensity of the creative process as performers push the boundaries of their bodies and minds to create “art”. El Gallo is also an interesting selection because of the cross-cultural collaborative efforts with British composer Paul Barker.
JOSE BOLD • SEATEETH
JAN 26 - JAN 28 • NORTHWEST SERIES
* The end of January concludes with Seattle’s own Jose Bold. Recent Stranger Genius Award Winner for his production of Spidermann, Bold’s newest work, Seateeth, is inspired by the writing of Haruki Murakami and the tale of Moby Dick. This work is important because it showcases a true interdisciplinary artist in the Seattle scene who draws from various cultures to inspire the creative process.
FEBRUARY & MARCH
– International, National and Regional Explorations
SANKAI JUKU • KARA-MI
FEB 9 - FEB 12 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* Sankai Juku, a Butoh dance company, has been doing exceptional work since their beginnings in 1975. Bringing this multiple award-winning group to Seattle would be a boon to the arts scene for multiple reasons. The first would be an already existing Butoh following in the city. The second being to expose more audiences to the form of Butoh. Kara-Mi is the newest offering and explores the circulating of the bodies interior.
“AWESOME” • BEEHIVE SESSIONS
MAR 1 - MAR 3 • NORTHWEST SERIES
* “Awesome” is one of the first performance groups I was exposed to when I arrived in Seattle in 2006. “Awesome”, known for highly visual performances, combines music and theatre, but is in no way “musical theatre”. Rather, they take elements from both to explore the human condition. In Beehive Sessions, “Awesome” explores humans as worker bees. Working and working and working until they die. This is a humorous examination of our own mortality and the routines filling the void between now and death.
FAUSTIN LINYEKULA • MORE, MORE, MORE... FUTURE
MAR 15 - MAR 18 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* Faustin Linyekula is a Congolese choreographer and dancer. His works are based on the dance form Ndombolo and are inspired by war, terror and fear. This is an intriguing selection because Faustin was brought up in a multilingual, multicultural environment. His piece, more, more, more... future, was first shown in 2009 and has been touring the world ever since.
CHRISTA BELL • COOCHIEMAGIK
MAR 29 - APR 1 • NORTHWEST SERIES
* I first met Christa Bell in 2009 when we were both performing pieces in a collection of one-person shows. Christa’s work explores women’s sexual and spiritual self-esteem through comedy, spoken word poetry and audience engagement. She has such a powerful and eloquent voice as a feminist and as an African-American woman. CoochieMagik shows a woman’s exploration in discovering sexuality and spirituality.
APRIL & MAY
– Showcased local talent, Jan Fabre and the other side of Steve Jobs
MIKE DAISEY • THE AGONY AND ECSTACY OF STEVE JOBS
APR 19 - APR 22 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* Mike Daisey writes and performs monologues which challenge and question institutions, people in power and the consumer American being. In his most recent show, The Agony and Ecstacy of Steve Jobs, Daisey takes on the recently deceased innovator of cutting edge technology. The question Daisey raises is, “At what cost?” Through stories of his experiences of undercover investigation at factories in China manufacturing the parts for Jobs' gadgets, Daisey exposes horrific truths about Apple and the exploitation of overseas labor.
JAN FABRE • ORGIE DE LA TOLERANCE
MAY 3 - MAY 6 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* Jan Fabre is a multi-disciplinary artist from Belgian and his piece, Orgie de la Tolerance, will conclude the Inter/National performance series. This is a high energy dance/movement experience, exploring the connection between raw human emotion and the raw human body.
ELIZABETH KENNY • SICK
MAY 17 - MAY 20 • NORTHWEST SERIES
* The season concludes with Elizabeth Kenny's one woman show, Sick. Sick is, not only performed but also, written by Elizabeth Kenny who tells her experience as a healthy 32 year old woman who went in for a routine check-up and ended up in a psyche ward. This is a harrowing exploration of the faulty healthcare system in the United States and one woman's survival in the face of medical mistakes.
http://mcachicago.org/performances/now/all
http://www.festival-avignon.com/en/
http://flavorwire.com/227915/10-contemporary-performance-artists-you-should-know
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/art-of-africa-the-50-best-african-artists-426441.html
http://www.sankaijuku.com/sankaijuku_e.htm
http://www.josefnadj.com/
http://www.ontheboards.org/
http://11.performa-arts.org/
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