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THE GREAT LIBERATION UPON HEARING coming to Laney College Theater, Oakland CA November 13 - 22, 2009 Fri. Nov 13 Benefit for KPFA Biographies Great Liberation Upon Hearing Biographies (Word Doc) Conceived, Written and Directed Krissy Keefer Choreographic contibutions Sara Shelton Mann in collaboration with performers Music Direction Floor Van Herreweghe Lighting, Video & Set Design Matthew De Gumbia Taiko Director / Composer Bruce Ghent Songs Elaine Buckholtz Film Ellen Bruno This work attempts to portray the journey of consciousness after the life spirit has left the body as described in The Great Liberation Upon Hearing, a manuscript attributed to Padmasanbava, the saint who anchored Buddhism in Tibet. I used many ideas, deities, concepts and words from the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism with an attempt to give life to this material through western dance, theater and music. This piece has been rumbling around in my head since the Community Performance Extravaganza, a work created in 1999 by Sara Shelton Mann, and produced by Dance Brigade. I am very happy to work with the material again. I borrowed images from Sara's original work, most importantly the Pig head from which I developed the Diamond Sow Dakini character and text. I am grateful to Sara for her generosity and talent and very glad she agreed to work on this. I am also grateful for the hard work and inspiration from all the Dancers, collaborators, designers and the wonderful women in the office. This Piece is dedicated to the memory of Coleen Gragen who died in 2002 "looking forward to seeing the light" and to Nina Fichter my longest collaborator and friend who passed in 2003 - Krissy Keefer Dancers and Drummers In Order of Appearance Monk Folawole Oyinlola Vajravahahi, Diamond Sow Goddess Krissy Keefer Samantrabadra and Samantrabadri Ramon Ramos Alayo and Tina Banchero (priormordial wisdom Ground of luminosity Darmakaya) Everyday in the life: Jose Navarrete, Sarah Bush, Sonya Smith, Fredrika Keefer, Lena Gatchalian, Folawalle Oyinlola Lord of Death: Ramon Ramos Alayo Deceased: Lena Gatchalian 5 Buddha family (in Order) Ratnasambva: Rajendra Serber, Amoghasiddhi Sonya Smith, Amitaba Sarah Bush, Aksobhya Jose Navarrete, Vairocana Fredrika Keefer Gate Keeper of Hell Realm Richelle Donigan with Drummers Karen Elliot, Bruce Ghent, Fredrika Keefer BIOGRAPHIES Krissy Keefer co-founded Dance Brigade in 1984 with Nina Fichter, both were original members of Wallflower Order. She developed a new kind of modern dance-theater that was stylistically rooted in the martial arts, in female athleticism and in social justice issues. She received numerous grants and awards including San Francisco Magazine's Arts Achievement Award for Dance, a SF Bay Guardian Goldie, and five Isadora Duncan Awards. Her work has been featured in Ballet Tanz, Kung Fu Magazine, Deborah Jowitt's Dancing Image, and Artist's Eye. Her work around creating a new aesthetic in dance is featured in the book Warrior Mothers, September 2004 and in Stacey Prickett's San Francisco Innovators and Iconoclasts: Dance and Politics in the Left Coast City, May 2007. Sara Shelton Mann is an artist, teacher and director. She is also a Master NLP Practitioner, dowser and practices various healing modalities. Her company Contraband appeared on stages, in warehouses, abandoned buildings and outdoors from 1979-1996. She collaborated and toured internationally with Guillermo Gomez-Pena 96-99. She has received 4 Isadora Duncan Awards. She was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography 2000. Her piece Te'lios/Teli'os was awarded 1 of top 10 dance performances by SF Chronicle in 06. Her next project "Tribes" in partnership with David Szlasa will premiere at YBCA in 2010. Floor Van Herreweghe born in Belgium grew up in the Free State, in South Africa. She lived in Belgium, France, Switzerland, UK and USA. After much searching, she found her home in San Francisco. In 2000 she started a web graphic design company in New York where she realized that design seemed to fit nicely with her other passion, music. It seems to be a never-ending exploration of things like new interfaces for musical expression. She's been playing violin and viola longer than she can remember. Matthew De Gumbia's free associative nature (labeled as attention deficit disorder as a kid) has led him to production and design work with an extensive list of performance artists and choreographers including Sara Shelton Mann, Bill T. Jones, Anna Halprin, Tomi Paasonen, Krissy Keefer & Alonzo King among numerous others. Bruce "Mui" Ghent with a Modern Dance/Choreography degree from CalArts in 1990 performed with notable companies such as Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co. and Berkeley Repertory Theater. He began his study of Taiko under Grandmaster Seiichi