Overground Physical Theatre Company presents Urban Tao from June 29 – July 2, 2011 at 7:30pm at Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th Street, NYC. Tickets are $20 ($15 for DTW members, students, and seniors) and are available at 212-924-0077 or www.dancetheaterworkshop.org.
Urban Tao is a futuristic dance drama that boldly morphs avant-garde dance, theatre, opera, mime, martial arts, video, and live painting. Drawing upon the paradoxical wisdom of the “Tao Te Ching” and the holistic view of Quantum Physics, internationally acclaimed dance iconoclast Antonia Katrandjieva translates real life situations into Zen revelations – karmic lessons learned by living in the metropolis as urban dwellers thread their owns paths.
“…Profound, subtle, unconventional, Overground Physical Theatre Company is the avant-garde epitome of kinetic intelligence and esoteric vision…”
Keva Apostolova, Theatre Magazine, September 2010
Performers: Nannette Bevelander, Cecilia Ceresa, Anthony Giorgio, Kumiko Hara, Lora Kozarska, Antonia Katrandjieva, Siras Nitithatsanakul, Gessica Papperini, Stoyan Radev, Motoko Tadano, Aga Totani
Lighting Design for Urban Tao is by Matt Elhert. Costume and Set Design is by Lora Kozarska. Videography and Media by Ana & Kalin Ivanovi. Music composed by Nannette Bevelander and performed by Silvie Degiez, Nannette Bevelander, Frederick Johnson, Bisan Toron, and Adrian Daurov.
Overground Physical Theatre Company is directed and choreographed by Antonia Katrandjieva, and brings together internationally acclaimed artists of dance, theatre, literature, fine arts, film and music to present original hybrid works that challenge and enlighten the audience. The Company’s repertory falls into the unexplored niche of esoteric Dance Theatre, creating experimental cross-genre work that bridges the virtual causality of theatre with the abstract reality of dance. It exploresthe parallel realms of dance and theatre and their spiritual roots in the ritual and the sacred, retrieving the sacred relevance of the art forms and dressing ancient wisdom in modern thought. The boutique work of Overground based on original scripts offers compelling visceral, verbal and kinesthetic landscapes, and excavates association-ladenmovement from human conditions, relationshipsand social patterns. The company employs a “total theatre” approach and swingsboldly between Chechov’s “Psychological Gesture,” Becket’s “Absurdist Existentialism,” Brecht’s “Alienation Effect,” Bausch’s provocative “Tanztheater,” Butoh’s “raw transcendental states” and the contemporary European dance theatre idiom.
The company earned critical acclaim in 1996 with two award-winning shows “Octaves of Reflection” and “Copper Tones” (which won the Boundaries-Horizons Prize for Experimental Choreography in Sofia, mentioned in the History of Bulgarian Experimental Theatre & Dance”) and ever since has toured Europe to present at international dance and theatre festivals (Bulgaria, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka), Latin America (Bolivia, Mexico) and the U.S. Currently the company is based in NY where it has presented full-length work at: La Mama Experimental Theatre, City Center for Dance, Judson Memorial Church, Dance New Amsterdam, Brooklyn Information & Culture Center, Theosophy Hall, Theosophical Society, Meta Center, Julia Richman Complex, among others.
Overground works blend theatre, dance, architecture, pantomime, martial arts, video, poetry, multi-media, live art and yoga. Overground has no affinity to a particular style, but instead tries to develop original non-literal choreography and authentic scripts for every new project. The creative lab work of the company is structured like a “multiversity”, where various physical theatre and body mind-centering techniques are explored on a daily basis, and each individual is offered the space for personal creative development and spiritual growth. For more than 15 years the lab has become a self-refinery where dancers are not only taught to move, but “understand what moves them” enabling everyone to live, experience and share the journey to the source.
Overground Physical Theatre Company’s presentation of Urban Tao at Dance Theater Workshop is made possible through Dance Theater Workshop’s Guest Artist Series. The Guest Artist Series is a comprehensive rental program benefiting a diverse group of dance and theater companies and producing organizations interested in self-producing their work at Dance Theater Workshop.
Overground Physical Theatre Company
Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th Street, NYC
June 29 – July 2, 2011 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20 ($15 for students and seniors)
212-924-0077
www.dancetheaterworkshop.org
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