Capital Life & Skid Marks

Description

The world premiere of Capital Life created Bay Area Arab-American choreographer Leyya Tawil for Dance Elixir. Capital Life was researched and created by Tawil in San Francisco and Beirut and focuses on the experience the choreographer's multi-faceted identity that has shaped her life. It is the final installment of the "Capital Life Triptych" that Tawil has been working on since 2005; a powerful and insightful series that uses choreography grounded in the weight and speed of the human body to investigate facets of contemporary urban culture in both the Arab and Western world. Her dances have a charged, earthy quality that have earned her a place on the SF Bay Guardian's Top 10 Choreographers to Watch in 2006 and many additional critical accolades. Voice of Dance.com praised the company for being "an altogether satisfying experience, a true testament that choreography can communicate through performance, craft, and design."

Capital Life is inspired by Tawil's work with Beirut-based Maqamat Theatre Dance and explores what it means to be a contemporary artist, the multiplicity of "home" (ancestral/ emotional/ daily), and how globalization and marketing of culture affect perceptions of identity and "home". The score for Capital Life was composed by the experimental musician Mark Gergis, known for his ethnographic research and composition in music and film.

Dance Elixir
Founded in 2003 by Artistic Director Leyya Tawil and Resident Composer Topher Keyes, Dance Elixir produces an annual home season in the San Francisco Bay Area and maintains a national touring schedule. The company reaches a broad cross section of arts audiences, while showcasing the glamorous aesthetic and fierce technique that has become Dance Elixir's hallmark. Collaborations with professional artists from a range of disciplines have included composer Stephen Rush, media artist David Szlasa, designer Jeffery Bauer, set designer Malinda Trimble, lighting designer Matthew Antaky, costumer Leigh Anne Martin and violinist Mike Khoury.

Tawil's work for Dance Elixir has recently been presented internationally in Beirut, Lebanon during her artist residency at MT Space and in Montreal, Quebec at Studio 303. Within the U.S., Dance Elixir has been presented by regional organizations: West Wave Dance Festival, Women on the Way Residency and Festival, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Oakland Art Gallery, and Dance Mission Theater; and national presenters, including Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, Arab American National Museum's Ford Comerica Performance Series (MI), Bohemian National Home (MI), Arts at Middlebury (VT), Alwan for the Arts (NYC) and Dance New Amsterdam (NYC). Their work has been featured on WDET's "Morning Edition" (MI), NBC11 (CA), KRON4 (CA), KNOE-TV8 (LA), and KALX's Women in the Arts (CA).

Skid Marks is a story about a couple and the way they choose to live their lives. They live so close to each other; they easily unite into one person, but almost without looking. They are not able to communicate; their world is full of visions, desires, strength, fears and innocence as their only way of existence.

More Info

Link

http://www.sfiaf.org/2008/artists/dance/info.php?8

Call

415-399-9554 (Box Office)