BEST CHOREOGRAPHY CW Arty Award, Charlotte Boye-Christensen 'FEAST'

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

Charlotte Boye-Christensen
'FEAST'

NOW-ID is honored to be voted by readers of Salt Lake City Weekly 'BEST CHOREOGRAPHY' by Charlotte Boye-Christensen for 'FEAST' in the 2014 Arty Awards issue. We’re so happy that our audience has connected with our vision for this production that they took the time to vote. 

Thank you also to all of the extraordinary artists involved!

From CityWeekly.net: "With Feast, Now-ID—an interdisciplinary dance company with an international scope—really started to hit its stride presenting groundbreaking and thought-provoking site-specific work. Company founders Charlotte Boye-Christensen and Nathan Webster's second evening-length production took over the historic Great Saltair for a thematically diverse, one-night-only dance/theater event about appetites, tastes and desires that explored the act of consumption and how it affects the physical dimensions of the human body. Boye-Christensen's willingness to push her own movement vocabulary into new spaces and complex energies is what ultimately set the table for such a unique Feast."

Congratulations to all the ARTYs winners which you can read about here.

– Nathan, Charlotte and the board of NOW-ID

Summer Update!

PHOTO: PELLE RINK

Hello from all of us at NOW-ID, 

We thought we might share some recent news. NOW-ID has been working with local editor Chris Howard to finish a short film of "FEAST", set to Jesper Egelund's music. Even though it obviously can't beat seeing the work "Live" - it still gives a glimpse into the world that was created out at the Great Saltair last May. See the film here.

We are taking "FEAST" to Kansas in November to the Kansas Dance Festival, where we are collaborating with the dance and music departments at the University of Wichita to build even further on the original piece.

Nathan and Charlotte were interviewed by Gavin's Underground for City Weeklywhich you can read here.

Charlotte recently returned from teaching at the WildWind Performance Lab in Lubbock, Texas. This is a new non-traditional, process-oriented Performance Lab that has a pretty phenomenal Faculty. Amongst others: writer David Kranes, J Ranelli (Founding member of the tony-award winning Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Director of "Law and Order" on NBC and more), , Shannon Robert (Designer and Associate professor at Clemson University), Blessed Unrest (Theater company out of NYC) and many more.

She is now heading off to Baton Rouge next week to do a short residency and then on to Copenhagen in August. In Copenhagen she will be choreographing and performing in a site with the Copenhagen-based Figura Ensemble. The project is titled "Et glimt... så er jeg væk igen" (roughly translated: "A glimpse...and then I am gone again").

The project is staged at the Marienlyst Castle north of Copenhagen and has a team of collaborators (musicians, actors, opera-singers, dancers) from Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and more. The work considers the concept of identity.

The project will have a run of 12 performances, so if you are in Copenhagen August 23 - 26th... consider making the trip up to this extraordinary 1588 castle located in the historic center of Helsingor.
 

Have a wonderful Summer from all of us here at NOW-ID and please stay tuned for all of the events we have coming up this year. For more information, contact or visit us anytime at: www.now-id.com

Nathan & Charlotte

Body 0.1: Artemia (Triassic-Present)

[hw]Artemia, or the humble Brine Shrimp, or for those of us of a certain age, Sea Monkeys. [/hw] The great Salt Lake, while widely believed to be a lifeless body of water, is indeed hostile to most aquatic life, but ideal for the alien-like Brine Shrimp, which thrives in highly salty or otherwise toxic environments. The little beasts, which differ little from fossil records of their kin tens of millions of years old, are harvested commercially by highly competitive fishermen, who race to "swarms" spotted from planes. Fishermen have been known to fight over a prime swarm. The harvested shrimp and their eggs are sold as tropical fish food and for commercial fish farming, and can fetch $35 a pound. The dried creatures can live in suspended animation for years, thus making check-out aisle purchase in little paper envelopes a possibility. However their lack of crowns and other royal trappings disappointed many a young customer. Lest ye think these shrimps of the animal world harmless, Mike Cassidy's horrifying science fiction (not so) classic, Attack of the Brine Shrimp (1980), clearly shows the wage of such ignorance. Watch it if you dare. -Mark Hofeling

