AGING PRELUDE Premieres at the Chocolate Factory Theater Next Month

The Chocolate Factory Theater continues its Fall 2023 Season with the premiere of Aging Prelude, a new dance work by chameckilerner. Tickets may be purchased in advance at www.chocolatefactorytheater.org.

Performances run October 20-28, 2023.

Aging Prelude marks chameckilerner's return to live performance (their “farewell” dance work, EXIT, premiered at The Kitchen in 2007; the duo’s subsequent work encompasses video, audio, and multi-channel installations). In this “return to the stage,” they delve into their shared experiences with their aging bodies and their shifting relationship to a visual landscape that idealizes the “perpetuation of youthfulness” - in which bodies are cast into an unending cycle of youth and beauty, bereft of histories and futures, forever immune to the ravages of time.

In response, Aging Prelude draws upon a physical vocabulary taken from iconic nudes featured in art history's paintings, photographs, and sculptures; seeking to bring to light "the body that bears the marks of time on its very skin."

A diverse community of nine performers representing different ages, genders, and racial backgrounds will reenact these renowned nudes, effectively stripping the "default body" of its power within the visual landscape. Driven by personal histories, the passage of time, and the accumulated experiences held within these bodies, Aging Prelude creates a space where one's identity is not confined by age, but rather is defined by an ongoing interplay between their older and younger selves.

In Aging Prelude, the notion of "bodies that bear the marks of time on their skin" ceases to be a source of dread; instead, it becomes a source of fascination, sparking a complex interplay of identification and desire in the observer.

Andrea Lerner and Rosane Chamecki will be joined on stage by Bria Bacon, Anne Gridley, Ted Johnson, Cristina Latici, Bobbi Menuez, Jody Oberfelder, Jailyn Phillips-Wiley, Viviana Rodriguez, and Fabio Tavares.  Lighting Design: Stan Pressner. Set Design: Taylor Friel.

chameckilerner is Rosane Chamecki and Andrea Lerner’s 30 year collaboration, with a body of work that includes dance performances, videos, and installations. Their work has been presented in the US by The Kitchen, DTW, The Joyce Theater, Performance Space 122, Central Park SummerStage, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Mass MoCA, Diverseworks, Jacob’s Pillow, and American Dance Festival; and has toured extensively throughout Europe and South America. 

Their video works have been featured in numerous festivals and group shows, including Historias Brasileiras (MASP - Museum de Arte de Sao Paulo, June 2022), Ron Mandos Gallery (Amsterdam, 2021), 21 Biennial  de  Arte Contemporanea (Brazil, 2019), Les Hivernale CDCN D’Avignon (Le corps : lieu de résistance des chorégraphes réalisatrices, 2019), Theater Freiburg (Suspension and Screendance 2019), Philadelphia Museum of Dance (BARNES Foundation, 2018), Belvedere Project (MARS, Milan, 2018), Boca Raton Museum of the Arts, (2017), Tupi or Not Tupi at Museum Oscar Niemeyer, BLUE PRINT at MOCA Tucson, Transportation Business at Jane Lombard Gallery in NYC, and Wexner Center for The Arts, among others.

Chameckilerner have received numerous fellowships and grants include the Guggenheim Fellowship, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NEFA, NYFA, NYSCA, Jerome Foundation, and Rockefeller Map Fund. Commissions and residencies include Robert Wilson's Watermill Center in 2009, EMPAC (2014-15), Yaddo (2018), Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (2019), Gibney DIP Residency (2019) and most recently,  The Bogliasco Foundation (2021).