Drift, Guillermo Ortega Tanus’ culminating work as MFA candidate in Temple University’s Boyer College Dance Department

Drift, Guillermo Ortega Tanus´ culminating work as MFA candidate in Temple University’s Boyer College Dance Department, will be performed on November 16 & 17, 2012 at Conwell Dance Theater.

Drift is a dance-theater work that transports the audience to both real and psychological spaces of two women bonded by sisterhood. The work explores the conflict between hopes and fears by illustrating two sisters’ struggles through negotiating their dreams and actual lives. They have to choose if they move towards their dreams or stay where they are.

Drift is set to original music by Alban Bailly, with costumes by Eun Jung Choi, video by Oscar Molina and Ashley Scrivener, lighting design by Meredith Steinberg and Guillermo Ortega, and scriptwriting by Daniel Levin and Guillermo Ortega. The two main characters are performed by KC Chun-Manning, and Eun Jung Choi. Other performers from Philadelphia dance community are dancing as well: Shailer C Kern-Carruth, Aliyah K. Novelli, Zoë Norris, Katherine Stark, Barbara Tait, Laura Baehr, Megan M. Quinn, and Craig Scull.
Choreographer’s Notes

“I started this project with the intention of creating a highly physical work that illustrates both the intimate and the imaginary spaces of the characters. At the time, I was taking a directing class for theater with Douglas Weber and I was fascinated with the idea of using some of the directorial tools to create characters and strong actions as well as the idea of incorporating these concepts in dance.  I was seduced by Irving Yalom´s existentialist ideas: “an absence of obvious meaning or sense of life” and “the freedom to make our lives as we will.” These ideas shaped the relationship and lifes of Grace and Diana, the main characters of Drift. My imaginative process of producing an interdisciplinary work by integrating scriptwriting, directing, and movement has been both challenging and enlightening at the same time.”

Biographies

Guillermo Ortega Tanus (choreographer-playwriter) is a director, dancer, teacher, and lighting designer. He co-directs Da·Da·Dance Project, a duet repertory company that has been presented at many International venues and festivals, performing works by Elise Knudson, Helena Franzén, Luke Gutgsell, Eun Jung Choi, Melanie Stewart, Gerald Casel, and himself since 2008.

Apart from Da·Da·Dance Project, he has presented solos at Dixon Place, Newsteps Series, Merce Cunningham Studio, Conwell Dance Theater, Chew the Fat!, Philly PARD, New Festival, and Tlacochimaco in U.S.  And Foro Experimental, Fuego Nuevo, Los Talleres de Coyoacán, La Casa de Las Bombas in Mexico. He has danced for numerous companies and artists in both Mexico and the US including UX Onodanza, A Poc A Poc, Eterno Caracol, Kelly Nipper, Miro Dance Theatre, David Gordon’s Pick Up Performance Co., Risa Jaroslow and Dancers, Anonymous Bodies and many others.

During the last three years, Ortega Tanus has worked at the Conwell Dance Theater both as a teaching assistant as well as academic assistant under the guidance of technical director Nanette Joyce. Over the last two years he has designed lights for several dance artists in the Philadelphia area. He also has taught dance classes at Rowan University, nEW festival, and in several cities in Mexico. He has set work on Tatiana Zugazagoitia Danza (Merida), and the students of the Cultural Center “Los Talleres A. C.” (Mexico City).

Currently he is a recipient of the National Fund for the Culture and the Arts (FONCA), Student Scholarship 2009-12. Last year he received an “Artistic Achievement Award in Performing Arts” by Golden Key International Honour Society.  Both as performer and creator, Guillermo has received grants from: National Fund for the Culture and the Arts (‘07-‘08), Mexico en Escena (‘05-‘06); Mexican Institute of the Youth (‘03-‘04). He has been a resident artist at nEW festival (‘09-‘10). The National Council of the Culture and Arts, and the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York has supported him. www.guillermoortega.net

Alban Bailly (Composer) is a multifaceted instrumentalist who studied composition, jazz, and improvisation in France. He performed extensively in Europe before moving to the United States in 2005. Playing rock music in his youth, Alban moved onto studying jazz, which led him to various forms of improvised music. In 2001 he studied Arabic music and oud in Marrakesh, Morocco. After his return to France, he became an active performer, collaborating with various music and dance ensembles in Europe.

Alban is in demand as an improviser and continues to tour in United States, Canada, and Europe. He is a founder, composer, and guitarist of the ensembles Inzinzac and Yapp. He is also the guitarist for the modern tango group Oscuro Quintet, among other projects. He is involved with dance ensembles as well, for which he performs and composes electro-acoustic music. www.notbailey.com

 Ashley Scrivener (Video) is a fine artist who received her BFA at Tyler School of Art, where she majored in Sculpture.  She works in a wide variety of media including: video, film, installation, sculpture, product design, theater and drawing.  Her work is meditative and often dark; inspired by horror and comedy. She is interested in the fields of advertising, museology and Arts education.

Oscar Molina (Video) is a filmmaker with a background in making documentaries. He studied journalism and visual arts as an undergraduate, and his professional work has moved between photojournalism, documentaries, educational television, film programming, audience development and teaching. His work as a photographer won awards in two of the largest national photography competitions in his home country, Colombia, and his video work has been exhibited at La Habana Film Festival (Cuba), Rosario Film Festival (Argentina), FIPATEL Biarritz (France), Bogota Film Festival (Colombia), Cartagena Film Festival (Colombia), and Contra el Silencio Todas las Voces (Mexican Human Rights Film Festival). The Enchanted Kingdom, a film that Oscar co-directed, was named Best Colombian Documentary in 2004. He started his MFA in film at Columbia University before moving to Philadelphia to attend Temple. Throughout his MFA studies, Oscar has focused on narrative and experimental film methods. His recent work has been moving in two directions—one dealing with reflexivity of time and framing and the other with the intercultural representation of people coming from developed countries and in developing countries.

Daniel F. Levin (Playwriter) is a playwright, composer and lyricist living in Brooklyn. His pieces “What Really Happened” and “A Glorious Evening” were published in Applause Books’ THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT PLAYS 2009-2010 and 2007-2008 respectively.  Daniel’s play, HEE-HAW: It’s a Wonderful Li_e, a counter-telling of the holiday classic from the perspective of Sam Wainwright, was called a “delightful surprise” by the New York Times (Nuyorican Poets Café).  His musical, TO PAINT THE EARTH, written with composer Jonathan Portera, won the 2004 Richard Rogers Development Award and was selected for the New York Musical Theatre Festival (37 Arts).  Daniel’s newest musical, SPANDEX, set amidst the blistering aerobics scene of the 1980’s, will go up this Spring in New York.  Daniel served as a Jonathan Larson Memorial Fellow at the Dramatists Guild and is a MacDowell Colony fellow.  He holds an MFA from NYU Tisch and a BA from Yale.  www.danielflevin.com

Drift
MFA Thesis Concert by
Guillermo Ortega Tanus
Friday & Saturday. November 16-17 @ 7:30 pm.
Conwell Dance Theater, 5th Floor Conwell Hall, NE Corner Broad St. and Montgomery Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
TICKETS: $20 General Admission, $15 Students and senior citizens, $10 Dance Professionals w. ID,  $5 w/Temple student owlcard
For on-campus, cash only, ticket purchase, please visit the Liacouras Center Box Office, 1776 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, Monday-Saturday, 10-5.
Purchase tickets online at www.liacourascenter.com or call 1-800-298-4200
Reception following Friday’s performance.

 

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