STAGE TUBE: Sneak Peek - BIRDS WITH SKYMIRRORS Plays Tonight at BAM

Samoan director and choreographer Lemi Ponifasio and his New Zealand-based company MAU make their BAM debut with the US premiere of Birds With Skymirrors, a haunting reflection on our relationship with the world in a time of climate change. Featuring concept, set design, choreography, and direction by Lemi Ponifasio and lighting design by Helen Todd, the show runs tonight, November 19, through November 22, 2014 at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave). Click below for a sneak peek at the piece!

Birds With Skymirrors is a radical composition in poetry, chant, and dance which emerged from Ponifasio's experiences while working on the remote Micronesian island of Tarawa. There he encountered birds carrying strips of video tape in their beaks, dangling like liquid mirrors in the sky-an image of both beauty and the spirit of death. A visually stunning piece, featuring precise, gestural choreography against a stark backdrop,Birds With Skymirrors is a karanga ("summoning," an element of cultural protocol of the New Zealand M?ori people), a genealogical prayer, a ceremony, a poetic space, a life reflection.

Most of the performers of MAU-particularly in this work-are from low-lying atolls of the Moana Ocean which are already experiencing the disastrous consequences of climate change. Birds With Skymirrors is Ponifasio's response to this reality, his idea of the last dance on earth.

Lemi Ponifasio, an international leading force in theater and dance, established MAU in 1995 as his platform for critical reflection and creativity with artists, scholars, activists, intellectuals, and community leaders. MAU means a declaration to the truth of a matter or revolution, as an effort to transform. In his artistic universe, Ponifasio orients the modern individual towards other dimensions of consciousness by way of the decelerated rhythm of his strict aesthetic, making use of striking images, movement, and dynamic interplay of light and darkness. A pioneer at the international frontier of dance and theater art, his theatrical vision transcends the barriers between genres and cultures and transmits the universal power of art. Globally, Ponifasio's productions such as The Crimson House, Stones In Her Mouth, Tempest: Without a Body, Le Savali: Berlin, and Birds With Skymirrors shed light on controversial topics. He presents his work at major theaters and festivals around the world, including Festival d'Avignon, The?a?tre de la Ville in Paris, Edinburgh International Festival, Ruhrtriennale in Germany, Southbank Centre in London, Holland Festival, Lincoln Center, Venice Biennale, Santiago a Mil International Theater Festival in Chile, Vienna Festival, and Berliner Festspiele.

For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.