Ghosts 0.2: The End of the First Saltair

[hw]It started in Ali Baba Cave, the fire. [/hw] Workmen were getting the Saltair ready for the upcoming summer season of children, swimmers, and dancers. In those days, a half million of them came each year by train arriving from downtown Salt Lake City every 45 minutes. The first train unloaded at 9:30 in the morning, the last emptied the dance hall at midnight. Beloved since its opening in 1893, the Saltair was a Moorish style palace designed by architect Richard Kletting. It brought sophistication and prestige to the misunderstood people who settled in the desert at the edge of the inland sea. The Coney Island of the West, they called it. It hovered over the Great Salt Lake atop 2500 wooden pilings and had a pier over 1000 feet-long. It had the world’s largest dance hall, 600 bath houses, a Ferris wheel, roller coaster, merry-go-round, and boat rides. Not too long before it burned, it was so popular that the Charlston was banned "for fear all those people coming hard on the down beat would shake the whole pavilion into the lake," wrote Wallace Stegner.

The workman who discovered the four-foot-tall flames caressing the wall of the cave that day in April 1925, managed to tamp out the fire, but by the time he’d returned with help, the wind had rallied the blaze.

In the end the Ali Baba Cave was lost. The Salt Lake Telegram also reported that the Fun House and Hippodrome were lost, as well as Dinty Moore’s, the Old Scenic Railway, Dodgem, Ship’s café, a shooting gallery, the Automat, a photography gallery, twelve hot dog stands, some concessions stands, and a bathing suit house, as well as the famous dancing pavilion. “The smoke cleared slowly and left a gaunt-like pavilion, once the largest dance hall in the world, nothing but a network of wooden posts gnawed at by the tongues of fire.”

--Amie Tullius

Ghosts 0.1: Palimpsests

[hw]Writing tablets[/hw] used by ancient Romans were coated with wax, so they could be written on, then smoothed, then written on again. It was Cicero who described this process with the word “palimpsest” a word from Greek, παλίμψηστος, or palímpsestos, which meant “scraped clean and used again.”

The word came to be applied to the reuse of other writing materials, as well. Crackly, reed-based papyrus, is delicate and does not take well to either scrubbing or time, but the more robust skin-based parchment was frequently reused. The animal membrane was also labor intensive to create, having to be stretched tight on a frame, cleaned, bleached, and scraped. Scraped wet. Scraped dry. Scraped and stretched again. And so it was often wiped clean rather than archived.

A grain ledger might have been rubbed by a poet with milk and oat bran until the ink washed away. Years later, increments and amounts would start to reappear, and juxtapose themselves among the verses. Legal documents might be cleaned 300 years after their first incarnation, to come back as correspondence in a different era, different handwriting, different culture.

Our palimpsest is a place. Our page is a landscape, washed by water, salt, fire, and wind. Because it is so stark, everything that's written on the Salt Flats takes on a distinctness, even if it doesn't endure. What's left after the inevitable erasure are trilobites mingling on the page among Ferris wheels, and Victorian bathers bobbing corklike in the 25% salt content of the Great Salt Lake-- though their impression is only faintly visible. Garfield & Western's interurban rail cars are scribbled on by Deadmau5. And soon enough that is scrubbed off. The Saltair itself has been rubbed away by fire and then re-written twice. They say that it's haunted.

Perhaps "ghost" is another word for the writing of an earlier era.

--Amie Tullius

Update + Script Excerpt from Playwrite Troy Deutsch!

[hw]Flying Bobcat has enlisted NYC Playwright Troy Deutsch to create the script[/hw] which will weave between dance and set and music. Charlotte has begun the choreographic process with Jo and Jenn and Scott and Andra. Nathan and Gary have the stage/set concept designed and we are all, with you, bringing out something special from our beloved shoreline venue. And here is a small excerpt to whet your appetites...

