FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SARAH BUSH DANCE PROJECT ANNOUNCES
UN-CHANGING NATURE
OCTOBER 25, 26 and 27, 2019
THE FLIGHT DECK, OAKLAND
A collection of dances exploring how humans impact the environment,
and how it in turn, impacts us.
Tickets on sale at sarahbushdance.org/tickets
One weekend only!
Oakland, September 6, 2019 — Sarah Bush Dance Project today announces the Premiere of Un-Changing Nature, choreographed by Artistic Director, Sarah Bush.
Un-Changing Nature collects, under one roof, five rarely seen SBDP site-inspired works. Each piece was developed both inside and outside the studio. These diverse pieces explore how humans impact the environment and how it in turn, impacts us. These performances of Un-Changing Nature mark the 12th season of Sarah Bush Dance Project. Performances are Friday, October 25 and Saturday, October 26 at 8pm and Sunday, October 27 at 3pm.
Un-Changing Nature celebrates the spiritual impact of wilderness on our lives. It invites audiences to reflect on both our human influence on the environment and our vulnerability in the truth of climate change. The strength of the dancers and their choreographed teamwork is intended to remind audience members of their own individual and collective power in the face of challenges and adversity.
“The show is both a celebration of the resiliency of life and a heartbreaking glimpse into our possible future,” adds Bush. “It is a reckoning with the reality of the forces of change and our daily choice to resist, redirect, or release into acceptance of those forces.”
Cast and Creative:
Un-changing Nature is performed by a dynamic cast of Bay Area rising stars and longtime favorites: Lydia Clinton, Julianna Cressman, KJ Dahlaw, Frances Sedayao; and marks a return to the stage for the company’s Artistic Director, Sarah Bush.
The dances are performed to recorded sound compositions by Sarah Bush and frequent collaborator, renowned composer and music producer, Julie Wolf. These collages capture a rich interior and exterior sonic world and hauntingly juxtapose it against the desolate visual world of a black box theater. This forces the audience to consider a world in which much of what we find beautiful and sustaining is gone and what aspects of our essential human nature must remain to keep us resilient.
Company Website: sarahbushdance.org
Video trailer: http://vimeo.com/358916710
Online Press Kit with hi-res photos: https://sarahbushdance.org/press
Media Contact: Lisa Harding
Artistic Director, Sarah Bush and all the members of the cast are available for press interviews.
ABOUT SARAH BUSH DANCE PROJECT
Founded in 2007, Sarah Bush Dance Project creates and presents multimedia dance theater through innovative artistry, community interaction, and feminist ideals. SBDP creates art that reminds audiences of the power and compassion in ourselves and others, bolstering a resilient hope for humanity.
SBDP has created four critically acclaimed repertory shows in the Bay Area: Spirit & Bones, Home, Rocked by Women, and This Land. The SF Chronicle said of the sold-out Spirit & Bones premiere, “Dance makers want to reflect the zeitgeist in their productions. But every so often the planets align, and a long-planned work ends up tapping the cultural climate so aptly that it doubles as a rallying cry.” The Huffington Post said of the outdoor landscape series, This Land, “The drama of Bush’s highly charged movement is meant to renew our sense of self, our sense of place and community.” The SF Bay Guardian reviewed Rocked by Women, a coming of age story honoring the history of women’s music, as “A weighty yet explosive expression of the power of an indomitable spirit and embracing courage.” A Homeward audience member reflected, “Homeward stirred memories and longings for relationship, for meaning, for home. Such a feast of choreography.”
SBDP has held residencies at Berkeley Art Center, Dos Rios, SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts, and Shotwell Studios. Bush’s work has been presented at Concept 23, Dance In Revolting Times (D.I.R.T.), PUSHfest, West Wave, Women On The Way, Global Women’s Rights Forum, National Women’s Music Festival, National Queer Arts Festival, Olivia Travel cruises, Summer Feast, Summer Performance Festival (SPF)9, SF Movement Arts Festival at Grace Cathedral, and San Francisco International Arts Festival. Domestic and International performance locations include Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Dos Rios, Moab, Madison, New York City, Washington DC, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Stockholm.
ARTISTS BIOS
Performers:
In addition to her work with SBDP, Artistic Director Sarah Bush is a member of Krissy Keefer’s revolutionary Dance Brigade. She has danced with hip hop company New Style Motherlode and been a guest performer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Sarah Bush’s devised dance-theater work has been commissioned by The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Axis Dance Company, Mona Khan Company, and Destiny Arts Center. Her work has been presented by A.C.T., Z Space, and at the Wilsey Center for Opera. Sarah is the recipient of the 2019 Della Davidson Prize, a Dance Europe Critic’s Choice selection, and awards from Curve Magazine and Bay Area Dance Watch.