Tanaka in 1993, touring internationally with some of the great masters of Traditional Japanese Folk Music. Currently, he is the resident Taiko Instructor/Composer at Dance Mission for GRRRL Brigade and Dance Brigade. Elaine Buckholtz received an MFA in New Genres from Stanford University 2006 and from 02 -04 attended California College of the Arts' MFA program in Media Arts. Her music reshapes your notion of voice and melody and draws on homemade instruments like the panjo, bowed banjo, pantar, as well as the Russian button accordion, detuned zithers. She has shown work around the world including Switzerland, Claremont and San Francisco, California, Leipzig Germany. Ellen Bruno a Filmmaker and international relief worker, has spent much of the last 20 years in southeast Asia. Ellen completed a Master's in documentary film at Stanford University in 1990. Her first film SAMSARA documents Cambodian life in the aftermath of Pol Pot's killing fields. SATYA: A PRAYER FOR THE ENEMY is based on the experiences of young Tibetan Buddhist nuns who have been imprisoned and tortured for their nonviolent protests of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. SACRIFICE is the final installment in her Asian trilogy. All three films premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Folawole Oyinola was born in Chicago to Nigerian parents, then moved to different countries before settling in San Francisco. He trained extensively with San Francisco Ballet and international artists of contemporary dance, theater, singing and improvisation. Tina Banchero is a dance theater artist, drummer, teacher, spiritual seeker and goddess loving gal. She likes to sit in the sun, stay up late, make people laugh and be as close to front and center stage as possible. Tina is humbled and happy to be performing again with her Dance Brigade cohorts. Tina dances deeply with the duality of non-attachment and holding on for dear life. Lena Gatchalian was born in Pittsburgh PA and grew up in Manila, Philippines where she began her dance training at the age of 6. She trained and performed in Manila and New York City and received her BFA from Parsons School of Design. She has been performing with Dance Brigade since 1994. She is dedicating these shows to Evelyn, Calixta, Antonio, Nina, Denny, and all her many friends and family who have passed on. Sonya Smith. A lifelong athlete, is a collaborating member of Lizz Roman and Dancers and Eat Cake Productions and performed with Project Bandaloop, Kim Epifano/Epiphany Productions, and Zaccho Dance Theater, among many others. Smith's choreography, presented in Portland, Kansas City, and San Francisco, combines aerial apparatus, modern dance and contact improvisation. She can be found on the web at www.seesonya.com. Sarah Bush has been dancing in multiple styles since age 3, received a BA in Dance and joined Krissy Keefer and Dance Brigade in 2001. She is grateful to The Brigade for this opportunity to work with Sarah Shelton Mann and a brilliant cast. She is also the Director of Sarah Bush Dance Project and a teacher and choreographer. Jose Navarette a native of México City with a B.A. in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and M.F.A in Dance from Mills College. José's choreographic work with NaKa Dance Theater has been presented San Francisco, New York, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Seattle and Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2004, he was the recipient of a Bessie Schšnberg Choreographers residency and the Djerassi Resident Artist Program fellowship. Currently Navarrete works at YBCA as a Performance Arts Educator for the Youth Artist At Work program. He is preparing his next show with Performance Artist Violeta Luna, for 2010 Fredrika Keefer began dancing in the womb. She is a Senior at San Francisco's School of the Arts Dance Department. She dances with Allan Frias' renowned hip hop dance company Mind Over Matter, is a founding member of Grrrl Brigade, the second company to Dance Brigade and has played Taiko for the past 5 years. Richelle Donigan is a fierce performance artist, dancer, drummer, healer and all in all a real exhibitionist. She has graced more continents, stages, films, tabletops and venues with her unique style of performance then she cares to remember. She is passionate about what she does and what she gets to create with this outstanding cast. Karen Elliot began her professional dance career as a member of Citicentre Dance Theatre in 1986. She began dancing with Dance Brigade in 1990 and has enjoyed performing in venues ranging from Lincoln Center in New York City to the Fichter Farm in Wilder, Kentucky. Karen has also performed with Project Bandaloop, Make-A-Circus, Raymond Johnson Dance Company, Kim Epifano, José Navarrete and many local nightclub performance artists. | |
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