Return to Absence /  by Naoyuki Oguri

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As inspiration for their latest production, Arcane Collective delves into the Samuel Beckett trilogyMolloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. In reverence to Beckett, Return to Absence embodies the resonant images and wrought emotions characteristic to these remarkable stories. Constructing a fluent language of movement and environments as abstract and absurd as Beckett's unparalleled composition of words, the dance emerges as an intimate portrayal of humanity; a rich and ridiculous non-linear storytelling. Return to Absence premiered at the Dublin Dance Festival in 2014.

Choreography: Arcane Collective
Dancers: Andres Corchero, Boaz Barkan
Morleigh Steinberg, Oguri
Music: Feltlike with Paul Chavez
Set: Oguri & Moses Hacmon
Lighting: Morleigh Steinberg

Cold Dream Colour - Dance Homage to Louis le Brocquy /  by Naoyuki Oguri

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Louis le Brocquy. Like the precision and beauty of brushstroke to canvas, Arcane Collective takes the canvas to stage bringing their unique insight to the physical and emotional complexities of the human landscape. While honoring this master’s vision, Cold Dream Colour stands as its own distinctly original work of art, a total engaging theatrical experience.

Video linked here.

Director: Morleigh Steinberg 
Choreography: Morleigh Steinberg, Oguri, Liz Roche 
Dancers: seven dancers 
Music: The Edge and Paul Chavez 
Set: Oguri and Moses Hacmon

Flower of the Season /  by Naoyuki Oguri

In its 14th year, the series continues to evolve as a platform for the development of new and important dance explorations by a variety of local and international artists. Yearly these dancers are chosen to train together at Body Weather Laboratory, developing individual interpretations of a common vision. Flower of the Season has indeed become a pilgrimage - drawing dancers, choreographers and musicians to a seasonal offering of blossoming creativity.

Dance and performance are transitory arts. They exist in the present. Just as the splendor of a flower is fleeting, so is each remarkable moment of a dance performance - always passing into the next. A flower seeks the light, growing and developing accordingly. It finds just the right time and place to blossom.

The History of Flower of the Season.

Flower of the Season is the extension of the Earthbeat series Oguri and Steinberg began twelve years ago to foster collaborations between visual artists, musicians, writers and dancers. Together, with the work of percussionist Adam Rudolph, sculptor Stephan Glassman, artist Hirokazu Kosaka, musicians Paul Chavez, Wadada Leo Smith, G.E. Stinson, Nels Cline and Mark Dresser and dancers Roxanne Steinberg, Melinda Ring, Morleigh Steinberg, Mia Doi Todd, Jamie Burris, Sherwood Chen, Boaz Barkan, Claudia Lopez, Lillian Barbeito, Benjamin Jarrett, Eric Losoya, Jesske Hume, Magali Gajan, Heyward Bracey, Asher Woodworth, Ariadna Rodriguez Cima, Joyce Lu, A.Dola Baroni, Meyu Kobayashi, Rosemary Candelario, Heather Ehlers, Kim Nakakura, Linda Luke, Annelien Goetschalckx, Cat Westwood, Yasunari Tamai, Andres Corchero, Frank van de Ven, Simone Forti and Oguri has continually explored boundaries between audience and stage, creating fresh contexts for the presentation of art and performance.

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FLOWER OF THE SEASON 2018

...like foaming water...

Oguri
Roxanne Steinberg
Morleigh Steinberg
Cat Westwood
Tony Testa
Feltlike with Paul Chavez

Thu. 3/8 8:00pm
Fri. 3/9 8:00pm
Sat. 3/10 8:00pm
Sun. 3/11 4:00pm 

Electric Lodge
1416 Electric Avenue
Venice, CA

NOTAWAY - Quest for Freedom /  by Naoyuki Oguri

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The work revisits an American classic with dance and a musical score by a quintessentially American artist. Dancers and musicians zero in on the universal human dilemma posed by Huckleberry Finn â€“ the urge to rebel against society and the need to adhere to its dictates. The novel’s rich detail, emotional expression, physical sensitivity, and humor provide the raw materials and inspiration. Dancers Oguri and Tamai compliment each other as melody and harmony. Tamai, a profoundly beautiful dancer, exudes naturalness and simple pleasure while Oguri, with his intense concentration, transforms himself to embody different characters. The presence of master trumpeter-composer Smith on stage is as important as his music. Skillfully, through his instrument, he delivers the sound and spirit that emanate from his body.

Caddy! Caddy! Caddy! - William Faulkner Dance Project /  by Naoyuki Oguri

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Caddy! Caddy! Caddy! is an epic dance work, with a live sound score and evolving, dynamic installation. This evening length performance, is an abstract portrayal of several of William Faulkner's works. Utilizing simultaneous, disparate and distinct intimate passages, the dance moves with a sense of confinement, entrapment, sadness, loneliness and courage.A simple play of light becomes the medium for a face dancing the ravages of unforgiving time. Darkness illuminates the rhythm of the telling with speaking, sobbing and laughter. Faulkner's stories unfold, without foregrounding cause and effect, through many different interwoven voices, forming a nonlinear composite - a rich blur of life. Evoking subtle essences, with this reckoning of time, Oguri presents Caddy! Caddy! Caddy!.

Video linked here.