METAMORPHOSIS
Program Notes
~ Gallery ~
EPHEMERAL CROSSINGS
CREATOR: Abigail Amlesom
This piece is about the coexisting of healing and grief, how the two are not mutually exclusive and can happen alongside each other.
CYCLES
CREATOR: Simon Chernow
This piece juxtaposes the nuances and complexities of family cycles with the functionality and mechanics of bicycles. Inspired by personal lived experiences and a love for biking, this piece uses bi(cycles) as a vessel to dive deep into family patterns that both tear down and bring together. All video was captured on 8mm film and photos were taken on 35mm film.
ART IS ALIVE
CREATOR: Kyland Talbott
“Art is Alive” is the debut documentary from California-based arts company: Art Project. The mission statement of Art Project is "Producing [Art] to [Project] Creativity." Directed by Kyland Talbott, Art is Alive facilitates this mission by displaying the different creative projects of black artists at UCLA. As each artist walks through their creative processes, they give an inside look at how they approach obstacles within their creative endeavors.
COMING TO TERMS
CREATOR: Josephine Tassoni
An interpretation of my personal transformation over quarantine, and the subsequent evolution of identity and understanding of self. Separated into three stages and expressed through color, movement, and environment.
~ Performance ~
CREAT(E)ION MYTH
CREATOR: brianna spiker ruiz
As a modge-podge of movement, meditation, music, mud, and myth, this piece explores a more expansive definition of art; one that lives and breathes and sometimes giggles or sobs its way into each moment of our lives. creat(e)ion myth asks each audience member to play with clay, to touch the earth— to dig deep inside yourself, and when you are ready, to live embodying the truths you find there. love is somewhere hidden. we’ve always loved telling stories, remember? the world is turning / hurting / waiting / for us to remember.
EXCISED
CREATOR: Veniel Español
Excised is an abstract take on the Rite of Passage for Filipinos. The dance work focuses on questioning the ritual of a physical detachment and a branded label that signifies one’s identity. Excised is a manifestation of emotions into movements that celebrate being joyful, sorrowful, regretful, and so much more in one.
UNVEILED
CREATOR: Jaqueline Pierce
This work explores the intersection of strength and fragility. Inspired by the traditional balletic imagery of sylphs, swans, ghosts and fairies, “Unveiled” highlights the power that resides behind the veils that we create for ourselves and for each other.
REMINISCENCE
CREATOR: Avielle Conn Sherman
I wanted to create a piece exploring home, and challenge the way the word is understood and thought about. What does home mean, beyond being just a physical place? How can it transform as we change, and how do we find old remnants and new versions of it in new people, places, and ourselves? I aimed to focus with my cast on the feeling of change, nostalgia, personal and communal growth, and what it means to find new rhythms and ideas of what ‘home’ really is through movement. This piece encapsulates different stages, starting with the “escape” and ending with the “return” to what we have known as home- finding beauty, family, and warmth in whatever we have known or built for ourselves. I personally feel such a duty to create a piece dedicated to finding this type of love and joy, as we are performing in Kaufman, a place that has become such a special version of home to me. I hope this piece can bring you a bit of that joy too.
COUNTER
CREATOR: Bailey Davies-Mahaffey & Rachael Odebunmi
This piece explores the emergence of countercultures in the 60s and 70s. A decade of suppression born from the need for postwar normalcy resulted in the most revolutionary period of the 20th century. How do we understand this historical time of resistance and change and how does it impact our perspectives today? The makeup of our mainstream culture is constantly volatile. What is ordinary when ordinary is always changing? How do we conform to something becoming increasingly impossible to define?
THE RHYTHM PROJECT
CREATOR: Lilah Horton
In Tap culture, we study our mentors and the pioneers before them, bury ourselves in historic footage, and train ourselves to feel music more than we can hear it. With modern academic standards, Tap has slowly been separated from these practices. My desire with this piece is to present the beginnings of Tap’s growth in interdisciplinary collaboration as my vision for experimental evolution. Keeping the authenticity and essence of Tap, Hip Hop, and Modern while marrying their similarities has provided a rich collaboration that my cast-mates and I have experienced together. I hope to share this experience with more people and bring attention to the undying life within Tap’s growth.
AZADI
CREATOR: Sophie Fouladi
Zan, Zendegi, Azadi - a protest chant that has become the anthem for revolution from the Iranian people. Transformation can come in many forms: good, evil, or anything in between and as us Iranians globally have seen our homeland descend into dystopia for over 40 years, what we look to now is a new beginning of our country. The creation of a place we can call our own; a place where we are free to be who we were always meant to be.
AN INNOCENT STARE INTO A BIG LITTLE HOUSE
CREATOR: Gina Basile, Belén Moreno, May Yates
This piece is an imagining of what the underbelly of capitalism looks like — a self-feeding system that plays on control, egocentrism, and a docile body. How does the human body exist in, sustain, and resist a brutal governing system? And when, if ever, that system is stripped from the body, what will remain?
EL REY
CREATOR: Jovahna Solalindez Rivas
As young adults navigating the transition from childhood to adulthood, we are faced with social issues and pressures that are difficult to conquer on our own. Through the street dance community and culture itself, we learn to deconstruct and break down these elements. We learn that we make the environment that we grow in. We learn that we are a part of something bigger. We are a part of this culture and its growth. As we continuously evolve, the culture will continue its evolution.
THE DARK PASSENGER
CREATOR: Ali Wood
The Dark Passenger explores the relationship between the self and the mental demons that overwhelm the mind to the point of self destruction. It shows how the self battles and ultimately overcomes the barriers that anxieties, self doubt, and depression create. This piece utilizes the mediums of film and live choreography to view both the outer and inner self as they endure the battle within.
THAT I CAN’T QUITE PART
CREATOR: Emma-Rose Allen
This work looks at three areas of change in Borderline Personality Disorder. Extreme swings in emotion, unstable sense of self, and instability in relationships all encapsulate the sense that people with BPD can be one person one moment, and a completely different person the next. This piece aims to advocate for dancers struggling with mental health because it takes such an enormous toll on the way we take class, perform, and even interact with our community. I hope that sharing this experience can create a necessary conversation about the struggle, to seek meaningful connection, and to argue that people living with BPD can experience joyous and special lives.
OUROBOROS
CREATOR: Travis Lim
As young artists try to navigate their individual journeys, they are met with forces of change that either corrupt or empower them. This piece will explore these factors that influence dancers to move, look, or act a certain way, and how this cycle of control is passed on. When everyone is telling us where to go, which way to move, and what to do, how do we find our own path? Within all of these influences, how does a dancer stay true to their morals, their journey, and themselves? Can we truly resist temptation as it disguises itself as gratification, or do we all inevitably become a product of others' voices?
GROWING OLD
CREATORS: Jessica Warshal
Growing up, my mother always told me how proud she was of her age and her gray hairs, as they are a sign of the life she has been lucky to live."Growing Old" is about embracing the beauty and pain of going through life and charging fearlessly into the great, expansive unknown future.