IN PLAIN SIGHT to Premiere This May at Bootleg Theater

Get ready for the World Premiere of Los Angeles choreographers Carmela Hermann Dietrich and Ally Voye's new collaborative work, IN PLAIN SIGHT, happening Thursday, May 12 through Saturday, May 14, 2016 at Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles, CA.

"IN PLAIN SIGHT is a new deeply personal work that choreographs the details of people's real lives in poignant and humorous ways," shares co-creator Hermann Dietrich. "The work offers a window into wrestling with humanness, while exposing what is invisible, even when people are in plain sight."

All three evening performances will begin at 7:30pm. Bootleg Theater is located at 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057. Tickets are $25; $20 for Students/DRC (Dance Resource Center) Members. For more information, visit inplainsightshow.com.

IN PLAIN SIGHT is a series of serio-comedic choreographic portraits, featuring four people, who each grapple with a compulsive behavior. The four - Carmela, Ally, Bill and Leah - have volunteered to bare themselves for this project and divulge quirky compulsions and their psychological roots - compulsive actions developed to cope with overwhelming life events. These people, who would never have met without this project, find connection with each other through performing together. IN PLAIN SIGHT was developed through in-depth videotaped interviews with each performer. The transcripts and videos of these interviews provided material for the choreography and text. The creators look at the underlying causes and question why someone can, can't, or won't stop the behavior. The 'dances' expose what isn't visible even when they are 'in plain sight.'

CREDITS: • Ally Voye • Co-creator, Choreographer, Performer • Carmela Hermann Dietrich • Co-creator, Choreographer, Performer • Leah Rothman • Performer • Bill Ratner • Performer • Pablo Santiago-Brandwein • Lighting Designer • Tom Moose • Composer

THE FOUR PORTRAITS:

- Carmela The piece begins with the complexities of food obsession and body consciousness, which became magnified for Carmela when her son was born with developmental delays. In her terror and confusion, she could find comfort only in ice cream, donuts, and other sugary items. Thus, the dance film, Orange Thursday, a duet between a herself and 5-dozen donuts, is incorporated into the piece.

- Ally Sharing the food theme, Ally hurls herself repeatedly against the floor in the ongoing losing battle choosing Kale Salad over Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

- Leah Then Leah, an attorney-turned-stay-at-home-Brentwood mom of 3, responds to her special needs children with various diagnoses, by making sure that every element of her outfit matches - from her underwear, nails, and handbag, to the water bottle and chewing gum for that day.

- Bill Bill, one of America's premier voice-over performers, experienced the deaths of three family members by the time he was 13 years old. In an attempt to stave off any future tragedy, he developed superstitious systems of counting during daily tasks.

BIOS:

Ally Voye (Co-Creator, Choreographer, Performer) - Ally Voye is a dancer, choreographer, educator and dance filmmaker who began her dance training in Salt Lake City at the Life Arts Center. A graduate of the Department of World Arts and Cultures at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), she studied extensively with Victoria Marks and Maria Gillespie, among others. In 2014, Voye was awarded a year-long grant by San Francisco's Margaret Jenkins Dance Company to develop her choreography and dance film work with her mentor, Cari Ann Shim Sham*. Voye's choreography and dance films have been presented at a variety of venues throughout Los Angeles and the United States including the Pasadena Dance Festival, Ford Amphitheater, UCLA's Fowler Museum, Highways Performance Space, Jacob's Pillow, and the American Dance Festival. She is co-artistic director of IN/EX Dance Project, a Los Angeles-based collaborative dance company dedicated to unconventional performances. In addition to producing, performing, and choreographing locally, Voye is a dance-teaching artist at The Growing Place Preschool in Santa Monica.

Carmela Hermann Dietrich (Co-Creator, Choreographer, Performer) - Carmela Hermann Dietrich, M.F.A., is a choreographer whose work is informed by personal history, politics, and the things people don't discuss in public. Hermann Dietrich's choreography has been presented throughout the United States and Europe, including The Getty Center, Bootleg Theater, REDCAT, Highways Performance Space, and Los Angeles Central Library, to name a few. Hermann Dietrich received her M.F.A. in Choreography from UCLA, where she was influenced by her work with Simone Forti and Victoria Marks. Hermann Dietrich collaborated with Forti from 1998 to 2007, performing improvisational duets based on the cities where they performed. Pieces included, Seattle, and New York. "Learning to Speak," her article about text-based dance improvisation was published in Taken By Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader (Weslyan University Press, 2003). She creates duets with longtime collaborator Terrence Luke Johnson, which comedically take on issues of sex, death, and intimacy. Hermann Dietrich has performed in works by Victoria Marks, Christine Suarez, Carol McDowell, and Noga Chomut.

Leah Rothman (Performer) - Leah Rothman, a non-practicing attorney, is currently working as a full-time mom to her three young children. Originally from Marin County, she has spent the majority of her adult life in Los Angeles with her wonderful husband Jacob. In Marin, she was principal flautist in the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra. As an undergraduate, she majored in philosophy at UCLA before attending Law School at Columbia University. As an attorney, she loved not only the work, but also the heels and the suits. She practiced corporate litigation at Stroock, Stroock & Lavan, before starting a family. In her role as mom, her jobs include conflict resolution, creating scheduling spreadsheets, carpooling, cooking meals, being on the green committee, and staying calm without pharmaceuticals (SoulCycle and hot yoga help). She is inspired and passionate about color; in the wake of the whirlwind surrounding her special-needs children, she finds comfort in the therapeutic nature of fashion.

Bill Ratner (Performer) - Bill Ratner is one of America's premier voice-over performers on movie trailers, documentaries, computer games, and cartoons. Ratner's spoken-word performances are featured on National Public Radio's Good Food, The Business, and KCRW's Strangers. He is a nine-time winner of The Moth StorySLAMs. His personal essays and short stories are published in The Missouri Review, The Baltimore Review, Hobo Pancakes, FeminineCollective.com, Blue Lake Review, Spork Press, Niteblade, Papier Maché Press, and Wolfsinger Publications. He is the author of the book Parenting for the Digital Age: The Truth Behind Media's Effect on Children and What To Do About It from Familius Press. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from University of California Riverside/Palm Desert. www.billratner.com

Bootleg Theater is a year-round inclusive art space for original, boundary-defying live theater, music, and dance performances born from the diverse cultural and artistic landscape of Los Angeles. Bootleg supports and collaborates with the best of established and emerging music, theater, and dance artists to create daring multi-disciplinary live experiences that are striking, contemporary and non-traditional. www.bootlegtheater.org

Pictured: The cast/performers from IN PLAIN SIGHT: Carmela Hermann Dietrich (co-creator), Leah Rothman, Bill Ratner, and Ally Voye (co-creator). Photo by Denise Leitner.