Lydia Clinton, a Bay Area native, went to Point Park University receiving a BA in Dance (Modern). During college, she attended the American Dance Festival on scholarship and San Francisco Conservatory of Dance’s summer program. Since returning home, she has worked with AXIS Dance Company, Cat Call Choir, Capacitor, Lauren Simpson Dance, PUSH Dance Company, and Zaccho Dance Theatre.
Julianna Cressman is an SF native who returned to the Bay after graduating from UC Irvine’s dance program under the mentorship of Dr. S. Ama Wray. Cressman joined Alayo Dance Company in 2018, and is an originating cast member of Paul Flores’ 2019 premiere of We Have Ire at YBCA.
KJ Dahlaw is a queer dance artist, teacher and choreographer. KJ graduated with their MFA in Dance from Saint Mary’s College of CA in 2018 and a BFA in Dance from Northern Illinois University in 2003. KJ has worked with Elements Contemporary Ballet, Mordine & Co Dance Theater, Rosie Trump and Kristin Heavey; and recently choreographed West Edge Opera’s Orfeo & Euridice. Currently KJ dances with PatelDanceWorks and Sarah Bush Dance Project while starting their own project Unruly Body Tanztheater.
Frances Teves Sedayao is a multi-disciplinary dance artist who has performed and toured with wonderful Bay Area notables over the past 20 years. She does collaborative and independent dance works both locally and internationally; is an alumna of Alvin Ailey American Dance School, NY and CSU East Bay where she currently teaches. Frances was a Serpent Source grant recipient, Featured Dance Artist for SF Apature, and Dance Resident of Art OMI International in NY. She currently works with Bandelion Dancetheater, Alleluia Panis’ Kularts, Anne Bluethenthal and Sarah Bush Dance Project. Her current work, ‘I Am But a Mighty Bird’ premiered in SF in 2017 and revamped in 2018 for the SF National Queer Arts Festival. Frances will be presenting in 2019 FROLIC, Shawl-Anderson’s first annual Queering Dance Festival in September.
Collaborators:
Julie Wolf is a music producer, composer, multi instrumentalist, sound designer, music director and teacher. She has appeared on stages around the world and on numerous critically acclaimed recordings. She has collaborated with Carly Simon, Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco, Maceo Parker, Toshi Reagon, Bruce Cockburn, Eliza Gilyson, Allison Miller, Wayne Horvitz and Sia, among many others. Julie has music directed with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, La Jolla Playhouse and was honored with a 2015 L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Direction for her work in the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre production of Girlfriend, a musical written by Todd Almond, directed by Les Waters, featuring the music of Matthew Sweet. Her original music for the 2009 documentary Sweet Crude was nominated for Best Original Score at the Maverick Movie Awards and received special mention in Variety.
Well known San Francisco Bay Area photographer, Irene Young, states, “The key to photographing people is to do so with a wide-open aperture of the heart, with no judgment, and with a true belief that everyone is beautiful.” Young’s photographs have appeared worldwide in publications too numerous to mention, including Us Magazine, Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, People Magazine, Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, and The Utne Reader. Her clients include Warner Brothers, Columbia, Motown, Windham Hill, Narada, Virgin, Rounder, Harper Collins, Fawcett, Doubleday, and Henry Holt & Company Publishers. In addition to her vast catalog of musicians in Women’s Music, Folk, Jazz , New Age, Bluegrass and Roots music, her subjects have included well known people such as Sonia Braga, Rosario Dawson, Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Laura Nyro, Judy Collins, Will Ackerman, Al Jarreau, Mary Black, The Roches, etc. Her current projects are her forthcoming book, and her video Cooking Series, Lez Cook.
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CALENDAR EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:
For one weekend only October 25 to 27, Sarah Bush Dance Project presents their latest collection, Un-Changing Nature, a collection of dances exploring how humans impact the environment, and how it in turn, impacts us. The award winning Bush’s unique style of dance theater has built an enthusiastic and growing following. Un-Changing Nature marks SBDP’s 12th season and is a deep dive into to her site-inspired work. With this show, Bush and company translate landscape specific experiences into an immersive exploration of human nature inside the intimate black box of the theater.
Sarah Bush Dance Project’s
“Un-Changing Nature”
Featuring Dancers – Sarah Bush, Lydia Clinton, Julianna Cressman, KJ Dahlaw, Frances Sedayao. With musician composer Julie Wolf.
October 25, 26, and 27, 2019
Friday and Saturday @ 8:00pm and Sunday @ 3:00pm
The Flight Deck, 1540 Broadway, Oakland CA
Tickets available online. Click here to purchase.
https://sarahbushdance.org/tickets
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Sarah Bush Dance Project 