FirstWorks to Premiere Lostwax Multimedia Dance's ZOOLOGIC

As part of their mission to build community through world-class performing arts and education programs, FirstWorks presents Zoologic, a World Premiere work from Providence's own Lostwax Multimedia Dance. Voted "Rhode Island's best dance company" in a Providence Phoenix 2011 Readers' Poll, Lostwax has toured across the U.S., in Europe and Asia, and has regularly sold-out its Providence performances for FirstWorks. Zoologic launches in a three-day premiere run at RISD Auditorium on April 10, 11 at 8 p.m. and April 12 at 4 p.m., 2015. Tickets to the performance are on sale now for $15 in advance / $20 at the door and are available at first-works.org or 401-421-4278.

From 'panda cams' and electronic wildlife tagging to selfies, snapchat, and drones, Lostwax Multimedia Dance explores the ways in which technologies of communication and capture create more or less visible cages in contemporary life. Told through author Thalia Field's contemporary love story/environmental tragedy, we follow Tessela, a woman trapped in her own self-made cage, as she meets Heine Hediger, the Swiss specialist in animal behavior in zoos. The stories, both human and animal, provide a piercing look at fight, flight, and living life under surveillance.

Zoologic was created by Lostwax Artistic Director Jamie Jewett, along with his long-term collaborator composer/media artist R. Luke DuBois, surveillance artist/scholar Elise Morrison and performers Shura Baryshnikov, Sydney Skybetter, Kathryn Mcnamara, and Ali Brodsky. The Lostwax dancers will be joined onstage by drones of various shapes and sizes that in turns surveil them, protect them, and become fellow living creatures. R. Luke DuBois provides a fierce soundscape composed using the sounds of endangered species as collected over the last 100 years by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The result is at once romantic and nightmarish.

"We so appreciate the boundary-pushing talent of these artists who call Rhode Island home," said FirstWorks Executive Artistic Director Kathleen Pletcher. "Jamie Jewett and Lostwax challenge our imaginations, create gorgeous productions, and open our eyes to the world. Lostwax is using art to explore issues around how our human behavior is recorded in the technological world we live in."

Lostwax has long been interested in exploring the intersection between bodies and technology; Zoologic takes us further into the rapidly expanding range of surveillance technologies that we encounter on a daily basis - from Facebook and Match.com, to CCTV cameras and drones. Through the platforms of online dating, wildlife surveillance, zoo cams, and domestic partnerships, Zoologic explores the ways in which technologies create situations of voyeurism, exhibitionism, control and freedom in everyday life.

The troupe has a well-established history of premiering new work through FirstWorks. Zoologic marks the fifth world-premiere it has presented over FirstWorks' 10-year history.

"We are tremendously excited about our fifth collaboration with FirstWorks," said Jamie Jewett. "Zoologic was derived through a process that includes the spectrum of creative expertise brought by our cast. Together, we represent four RISCA choreographic fellows. In many ways this piece represents a collaborative tour-de-force of Rhode Island dance."

In addition to the three-day premiere run of Zoologic on April 10-12, Lostwax artistic director Jamie Jewett will conduct in-school workshops on Friday, March 20 for students at Sanchez High School in Providence, R.I. and Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Pawtucket, R.I. These dance workshops are part of the FirstWorks Arts Learning program serving Rhode Island's youth.

Lostwax Multimedia Dance performs Zoologic at the RISD Auditorium, 17 Canal Walk, Providence Greenway, in Providence, R.I. on Friday, April 10 at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 11 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, April 12 at 4 p.m. For more information on the artists or to purchase tickets visit www.first-works.org or call 401-421-4278.

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