milkdreams (world premiere): Alexandra Beller/Dances
The result is a new evening-length work for four remarkable dancers called milkdreams.”
– Alexandra Beller
ORIGINAL SCORE BY ROBERT POSS
LIVE MUSIC BY ROBERT POSS AND KATO HIDEKI
PERFORMED BY CARLY BERRETT PLAGIANAKOS, LEA FULTON, EDWARD RICE, SIMON THOMAS-TRAIN
milkdreams strips the performers of their veneers of ego, agenda, and shame, laying bare their need, their contentment, and the authenticity of their present moment. Both the process of creating the work, and the work itself, attempt to sift from the body the habits, inhibitions, and presentations of the trained dancer, and to recover a physicality motivated entirely by sensation, desire, joy, curiosity, and, ultimately, love.
Alexandra Beller’s milkdreams comes to La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre on June 11th as part of the 10th Annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival. Alexandra took time out from rehearsals to answer our SIX QUESTIONS about milkdreams, her approach to creating work and working at La MaMa!
ABOUT milkdreams: “I think many of us spend a good part of our lives searching for meaning. Some of us turn to religion, or science, some to parenthood, or yoga. I turned to Art. I searched for meaning in art for a long time, and I found it, but I also felt frustrated by the process of trying to connect to something larger than myself through something so self-involved. Then I had kids, and in watching them, I felt like I understood something about what exists beyond what we know, or think we know, something about what binds us, and something about desire. I started to learn the dances of my children, in the hope that it would bring me closer to what it feels like to be a human with no stories, no critiques, no formulas, no delusions, no denials, no successes or failures, no ego.
Created in 2001, Alexandra Beller/Dances has been extremely active in the New York scene as well as throughout the United States, and has toured to Cyprus, Hong Kong, Oslo, Amsterdam, Poland, Russia, and Korea. The work has been commissioned by and performed at Dance Theater Workshop, PS 122, Joyce SoHo, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s, University Settlement, Aaron Davis Hall, as well as Jacob’s Pillow, SUNY Purchase, and in Michigan, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Arizona. Beller was a longtime member of the Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, performing around the globe to critical acclaim. Her own works have been created and performed for companies and Universities throughout the US.
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival continues to support La MaMa’s commitment to presenting diverse performance styles that challenge audience’s perception of dance by featuring performance/installations, experimental film screenings & public symposiums which address dance artists’ engagement with the current political climate, as well as honoring diasporic histories and legacy, ancestral inspirations and inter-generational dialogue.