She is not a Peregrine Falcon. But I did wear gloves when I sent her off. A long, long time ago, back before...Thick black leather gloves. I still have them. Still wear them. Sometimes. At night. Sharp beak. No. Feathers. Yes. In her hair, her hair... She will make you cry, but not for the reasons you think. Pretend she is your chance. Your only chance. She is the one who got out, who slipped through the cracks and went away, far, far... The one whose breath will smell like wind and there will be flies in her teeth. She is the one whose feet will be mud and callused rock and there will be archaeologists and podiatrists studying the sediment layers she stands upon and walks with. She is 'see' and she is 'find out'. Because you cannot. You must not. Because you are here. Trapped. This is your place. All of this, this, this, this, this...Is yours. Your inheritance. Your albatross. The salt is yours. The endless salt. Listen to it out there! Listen! The whispering salt. The relentless salt. The dirty, dirty. The festering f...

...

We project that with tickets sales after this Indiegogo campaign, to create and share FEAST as the experience it is destined to be... As of right NOW we want to raise an additional $8,460 moving forward here on Indiegogo, for a total of $16,500 for this campaign. Please encourage your friends to get their tickets as soon as possible, and/or to get on the bus with you! Your donation is immensely appreciated and is truly what will make this mythic event happen. YOU are making it happen. Please join us in encouraging others to create this with us here.

Shoreline 0.1: The Spiral Jetty (1970):

[hw]The Spiral Jetty is considered the seminal work[/hw] of American environmental sculptor Robert Smithson. This remarkable and remote earthwork is located two hours from Salt Lake City, and is accessible only in decent weather when the mud road is passable. It is a counter-clockwise spiral 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide. Constructed during an unusually low water year in the Great Salt Lake, it has spent most of it's 40 year life submerged. It has made brief dry appearances since then, but is usually shallow enough to be seen even when submerged. Smithson was attracted to the slates, at the north end of the lake, because of it's primordial nature, and the intense red of the salt-resistant algae that flourish there. He was a believer in entropy, and wanted this massive installation to erode and react with and to it's surrounding environment, and the earth itself, as it is slowly doing. Sadly, Smithson is unable to witness this glacial decay. He was killed in a plane crash in Texas just three years after finishing his iconic work. -- Words by Mark Hofeling

The Blankest of Blank Slates

[hw]The expanse and austerity muffle meaning,[/hw] absorb sound, and the stories that arise from the salt flats, the lake, quickly dissolve and slip into the distance. Without cultural ephemera to record its passing, time moves in larger increments than it does in the city. Here ephemera is a glacial imprint, the impression of an ancient body in a rock, a shoreline far above. Memories are held in the land: the ghost of a sea, extinct animals swimming above us, and the filmy outlines of partially remembered people whose impressions were too soft to fossilize. Stories turn to ghosts; already there are two ghosts of the Saltair layered under the first. Children and roller coasters no longer extant, slide into the vastness.

Vancouver Residency

[hw]During the month of February, Charlotte created[/hw] a new work at the University of Wichita, Kansas and followed that with one at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Here are a couple photos from her workspace at the later residency: The old Woodwards building in the heart of Gastown, Vancouver. The SFU piece features seven dancers, will premier in April of this year, and is titled Graze.

SFU Studio

A New Work In New York

[hw]Charlotte just finished a new work "Shadows" at Tisch School of the Arts.[/hw] If you are in NYC this week, please check it out at 111 2nd Avenue, between 6th and 7th street. First cast performs Thursday and Saturday and second cast on Friday - at 7.30pm. A phenomenal group of dancers with an intense physicality and fearlessness! Not to be missed.

NOW Dance wins an Arty!

[hw]In a public vote, Charlotte has won an Arty for Best Choreography in Salt Lake City for The Wedding. City Weekly writes:[/hw] Charlotte Boye-Christensen's newest artistic adventure, NOW ID—an internationally culled, interdisciplinary dance company created with her husband, architect Nathan Webster—began with "an exploration of the most public of private rituals."

