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a dance-theatre piece/pot
where American, Asian and (East-)European
ways of understanding
facts & emotions
life & art
are interwoven
spinning a yarn
telling stories, performing hi/stories
of/about PEOPLE
with their body-luggage of PAST
TRAUMAS, feelings, memories…
a social worker interviewed women & men
collected and recollected REAL stories about
AIDS, drug addiction, rape, incest, violence, depression
but also
love, happiness, joy, playfulness, imagination, sensitivity
words and movements
images and sentences
music and sounds
in one word: E-MOTIONS
compete in showing these STORIES about her, him, them
…
actually about YOU, about US !!!
press clippings…
Oana Botez-Ban/Designer
The dancers wear long black robes patched with leather
and odd attachments (by Oana Botez-Ban) and try to press
the air away, as if it were encroaching.
Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice 2002
Costumes-setting, her stage designing concept invades
the dramatic space, develops threateningly, crawls,
climbs, surrounds, wraps, withdraws like a reptile in
a corner or in a box, lies in ambush ready to attack
with an implacable ferociousness.
Catalina Buzoianu, Scenografica, 2000
De Lavallade is stunning in the opening of "No
Ice in Poland," standing in a pool of light, wearing
a flowing blue dress by Oana Botez-Ban.
Darrah Carr, 2002
Saviana Stanescu/Writer
… a work of unique construction. This is the direction
courageously and uncompromisingly taken by Saviana Stanescu,
the 'hard' poetess-playwright from the border between
millennia.
Les Cahiers MAISON ANTOINE VITEZ, Paris, 2001
"Silicon Valley" by Saviana Stanescu, presented
at La Wie, MenschenBuene, translates social and emotional
structures into an intense day-dream of a woman prisoner
of an artificial Siliconland - the land of huge breast
implants…
Osterreich Journal - Aktuelles aus Osterreich, Vienna,
2002
Eminent translator Adam Sorkin presents the prolific
young Romanian poet and playwright Saviana Stanescu
whose unique dramatic voice, postmodern, feminist, humorous,
and sly has already won her internationally recognition.
Thalia Pandiri, METHAMORPHOSES, 2001
Excess, abuse, bizarreness, the communion of pathetic
and comic in the aesthetic paradox Kierkegaard dreamt
of. Laugh, this is Saviana Stanescu show!
Alina Nelega, Observator Cultural, 2000
Born of a luxurious imagination censored by a fierce
intelligence, Saviana's texts proclaim fantasy as an
instrument of exorcizing the dull Real.
Octavian Soviany, Contemporanul, 1997
Natasa Trifan/Choreographer
The surprise of the evening was Natasa Trifan. In a
natural environment and in the accords of Albinoni's
music, Natasa had integrated the sensitivity and the
choreographic art.
Vera Proca-Ciortea, Adevarul literar si Artistic,
2000
Lucian Ban/Composer
Lucian Ban - one of Eastern Europe's foremost progressive
jazz composer/pianists.
JazzOnWeb 'Free Forum' Top Stories, 2001
WHO is WHO in "body mapping"… :
Saviana Stanescu (Condeescu) /Writer/Co-director
A Romanian prize-winning writer/artist with 5 published
books of poetry and drama including the English-Romanian
anthology Black Milk. Her play "The Inflatable
Apocalypse" won the Best Play of the Year 1999
UNITER Award. Her texts have been presented/staged/published
not only in Romania but also in London, Salisbury, Swansea,
Bath Literature Festival, Cambridge, Struga (Macedonia),
Warsaw, Vienna, Paris, New York, Philadelphia, Smith
College - Massachusets etc.
Last year Saviana was writer-in-residence of Kultur
Kontakt in Vienna, Austria.
She is currently a Fulbright scholar in Performance
Studies, at New York University,
Tisch School of the Arts (MA program) and recently performed
in the Women Center Stage festival, at 45 Bleecker Street
Theatre (Culture Project), a video-poetry show called
SCRIPTease.
Oana Botez-Ban /Designer/Co-director
She is a graduate of Bucharest University of Art with
a BFA in Fashion Design and now she is in the MFA program,
in the Design Department at NYU.
She designed over twenty productions in her native Romania.
Costume design exhibition include: Quadrennial Scenography
Show (Prague), several costume exhibitions in Romania
and a theater design catalogue, Scenografica,
about three Romanian designers.
In NY since 1999, Oana has assisted fashion designer
Maria Cornejo, costumed
collaborations with Moonwork, Turandot directed by Ulla
& Niky Wolcz, at La MaMa Theater; and in the last
year she started designing for different dance companies
as: Uber at The Kitchen, DOUG ELKINS DANCE COMPANY at
Theatre de Suresnes Jean Vilarand (France)and PARADIGM
for Altogether Different Festival at The
Joyce Theater.
