Habitats

Habitats is an evening of dance, music, and video performance featuring works by long-time collaborators Anita Cheng (choreographer), Gordon Beeferman (composer/pianist), and Ronaldo Kiel (video artist).

In For Once, Then Something, 13 jewel-like études weave three dancers’ movements, Kiel’s back-wall video projections, and Beeferman’s score of solo piano with recorded electronics. Inspired by visual artists such as James Turrell, Robert Irwin, and Olafur Eliasson, she notes the constant interplay of light and movement around us in the gestures of our daily lives. Cheng builds her choreography by incorporating finely fragmented angles and movement sequences, akin to experiencing dance through a multifaceted crystal.

The premiere of the new piece, Habitats, pairs Cheng’s delineated choreography with Beeferman’s distinctive new score. Spatial memories of dancers’ childhood homes are fragmented and recombined, propelled a driving quartet of contemporary musicians: Margaret Lancaster (flute), Stephanie Griffin (viola), Jen Baker (trombone), and David Shively (percussion). Past spaces are “re-viewed” through a kaleidoscope of movement invention and musical rhythmic variation: an exciting juxtaposition of muscle memory and kinesthetic music response.

The international cast of dancers includes Natsuki Arai, Alessia Della Casa, Alex Rodabaugh, Cho Ying Tsai, and Irene van Zeeland.