World Premiere Dance Piece RISING Launches PRAx's Season and Year-Long Exploration of Water

On Friday, September 27, 2024 at 7:00pm, the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts (PRAx) and the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University launch PRAx's 2024-25 season and year-long exploration of water with the world premiere performance of Rising, an evening-length work that brings together the GRAMMY-nominated Neave Trio, New York City's Pigeonwing Dance, a rich score by eminent composer Robert Sirota, intricately detailed choreography by Gabrielle Lamb, and the spoken words of oceanographers and naturalists. Dances about water - rivers and oceans - are among the oldest human forms of expression; but in this time of climate change and rising sea levels, Rising takes on heightened significance. The performance will be preceded by a PRAxPRELUDE Curator's Talk, “How to Carry Water,” with Ashley Stull Meyers and Kelly Bosworth at 6pm in the Toomey Lobby.

An exploration of the human connection to Earth's oceans, Rising intertwines Robert Sirota's emotive, Iyrical music with Gabrielle Lamb's choreography, rooted in restraint and scientific inspiration. Rising, developed over three years, was initiated by the Neave Trio (violinist Anna Williams, cellist Mikhail Veselov, and pianist Eri Nakamura), whose mission “to Engage, to Exchange, to Connect” prompted them to respond through music and movement to the 2021 UN Report on Climate Change. Unusually, the musicians handpicked both composer and choreographer and have been vital to shaping the work's vision. The artists wish to bring attention to the impacts of climate change and rising sea levels on marine ecosystems, while leaving space for the hope that, in the words of naturalist Craig Foster, “we can all learn to walk a little more lightly on this planet.”

Gabrielle Lamb describes Rising's choreography and its connection to the images of its oceanic theme: “A single dancer is onstage, moving to spoken text by an oceanographer describing oceanic gyres. Words give way to the piano's rippling arpeggios, and more dancers enter with sinuous oscillations suggestive of sea creatures. Soon, their five bodies combine into fluent living sculptures. Eye contact connects dancers, transforming abstract movement into human interaction and hinting at multiple interrelated stories.”

About the Artists

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