Also, Oana is one of the Minus co-founders, a theater-dance
company, which
had the first performance, ZERO, in New York, last year.
Natasa Trifan /Choreographer
At the age of eight she was enrolled in a special school,
which emphasized on movement and dance, structured on
a Russian model. Entering The Academy of Theater and
Film in Bucharest, Department of Choreography, and after
four years she received a graduate degree in Choreography
and Modern Dance Teaching.
During the graduate school she had the opportunity to
work with artist guests like: Christine Bastin in performance
"Guele de Loup", Domnigue Baqouet,
Joseph Nadj, and Philippe Genty.
In Romania she choreographed fifteen performances for
art schools, dance festivals,
and art exhibitions.
In 2001 she co-found with Oana Botez-Ban Minus in the
US and she choreographed her first movement theater
project, named Zero in N.Y.C.
In addition to her regular training, she developed a
special interest in dance Kinesiology and Body/Mind
techniques. She has been an active practitioner and
instructor of
Alexander and Feldenkrais somatic techniques for the
last five years.
She graduated from SUNY College at Brockport with an
MA in Dance and Science.
Kara Marie Dean/Researcher/Co-director
She is a graduate of Columbia University School of Social
Work. Since receiving her master's degree in social
work, Kara has been the project coordinator for several
research projects through Columbia University and the
University of Washington, Seattle, School of social
work. She is currently running a program on violence
prevention in the South Bronx and also a project on
the health and wellness of Native
Americans in the New York City area. She also works
on several other research projects, including HIV-prevention
among youth living in the South Bronx and
Domestic violence with women receiving emergency care
at St.Barnabas Hospital, Bronx, NY. She also has a profound
interest in design and costumes. She has
Assisted costume designers in collaboration with Columbia
University/Oscar II Hammerstein Center for Theatre Studies
for Turandot by Carlo Gozzi, directed by
Ulla & Niky Wolcz, at La MaMa Theater. And, she
also worked as the house manager for Zero, a premier
production of the Minus Company.
Lucian Ban/Music
He is originally from Romania where he studied at the
Bucharest Music Academy. He founded The Jazz Unit Quintet
in 1994 and released two albums as a leader for Green
Records Label: "Changes - Live at GreenHours"
in 1998 and "From now on" in 1999.
The group toured the country in major venues and festivals
and in Europe as well. The album "From now on"
won the Great Prize as the Best Jazz Album in Romania
in
2000 awarded by The Romanian Composer Association.
An original piece from the first album was included
as a tribute in the Book about the famous South-African
pianist Abdullah Ibrahim published by the prestigious
Das Booktrader in Copenhagen.
In 1999 he moves to New York with a scholarship to study
at the New School Jazz Program. A former student of
Phil Markowitz, Junior Mance and Charles Tolliver he
establishes theLucian Ban Quintet with baritone sax
great Alex Harding. The later records for his own album
original pieces by Lucian Ban. He performs regularly
with
His band and as a sideman in New York jazz clubs and
is a member of The BMI Composers Jazz Workshop.
Lucian Ban also wrote music for more than 10 theater
productions, films and ballet and in June 2001 he wrote
original music for the Theater/Dance Event "ZERO"
produced by Minus Company.
In august 2002 Lucian Ban will record two albums for
the prestigious Creative Improvisation Productions label.
Lucrecia Briceno/Lighting Designer
Originally from Lima, Peru, this will be her fourth
appearance as a Lighting
Designer at the NY Fringe Festival. Previously her work
has been featured as "one of the most interesting
design in this year's Fringe" (2000) and (2001)
by Curtain Up.
Ms. Briceno is a second year graduate student at the
Design program at Tisch School of
Arts. She also belongs to the NYC's acclaimed theatre
company Collision Theory and has been part of their
production team for the last three years and is also
a member of Cabula6 a Spain based Dance Theatre Company.
Past productions include: Jail Bait at Inter Annex,
Burn This at ATA, The Cure at Troy at the Amaroussion
Theatre in Athens, Greece, TimLofts #24, #23, #22, #21,
RappleEye at SoHo Rep, etc. This summer she will be
travelling to Bogota, Colombia to design with
The Theatre Production Company Corporation Ni?os Cantores.
Dan Bora /Video Artist
He studied at the University of Chicago. He has done
fieldwork on the spawning of dance / club 'sub'-cultures
in East Europe as a neocolonial phenomenon, and on private
Gypsy Pentecostal prayer circles. In New York he is
assistant engineer to the
Philip Glass Ensemble, hobbies in computer (Web) programming,
and has produced a documentary and short videos about
the Appalachian Mountains.
