4 posts tagged “experimental dance”

Catch Mad King Thomas in Capture!ama tomorrow night!

This summer I bought an American flag bikini and a road bike.  Then I got an exercise bike off of Craigslist.  Then I listened to a LOT of Queen.  And tomorrow night all those things and Mad King Thomas will be making a dance film about bikes live on stage.

If you can't make it to the Choreographers' Evening on Thanksgiving weekend, this will give you a taste of what you're missing. 

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Official info:

capture!rama

tuesday, october 23rd
8pm show
bryant lake bowl theater
6 dollars, 5 if you are a student
presented by catalyst

a few short dance movies made live, right before your eyes.
you see it performed, you see it filmed. you watch the film.
you can tell us what you think. you can even be in one.

it's fun.

performance and film contributions from elliot durko lynch, mad king thomas, james everest, melissa kennedy, jason jaglo, randy kramer, chris mckinley, catalyst, the ra ra ra's and the yoyoyo's.

so far, the show includes drums, bicycles, bikinis, AND butterflies.
i don't know why you would be anywhere else.

hope to see you there!

I've kept quiet about our last few performances, but tonight Mad King Thomas is presenting "Cover Your Head and Kiss Your Ass Goodbye".  We were invited to be part of Windfarm Series #2 (presented by Catalyst and Emily Johnson), and once we collected our jaws from the floor, we happily accepted!

Theresa mixes it up in outer space.

(About a month later, we realized that Hijack was the other partner in the Windfarm Series, which re-commenced the whole collecting of jaws, drawing little pictures of ourselves on glittery clouds, etc.)

ANYWAY--

Tonight's the night.  Here's the official blurb:

Windfarm Series #2, part #2 @ The Rogue Buddha
a dance by Catalyst and a dance by Mad King Thomas
TUESDAY (tonight!), MARCH 27th
Show at 8pm. Doors open at 7:30.
Rogue Buddha Art Gallery, 357 13th Ave. NE, Minneapolis
Tickets: $5-$25 sliding scale at the door.
Show runs roughly one hour.
Wine and beer available for purchase at the gallery.
Limited seating available.

With glowing green goop and tinfoil cowboy hats, Mad King Thomas navigates nuclear threats, interrogations, and line dancing to ask how we so easily reproduce that culture of fear lurking in our recent history.  "Cover Your Head and Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" is an episodic dance-collage of the astronauts, cowboys, and superheroes that populate the overlapping worlds of the Cold War and Today.

Where can I find a real cowboy?

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The dance by Catalyst is called Pamela and features three great performers: Emily Johnson, Jessica Cressey and Hannah Kramer.

I'm happy happy happy as a lark about this piece (in between panic attacks).  If you're in Minneapolis, come out and see a show!  It's a one time thing and it's a perfect example of why Minneapolis is SO GREAT.  An excellent, established choreographer is giving us (which is to say, a bunch of n00bs) a venue in one of the best art galleries in town.  And she's letting us do whatever we want! Expect bad jokes.

To the rescue!

p.s. Speaking of galleries, Sean Smuda provided all the delightful photos in this post, and he also has an exhibit at the Flanders Gallery (3012 Lyndale Av S., 612.344.1700) now until April 28th.  Not only does Sean do intensely beautiful allegorical photographs, he often uses Minneapolis dancers in them. 

This weekend in Minneapolis, I've got two events to recommend:

1) Kinesthetic Kino
February 16th (Friday) - 7pm & 9pm
Rogue Buddha Gallery (more info)
7pm: European artist shorts from DV8, Miranda Pennel, Rachel Davies, Antonin De Bemels, Andrew Wass and Becky Edmunds
9pm: Meg Stuart & Pierre Coubleuf
Watch the trailer here if the movie below doesn't work (I can't make it work on my computer but it should work on yours, hopefully.)

Kinesthetic Kino Trailer

DV8

There's a review of it here, if you want more information on both the event and what "dance film" is.  Take a gander!






2) Pam Plagge Hates Valentine's Day
Sunday, February 18 at 7 pm
Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater (more info)
Featuring: Pam Plagge, April Sellers, Mad King Thomas, Chris Schlicting, Anna Marie Shogren, Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad

Pam Plagge, hatin' on Valentine's Day

If you haven't quite gotten the Valentine's Day bug out of your system, come see our show!  I haven't seen the whole thing, because I'm always in the basement getting ready for our part of the show, but I've heard it's pretty great!  Dirty jokes, naked ladies, and bitter exes: What more could you want?

Phillip Low points out:

I wouldn't even characterize it so much as a modern dance showcase as I would a kind of burlesque show, funny, quirky, sexy, slutty, and weird.

And now that I've plugged things I think are cool, what are YOU planning for the weekend?

Well, Redzilla asked when I'd be posting pictures of my dance collaboration, Mad King Thomas.  So here they are, in my very first voxy collection:

Mad King Thomas

All photos are here courtesy of Scott Pakudaitis, who is an excellent (and friendly) local dance photographer, and they are all from our show in the 2006 Minnesota Fringe Festival, called "Pomo Looks Like Porno, Deluxe". You can find reviews of the show here, if you'd like.  I kind of like 'em, even the mean ones!

You'll see all of our wacky hijinks as best they can be captured on film.  Someday I might even post video. 

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As Theresa said recently, "Holy fuck shit, oh my GOSH, when it RAINS, it POURS." 

Translation: We've had a very respectable batch of invites to perform lately.  And here comes the shameless plug, because I am just BOUNDLESS with excitement at being involved in these shows.  If you're in the Minneapolis area, you can catch our peculiar blend of dance, theater, awkward pauses and pop music in the following places:

January 24, 8 pm.  9x22 Dance Lab, at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater.  9x22 is one of my most favorite

Hijack

events anywhere.  Each month, three choreographers show works-in-progress and then chat afterwards with the host and the audience.  Our esteemed colleagues in this particular show are Hijack.  Unbelievable!  Be still, my heart.








February 11, 18, 25, 7 pm.  Pam Plagge Hates Valentine's Day, at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater.  Pam has assembled a cast from the local dance scene to tackle that most trite and thorny subject, L-O-V-E.  We are struggling madly with it, but we figure we can always make bad jokes about exes if all else fails.

"Heat and Life", Emily Johnson

March 28, 29, dates still tentative. Show with Emily Johnson, at the Rogue Buddha Gallery.  When Emily invited us to show work with her, I felt like tapdancing on silver glittery clouds with a horde of kittens prancing behind me. Working with her during the last semester of college led to my intuitive side taking over mid-performance, and by the end of an improvisational solo, I was standing with my eyes closed, in a life vest in the shadow of the campus science building, crying.  At that moment, I asked the universe: Let me be a dancer.  Let my family support this. Let me devote my life to creation and to finding new paths and to taking risks and to looking like a fool in public. Please. And when I opened my eyes I was crying harder, students were flooding the courtyard since class had just ended, and a bunch of strangers were looking at me and clapping. Theresa and Monica came over and hugged me while I cried (they had never ever seen me cry before!).  Anyway, I blame (thank) Emily Johnson for me being a choreographer now.

There are further performances through the rest of the year. We are exploding with joy at these opportunities.