Press Release
FENETRES / WINDOWS, a collaborative multimedia performance, will be presented February 7th through 9th,
2003, (Fri 2/7 and Sat 2/8 at 9pm, Sun 2/9 at 8pm) at the Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street (at Washington St). Tickets are $12 or $10 for seniors and students. Tickets may be reserved by calling (212) 942-5792.
FENETRES / WINDOWS is Gilles Obermayer's latest all evening performance featuring six dancers, two musicians, a clown and a visual artist. Besides being the artistic director, Obermayer, a French musician and composer, has written original music for the project, consisting of 11 "Tableau" (pieces), lasting approximately ninety minutes. The performance is an exploration of the many aspects of collaboration between different art forms. In the piece Ice/Moraines, choreographed by Jeff Moen and danced by Yukie Yokuyama (both from the Cunningham Dance Foundation), the composer (Obermayer) and choreographer agreed on only a time frame and feeling. For the piece Charybe (inspired by the Odyssey), Obermayer gave the score to both Ted Johnson in New York City and Jane Weiner in Houston, asking them to each choreograph a solo. These two solos will be put together and performed simultaneously for the first time at the Premiere. Chance, a tribute to John Cage and Merce Cunningham, is composed "by chance", and every night the audience will be picking "by chance" the last parameters of the score as well as the number of dancers. Low Frequency is a traditional collaboration between the composer and the dancer/choreographer Laura Flowers, a teacher on faculty at the José Limòn Institute.
Throughout FENETRES / WINDOWS the visual artist, Megan Halpern, will be painting, drawing and charcoaling, inspired by the sounds, movements, lights and atmosphere. The clown/actor, Ambrose Matros (from the show Happy Hours which ran on 42nd Street) will be interfering with the dancers and musicians as the performance ensues. Matros will also be performing his duet Bird Cage, with musician/composer Tigger Benford (co-composer of Metal Garden for Sean Curran).
The original music of FENETRES / WINDOWS is written mostly for percussion instruments and Obermayer will be performing two of his breathtaking solos, Dead Line and The Boxer.