Witness Relocation / Dan Safer | Surveys the Prairie of Your Room
“raucous and joyful”
– New York Times
Directed, Choreographed and Performed by Dan Safer
Co-Created and Performed by Ae Andreas
Original Music by Heather Christian
Original Text by Kate Scelsa
Dan Safer, a downtown maverick and the Artistic Director of Witness Relocation, returns to the stage, in this original work, a duet co-created and performed with leading Witness Relocation company member, Ae Andreas. The piece, titled after a David Bowie lyric, is a delightful / invigorating / thrilling preponderance on the way things go, or could go, in any number of directions. The viewer is left unsure which one is right. It’s about things that happen in liminal spaces. It’s about ASMR recordings. And ultimately, is about trying to be happy when everything has gone to hell.
In this workshop, we will explore some basics of contact improvisation and dancing with a partner. Moving up and down from the floor, rolling, maybe even picking each other up a little. Sharing weight, balancing, connecting to other people, connecting to the floor. Making sure what we do is focused, fun, and surprising.
Photo by Sharkey Weinberg
A show by Witness Relocation
Director/ Choreographer Dan Safer
Co-created and Performed by Ae Andreas & Dan Safer
Original Music by Heather Christian
Text by Kate Scelsa
Voiceover by Grace McLean
Suits provided by Ministry of Supply
Witness Relocation formed in 2000 and is led by Dan Safer. They make shows ranging from fully scripted plays (including world premieres by Chuck Mee and English premieres by Toshiki Okada) to original dance/theater pieces to many things in between. They are the recipients of three New York Innovative Theater Awards and have performed at venues like Abrons, La MaMa (resident company), Dance New Amsterdam, The Bushwick Starr, NYC Summer Stage, JACK, Dixon Place, CATCH!, Prelude Festival, The Ohio Theater, American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, Fuse Box Festival in Austin, TX, Bumbershoot in Seattle, WA, and more. Internationally, the company has performed in France (including Theatre de Chaillot, Paris and Les Subsistances, Lyon), Poland, Russia, Romania, Canada and Thailand. http://witnessrelocation.org/
Dan Safer has directed and choreographed every WR show. He also choreographed and co-directed the acclaimed UBU SINGS UBU with Tony Torn and Julie Atlas Muz (Abrons, Slipper Room, American Rep, BB King’s, Highline Ballroom) and his work as an independent choreographer has been at BAM, DTW, Danspace, and other venues, with acclaimed companies like Pig Iron, Clubbed Thumb, Hoi Polloi, and more., and in films and music videos. In 2011, he choreographed Stravinsky’s RITE OF SPRING for Philadelphia Orchestra with Ridge Theater, and was a 2007 recipient of the Six Points Fellowship (Performance). He taught at NYU for nearly two decades and is now faculty at MIT. He got kicked out of high school for a year, used to be a go-go dancer, and once choreographed the Queen of Thailand’s Birthday Party.
Heather Christian is an Obie Award winning composer/performer. Composing/Performing credits include Mission Drift (Nat’l Theater London), The World Is Round (BAM), Annie Salem (Ars Nova/Sundance Theater Lab), Of Mice and Men (West Yorkshire Playhouse), and North,(La MaMa). She has recently emerged as a film composer (Lemon, Sundance and SXSW, open in theaters globally now, and Gregory Go Boom, Sundance Grand Jury Prize) and writes incidental music for plays: Emily Climbs (the Brick NYC), Daily Life Everlasting (La MaMa), the entire 2016 season at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (Macbeth, As you Like It, Measure For Measure). She is a long-time collaborator in devised theater with the TEAM, Jane Comfort Company, Salty Brine, Mac Wellman, Big Dance Theater, Taylor Mac, and Witness Relocation. She was recently named one of TimeOut NY’s Downtown Innovators To Watch. She has recently been seen in Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History of Popular Music and in Toshi Reagon’s Parable of the Sower. She is currently collaborating with Rachel Chavkin on new musical, Annie Salem (Sundance Theater Lab/ Royal Court London/ Ars Nova Uncharted), an adaptation of a Mac Wellman novel of the same name, and is an Ars Nova commissioned artist alongside Andrew Schneider with experimental music-theater piece currently titled Sum. She has released 8 records, taught an Atelier at Princeton, owns and operates her own recording studio in Beacon, NY, and can be seen all over the world as Heather Christian & the Arbornauts in concert halls and dive bars avant-torching. www.heatherchristian.com
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.
“This work is ALL about the people who made it. Ae Andreas is half of the piece and they are an amazing partner to create with. Heather Christian wrote a beautiful score – she knows my work and the inside of my head in a deep, long standing way that you only get out of over fifteen years of friendship and collaboration. Kate Scelsa is an INCREDIBLE writer who adapted the text we found and brought it to a new level. Grace McLean has the most perfect subtle voice and killed the recording of the voice-over. Ministry of Supply gave us indestructible suits that I can sweat in, have four way stretch so you can dance in them, and then throw in the washing machine.”
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Sammi Lim for The Dance Enthusiast interviewed Dan Safer
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“a purveyor of lo-fi mayhem”
– TimeOut NY
“describing it doesn’t do justice to the experience of seeing it”
– CultureCatch
NOW ON SALE | La MaMa Kids: La MaMa Moves! Dance Workshop led by Dan Safer!
May 18th, 2019 at 12PM | For Ages 8 to 12!
Ellen Stewart Theatre | 66 East 4th Street (2nd Floor)