Sardono W. Kusumo & Jennifer Tipton Join For Rain Coloring Forest At REDCAT

REDCAT launches its eighth season with the world premiere of Rain Coloring Forest, an evocative multimedia performance spearheaded by Indonesian visionary Sardono W. Kusumo and renowned lighting designer Jennifer Tipton. Performances will be held at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater on Thursday, September 16, 2010 and run through Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 8:30 pm with an additional matinee on Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 3:00 pm.

Widely revered for artistry that transcends traditional performance or visual disciplines, Sardono recently created a vast collection of 30-foot-tall paintings inspired by "Tankas," sacred Tibetan scrolls. Like a dancer in a trance, Sardono allows his movements and sensations to organically extend and translate into visuals with the oil paint melting, drifting, spreading and flowing naturally on the canvas.

Rain Coloring Forest was initiated when Tipton encountered these paintings during a visit to Sardono's studio in Jakarta. Upon viewing the 30-foot-tall scroll paintings, she remarked, "There are so many lights in the painting." Now two years later, with a collaborative team assembled including five of Sardono's dancers, composer David Rosenboom, and video/animation artist Maureen Selwood, Sardono W. Kusumo and Jennifer Tipton are in residency at REDCAT for the final stages of creative development leading up to the world premiere of Rain Coloring Forest on September 16, 2010 in the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater.

A virtual forest of hanging paintings will be transformed by Tipton's mastery of light and shadow into a compelling and evolving visual environment for performance. Vivid movement and musical elements that feel both contemporary and ancient bring new dimensions to the rainforest imagery, evoking rituals of historic Indonesian tribes and deeply personal quests for peace and a sense of belonging in a time of visceral global change. Multi-dimensional projections, including abstracted imagery of dances new and old, are combined with a rich, live score of electronic sounds shaped by vocal gestures to expand on the universal themes introduced by Sardono, who says he dances "as a man who has lost or been uprooted from his own culture."

Rain Coloring Forest is made possible by the Contemporary Art Centers (CAC) network, administered by the?New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), with major support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. CAC is comprised of leading art centers, and brings together performing arts curators to support collaboration and work across disciplines, and is an initiative of NEFA's National Dance Project.

Rain Coloring Forest will premiere at REDCAT on Thursday, September 16, 2010 and run through Sunday, September 19, 2010. Curtain for performances on Thursday-Saturday is 8:30 pm with a Sunday performance at 3:00 pm. Tickets are $25-30 ($20-25 for students with current I.D.) and are available at redcat.org or by calling 213 237-2800. REDCAT is located at the corner of W. 2nd and Hope Streets, inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex (631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012).

 

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