Lava To Premiere ATLAS At Dixon Place 12/1-11

Obie and BESSIE Award-winning performance troupe LAVA presents Atlas, its 12th performance
project, at Dixon Place Tuesdays-Sundays December 1 - 11th at 7:30 pm plus two 3PM matinees on Saturdays December 3 & 10.

A $10 preview will take place on December 1st. Opening night on Friday, December 2nd is a
beneft performance for both Dixon Place and LAVA with a reception to follow. Tickets range from $12 advance for students, $15 adult and $18 at the door. Tickets to the beneft are $50 - $75. All ticket info is available at dixonplace.org.

Featuring the company's signature combination of acrobatics and visual art, set to live and sampled music, the 8 strong women of LAVA will lead audiences on a journey through 360 degrees of space using every direction and means imaginable--walking on hands, soaring on wheels, dodging negative space and creating a literal human compass.

Audiences will experience perspectives that seem to shift direction as the company explores the notion of navigational methods both internal and external. From the endurance of traditional Polynesian navigators to the compositional and philosophical infuence of Merce Cunningham, Atlas covers a vast territory.

Atlas features a collaboration with visual artist Tony Feher whose sculptural installation of water bottles suspended by string pierces the open spaces to create a symphony of movement referencing clocks, the night sky and time itself; ‘Merce Drawings', a collaboration with visual artist Nancy Brooks Brody inspired by the collaborative work of Merce Cunningham (with whom Johnson studied) in which slowly moving bodies use elastic bands to outline shapes that
defne the trails and surfaces that our presences make and leave in the world; ‘Cloud Surfng', in which human bodies create an undulating topography that is ridden and tread upon by an intrepid fyer, accompanied by Mamie Minch on harmonium and vocals; and human pyramids built with the help of a trampoline, refecting the shapes that crystal atoms create as they grow inside a cave or rock.

Atlas is created and performed by Rose Calucchia, Molly Chanoff, Sarah Dey Hirshan, Diana Y Greiner, Sarah East Johnson, Calia Marshall, Lollo Romanski, Allison Schnur. Directed by Sarah East Johnson. Music composed by DJ Tikka Masala. Music composed and performed by Mamie Minch. Visual art by Nancy Brooks Brody and Tony Feher.

Costumes by Jocelyn Davis. Lighting by Alison May. Directed by founder Sarah East Johnson, the women of LAVA manifest a feminist vision of dance that prioritizes strength, courage, focus and teamwork over the more objectifying values of traditional dance.

LAVA is an award-winning troupe that has become known for its explosive choreographic language incorporating acrobatics, trapeze, swing dancing, wrestling, contact improvisation and tango among others. Since its debut in 2000, LAVA's work has been seen at City Center, Summerstage, Celebrate Brooklyn, The Flea Theater, The Joyce Theater, Judson Church, PS 122, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop and Dixon Place. The company has also toured to MASS MoCA, The Walker Art Center, San Francisco, New Mexico, Australia, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and numerous colleges throughout the country. www.lavabrooklyn.org