Countdown to 2011: Amy's 11 Performance Artists to Watch in 2011
Seattlest will be counting down to 2011 with a series of posts on our highlights of this year and what we're looking forward to in the next. Got a list to suggest? Send it our way. See the entire series here.
I really, really enjoy seeing live performance, and although I can be critically harsh at times, I am consistently blown away by the depth of talent and vision of small, independent arts groups in this town. In 2010 I discovered a handful of artists who intrigued me, challenged me, and of which I can't wait to see more. (Like 95% of the below recommendations are on the A.W.A.R.D. Show! bill next month - but that's merely a testament to the strength of the show, not my weakness in putting together lists). Anyways, here are eleven performance artists (in alphabetical order) who will be doing great things next year.
Paul Budraitis IS intensity. Everything I've seen by him is delivered with an obscene amount of energy, ferociousness and emotional aggression. It trespasses on your personal space. It becomes confrontational. I imagine he goes home after a rehearsal or performance and feels utterly exhausted.
While Budraitis began haunting the fringe theater scene in Seattle in 1995, he has been permanently back in town since 2008, re-building his theater and solo performance presence and cross-pollinating with the dance community. While I don't know exactly what Budraitis will have his fingers in next year, I like the idea that I will run across his work accidentally, left with my heart pounding and my head spinning.
When Jody Kuehner and Ricki Mason premiered the Cherdonna & Lou cabaret show in November 2009, the general critical reaction was “huh?” (Though SGN loved it). Kuehner and Mason (as Cherdonna Shinatra and Lou Henry Hoover) have since refocused their stage act, appearing at NWNW last June with a cleaner, quieter, mature and meaningful short work. After the next full-length debut of "It's A Salon" last October, Cherdonna and Lou began getting noticed again, this time for all the right reasons.
Right now, Cherdonna and Lou are embroiled in BenDeLaCreme's Homo for the Holidays show over at Century Ballroom - which I haven't seen but my trusted friend has raved about. They'll be in the A.W.A.R.D. Show! over at On the Boards in late January, and after that I've lost them. But they'll be doing fabulously interesting things all over the place next year - I guarantee it.
Each month, Fremont Abbey Arts Center hosts a long-running program called The Round, where members of the community gather to see and support both young and developing artists from many mediums. I went for the first time last month, and only snuck in near the end. A young poet got up onstage and read performed a poem about masturbation; incidentally, the best poem about masturbation I have ever heard. Five minutes in, I could tell that Gibson Collins is a born poet and performer; he's smart and friendly and sensitive and funny. He's also (I think) only 17.
Collins is part of a national non-profit support program called Youth Speaks, which "believes that having knowledge, practice, and confidence in the written and spoken language is essential to the self-empowerment of an individual." The local administrator and curator for Youth Speaks is Denise Jolly - you can contact her about upcoming events here.
Coriolis Dance Collective. Photo credit: <3 Photography
In May, Coriolis will present Co-LAB 3, their third self-produced show, at Spectrum Dance Theater. Co-LAB features company members performing new works commissioned from regional choreographers in collaboration with local artists. November will bring Coriolis's first show of only work by the co-founders. Says Call, "Tascha and I can't help ourselves sometimes. We have huge goals and expectations for ourselves and for the growth of the company. I think the potential of Coriolis is to be an intersection point between dancemakers and other art forms, and we will do that through positivity and encouragement of our fellow artists."
5. Beth Fleenor
On recommendation from a friend, I mean to finally check out Beth Fleenor in 2011 - and I don't think I'll have any shortage of opportunities. Having not seen this experimental musician yet in person, I must fall back on this description from arts management organization the frank agency:
Since arriving in Seattle in 1998, clarinetist / vocal percussionist / composer Beth Fleenor has carved a place for herself as an energetic multi-instrumentalist and dynamic generative artist. Her robust sound, organic approach, and openness to experimentation in all forms, actively fuels a long and varied list of collaborations. Ranging from shows in nightclubs, festivals, schools and galleries, to prisons, parties and concert halls, Fleenor's work has been featured in live music, theater, performance pieces, recordings, modern dance pieces, film, sound art and art installations.
