Laurie says:
I was down in Santa Cruz last week visiting my daughter Cid as she gets ready for the tour of What We Do in Winter. She created the dance during her Fulbright scholarship (school year 2009-10) when she was teaching at Tallinn University in Estonia. She was back there in March both to teach and to rehearse her dancers.
We had a really good visit and got to catch up and I got to hear more details of the upcoming tour. Her dancers arrived yesterday and may have seen redwoods by now. Most of them have never been to California and among other things were looking forward to eating an avocado.
As her web site says:
What We Do In Winter features dancers from Estonia and the United States, performing to an original score by Pearlman’s long time collaborator, composer Jonathan Segel (Camper Van Beethoven), with costumes by Estonian scenographer Pille Kose. Starting as strangers—foreign bodies in the same room—this international collaboration reflects on the process of getting to know each other during the long, dark Estonian winter.
Her work is brilliant and original contemporary dance with subtle politics I admire.
Here is a video of Drowning Poems, her most recent work before what We do in Winter. Very serendipitously we were both doing work at the same time (mine in metal) inspired by the poet Stevie Smith’s Not Waving But Drowning.
“…it was Pearlman’s “Drowning Poems” that trembled with a poignancy and grief so textually rich it took my breath away. With startling motifs that put the performers in a watery underworld, Daniel Bear Davis, Damara Vita Ganley, and Molly Katzman danced the piece with a solemn passion that was mesmerizing.” – Julia Ciapella, dance writer.
She’s raised 87% of the $3000 in additional expense money on Kickstarter and only needs about $500 more (there’s one week left.). If you feel like helping the link is here.
Cid raised the money for the visas and to bring the dancers here from Estonia in 2011 The $3000 is for the … portion of the production expenses which will not be covered by box office receipts or other sources of income. The project budget includes light, costume & set design, a reworking of the music, dancers’ per diems, photo shoot, marketing, video documentation, and renting a van to take seven of us from San Francisco to Los Angeles. None of these things are particularly romantic, but they are absolutely necessary to the success of the tour and the longevity of the dance company.
I’ll be seeing the performances at the International Arts Festival in San Francisco on May 19th and 20th.
And they will be performing in Santa Cruz May 17th and 18th, and in Los Angeles on May 24 and 25th. Details are below.
Check it out. I’ll be at the San Francisco shows both nights. I can’t wait.
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May 17-18, Santa Cruz, CA
Santa Cruz Dance & CP/PP present “This is what we do in winter” and works by Cid’s Estonian collaborators at Motion at the Mill. Both shows at 8:00pm.
May 19-20 2012, San Francisco, CA San Francisco International Arts Festival presents “This is what we do in winter” featuring dancers from Estonia and the U.S at the Marines Memorial Theatre, Saturday at 9:00pm and Sunday at 5:00pm. Buy tickets here
May 24, Los Angeles, CA
The UCLA Department of Arts and Cultures presents a free noontime performance of “This is what we do in winter” and works by Cid’s Estonian collaborators at Glorya Kaufman Hall, Q&A to follow
May 25, Los Angeles, CA
“This is what we do in winter” and works by Cid’s Estonian collaborators, at Live Arts Los Angeles May 25, Los Angeles, CA