OntheBoards.tv Premieres Choreographer Crystal Pite’s Dark Matters

OntheBoards.tv is thrilled to announce the addition of Kidd Pivot Frankurt RM's Dark Matters to the OntheBoards.tv website. Created by choreographer Crystal Pite, the performance lauded as "art of the highest caliber" was filmed at On the Boards in February 2011. In its web premiere it joins a set of 17 performance films shot in high definition and edited by professional film companies on the site, including the 8 new films launched in 2011 by artists from the US, France and Poland.

Artistic director of On the Boards, Lane Czaplinski, commented on Crystal's work "Since we began working with Crystal 6 ago, she's grown into one of the most exciting choreographers in the world. Filming Dark Matters for OntheBoards.tv gives invaluable access to this incredible artist whose career is on a meteoric rise."

The 90-minute Dark Matters features a highly theatrical first act and a dance-filled second act. In the first, Pite uses bunraku puppetry controlled by dancers and an intricate set and stylized lights to introduce the concept of dark matter as told through a Frankenstein-esque story of an artist and his creation. The second half highlights Pite's signature movement (described as "intensely athletic, wildly skilled") with a cast of 6 extraordinary dancers and longtime Kidd Pivot collaborator Owen Belton's score.

Following on the heels of today's premiere of Dark Matters, OntheBoards.tv will also be premiering Into the Void, an Yves Klein-inspired dance work by Catherine Cabeen and Company, and El Gallo, an opera for actors from Mexico City's Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes, in June and July. The full list of performances already on the website includes Jan Fabre, Reggie Watts | Tommy Smith, Radoslaw Rychcik, Christian Rizzo, Pat Graney Company, Morgan Thorson | Low, Dayna Hanson, Ralph Lemon, Radiohole, Allen Johnson, Diana Szeinblum, Temporary Distortion, Tanja Liedtke and Young Jean Lee's Theater Company. More information on all of these, Crystal Pite and OntheBoards.tv, follows.

ABOUT ONTHEBOARDS.TV
OntheBoards.tv offers high-quality videos of full-length performances by some of today's most provocative artists working in dance, theater, music and other forms that defy categorization. By pointing several high power cameras at a show and offering the results online, fans of contemporary performance finally have better access to high-quality videos of the artists they want to see regardless of where they live or their busy schedules at prices they can afford. Participating artists and venues share all profits, offering artists not only a new method for reaching broader audiences but a new revenue stream as well. OntheBoards.tv currently features 17 performance films by artists from around the globe.

Watch a trailer of OntheBoards.tv: 2009 - 2011
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ABOUT CRYSTAL PITE
Crystal Pite, a former Ballet Frankfurt performer and William Forsythe protégée, has continued on a meteoric rise since premiering her earliest work under the auspices of Kidd Pivot in 2004. She and her company have toured nationally and internationally, including an appearance at the 2010 Venice Biennale. Since spring of 2010 they have been in residence at the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm. In addition to her appointment in Frankfurt, Pite is also currently an Associate Choreographer for the prestigious Nederlands Dans Theater.

Watch a preview of Dark Matters

ABOUT THE CURRENT & SOON TO BE RELEASED FILMS
Christian Rizzo
A modernist cabinet of curiosities becomes the grounds for a new work created by l'enfant terrible Christian Rizzo and inspired by famed European dancer Julie Guibert. Rizzo manipulates the sleek stage as Guibert performs stylized gestures that explore the harnessed energy of a dancer and the 16th century sculpture, The Nymph of Fontainebleau. Since his debut at OtB in 2006, Rizzo has been commissioned by several of France's premiere ballets and recently began a new career in opera. Julie Guibert has performed with prestigious companies such as the Lyon Opera Ballet and been the muse to choreographers such as William Forsythe and Russell Maliphant.

Pat Graney's Faith Triptych
Faith Triptych combines 3 iconic performances that investigate the lives of women and that were created over the span of a decade (1991-2001), the triptych creates a mini retrospective of Graney's work. Edited into three individual hour - length performances for OntheBoards.tv, Faith (1991), Sleep (1997) and Tattoo (2001) were each originally commissioned by On the Boards and feature 12 of the original cast members. With a career that has spanned over 30 years, Graney has been recognized as "one of the top modern choreographers in the country" (Boston Globe). Over the course of 3 decades she has grown from presenting works at OtB's former home, Washington Hall, to performing throughout the USA as well as in Japan, England, Scotland, Germany, Singapore, Chile and Brazil.

Ralph Lemon
A multimedia performance including film, live narration and dance, How Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere? explores loss and transcendence experienced in human partnerships. Reflecting on his relationship with 102-year-old former sharecropper, carpenter and gardener Walter Carter and Andrei Tarkovsky's science fiction classic, Solaris, Lemon and 6 dancers create a performance which arcs from turbulent physicality to restorative grace. Lemon makes his long-overdue Seattle debut after steadily creating a reputation as one of the most important postmodern performance creators. Lemon's process-focused creations have long been noted for their sumptuous design and their ability to handle complex subject matter in simple yet poetic ways.

Dayna Hanson
Iconic and not-so-iconic moments from the Revolutionary War come together in a dance-driven, rock musical by Dayna Hanson. Created with Dave Proscia and Peggy Piacenza, this new work takes a layered, colorful and gritty look at the roots of America's inequities. Doubling as a live band, the show's multi-talented cast also includes Maggie Brown, Jim Kent, Wade Madsen, Paul Matthew Moore, Pol Rosenthal and Jessie Smith. Hanson was one of the original founders of 33 Fainting Spells, a company that gained notoriety nationwide from 1994-2006 for their highly conceptual blend of dance and theater.

Radoslaw Rychcik
Styled like an Eastern European punk concert, director Rados?aw Rychcik's contemporary spin on In the Solitude of Cotton Fields features 2 actors in chic suits backed by a house band, The Natural Born Chillers. Based on the French play of the same name by Bernard-Marie Koltès, the action follows an illicit, unnamed deal expressed between men known only as The Dealer and The Client. Featuring a cast from the Stefan Zeromski Theatre of Kielce, Poland. The 29-year-old Rychcik is emerging from the exceptionally strong theater scene in Poland and is becoming one of the "it" boys of international theater for his use of an intense acting technique and simple yet specific stage design. His work has been shown at Under the Radar (NYC) and will also travel to the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, REDCAT (LA) and the PuSH Festival (Vancouver BC)

Coming soon:
Catherine Cabeen and Company
Inspired by postmodern visual artist Yves Klein, Into the Void mixes visual arts, drag performance and precise choreography performed by 5 dancers to evoke the complex gender politics of Klein's work. Juxtaposing ornate materials with open spaces and transparent fabrics, the stage environment and materials mimic Klein's artistic ideals as re-envisioned by a creative team including Michael Cepress (costume design), Kane Mathis (music), Susan Robb (sculpture), Tivon Rice (digital media) and Connie Yun (lighting).

Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes
A wild musical combining a live string octet, an entirely new language and 6 international performers from Mexico, France, Japan and Iran, El Gallo portrays the challenges a composer and a group of singers face when trying to mount a performance in just 2 weeks. The original music theater work is the result of a collaboration between renowned director Claudio Valdés Kuri and British composer Paul Barker. Mexico City-based Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes is led by internationally lauded director Claudio Valdés Kuri. In their 13-year career they have created more than 6 large scale productions and toured to prestigious festivals and venues, including Kunsten Festival des Arts (Brussels).

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