Lisa Nelson and Steve Paxton conclude their Dia:Chelsea season

At Dia:Chelsea, Lisa Nelson and Steve Paxton unfold a lovely-mysterious environment right before your eyes in Night Stand, a 2004 duet first shown in the US on October 10. Mottled light pools in a spiral in the middle of the space. Two panels, erected and braced by the hidden dancers, host a spray of lights in the pattern of roe or tear-shaped bubbles that spill over their surface. These initial images slow the viewer's eye and breath. What transpires afterwards pulls us into a state both playful and prayerful with a mixture of liberating whimsy and empowering discipline. Both of these master artists of contact improvisation, especially the pixie-ish Nelson in her firetruck red socks and black watch cap, move with a consistent, exacting control of effort and an exquisite sense of shape. It is pleasing, and instructive, to witness the fragmented games they share on their playground.

With set and sound compilation by Nelson and Paxton. Lighting by Carol Mullins.

The final performance of Night Stand--tonight at 8pm--is sold out. For information on future Dia:Chelsea events, click here.

In the meantime, please enjoy this video interview with Lisa Nelson, conducted in 2008 in New York by Marlon Barrios Solano of dance-tech.net, edited by Ashley A. Friend.

Choreography or ELSE!

dance-techTV announces its new online performance series, Choreography or ELSE, featuring:

International choreographers, dance artist or directors that continue to challenge traditional and contextual notions of choreography. They problematize the performance of movement with their on-going experimentation with compositional and aesthetic strategies, dramaturgic approaches, non-conventional spaces, appropriating uses of the new technologies, crossing disciplinary boundaries and dwelling on cultural hybridity.

In this series, the bi-monthly broadcast of the selected works will be accompanied with the publication of rich media supporting material about that specific performance and choreographer such as: reviews, interviews, essays and other references.

The platform dance-tech.net will offer a interactive space of on-line dialogue with the featured artist.

The series will launch with While we were holding it together by Ivana Muller (Croatia/Holland/France) on January 8. The following three programs will be devoted to Mette Ingvarsten (Denmark), Gilles Jobin (Switzerland) and Tere O'Connor (USA).

The content will be globally available and featured for a month on dance-techTV. 

This project is only possible by the collaboration of the artists. 

Series artists (confirmed)

David Zambrano (Venezuela/Holland) 

Emio Greco | PC (Holland) 

Gilles Jobin (Switzerland) 

Ivana Muller (Croatia/Holland/France) 

Jose Navas (Venezuela/Canada) 

Kate Weare (Canada/USA) 

Kettly Noel (Mali) 

Mette Ingvarsten (Denmark) 

Milka Djordjevich and Dragana Bulut (Serbia/USA) 

Miguel Gutierrez (USA) 

La Ribot (Spain/Switzerland) 

Rachid Ouramdane (France) 

Radhuane El Meddeb (Tunisia/France) 

Roger Bernat (Spain) 

Sasa Asentic (Serbia) 

Sol Pico (Spain) 

Tamara Cubas (Uruguay)

Oliver Dubois (France) 

Tere O'Connor (USA) 

Yanira Castro (USA) 

and others!

For further information on dance-techTV and this series, click here or email marlon@dance-tech.net.

Celebrating David Zambrano

David Zambrano: 2010 Guggenheim Fellow!! 50 years celebration flying low and passing through and 2010 Guggenheim Fellow!!
by Marlon Barrios Solano, dance-tech.net, August 31, 2010

And don't miss this great video interview with Zambrano!

Talk about new media

NOTE: Start time corrected: 7:30pm

Come to Dance Theater Workshop's Lobby TALKS on Tuesday, June 9 (7:30pm), a free event open to all. In The New Media of Dance (not in performance), organizer Chase Granoff and a host of new media types will delve into new issues raised by the dynamic intersection of dance, dance criticism and cyberspace.

Panelists will include Caleb Custer, Director of Marketing, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet; Marlon Barrios Solano, creator of dance-tech.net and DANCE TECH/The Program; Andy Horwitz, Founder and Editor, Culturebot.org; Claudia La Rocco, Performance critic, WNYC's Art.Cult blog; Kristin Sloan, Founder, The Winger, Director, New Media, New York City Ballet; Ryan Tracy, Counter Critic; and yours truly!

I hope to see you there!

Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th Street (7th-8th Avenues), Manhattan

Dance films town hall meeting tomorrow

Participate in Dance Films Association's Survey & Town Hall Meeting

Bessie Award winner Layard Thompson

Video interview with performance/dance artist Layard Thompson
by Marlon Barrios Solano, producer of dance-tech.net

Interfacing Motion contest

An announcement from Marlon Barrios Solano of dance-tech.net:

dance-tech.net with the support of its institutional partner Eroktronix is launching a new contest, "Interfacing Motion with MidiTron Wireless," to support a young active dance/performance artist in his or her initial explorations on interactive multimedia control for live performance of movement.

For each of two consecutive six-month periods, a selected artist will be given a new MidiTron Wireless to be used as an interface in new project involving the use of physical sensors for gestural control of multimedia during live performance.

For details, click here. 

So, welcome to the machine!

"Independent dance improviser, new media artist and on-line publisher" Marlon Barrios Solano describes his nascent dance-tech.net as "a dance and technology social network that aggregates and facilitates the flow of information and the distributed intelligence among movement, new media artist and theorists working in the confluence of embodied performance practices and new media."

Interested? Click here.