I missed Le Frenchword at On the Boards' first 12MM of the 2011-2012 season, but their quirky self-encapsulation intrigues me enough to make an effort to catch this avant garde theater company very soon, "A small group of performers committed to the deep meaningful exploration of things that are stupid."
To add insult to injury, I just missed the full-length version of Le Frenchword's "Fancy Mud" at Jewel Box Theatre, but "liking" them on Facebook will hopefully get me first dibs on upcoming work from this wacky group.
7. Marissa Niederhauser/Josephine’s Echopraxia
My first exposure to Marissa Niederhauser was at the NWNW show last June, and I was struck with how clean, how precise and how complete her piece was for the festival. In short, I wanted more - I saw Niederhauser's talent for content and sensed her capacity for vision.
My next chance to see Niederhauser will in January at the A.W.A.R.D Show!, but I have yet to track down what else the group has planned for 2011.
8. Salt Horse
Salt Horse premiered their newly developed, evening-length Man on the Beach last spring, and a lot of critics took notice. The dance/performance company is both spooky and sophisticated - their work is non-linear, multi-layered and completely entrancing.
In 2011 Salt Horse's main offering will be Titan Arum, an evening-length work premiering over two weekends in May. According to co-founder Beth Graczyk, "The work is specifically designed for the gorgeous and unusual upstairs theater of Washington Hall (the old On the Boards) where we are currently artists in residence. In Titan Arum cycles of movement, sound, and visual image reveal how the potential of any given moment is dependent upon the synergy or collision of its parts. Unfolding as more ripple effect than storyline, the piece follows the elemental and archetypal layers present in six human characters to reveal them as unique, even mythic, chimeras."
You can get a glimpse into the process behind the development of Titan Arum during Ten Tiny Dances, held at Velocity Dance Center in February.
Ellie Sandstrom. Photo credit Chase Jarvis.
Says Sandstrom, “I will continue to seek out new choreographic commissions and performance opportunities in Seattle and beyond. I aim to get SANDSTROMMOVEMENT as much stage time as possible in the coming year, creating connections with new (and 'old') audiences for the work.”
10. The Satori Group
I’ve said it before and I'll say it again - The Satori Group is one of the most interesting and creative new theater ensembles in Seattle. Marinating now in The Satori Lab are two new plays: Fabulous Prizes by Seattle playwright Neil Ferron and Returning to Albert Joseph by ensemble member Spike Friedman; and two ensemble-generated pieces devised by the group: Peter and Wendy, written by Greta Wilson (a take on Peter Pan, inspired by the writings of Haruko Murakami) and Kings Crossing, USA, a play with music about death and Americana, written by Anthony Darnell. Satori hopes to debut one of these projects (to be announced in January) this spring and another in late fall 2011.
Next year, Satori is planning to amp up their collaborative relationships and creative space. Look for The Satori Lab to host internationally acclaimed vaudevillian folk duo The Bengsons in January, and a possible hosting of Philadelphia’s interdisciplinary ensemble Pig Iron Theatre Company for an ensemble performance training in March.
11. Whim W'him
I first saw some of Oliver Wevers' work, Ultimatum, at the 2008 Men in Dance recital. I loved it - that man knows how to make men dance. That piece was back for the 2010 A.W.A.R.D Show! - and although it didn't win the $10K in cash, it's not like the company has had any lack of accolades.
You can see Wevers dancing pretty as a principle at PNB, but he's had nothing but great things going for him since he premiered his dance/visual arts company Whim W'him to a standing ovation at On the Boards last January. Wevers was invited to choreograph for L'Edition Francaise Bastille Day burlesque show at the Triple Door in July - and it was one of the smoothest, sexiest bits of choreography I've ever seen.
In November, Whim W'him won the $5,000 Grand Prize Award at the 13th Annual Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival in Palm Desert, chosen from 107 choreographic works by an expert panel of five judges. Whim W'him has just been named Intiman Theatre's first-ever Resident Dance Company (a five-year partnership), kicking off their second season with Shadows, Raincoats and Monsters in Intiman in January. Also watch for Whim W'him to appear at the A.W.A.R.D. Show! as well.