Diana Odasso /Video Artist
Diana graduated with honors from the University of
Chicago with a B.A. in Psychology and Art History. Her
research has explored the aesthetic implications of
biopsychological phenomena and visual culture as salient
components in the genesis and subjective perception
of contemporary media. Diana has worked in behavioral
optometry studying the functional aspects of vision
of well as with the documentary film company, U.Y.A.
Films, on a project in Guatemala. She is currently working
in the
decorative arts and specializing in French and American
Art Deco furniture.
Erika Wei /Graphic Designer /Assistant Design
She is a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology
studying fashion design with
Specialization in haute couture construction. By day
she also works as a web programmer for MTV and other
various freelance projects. Before getting involved
in
Fashion and technology she studied studio drawing, painting,
and photography as a visual arts major at Interlochen
Arts Summer Academy and then attended the
University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana to receive
a degree in Advertising. This is her first dance theater
project and she is very excited to be able to contribute.
Barbara Barese /Actress
This marks Barbara's return to the theatre after taking
time off to help in the recovery effort in New York
City.
Previous roles include Alexa Vere de Vere in "As
Bees in Honey Drown",
Puck in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and Boo
in "The Last Night of Ballyhoo".
She holds an MFA in Acting from the City University
of New York, and an MA
in Text and Performance from the Royal Academy of Dramatic
Arts.
Annie Ricci /Soprano
Having completed her Masters' degree in voice performance
at The Manhattan School of Music, lyric soprano Annie
Ricci has spent the last two years performing with various
opera companies around the city including Amato Opera,
Di Capo Opera, and The Bronx Opera Company. Last year
she made her Lincoln Center debut at the Clark Studio
Theater performing in collaboration with The Angela
Jones Dance Company.
She is a native of Detroit, MI and is currently studying
voice privately with Ashley Putnam.
Ea Juun Hwa/Dancer
He studied dance, religion, and science at Wesleyan
University. He also worked with various student organizations
address matters of economic and racial inequity. Since
the move to this beloved city, he has performed with
Wil Swanson/DANCEWORKS and
H.T. Chen Dance Company, Jeune Gee, Mita Ghosal, Nia
Love, and Sohn In-Young. In addition, he has studied
and performed traditional Korean percussions with
Shin-Myung Pae. Choun recently returned to makingdances
and has since become re-enchanted by it. His works have
been shown at the Public Theater, the
Asian-American Writers' Workshop, Wesleyan University
(CT), and Williamsburg Art neXus. He regularly performs
improvisational works at Sight and Sound Construction.
Choun continues study of various movement arts with
the belief that movement is essential to the fulfillment
of all that is possible to us. He has studied technique
with Trisha Brown Dance Company through their scholarship
program.
He currently studies Yang style Tai Chi Chuan, nei kung,
and push-hand technique with Master C.K. Chu, and the
Alexander Technique with June Eckman. He also
practices meditation at the New York Shambala Center.
Mindy Myers/Dancer
She graduated from Cornell University in 1995 with a
degree in English. In New York City, she has danced
for many choreographers including Sarah Carlson, Michael
Foley, and JoAnna Mendl Shaw, and most recently with
Gabriella Barnstone at The Kitchen.
In March 2001 her work was selected to appear as part
of the Newsteps series for emerging choreographers,
hosted by the Mulberry Street Theater. In August 2001,
she was one of four choreographers chosen for The Bridge
for Dance's Rising Up series, in which she presented
three works in a shared evening of dance. Her choreography
has also been shown at Dance Space Center, Deli Dances,
New Dance Group Arts Center, The Works Studio, and Williamsburg
Art Nexus (WAX) in New
York, and at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
Hannah Spongberg /Dancer
She is a third year undergraduate student at New York
University's Tisch School of the Arts and will receive
a B.F.A. in Dance. In addition to working on her own
choreography, Hannah has performed in the works of Jayme
Klinger Host, Amy Marshall, Todd Rosenlieb, Ken Skrzesz,
Gus Solomons jr., and Amanda Thom Woodson.
Ivanna Wei /Dancer
She began dancing in college, while earning her BA in
environmental management at Ball State University, and
fell in love with it. She performed with the university
company for four years and also with a local folk company.
She then moved to
Chicago to earn her certification in the Authentic Pilates
Method. While there she had a fabulous time working
with various local choreographers and companies.
Since moving to New York she has performed with the
Michael Mao Company and with Stephen Koplowitz for the
reopening of the library at Lincoln Center. She has
also received her certification in Yamuna Body Rolling
and is completing her certification in the Gyrotonic
Expansion System.
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