REQUIEM - September 24-26, 2009
WHO: Nicole Pierce & EgoArt, Inc present "Requiem"
WHAT: Dance Performance/Installation
WHEN: September 24th & 25th at 8pm, September 26th at 5pm & 8pm.
WHERE: The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA 02143
TICKETS: $25.00
INFO/RESERVATIONS: go to Brown Paper Tickets or call 617.628.3175
Digital images available upon request.
Please note: seating is limited to 60 seats per performance. Reservations are strongly recommended.
The romantically dramatic notion of Mozart's untimely death while writing the Requiem has stirred up quite a bit of scholarly research and amateur fascination. The score was left to be completed by no less than five composers. Nonetheless, it still manages to bring the listener through a great journey of musical twists and turns. From majestic to timid, from ferocious to nurturing, the score remains a beautiful work for listening and dancing. With a background in classical piano, Artistic Director and choreographer Nicole Pierce has delved deeply into the score and let the music shape her choreography.
In 1999, Pierce premiered the first two sections of Mozart's Requiem in a piece entitled "Waiting." Ever since, the idea of choreographing to the complete requiem has been simmering. Now, she has decided to bite the bullet, and she and eight dancers have been busy at work completing the entire piece. The hour-long piece will be performed in a specially-constructed white box with walls and ceiling for video projection, 4 performer exits and audience seating on three sides. The work is a continuation of EgoArt, Inc.'s interest in creating artistic environments to provide a more magical and profound an experience while watching dance. The work is bold and theatrical, and her movement vocabulary is characterized by the combining of classical dance with idiosyncratic nuances. She is interested in texture, timing, juxtaposition, and using the landscape of the space as a three dimensional canvas. She strives to create dances that speak to our emotions and dreams, stimulate the intellect and please the eye. In this work specifically, she uses movement as a vessel for the exploration of death and its mysteries via the requiem mass.
Nicole and the dancers began working on this piece again in the Spring of 2008. It will be over a year and a half of process to bring to fruition. Pierce has shot video footage of the natural world (trees, sky) in four seasons and the dancers have learned 14 sections of dance material. Surrounded by video projection, the audience will watch the dance while the environment projected around them changes from Spring to Winter. The installation requires hanging 5 video screens, creating seating for 60 and installing a dance floor. Dancer and costume designer Anna Zamarripa is creating 24 costumes that metamorphose with the changing video projection. This work is an unflinching attempt at great beauty and spectacle as well as introspection and emotionality. The combination of the complex, sensual dancing, the beauty of the natural world and transcendent music will provide the armature for a provocative and unusual dance concert.
NOTE: EgoArt, Inc will be hosting an exclusive "Open-Dress-Rehearsal" on Wednesday, September 23rd to help fundraise for touring the work. Performance will be followed by cash bar and appetizers with the dancers. For more info, call Nicole at 617.628.3175.
