Leimay to Premiere BECOMING-CORPUS at BAM Fisher, 9/12-15

LEIMAY will present the world premiere of "Becoming-Corpus," a performance experience of dance, video and live electronic music, at Brooklyn Academy Of Music's newest venue, BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, September 12 to 15.

Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya, the artistic duo behind CAVE, The New York Butoh Festival and the Williamsburg SOAK festival, created "Becoming-Corpus" as a performance of meditative stillness and physical extremity within an environment of six-channel real-time video. The piece is conceived, directed and designed by Garnica and Moriya and choreographed by Garnica and the ensemble. Video programming is by Moriya. The performance is a light-and-dance experience of altered time and space, tracing the relationships and transformations among beings, the individual and society. It is accompanied by a visual art installation in the BAM Fisher's Peter Jay Sharp Lobby and a book documenting the process of making the piece.

In "Becoming-Corpus," eight dancers emerge from darkness and your attention becomes focused on the effect of light on their bodies as six live video projections from overhead play upon a lighted rectangle in which they are dancing. The bodies are 'wearing light and sound' and their movement is eruptive, based on sensations and intended for a visceral effect on the audience. The dancers' bodies communicate at a point 'before the knowable or sayable.' The score is a collage of dissonant echoes, interweaving elements like an old ballad tune 'gone wrong,' a car crash or a haunting record player turning on and off. The projections are colors, lines and abstracted geometric forms and their light becomes a living, interactive player. LEIMAY describes the work as "demanding an intensified experience of time, locating and de-locating impulses to move" and "forcing you to boundaries of self and questioning how you relate to others."

The accompanying visual art exhibition offers a perspective on LEIMAY's work through detritus of their creative process: cast-off elements of previous works. These include latex bodily skins, photos that are both printed and screen printed on the skins, and papier mache robot heads. It's a ghostly counterpart to the live performance that can also stand alone to the witness.

While Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya are known for their Williamaburg studio, CAVE, which presents many gallery exhibitions, and for their Butoh festivals in Manhattan, this piece reveals another dimension of their collaboration: experiments with movement and complex light. It was foreshadowed by two of their previous works that combined her choreography with Moriya's video-lighting. "Becoming Alive 1" (Movement Research at Judson Church, 2009) was a journey of meditative bodies into the nature of living. Four women's bodies, bathed in rich, colorful projections, sprouted to maximum splendor and decayed into serene melancholy. "Floating Point Waves" (HERE, 2012) further explored the connection between the body and stark light and darkness. Light effects transformed wood, cloth and water into living, interactive players as Ms. Garnica danced upon a wobbly wooden circle and in a water pool. Reviewer Susan Hamaker (JapanCultureNYC) testified that the piece's connections between sight, sound, choreography, and dramatic elements became a "barrage" that "amplified the senses, leaving you breathless." A workshop leading to "Becoming-Corpus" was conducted in 2012 as part of a Movement Research in Residency at the New Museum.

"Becoming-Corpus" is performed by Masanori Asahara, Andrew Braddock, Andrea Jones, Liz McAuliffe, Denisa Musilova, Eija Ranta, Savina Theodoru and Tommy Schell. Video and lighting design are by Shige Moriya. Sound composition is by Roland Toledo and Christopher Loar. Additional featured music is by Laddio Bolocko.

The production marks the culmination of LEIMAY's participation in the inaugural year of BAM's Professional Development Program, a professional training program led in collaboration with the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center.

Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya create dance and performance works under the name of LEIMAY and are known for a wide variety of performance genres, from Butoh to photography to video and art installations. Their work is always rooted in the body and integrates choreography and mesmerizing environments. Performances juxtapose sound, video, light, and movement to create multi-sensorial experiences of wild physicality and contemplative silence. Ms. Garnica and Mr. Moriya lead a variety of art programs at CAVE, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where they offer training and spaces for studios, living and performances to emerging and established artists.

Ximena Garnica is a Colombian-born interdisciplinary choreographer-director, performer, and installation artist. Currently, she teaches movement at P.H.T.S, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Drama. Other teaching credits include master classes and lectures at Denison University, Skidmore College, DeSales University, and Muhlenberg College. She received a B.A. in theater from the City College of New York with a minor in multimedia studies. In 2006, Ms. Garnica graduated from Akira Kasai's Tenshikan Butoh Dance Institute in Tokyo.

Shige Moriya, a Japanese video and installation artist, studied architecture at Kinki University in Osaka before joining the Cast Iron Gallery in SoHo as an assistant curator in 1993. In 1996, he and Garnica co-founded CAVE, one of the first arts centers to open in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The entity LEIMAY gradually emerged there from the independent creative work and activities of Moriya, Garnica, Juan Merchan and Zachary Model. Moriya has been active as a curator and producer and has presented his work in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. He continues to develop his artistic work while supporting the work of many other artists.

LEIMAY develops and tours new and existing individual and collaborative creations by Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya, offers Ludus Training (a program of LEIMAY's physical training practice, visual art craft, aesthetics and philosophies) and offers studio, living, and performing space for emerging and established artists. Between 2003 and 2009, LEIMAY presented four editions of the NY Butoh Festival in multiple venues throughout the city, including Dance New Amsterdam. Theater for the New City, Japan Society, Noguchi Museum, CAVE among others.

LEIMAY has had works presented in the U.S. at HERE Arts Center, CAVE, Joyce SoHo, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, Japan Society, MR at the Judson Church, Safe-T Gallery, New Hazlett Theater and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, The Downtown Theater in Dallas, The Asian Museum in San Francisco; and internationally in Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya), Mexico (Merida and Mexico City), Spain (Sevilla, Tenerife, Ibiza, Madrid, Barcelona and Ciudad Real), France (Paris), Colombia (Bogota), Germany (Berlin), Finland (Helsinki) and Vietnam (Hanoi). LEIMAY has received the Armani Design Award (2009), a Ford Foundation Fellowship, an Urban Artist Initiative (UAI/NYC) Fellowship, a Van Lier Fellowship, three National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grants, two Puffin Foundation Grants, two Asian American Arts Alliance Grants, a Japan Foundation Grant, and acceptance into the BAM Professional Development Program. Residencies include Movement Research at the New Museum (2012), HERE Arts Center (2009-2012), Robert Wilson's Watermill Center (2007/2009-2011), the New Hazlett Theater (2011), Bessie Schonberg Individual Choreographers Residency at the Yard (2010), the National Museum of Dance (2010), and Hanoi Contemporary Arts Center (2005).

The BAM Professional Development Program (BAM PDP) is a 14-month program that utilizes the strengths of both institutions to provide professional development training and deeply discounted theater and rehearsal studio rental to an annual selection of qualifying non-profit arts organizations. Through the program, supported by Brooklyn Community Foundation and The New York Community Trust, BAM and the DeVos Institute of Arts Management (DVIAM) at the Kennedy Center, strive to help arts organizations expand their skill base, increase their institutional capacity, and build necessary foundations for their long-term success. The program culminates with each participating company presenting a self-funded production in the BAM Fisher's Fishman Theater Space.

BAM Fisher (Fishman Theater Space) is a new facility located at 321 Ashland Place, around the corner from BAM's Peter Jay Sharp Building. Now in its second season, BAM Fisher showcases a variety of theater, music, and dance. It is accessible via 2 3 4 5 B Q N R D to Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center, C to Lafayette Avenue and G to Fulton Street.

Photo by Harry Hanson