June 18 & 20, 2015
Thursday and Saturday at 8:00p
Bootleg Theater
2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057
“Materials—the body, sound—merge exquisitely in this hourlong dance-song (song-dance?) … the song unravels into something wild, then plain, bodies as they are.” —The New York Times
MASS is a dance, singing and dancing, a song and dance in a black box, a slow dance on a pedestal for three women, with music. It’s also the mass, force, and friction against, around, and inside that box. It’s a trio of voices tuning, their bodies objectified and recomposed through gradual processes in motion and sound. Like a prayer, it proceeds without manipulation, loving the flaw.
MASS was created as a part on an ongoing collaboration between choreographer Milka Djordjevich and composer Chris Peck. Three female dancers execute an interdependent score of dancing while singing live. They are their own musical accompaniment; a choir of voice, action and image. The trio creates hyper-objectified anonymous forms and three-part harmonies that pulse and throb through the black artifice of the theater. The performers oscillate between action and inaction, singing and dancing, chanting and swaying—an engine that evolves through space and generates friction over time. The work aims to unveil the materiality of the moving and sonic female body, unraveling its inherent choreographed code.
CREATIVE TEAM
Choreography: Milka Djordjevich
Music: Chris Peck
Dancers: Jessica Cook, Kyli Kleven and Djordjevich
Performance Advisor: Rebecca Brooks
Lighting Design: Madeline Best
Asst.Lighting Designer/Production Manager: Cecilia Durbin
Scenic Design: Sara C. Walsh
Vocal Coach: Peter Sciscioli
Costumes: Naomi Luppescu
Presented in association with Bootleg Theater.
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Commissioned by the Kitchen, NYC and developed at Abron’s Art Center, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space, PACT Zollverein, Essen Germany and Workspace Brussels, Belgium. MASS is a sponsored project of Show Box L.A., made possible in part with generous support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
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ABOUT MILKA DJORDJEVICH
Milka Djordjevich is a choreographer, dancer and teacher based in Los Angeles. Since 2003, her work has been shown at several venues including REDCAT, Pieter, Machine Project and Hammer Museum/REstore Westwood (Los Angeles); the Ktichen, 2010 Whitney Biennial, Chocolate Factory Theater, Danspace Project, Movement Research and AUNTS (New York); Counterpulse and The Garage (San Francisco); Uferstudios (Berlin); Kondenz Festival and Bitef (Belgrade); Locomotion Festival (Skopje); Artdanthe (Paris); WUK (Vienna); Fabrik (Potsdam); Solo in Azione Festival (Milan); Toihaus Theatre (Salzburg); Gateshead International Festival of Theatre (UK). She has received funding from the Suitcase Fund; The Center for Cultural Innovation; a commission from the Danspace Project 2010-11 Commissioning Initiative, with support from the Jerome Foundation; and residencies at Fabrik Potsdam, PACT-Zollverein, Workspace Brussels, UCLA Hothouse, LMCC Swing Space, among others. Djordjevich was a 2006-2007 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence and a 2008/2010 danceWEB Europe Scholar. Her other projects include serving as guest editor for Critical Correspondence and curating Monday Morning Class at Pieter in Los Angeles. In addition to her work with composer Chris Peck, she has collaborated with choreographer Dragana Bulut and has performed for Heather Kravas, Jennifer Monson, Elizabeth Ward, Sam Kim, Sasa Asentic and Ana Vujanovic, among others. She has also assisted choreographer DD Dorvillier in various capacities and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor in Contemporary Choreography at the University of California Riverside. Djordjevich received a B.A. from UCLA and an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.
ABOUT CHRIS PECK
Chris Peck is a composer, computer musician, and improviser who often collaborates with contemporary dance and theater artists, including David Dorfman, John Jasperse, RoseAnne Spradlin, Jeanine Durning, Mark Jarecki, Abby Yager, Ming Yang/Dance Forum Taipei, and Beth Gill. Peck performs as an improviser and multi-instrumentalist with Crystal Mooncone along with Jon Moniaci and Stephen Rush. The trio has toured widely since 2006, with performances at CCRMA (Stanford), the Center for New Music in San Francisco, and Spectrum in NYC. Peck collaborated with Deke Weaver and Jennifer Allen on Land of Plenty in 2008-2010, and made music for two installments of Weaver’s Unreliable Bestiary: Elephant in 2010-11 (performing in the premiere at the Stock Pavilion in Urbana, IL as well as subsequent iterations at the Sundance Film Festival and Salt Lake Arts Center) and Wolf in 2013. In addition to his work with Djordjevich, Chris is currently working on a new piece with Brussels-based choreographer Eleanor Bauer and the Belgian new music ensemble Ictus which will premiere in 2016. He is also a Ph.D. candidate in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia.
Show Box L.A. 