ODC Presents Sara Shelton Mann In The World Premiere Of ECHO

ODC Theater is proud to present Sara Shelton Mann in the world premiere of ECHO / RIDING THE RAPIDS, an evening-length investigation into the world of sound, October 11 - 13. A towering figure on the Bay Area's interdisciplinary performance scene since the 1980s, Mann developed ECHO in collaboration with Anya Cloud, Jesse Zaritt and composer Pamela Z, with additional performances by Abby Crain and Jesse Hewit. ECHO runs Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30, and may be purchased online at odc.dance/tickets or by phone at 415-863-9834.

A protégé of Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis in New York City, Mann began work as a choreographer, performer and teacher in 1967. She moved to San Francisco in 1979, and within a few years launched Contraband, a performance group that became legendary for its groundbreaking work combining principles of contact improvisation, systems of the body and spiritual practice into a unified system of research. Since then she's earned a raft of awards and honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, seven Izzie Dance Awards and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award, among many others.

Mann's work on ECHO began in early 2018 as a conversation with Jesse Zaritt, a Brooklyn-based dance artist who has performed with Shen Wei Dance Arts Company, Inbal Pinto Dance Company, as well as Netta Yerushalmy and Faye Driscoll. Zarritt is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Composer and performer Pamela Z, a pioneer of live digital looping techniques, next joined the project, followed by Anya Cloud, a dancer and choreographer whose work has been presented at La MaMa, Movement Research at the Judson Church and REDCAT, among others. She currently teaches at California State University San Marcos. Both Cloud and Zaritt have studied with Mann for years. ECHO is Pamela Z's first collaboration with Mann.

Early work-in-progress iterations of ECHO took place at the School for Contemporary Dance and Thought in Northampton, Massachusetts; Green Street Studios in Boston; the Joe Goode Annex in San Francisco; and Dock'11 in Berlin, Germany.

For the world premiere at ODC Theater, Abby Crain and Jesse Hewit will join the ensemble. Crain and Hewit, both local to the Bay Area, share intersecting histories of collaboration with one other and with Mann, as well as distinguished bodies of work through their own performance vehicles.

"With ECHO I've been interested to explore the relationships between sonic-spatial dimensions, internal and external," said Mann. "I'm curious to know where sounds come from, whether they're real (external) or imaginary (internal). But rooms are like ghosts, filled with the information of their previous occupants, and I've discovered that if I allow myself, I can tune into older noises, too."

"It follows that ECHO was conceived from the beginning as a site-specific project, and at each stop along its development my collaborators and I have had to respond to the specific information in the room. The premiere at ODC Theater will be no different."

Mann notes that echoes also figure as a visual motif throughout the work: "For props we're using feathers, flowers and baking soda. Why? Because they are echoes of my own inspiration! I've been using them for years."

Mann will teach a free workshop incorporating chi practices, writing and material from ECHO on Saturday, October 13 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in ODC Theater. This workshop is part of the ODC Theater Institute series of shared practice sessions with season artists. To RSVP, email theater@odc.dance.

For more information, visit odc.dance/ECHO.

Jesse Zaritt photographed by Robbie Sweeny