REDCAT Presents Premiere of Rosanna Gamson's Dance Theatre Work TOV

As part of the Sharon Disney Lund Dance Series, REDCAT proudly presents the world premiere of Rosanna Gamson/World Wide's Tov .

Choreographed and directed by Los Angeles-based artist Rosanna Gamson, Tov features a live vocal score created by acclaimed Polish theater group Stowarzyszenie Teatralne CHOREA (CHOREA Theatre Association), and lighting and set design by Christopher Kuhl. Developed in the US and Poland with artists from both countries, Tov premieres with a bi-national cast at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater Thursday, March 18, 2010 through Saturday, March 27, 2010.

Rosanna Gamson/World Wide: Tov
by Rosanna Gamson
with Timur Bekbosunov, Rachel Butler-Green, Eric Esparza, Suna Lavinia Findikoglu, Delilah Gamson Levy, Michael Gomez, Sarah Goodrich, Tomasz Krzyzanowski, Li-Ann Lim, Lilia Lopez, Edgar Miramontes, Carin Noland, Paul Outlaw, Tamara Pullman, Tomasz Rodowicz, Elina Toneva, and Alexandria Yalj
Lighting and set design by Christopher Kuhl

Thursday, March 18 - Saturday, March 20 | 8:30 pm
Sunday, March 21 | 3:00 pm
Wednesday, March 24 - Saturday March 27 | 8:30 pm

Tickets: $20-25 [students $16-20] 
213 237-2800 | www.redcat.org

Deftly weaving together intense physical movement, spoken word, vocal music, and the "theater laboratory" ensemble techniques originated by Jerzy Grotowski, Rosanna Gamson stages a profusely evocative dance drama around the story of the tarpan horse--an extinct species of Eurasian wild horse that was genetically "reassembled" in the 1930s through back-breeding of domestic horses. The Los Angeles choreographer braids this allegory of regeneration with reflections on the history of her own Polish-Jewish ancestors, horse traders from Szczecin, and the fate of Polish Jewry. Tov takes its title from "Gamzu l'tovah" ("This too is for the good"), a favorite saying of one of Gamson's forebears, Talmudic scholar Nachum ish Gamzu, who found God's hand even in tragedy. The full-evening work features a cast of seventeen performers from Poland and the U.S., with text spoken and sung in Hebrew, Polish, English, Yiddish, Bulgarian and German.

After watching an early installment of Tov during REDCAT's 2008 New Original Work Festival (NOW), Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed proclaimed, "...The choreography and music are gripping, the company is impressive and the uses of mixed-media are meaningful. Tov is too good for 24 minutes. An evening is called for." REDCAT agreed and partnered with the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing and Media Arts and NPN to co-commission a full-length version .

Since the showing in 2008, Gamson has expanded upon the original work, established a collaboration with CHOREA Theatre Association based in Lodz, Poland, and brought the theater company to the United States for the first time, as part of a three-week development residency. On January 9, 2010, Rosanna Gamson/World Wide and REDCAT hosted a presentation demonstrating CHOREA's ensemble training techniques and virtuosic singing, and previewing some of the source material for Tov. CHOREA's Artistic Director, Tomasz Rodowicz, and two performers from the company return to the United States to perform in Tov.

Tov is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by REDCAT in partnership with Myrna Loy Center for the Performing and Media Arts, and NPN. Major contributors of NPN are the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, MetLife Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org/programs/creation-fund. Additional support for the creation and performance of Tov comes from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the County of Los Angeles Arts Commission, the Durfee Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and through the generous gift of Stanley Epstein.

BIOGRAPHIES

ROSANNA GAMSON/WORLD WIDE
Artistic Director, Rosanna Gamson convenes skilled dancers, singers, actors, musicians and visual artists from eclectic backgrounds and diverse countries to create exciting new collaborations. Weaving our different skills, cultural traditions, and points-of-view into a multi-layered vision, we make sumptuous, entertaining and provocative dance theater that reflects the complexity of living in the world together. Visit her website www.rosannagamsonworldwide.org

Rosanna Gamson's dance theater work for her Los Angeles-based company, Rosanna Gamson/World Wide, has been commissioned and presented by many local theaters and museums including Grand Performances, the J. Paul Getty Center, Luckman Fine Arts Center, and the Skirball Cultural Center; as well as PICA's TBA Festival, The Dance Center of Columbia College (Chicago) and the Harbourfront Centre (Toronto). Gamson's most recent project, RAVISH, was last presented by ODC Theater and Litquake at Project Artaud in San Francisco. Gamson was a mentor in the Southern California pilot of the CHIME Program. She has won numerous Horton Awards including a Special Award as Dance Innovator. She currently teaches dance composition and dance theater in the Dance and Theater Schools at California Institute of the Arts.

TOMASZ RODOWICZ AND CHOREA THEATRE ASSOCIATION
Following a four-year period of collaboration with Jerzy Grotowski's Teatr Laboratorium, Tomasz Rodowicz became a founding member and Music Director of The Association of Theatrical Practices Gardzienice (Gardzienice) in 1977 with Wlodzimierz Staniewski. In collaboration with actors from Gardzienice, Rodowicz established the Chorea Theater Association in Lodz, Poland. With the goal of re-creating the bond between performers and audience that exists in ritual, CHOREA continues to make "expeditions" to communities in Europe, and in particular, to study ancient Greek theater and religious rites, in order to build a bridge between ancient and contemporary theater. The company is known for its sung performances, strenuous physical and vocal training, anthropological fieldwork, and sense of humor.

ABOUT REDCAT
Opened by CalArts in 2003, the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater introduces diverse audiences, students and artists to the most influential developments in the arts from around the world, and gives artists in this region the creative support they need to achieve national and international stature. REDCAT is the newest partner in an international network of adventurous art and performance centers, which together are playing a vital role in the evolution of contemporary culture. REDCAT is a center for experimentation, discovery and lively civic discourse.

Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 W Second Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

For more information, visit www.redcat.org.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.