World Premiere of EPOCH to Open ODC Theater's Fall Season in October

ODC Theater will present Funsch Dance Experience in the world premiere of EPOCH, created by choreographer Christy Funsch. A one-day-only performance, EPOCH will take place before an in-person audience on Saturday, October 2 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. PT. The event will also be offered as a live digital simulcast. (Proof of full vaccination is required for in-person attendance.) Tickets start at $10, and may be purchased online at odc.dance/EPOCH or by phone at 415-863-9834.

In cheeky defiance of choreographer Doris Humphrey's warning that "all dances are too long," Funsch Dance Experience's EPOCH unfolds over a span of 12 hours in a gratuitous surplus of movement, interrupted by moments of nothingness. Is endurance political? What bonds does an unlikely scenario forge? Working with a large ensemble of 15 dancers, one on-stage musician, and two choreographer-collaborators, Funsch developed the piece over the course of two years, excavating movement ideas from her past, then editing and amalgamating them together with ideas from her many collaborators into an epic new event.

At the heart of the work is an investigation into an idea of the task as ritual, together with an investigation into structures of power. "It seems to me that conventional models of power are continually exerting themselves, similar to the way capitalism requires constant consumption," said Funsch. "I'm arguing, through the elevation and spotlighting of task, for the virtue of slowness and a commitment to dailiness."

Joining Funsch in EPOCH are dancers Shareen DeRyan, Aura Fischbeck, Emily Hansel, Chinchin Hsu, Zoe Huey, Hien Huynh, Jenna Marie, Jennifer Minore, Nadia Oka, Jennifer Perfilio, Phoenicia Pettyjohn, Nol Simonse, Victor Talledos, Lisa Townsend and Nina Wu. Composer Cheryl Leonard joins the ensemble performing a score on her trademark instruments assembled from the natural world.

Additional collaborators include lighting designer Danielle Ferguson, video artist Leo Moring and choreographic partners Maurya Kerr and Coral Martin. Funsch invited Kerr and Martin to assume directorial control of EPOCH during the rehearsal process. Material re-imagined by them will become part of the finished work.

"After a one-year delay, we are thrilled to have EPOCH open our fall season," said ODC Theater Creative Director Chloë Zimberg. "Christy Funsch's work invites audiences into a dissolution of formalism, physically rooted in the dailiness of tasks that are devotional, ritualistic and everyday. As audience members, we are asked to be patient, to slow down towards a durational mode of being, which for me is an inexplicably warm invitation back into the Theater."

For more information, visit odc.dance/EPOCH.

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