DeAnna Pellecchia & Matt Samolis - "PLATFORM.." May 24 2009

photos: Bob Raymond

DeAnna Pellecchia and Matt Samolis
"PLATFORM - A Live Performance Installation"
May 24, 2009 - dance performance with live music

Videos:

Part 1:


Part 2:


Originally designed for the stage, PLATFORM can be adapted to any performance space and includes a series of movement structures both set and improvisational which take place in , on and around dozens of platform shoes. The solo addresses the socio-political "platforms" of our time. Adorned in red, white and blue DeAnna incorporates strong visual imagery with sharp, disjointed choreography to comment on the personal choices we as Americans make on a daily basis. Matt Samolis accompanies on tenor banjo with a mash up of americana from different genres and styles, adding a layer of association and depth to the imagery set in motion by the visual movement.

DeAnna Pellecchia is a dancer, athlete, aerialist, actress, and choreographer committed to collaborating with artists of different mediums including musicians, filmmakers, and visual artists. She creates performance pieces that seamlessly blur lines of integration between disciplines, ultimately producing multi-sensory works of live art. Her mission as an artist is to expand the perception of ‘dance’ as an accessible form of art by engaging audiences of all kinds. In the process of achieving this goal she has not only danced, but soared, climbed, hurdled, hydroplaned, hovered and flown through countless unconventional landscapes across the United States; she has been featured in rodeos, operas, plays, fashion shows, magazines, movies and music videos; and she has taught and been taught by movers of all kinds. The Boston Herald has described her as “stunning…one of the area’s finest artists”. Bay Windows has defined her as “…muscular, mesmerizing, unforgettable…” As co-choreographer of Kairos Dance Theater, she crafts original performance pieces with Ingrid Schatz. She also creates site-specific performance installations incorporating all-live music with musician Ed Broms under the name Savage Amusements. DeAnna is a principal dancer with internationally acclaimed New York-based Paula Josa-Jones/Performance Works (featured soloist and original cast member of RIDE, PJJ/PW's Equestrian Dance Theater Performance, in which DeAnna dances with live horses). She also dances with Boston-based Kinodance Company (named one of Dance Magazine's "Top 25 to Watch" in 2008). DeAnna resides on dance faculty at Boston University; she is also a mentor-artist-in-residence at The Cloud Foundation.

Links:
www.deannapellecchia.com
PLATFORM photos on FLICKR

Note from the Curator:
Matt Samolis will be profiled in a later post.

Joshua Kent - "I Heart America ..." May 23 2009

photos: Bob Raymond (MAG)

Joshua Kent "I Heart America and America Hearts me, or How the mighty have fallen"
Sat May 23, 2009: Performance Art


Joshua Kent (Chicago, IL)
"I Heart America and America Hearts me, or How the mighty have fallen"Sat May 23, 2009 - durational performance art March 17, 1993 supermodel Naomi Campbell walked a Vivienne Westwood runway show wearing 10-inch platforms, causing her to not only fall, but also to create a moment that has since become part of a greater runway lexicon.

In May 1974, Joseph Beuys spent three days in a room with a coyote in a performance of his piece, I Like America and America Likes Me. In I Heart America and America Hearts me, or How the mighty have fallen I would like to combine the two events and create a hybrid meditation on politics in regards to; fashion, how we transcribe politics onto our bodies, the politics of our desires, and this complex thing called America.

Joshua Kent was born and raised in the Midwest. He attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2003, where he received the Presidential Merit Scholarship for his portfolio. While at SAIC, he became interested in fiber and material studies and explored this area for some time in his undergraduate. Through his process oriented fiber pieces Joshua began to investigate labor in a more intentional way, which lead to his development of a performance practice. Within Performance art, Joshua found he was best able to explore his interests in labor, human interaction and the complexities of identity that he had begun to examine in his earlier work. He is in his last semester at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his work has been in Minneapolis, Southern Illinois, Chicago, and its surrounding suburbs.

Note from the Curator:

In a conversation with Joshua Kent about documentation of his work, he said he preferred photographs to videos because he felt that videos fail to capture the essence of his live performances. For this reason, included are a series of photographs taken by Bob Raymond along with two video clips. I found a lot of humor in his piece and couldn't stop laughing until the very end when things turned suddenly dark and almost unfathomable. Josh's performance far exceeded my expectations and I was honored that he flew in from Chicago to perform his piece. When I asked him why he chose to do so, he said that Mobius is one of few venues where he is able to perform his work. It is my hope that we, the Mobius Artists Group, will continue to be able to host/present the work of experimental artists in all media.  Videos of this performance were removed on 6/27/2012 by request of the artist.