Bobbi Jene Smith | Lost Mountain

Directed by Bobbi Jene Smith

Performances and Live Music by:
Asaf Avidan, Evan Copeland, Ariel Freedman, Keir GoGwilt, Hsin-Yi Hsiang, Coleman Itzkoff, Jesse Kovarsky,
Yiannis Logothetis, Marta Miller, Or Schraiber and Bobbi Jene Smith

BOBBI JENE SMITH was a member of the Batsheva Dance Company from 2005-2014 under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin. She is an alumnus of the Juilliard School, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School.  Bobbi’s decision to depart Batsheva as a principal dancer and set off to discover her own choreographic voice is beautifully depicted in the award-winning documentary Bobbi Jene by Elvira Lind.

Following her critically acclaimed works, A Study on Effort and With Care (both in collaboration with violinist/writer Keir GoGwilt), Lost Mountain continues to connect musicians and dancers through dialogues of rhythm, gesture, and song, creating abstract and emotionally visceral narratives. A Study on Effort focused on the physical and emotional efforts of individual bodies; With Care investigates the dynamics of caregiving and receiving between individuals; Lost Mountain expands the frame to map tectonic shifts and forces onto the human condition.

Her choreography has been presented by The Batsheva Dance Company, PS122 COIL Festival, A.R.T, The Israel Museum, Lumi-nato Festival, The Wild Project, Machol Shalem, Sacramento Ballet, The CCA, and the San Francisco Con-servatory of Dance.

She has created new commissions for CORPUS, the dance laboratory of the Royal Danish Ballet, Gibney Dance Company, a collaboration with Maxine Doyle on the Martha Graham Dance Company and is choreographing and starring in a feature film directed by Boaz Yakin.

ASAF AVIDAN is a singer-songwriter and musician, born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1980. He is the creative force and front-man of folk/rock band Asaf Avidan & the Mojos, a group whose Platinum-sell-ing debut album, ‘The Reckoning’ (2008), was named Album of the Year by a number of media outlets, including Time Out Tel Aviv, and remains the largest selling independent record in Israel. Between 2009 and 2011, Asaf Avidan & the Mojos toured extensively around the world, including appearances at Bran-denburg Bridge for the World Championship of Athletics in Berlin; the closing event at Cannes Film Fes-tival 2010; and a tribute concert for The Who in Carnegie Hall. The band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2011. Avidan shot to worldwide fame when his track “One Day / Reckoning Song” hit number one in 14 countries as a remix by a Berlin DJ, with 150 million views on YouTube and over 1.5 million downloads. Avidan released his debut solo album, ‘Different Pulses,’ in 2013 with Producer Tamir Muskat (Balkan Beat Box). Avidan and his new band have toured to massive venues across Europe, including Olympia and Zenith, and festivals such as Les Eurockeennes (Belfort), Parco della Musica (Rome), Paleo Festival (Swit-zerland), and many more. Avidan’s latest album, ‘Gold Shadow,’ was released worldwide in early 2015.

JOHN TORRES work includes designs for dance, theatre, music, fashion and print.  In collaboration with Robert Wilson, productions have included: EDDA (Det Norske Teatret Oslo), Cheek to Cheek Live! With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga (PBS Great Performances). Opera projects include La Traviata and Orfeo et Euryidice at Opera Orchestre National Montpellier and in 2019, Tristan and Isolde at La Monnaie / de Munt in Brussels. Recent Theatre has included Twelfth Night for Shakespeare in the Park, Delacorte Theatre and The Black Clown , A.R.T. Cambridge.  In Music, Taylor Mac: A 24 Decade History of Popular Music; Solange Knowles // Cosmic Journey; and Joni 75 // A Birthday Celebration.  In Dance, Toss and Rogues with choreographer Trisha Brown, Theatre National de Chaillot/Paris;  And Available Light with choreographer Lucinda Childs, Walt Disney Concert Hall/Los Angeles.   In Fashion, Givenchy S/S 2015 (New York), Yeezy 3 by Kanye West at Madison Square Garden. With director Steven Klein, music videos Chun Li (Nicki Minaj) and Wolves (Kanye West). nytelytedesign.com

VICTORIA BEK is a Brooklyn based Costume Artist geared towards creative, collaborative processes. She works regularly as a Craft Artisan and Technician for Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, in addition to Costume Consulting for international touring companies.  Her work has been presented at The Park Avenue Armory, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Highline, The New York Philharmonic and more.

EVAN COPELAND hails from central PA and moved to NYC in 2003. He received his BFA from Tisch School of the Arts where he is now an adjunct professor. He performed in Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More NYC and is currently working with Martha Clarke and Bobbi Jene Smith.  He has worked predominantly with Shen Wei Dance Arts and The Sean Curran Company and recently danced with Opera Lafayette, Houston Grand Opera and Santa Fe Opera. He is a performer, teacher, creator, tap dancer, coach and personal trainer residing in Brooklyn.

