SuperGroup, Nichole Canuso Dance, NAKA Dance Theater and More Set for Velocity's SCUBA 2014

Velocity's SCUBA 2014 features performances by four nationally emerging talents in contemporary dance: Minneapolis's "excessively smart, super imaginative" SuperGroup, Philadelphia bright light Nichole Canuso Dance Company in a solo work influenced by her mentor renowned British movement/theater artist Wendy Houstoun, and San Francisco's NAKA Dance Theater performance inspired by their research trip to Northern Japan in response to Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. PLUS a SCUBA-commissioned world premiere, Paraphrase, by Seattle's own Elia Mrak + Erica Badgeley,

Velocity initiated SCUBA in 2002 to create a national platform providing precious touring opportunities to contemporary dance artists. SCUBA gives audiences a fantastic view of the breadth of choreographic invention across the country, while every year sending a Seattle artist on their first national tour.

SCUBA 2014 COMMUNITY EVENTS //

MASTER CLASS: ELIA MRAK
HORIZONTAL.VERTICAL
WED April 23 / 8:9:30PM

Mining the techniques of Qigong, Bboying and Flying Low, through games, exercises and phrases, we will train the pathway from horizontal to vertical, and back to horizontal again. Transforming the force of gravity around us to run, fall, jump, suspend, and pause, we will learn how to play in the extremes of our physicality. We will hone our senses, to hear music more acutely, observe the space more fully, and invite the touch of others with more tactility. This is an integral technique that transforms the body into an infinite combination of pathways. We will risk, we will sweat, we will perform. We will train.

SCUBA SPEAKEASY LIGHTNING TALKS: ARTISTS AS ACTIVISTS

THURS April 24 / 7PM

Free + open to the public

Velocity Founders Theater 1621 12th Ave

SCUBA artists present what is fuelling their current work and creative process, followed by an open community conversation and Q+A.

NAKA Dance Theater: March 2014 marked the third anniversary of the 3.11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Northern Japan. Drawing from their presentation Artists as Activists in Fukushima, Debby Kajiyama and Jose Navarrete speak about their research trip to Northern Japan in 2012 and the development of their SCUBA work, BAILOUT! or Can you picture this prophecy? The temperatures are too hot for me.

Elia Mrak + Erica Badgeley: "Dramaturgy of the Body" - What is 'dramaturgy', and how does the body source it?

SuperGroup: Part academic lecture, part embodied practice, part novice theater game, SuperGroup offers a glimpse into their collaborative process and their search for the intelligent multitasking performer.

Nichole Canuso: Canuso creates performance that invite the audience to become a part of the work - stepping inside and navigating the terrain of the dance. She will show a video of her most recent project "The Garden", sharing some of the questions and discoveries from this process.

SCUBA Post-Show Conversation

SAT April 26 / Directly following Saturday's SCUBA performance
Free + open to the public

Velocity Founders Theater 1621 12th Ave

Join Elia Mrak, Erica Badgeley, Nichole Canuso, NAKA Dance Theater's Jose Navarrete + Debby Kajiyama, and SuperGroup for a conversation about their work and process with Executive/Artistic Director Tonya Lockyer.

SCUBA PERFORMANCES

April 25-27 / 8PM

Tickets $18 / $20 at the door / $12 students + seniors / $15 MVP

Velocity Founders Theater 1621 12th Ave

A weekend of critically acclaimed performances by four nationally emerging talents in contemporary dance. Featuring a new work by Seattle's Elia Mrak + Erica Badgeley, with Seattle premieres by Nichole Canuso Dance Company (Philadelphia), NAKA Dance Theater (San Francisco) and SuperGroup (Minneapolis).

SCUBA is a visionary Velocity program in partnership with ODC in San Francisco, Philadelphia Dance Projects and independent Minneapolis curator, Laurie Van Wieren that has helped propel onto the national stage SCUBA alumni zoe|juniper, Lingo and Salt Horse.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Elia Mrak + Erica Badgeley (Seattle)

Paraphrase (World premiere)

Paraphrase is a conversation. A story. A narrative. A battle between two extraordinary performers, to be the clearer, the more creative, the more colorful, the more physical, the more imaginative - storyteller. Mrak and Badgeley are exceptional improvisers who delight in pushing each other to the edge.

Elia Mrak fuses physical technique with imagination, to transform his practices of Qigong, Bboying and Flying Low, into a dramaturgy of theater. Born in Seattle, he has performed, taught and directed throughout the last decade in Europe, Central/South America, and the United States. Mentors include: David Zambrano (BELGIUM), Park Young-Cool (KOREA) and FeverOne (USA/Rocksteady). He is rooted in Seattle through partnerships with Velocity Dance Center, Washington Hall, and The Beacon (Massive Monkees). In 2014, Elia Mrak received the prestigious Iberescena Fellowship to create "The Samurai Project", a three-country collaboration throughout the Americas with Viko Kaizen (MEXICO) and Martin Piliponsky (ARGENTINA). They will hold auditions in Seattle, Buenos Aires and Mexico City throughout 2014. eliamrak.com

Erica Badgeley. Since graduating with a B.A. Dance from the University of Washington, she has performed with: Kate Wallich | The YC, Danielle Agami / Ate9, Jeffrey Fracé and Elia Mrak. Her work has been presented at Velocity's "NEXT Fest Northwest", On the Boards "12 Minutes Max," and the University of Washington. Internationally, she has performed with Idan Sharabi in Montreal, and trained with David Zambrano in Barcelona. Originally trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet and LINES Ballet, her athletic, rebellious spirit has led her to Flying Low, Break Dance, and the practice of integrating her past into her present through improvisation. She also transforms her performance practice into her pedagogy as a GYROTONIC Instructor.

