Center Stage Theater &
The UCSB Initiative for New & Reimagined Work
present

Re:Emerge
a dance festival to celebrate the return of live performance

It is exciting to finally be seeing some bright lights ahead after all these difficult months. We are excited to be welcoming back both performers and audiences and we thought it was a great time to celebrate. 

The Re:Emerge Festival performed June 17-20 with 4 unique line-ups including live and video performances by dancers from Santa Barbara and beyond in a wide variety of dance styles and genres. For those who were not able to join us for the Festival we have created a video version. Each day of the Festival will be released as a unique video.  This is volume 1. 

Landscapes: A Celebration of Dance Film, presented June 17

A Vanished Day / The Errant Sea
Robin Bisio Films/Katia Lepore Mrazek
Creators: Robin Bisio & Katia Lepore Mrazek
Performer: Katia Lepore Mrazek

Sylkies
Psychopomp Dance Theater/Ryan Howard
Direction: Ryan Howard
Choreography: Shenandoah Harris
Performers: Abigail Chuah, Nicole Flores, Shenandoah Harris & Erin White

Lizard's Mouth
HR Moves/Hannah Ruth Brothers
Choreography & Performance: Hannah Ruth Brothers

Out There
Victoria Finlayson
Choreography & Video Editing: Victoria Finlayson
Performers: Hannah Ruth Brothers, Kara Le, Susan Shaberman, Eloise Uranga

Ride
UCSB Dance Company/Joshua Manculich
Choreography: Joshua Manculich
Performers: Amity Beardsley, Jayne Butler, Kelly Gao, Erick Martinez, Sera Shahgholian, Dakota Smith, Jenny Thach, Andrew To, Sophia Yacap

Desert Picnic
Wild Beast Dance/Tammy Carrasco
Direction & Choreography: Tammy Carrasco
Performers: Tim Bendernagel & Chloe London

Renewal
Psychopomp Dance Theater/Erin White
Choreography & Performance: Erin White

#danzarestless
Performed by Mauricio Vera
(in 4 parts)

Restless - Chilean in Alicante Spain
Direction, Editing & Choreography: Eduardo Zúñiga

Orilla - Mexican in Montreal Canada
Direction & Choreography: Edgar Zendejas

Ocaso - Spanish in Santiago de Chile
Direction, Editing & Choreography: Esdras Hernández Villar

Mauricio - Uruguayan in Montevideo Uruguay
Direction & Choreography: Ernersto Sebastian Arias Cruzado 
Window Ballerina: Julia Bengtsson

Director’s Pick
Cygnus
Direction: Cara Hagan & Robert Uehlin
Choreography & Performance: Cara Hagan

Cygnus by Cara Hagan was selected by the Artistic Director to be featured in the Re:Emerge Festival.  Fresh off the Film Festival Circuit—with screenings in over 26 film festivals—Cygnus offers a prime example of the simplicity and nuance of masterful cinematography, serving as a foundation for vulnerable, transcendent expression of the human form.  Ms. Hagan’s film offers a depth of vision and mastery of the craft of dance filmmaking, and also features her riveting performance and presence as the subject of the film.  

Videos will be available for viewing through July 11. You may watch the video multiple times, but cannot download or share the link.

Director’s Note
It goes without saying that this has been an incredibly challenging year. While many industries have been effected by the pandemic in significant ways, the performing arts—and dance in particular—have endured devastating economic and structural ramifications. COVID’s impact on the arts has been widely un-addressed at the governmental level and it is due to the unshakeable support of arts advocates, donors, and community organizers that we are here today.

As I tell my choreography students when they lament the narrow parameters of an assignment or creative prompt: Limitation liberates possibility. Restriction activates creativity. The restrictions and limitations we have endured as a creative community over the past year offered a radical example of this lesson. With the whole world turning to digital, screen-based platforms for so many facets of our lives, the dance world made a collective pivot to dance film and live digital performance in order to continue to create and connect through art. While these efforts should be applauded and celebrated for the adaptability, ingenuity and perseverance they represent, we should not ignore the fact that for many in our community dance filmmaking has long been a central aspect of their practice. I say this is not to discount the creative shift that so many of us have necessarily embraced, but to honor and celebrate the rich history of dance on film.

Dance Film can offer a visual experience that transcends space and time—the capacity to transport us. Film can rocket us across the globe; manifest imagined landscapes; evoke the familiar and nostalgic; and open doors to intimate, personal spaces. It has the power to destabilize our relationship to time, and offer unique perspectives from which we can observe its chosen subject(s).

Tonight’s offerings represent many of the different aesthetics, perspectives and formats that emerge from the craft of dance filmmaking. I invite you to let the visual imaginary wash over you, and allow yourself to be moved.

Thank you so much for spending the evening with us, and for your ongoing support of the performing arts. We hope to see you again soon!

—Brandon Whited, Curator/Artistic Director

Tickets:
(Prices are pay what you can, levels above general include a donation to Center Stage Theater to support future events>)
General $10
Friend $25
Patron $50
Angel $250

After purchase you will receive an email confirmation with the link to the video.  If you have any problems email us at admin@centerstagetheater.org.

 

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