Karen Peterson and Dancers
After 20 years of creating contemporary choreography for dancers with and without disabilities, Karen Peterson, artistic director of Karen Peterson and Dancers, still strives to see dance, and the dancer’s body, from unique perspectives. In the showcase of two new pieces, Mano a Mano and Future Memories, Peterson’s multifaceted use of video bends and stretches Miami’s only mixed-ability company in new directions. The program will be performed at Excello Dance Space, near The Falls shopping center this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In October, it will make its Miami Beach debut at the Byron Carlyle Theater.
Video plays an interactive role in Peterson’s Mano a Mano. The concept blossomed from Peterson’s collaboration with award-winning visual artist Maria Lino who she met in the summer of 2007. As seasoned artists in different fields, the two discovered an immediate connection.
“I told her about my 20-year history of combining disability and dance,” says Peterson. “She invited me to her show at FIU where she had crafted the most beautiful video about her brother and his short life.” The film captured the intimacy of her Lino’s mother caring for her brother who had cerebral palsy.
Lino is an active participant in Mano a Mano. While the dancers perform, she throws live video footage on the studio walls, so audience members are given the opportunity to experience dance in two dramatically divergent formats. They can zoom in on the intimacy of the camera lens by following Lino or experience the choreography from the distance of their seats. The result is an experiment in perspective and improvisation.
In another section of the 25-minute piece, dancers manipulate fabric over prerecorded shots of their faces, creating eerie and potentially comical distortions. Later, dancers engage in duets with their video image twins. At every turn, the urge to reveal fresh perspectives drives Mano a Mano.
In Future Memories, vintage home video, live finger painting, singing, and contemporary dance combine to form a humorous and poignant montage of family life. The materials are culled from Peterson’s own life as a dancer, mother, and more recently, empty nester.
“Doing the piece gave me a new perspective on having a family,"e; she says, "e;going through the process of raising two sons, and then all those feelings of not having them in the house. How to deal with the vacuum.”
Because Future Memories was inspired by her family and that of her dancers, Peterson worked to create something for multi-generational audiences. “The piece is very accessible. Children, teenagers, and adults can all take something from the experience.”
If you go:
What: Karen Peterson and Dancers
When: Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2, 2009 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Where: Excello Dance Space, 8700B SW 129th Terrace, Miami (in the Falls Shopping Center area)
Tickets: $15 general admission, $10 students (under 25) and seniors (over 65) with I.D.
Information: For Tickets call 305-298-5879 or e-mail kpdance@bellsouth.net
Video plays an interactive role in Peterson’s Mano a Mano. The concept blossomed from Peterson’s collaboration with award-winning visual artist Maria Lino who she met in the summer of 2007. As seasoned artists in different fields, the two discovered an immediate connection.
“I told her about my 20-year history of combining disability and dance,” says Peterson. “She invited me to her show at FIU where she had crafted the most beautiful video about her brother and his short life.” The film captured the intimacy of her Lino’s mother caring for her brother who had cerebral palsy.
Lino is an active participant in Mano a Mano. While the dancers perform, she throws live video footage on the studio walls, so audience members are given the opportunity to experience dance in two dramatically divergent formats. They can zoom in on the intimacy of the camera lens by following Lino or experience the choreography from the distance of their seats. The result is an experiment in perspective and improvisation.
In another section of the 25-minute piece, dancers manipulate fabric over prerecorded shots of their faces, creating eerie and potentially comical distortions. Later, dancers engage in duets with their video image twins. At every turn, the urge to reveal fresh perspectives drives Mano a Mano.
In Future Memories, vintage home video, live finger painting, singing, and contemporary dance combine to form a humorous and poignant montage of family life. The materials are culled from Peterson’s own life as a dancer, mother, and more recently, empty nester.
“Doing the piece gave me a new perspective on having a family,"e; she says, "e;going through the process of raising two sons, and then all those feelings of not having them in the house. How to deal with the vacuum.”
Because Future Memories was inspired by her family and that of her dancers, Peterson worked to create something for multi-generational audiences. “The piece is very accessible. Children, teenagers, and adults can all take something from the experience.”
If you go:
What: Karen Peterson and Dancers
When: Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2, 2009 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Where: Excello Dance Space, 8700B SW 129th Terrace, Miami (in the Falls Shopping Center area)
Tickets: $15 general admission, $10 students (under 25) and seniors (over 65) with I.D.
Information: For Tickets call 305-298-5879 or e-mail kpdance@bellsouth.net