Nichole Canuso Dance Company (Philadelphia)

Midway Avenue (Seattle premiere)

The past and present overlap in ways literal and ephemeral to create Midway Avenue, a composite of a life, using Chopin's 24 preludes as its frame. Solo performer Canuso constructs and transforms an outline of her memories, selecting images of the barely captured and the firmly etched, in an attempt to reveal larger questions about what we keep and what we toss aside. With movement and text, humor and pathos, simple images accumulate to reveal an intricate system built of personal details and universal yearnings.

Nichole Canuso was a company member of Headlong Dance Theater from 1997 - 2011 and has performed and collaborated with Pig Iron Theater Company, Theater Exile, Karen Bamonte Dance Works, and co-directed Moxie dance collective from 1999-2004. In 2009 Canuso performed with physical theater artist Bill Irwin in The Happiness Lecture. Canuso is interested in taking on collaborative projects that defy any one genre. Her choreography keeps the audience very much in mind, often inviting direct participation of the viewer. Fellowship support for her choreography includes the National Endowment for the Arts, Bessie Shoenberg First Light Commission, The Leeway Foundation, the Independence Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and others. Presentation of her choreography includes Dance Theater Workshop (NYC), The International Festival for Art and Ideas, HERE arts Center and Movement Research Exchange. Choreographic residencies include 2009 fellowship at Maggie Alessee National Center for Choreography (MANCC), Millay Colony for the Arts (NY), The Orchard Project (NY), Live Arts Brewery (PA). Nichole was the recipient of a Knight Arts Challenge grant for the development of The Garden, a guided experience for 6 audience members at a time. Her next project CoPresence will premiere in two cities simultaneously, uniting the performances via live feed video. nicholecanusodance.org

WATCH Takes (2010)

NAKA Dance Theater (San Francisco)

BAILOUT! or Can you picture this prophecy? The temperatures are too hot for me.

(Seattle premiere)

Navarrete x Kajiyama Dance Theater (NAKA)'s multi-disciplinary BAILOUT! or Can you picture this prophecy? The temperatures are too hot for me. addresses the 3.11 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in Northern Japan. It looks at humanity's relationship with the oceans and how we cope when facing environmental disaster. The choices we have made to fulfill our urban lifestyles have resulted in unimaginable consequences; we have abandoned our responsibility to work with nature, and instead, are recklessly pushing the limits of the earth. Large financial institutions are being bailed out, but who will bail out the rest of us?

Debby Kajiyama's interests lie in the intersection of cultural studies, social justice, and performance. Influential teachers are Nora Dinzelbacher (Argentine Tango), Hiroyuki "Jimi" Nakagawa (Taiko), and Kira Kirsch & Frey Faust (Axis Syllabus). Since 2001, she has created five full-evening programs and numerous shorter works with NAKA that have been presented nationally and internationally. Debby has also performed with Dandelion Dancetheater, Dance Brigade and Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble. In 2009 she was an artist-in-residence at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and in 2010-2011, she and Navarrete were Irvine Fellows at Montalvo Arts Center's Lucas Artists Residency Program.

José Navarrete is a native of México City where he studied dance at the National Institute of Fine Arts. He has a B.A. in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and M.F.A in Dance from Mills College. José has studied dance with Sara Shelton Mann, Taiko with Hiroyuki Nakagawa, Argentine Tango with Nora Dinzelbacher, and Topeng with Pat Jimat. In 2004, José was awarded residencies at The Yard (MA) and Djerassi (CA). He is the recipient of a CHIME Across Borders year-long fellowship with Ralph Lemon. Navarrete teaches interdisciplinary arts to youth and adults in Mexico and the US.

nkdancetheater.com

WATCH Excerpt BAILOUT! or Can you picture this prophecy?

SuperGroup (Minneapolis)

The Tent Has Been Pulled Down (Seattle premiere)

In The Tent Has Been Pulled Down the three members of SuperGroup butt their heads against generational divides, complicated performative tasks, and techno-ontological vastness. Through precise layering of text, sound, and an evolving movement score created from successive impulses, The Tent Has Been Pulled is simultaneously a rigorous exploration of the multitasking body, an earnest attempt to grapple with shifting feminisms, and a quick-witted satire - with a score composed and performed live by the performers.

SuperGroup is the Minneapolis based performance collaboration of Erin Search-Wells, Sam Johnson, and Jeffrey Wells. SuperGroup began in the Red Eye Theater's Works-in-Progress program, 2008 and since has shown work at venues across the Twin Cities including the BLB, the Bedlam Theatre, the Southern Theater, the Casket Arts Building, and the Walker Art Center, as well as at the Bushwick Starr and BAX in Brooklyn. Along with full-length performances, SuperGroup also creates short dances, queer cabaret performances, durational structured improvisations, dance films, and tea parties. This May the Joyce Theater will present the full-length The Tent Has Been Pulled Down at the Invisible Dog Art Center in NYC. Upcoming projects include a work for Young Dance premiering in May 2014 and a collaboration with playwright Rachel Jendrzejewski, art rock band Brute Heart, and installation artist Liz Miller. supergroupshow.biz

WATCH The Tent Has Been Pulled Down Trailer

ABOUT SCUBA: SCUBA National Touring Network for Dance is a co-operative enterprise founded by Velocity Dance Center, in conjunction with ODC Theater in San Francisco, independent curator Laurie Van Wieren in Minneapolis, and Philadelphia Dance Projects. From the beginning, SCUBA has met the ambitious goal of touring regionally established, nationally emerging artists to and from the participating cities. SCUBA strives to present these artists/tours through co-operative presenting and grassroots mobilization without sacrificing the highest standard of professionalism.

Pictured: NAKA Dance Theater. Photo by Kim Anno.