Cid Pearlman/Performance Projects to Premiere ECONOMIES OF EFFORT: 1 in 2015

Cid Pearlman/Performance Projects has announced the world premiere of Economies of Effort: 1, an evening-length dance exploring the virtues of self-reliance and the creative impulse. Choreographed by Cid Pearlman with an original score composed and performed by Albert Mathias, Economies of Effort: 1 opens Thursday, February 5, 2015 at the Joe Goode Annex in San Francisco, followed by performances at Motion Pacific in Santa Cruz and Pieter Performance Space in Los Angeles.

Economies of Effort: 1 is the first installment in a planned triptych of performances by Pearlman on the theme of "economy." Performed in the round, and featuring a set designed by visual artist Robbie Schoen that the dancers build each night as part of the choreography, Economies of Effort: 1 aims to generate questions about the differences between material arts and more ephemeral ones like dance.

"The set begins as a box -- part Ikea, part Home Depot, part museum installation -- out of which the dancers get to build their own world," says Pearlman. "The piece is fundamentally about what it means to be a maker, and I've taken inspiration from, among others things, the Maker Movement that's caught fire over the last several years."

Bessie Award-winning composer Mathias, best known for his work with Contraband, Bebe Miller and Kathleen Hermesdorf/ALTERNATIVA, will create an original score for Economies of Effort: 1. Just as the dancers take an active part in constructing the set each night, so too will they operate the music on two turntables and a laptop. In a radical act of self-sufficiency and self-containment -- of economy, if you will -- the dancers control all of the technical aspects of the production from the set to the sound and lighting.

Economies of Effort: 1 was inspired in part by Pearlman's recent residency at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, and was created during a six-month artist residency at Motion Pacific. The second part of the triptych is scheduled to premiere in April 2015 as part of a residency at STÜ in Estonia. Pearlman plans to complete the triptych back in San Francisco the following year.

Also on the program is the revival of Drowning Poems (2011), a trio for three women. Restaged in the round, Drowning Poems draws its imagery from the writings of poets Carrie Powers, Stevie Smith and Emily Dickinson.

Over the last two decades Pearlman has choreographed more than 25 works, including Your Body is Not a Shark, an investigation into the inevitable fragility of the human body, which premiered at ODC Theater in January 2013. Economies of Effort: 1 comprises the all-female ensemble of Julia Daniel, Collette Kollewe, Claire Melbourne, Cynthia Strauss and Chelsea Zamora.

General admission tickets for the premiere of Economies of Effort:1 go on sale January 2, 2015, and cost $18 to $22. To purchase online, visit cidpearlman.bpt.me or call 800-838-3006. Tickets for the performances at Motion Pacific in Santa Cruz cost $18 to $20, and may be purchased online at motionpacific.com or by calling 831.457.1616. The performance at Pieter Performance Space in Los Angeles accepts non-monetary donations to its free bar and boutique. For more information, visit pieterpasd.com.

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