DCASE Contemporary Performing Arts Series' ONEDGE Set for 1/11-2/1

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) presents a new performance series, OnEdge, January 11 - February 1, promised to have adventurous audiences on the edge of their seats. The FREE series will spotlight experimental dance, theater, and genre-defying performances and workshops from national and International Artists and companies, including several Chicago and world premieres.

OnEdge will examine deeply personal themes of identity, heartbreak, family and philosophy through in-your-face samplings of contemporary performances by emerging and mid-career artists such as Keith Hennessy (San Francisco), Miguel Gutierrez (New York), Peter Trosztmer (Montreal) and George Lewis Jr. and Lewis Forever (Los Angeles and Berlin). The series also includes workshops with the guest artists.

Performance and workshop locations include the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington Street) and the Storefront Theater (66 E. Randolph Street). Due to limited capacity, reservations are strongly recommended. To reserve FREE admission seating and for complete details, visit cityofchicago.org/dcase.

**Some performances include sexual themes and adult content. Not recommended for children under the age of 15.**

Sarah Lewis from Berlin-based Lewis Forever will present If you don't pay attention to me, I WON'T PAY ATTENTION TO YOU, a workshop on being an actor in the "attention economy" at the Storefront Theater on Saturday, January 11 and Sunday, January 12 from noon - 4 p.m. each day. Attendees will utilize method-acting techniques to examine identity. Participants do not need to have a performance background to attend.

Also from Lewis Forever is the Chicago premiere of SISTER, a black and white film that delves into the darker aspects of kinship and reduces the complexity of difficult interactions between sisters, and down to the actions of killing and being killed. Starring real-life sisters Ligia Manuela Lewis, Isabel Lewis and Sarah Lewis - and with live scoring by their brother George Lewis, Jr. of Twin Shadow - the film will be shown at the Claudia Cassidy Theater on the second floor of the Chicago Cultural Center on Monday, January 13 and Tuesday, January 14 at 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. each day.

HEAVENS WHAT HAVE I DONE, from New York choreographer Miguel Gutierrez, addresses the high stakes of artistic practice. In this solo work, Guitierrez weaves a rambling and comic monologue that unspools in a bold and ferocious dance. The setting for the Chicago premiere is the Chicago Rooms gallery on the second floor of the Chicago Cultural Center on Saturday, January 18 at 6:30 p.m.

With its roots in the tradition of travel lectures that emerged in the 19th century, CABULA6 invites audiences on a journey into Jeremy Xido's real-life attempts to finance a film and confront the truths of mortality in the 21st century. The Angola Project (Parts 1 and 2) is a fusion of film and narrative, tales and fragments, joining together and crumbling away. The two-part Chicago premiere will run Thursday, January

23 and Friday, January 24 in the Claudia Cassidy Theater on the second floor of the Chicago Cultural Center at 6:30 p.m. (Part 1) and 8 p.m. (Part 2) both days.

Keith Hennessy/Circo Zero will bring his 2009 Bessie Award-winning Crotch (all the joseph beuys references in the world cannot heal the pain, confusion, regret, cruelty, betrayal or trauma...) to the Storefront Theater on Friday, January 24 and Saturday, January 25 at 7:30 p.m. both days. On the surface, Crotch is about art, its histories and heroes. Referencing the actions of legendary German artist Joseph Beuys, this solo work is a song, a dance, a lecture and a conversation with the dead.

Eesti: "Myths and Machines" is a U.S. premiere from Peter Trosztmer, a choreographer and performer whose work has been seen around the world. This new work is an attempt to understand the human condition through heroism, history, escape, survival and guilt and a search for identity of past and present. This journey of discovery and redemption will be at the Storefront Theater on Friday, January 31 - Saturday, February 1 at 7:30 p.m. daily.

In Peter Trosztmer's Found Sound Workshop, 10 participants are invited to make contact microphones which are then attached to found sculptural items to create the potential for sound. With a sound artist and installation artist, Peter will take time to work with each participant on their own and in groups, exploring the potential of their objects and also creating soundscapes with looping pedals and other devices. This workshop is on Saturday, February 1 from 1 - 3 p.m. in the Dance Studio on the first floor of the Chicago Cultural Center.

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