[DANCEROULETTE] Sally Silvers: Tenderizer

About

Calling upon a cast of 14 dancers, the program consists of three different dances that interrupt and interweave throughout the evening-length work, complete with identifying music and video for the three modes.

The first piece will be a companion to Actual Size — a piece performed at Roulette in 2014 that subterfuges Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 North by Northwest film. The new work will once again tease Hitchcock’s obsessions and repeating motifs, but will call upon darker his darker films such as The Birds, Marnie, and Psycho. The second piece, Threading In, celebrates girl power and liberation. The third and final piece is will feature structured improvisation with experienced movers including Sally Silvers, Paul Langland, and two additional dancers.

The music will be a collaboration between music director Bruce Andrews and former Mixology curator Michael Schumacher with identifying soundscapes for each mode: movie soundtrack, post dowop/postpunk girl group, and experimental free improvisation. Ursula Scherrer, who created the evocative, multi-projector, video visuals for Actual Size, will also be on board.

Sally Silvers & Dancers has an on-going engagement with the poetic as well as the social meanings of movement. Often operating in areas between idiomatic dance and unconventional movement, Silvers’ work keep its focus on clearly defined, if unusual, structures for the articulated body. The company has performed with composers John Zorn, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Ikue Mori, Bun-Ching Lam and George Lewis, among others. Active since the 1980s, choreographer Sally Silvers is a Guggenheim Foundation and Bessie-award-winning choreographer. She is also known for several large dance community curatorial projects: TalkTalkWalkWalk (combining dance artists and poets) and Surprise Every Time (a festival of  “live choreography’ – making work live in front of the audience on the spot). From 2005 to 2011, she danced in new and historical works of Yvonne Rainer.

Roulette’s ongoing [DANCEROULETTE] series reflects the commitment to presenting experimental dance that we’ve held since our founding in 1978, particularly the collaborative efforts of composers and choreographers exploring the relationship between sound and movement, choreography and composition. Roulette’s move to Brooklyn in September 2011 has enabled the organization to initiate a regular season of [DANCEROULETTE] presentations, which now hosts nearly 40 performances yearly.

Dancers: Alexandra Berger, Dylan Crossman, Brandon Collwes, Jamie Di Mare, Lindsey Jones, Paul Langland, Alicia Ohs, Kathryn Ray, Veraalba Santa, Sally Silvers, Caleb Teicher, Melissa Toogood

Elizabeth Hope Clancy – Costume Designer

Bruce Andrews – Sound Design / Text

Michael Schumacher – Electronics
Ursula Scherrer – Video
Joe Levesseur – Lights