ARIEL FREEDMAN earned her BFA at The Juilliard School, where she was a recipient of the Martha Hill Prize. After graduating, she performed with Aszure Barton, Mikhail Baryshnikov and David Parker. She danced with the Batsheva Ensemble and Company for a total of five seasons. She taught Gaga and Ohad Naharin’s repertory from 2007-2015, and has performed with Kidd Pivot, Motley Dance, Keigwin + Company, Zack Winokur and Michelle Mola/ The Troupe in collaboration with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Liz Magic Laser, Noa Zuk, Idan Sharabi and Dancers, Talia Beck, Helen Simoneau Danse, and zoe | juniper. In 2017 she performed and co- created the evening-length duet Empress Archer with Meredith Webster under the umbrella of The Cambrians, and along with Webster is part of the ongoing creation process of This One Then with choreographer Charlotte Griffin. She has been dancing and collaborating closely with Roy Assaf since 2013.

KEIR GOGWILT is a violinist and writer whose work spans a range of genres and disciplines. Much of his work seeks to present musical practices of the so-called classical tradition as provincial and heterogeneous. He is most at home in collaborative, often interdisciplinary work, in which creative labor is shared and recognized. Frequent collaborators include composers Celeste Oram, Matthew Aucoin, and Carolyn Chen, dancer/choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith, and performers Steve Schick, Mark Dresser (Dresser quintet/septet), and Kyle Motl. He has made solo appearances with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Chinese National Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, among others; festival appearances include Spoleto, Rockport, PS 122 COIL, Luminato, and the San Diego Symphony. His playing is featured on recordings released by Tzadik, Cleanfeed, BMOP (upcoming). He is a founding member of the American Modern Opera Company. Currently he is writing his a PhD candidate in music at UCSD, writing a dissertation on 19th and 20th century divisions between technique and “spirit” in the discourse of European art music, advised by Amy Cimini, Anthony Burr, and Clinton Tolley.

COLEMAN ITZKOFF Hailed by the Alex Ross and The New Yorker for his “flawless technique and keen musicality,” cellist Coleman Itzkoff enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. Itzkoff has been a featured Artist-in-Residence on American Public Media’s Performance Today and has soloed with numerous orchestras across the nation. A passionate proponent of contemporary music, he is a founding member of the interdisciplinary ensemble AMOC, the American Modern Opera Company.  For more information, please visit colemanitzkoff.com

JESSE KOVARSKY  graduated with an MA in Dance Performance (Transitions Dance Company) in 2011. Since graduating he has worked with many choreographers including Russell Maliphant, Arthur Pita, Hofesh Shechter, Ryan Heffington, Sam Pinkelton, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. He has performed with The English National Opera, Junk Ensemble and with Punchdrunk in The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable and Sleep No More, and with the Metropolitan Opera, New York in The Death of Klinghoffer. He has also appeared in the feature films Anna Karenina and The Muppets.  He has recently performed on Broadway in the Tony Award-nominated revival of Fiddler On the Roof as well as the Tony winning show The Bands Visit as both performer and Associate Choreographer.

YIANNIS LOGOTHETIS is a dancer, performer, actor, choreographer, teacher and mentor. He grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece and moved to NYC in 2013. He is currently in the creation of ​Destination​, an eye-opening dance-theatre performance directed by Yang Zhen and sponsored by Menno Plukker premiering in Sydney, September of 2019. Lately, he has been collaborating with Bobbi Jene Smith for a number of upcoming performances including ​With Care ​and ​Lost Mountain​. His love for improvisation and instant composition lead him to co-create ​Performance & Party a​ longside Elia Mrak and Hannah Wendel. In the future, his choreographic works will aim to explore the power of interdisciplinary performances by bringing artists of different fields together to share the space.

Yiannis got his dance BFA degree from Marymount Manhattan College while receiving the “Gold Key” award for choreographic recognition. There, he had the opportunity to work with established choreographers such as Αszure Barton, Johannes Wieland, Alexandra Damiani and Shannon Gillen.

His professional experience as a performer started when he became a part of Punchdrunk’s off Broadway ​Sleep No More ​NYC where he played the roles of Macbeth and Banquo. Later collaborations include Crystal Pite’s and Jonathan Young’s Betroffenheit​ tour with Kidd Pivot, Bobbi Jene Smith’s ​Caldera​ with CORPUS, and Boaz Yakin’s feature film ​AVIVA.​

MARTA MILLER attended Boston Conservatory of Music and graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in dance. Performed with Marta Renzi and appeared in several of her dance films, including “Mountainview” co-directed by John Sayles. Danced with David Parker and the Bang group and was the assistant choreographer for an original opera for the Verona Opera Company. Marta was also a member of the Gina Gibney Dance Company for five years. Her own choreography has been presented in New York, Slovakia, and Vermont. Since 2016 she has been the rehearsal director for Bobbi Jene on the works “A Study On Effort” and most recently, “With Care”. She has three children that amaze her everyday and currently runs a retreat space for dancers, choreographers and artists in southern Vermont.

OR SCHRAIBER was born in 1992 in the city of Jerusalem, where he studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. After graduating, Or joined the Batsheva Dance Company, with whom he danced for seven years. In parallel to his time in the company, he served at the IDF for 3 years. In 2017, Or moved to New York City to study acting at the Stella Adler Studio. In 2018, he co-choreo-graphed and starred in Boaz Yakin’s film ‘AVIVA.’ Or has appeared in numerous music videos and short films, including collaborations with Yemen Blues, Moses Project, Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez, Tal Zagreba, and Celia Rowlson-Hall. He has directed and choreographed several short dance films and live immersive shows.

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