The Wedding was staged in the Salt Lake Masonic Temple, which saw a perfect marriage of Boye-Christensen's choreography—a combination of emotive duets and solos—and Webster's love of unique spaces. As far as the movement vocabulary goes, it's Boye-Christensen's keen ability to juxtapose sharp angularity with softer, more fluid gestures that imbued The Wedding with both its power and vulnerability.

Read the City Weekly article

NOW's Founders on KRCL

[hw]Recently, Charlotte and Nathan sat down with Alana Burman of KRCL's The Beehive [/hw] to discuss The Wedding. Listen to NOW's founding duo talk about the origins of the company and the exciting, unexpected path that has led them to this groundbreaking performance! Click here for the full interview.

A Word From One of NOW's Collaborators....

I am sooo excited for this project and premiere as I am witness to the beginnings (to be a part of the first choreographic phrases being built, the excitement of the Kickstarter being produced, the costume fittings and so forth)... to the possibilities of the future performances (sold out shows, opportunity to work with artists outside of salt lake, the emotions of witnessing a grand union,... and the future collaborations that will be created). All in all, I am blessed to have worked with Charlotte over the last ten years... and I am more than excited to work with her and NOW in the future. --Jo Blake, NOW-ID Collaborator

Jo signing invitations to The Wedding

Kickstarter Success!

Our Kickstarter was a success! Thanks to all of you, we have reached our "goal" and have been fully funded to kick off our new project. We are so grateful and so excited to take the next step — stay tuned for information on ticket sales for The Wedding, with performances the 26th and 27th of July at the Masonic Temple in Salt Lake City, UT.

Our Kickstarter Has Passed The 60% Mark

Most Kickstarters than hit the 60% mark succeed, and with your help we are well on our way! Thanks so much for your support. But, we're not home-free yet ... if you haven't checked it out yet, visit our Kickstarter page and check out the great thank-you gifts we have for you.

Now International Interdisciplinary Dance Launches

Announcing NOW: a brand-new interdisciplinary dance and arts company by internationally renowned choreographer, Charlotte Boye-Christensen and Canadian Architect, Nathan Webster. A Danish choreographer and dancer based in Salt Lake City, Boye-Christensen is creating a company similarly internationally positioned and connected while at the same time reflecting the unique beauty and culture of its base. We are eager to bring eyes and talents of the world to Salt Lake City, and a Salt Lake City perspective to the world, she says. Boye-Christensen, who recently stepped down after 11 years as Artistic Director of Utah's Ririe-Woodbury dance company, is excited to step forward and expand her unique vision in both the international and local landscapes. She is also excited to venture into an increasingly contemporary and experimental path. The company is titled NOW - The name functions as mission statement and mantra that reflects the company's commitment to constant renewal and leaning into the present. We have a dynamic Board of collaborators, who are crucial in moving this company forward." Current Board Members include: Gary Vlasic, Jesse Walker, Cody Derrick, Amie Tullius, Kay Cummings, Robert Wood and Scott Hinton.

The company is a framework for collaboration between local and international artists, designers and thinkers. In addition to dance, NOW will advance theater, visual art, music, site specific work and design. Boye-Christensen is committed to an innovative approach to her work, which includes the invention of unique forms that inspire and push the perception of what dance can be. Central in this commitment is her partnership with artist and architect Nathan Webster. The two have partnered on several successful experimental collaborations in the past, and Webster--who is a co-founder of NOW--is a key figure in NOW's inaugural project, which will be titled: The Wedding.

The performance will explore the space of ritual, and will be staged July 26 and 27 in the historic Salt Lake City Masonic Temple. The Wedding will showcase the talents of Joffrey Ballet's Yumelia Garcia, Ballet West's Katherine Lawrence, Ted Johnson, NY based dancer most recently seen in "Sleep No More" and Ririe Woodbury's Joseph Blake, with composers contributing from Australia and Denmark, along with local artists Gary Vlasic, Jesse Walker, and many more. The performance is a collaborative and context-driven work where the artists and site itself generate many of the fundamental ideas for the project. All together the various elements will combine to create a highly charged, intellectually and emotionally provocative experience.