Photo credit: Piece with gaps for each other, Anja Hitzenberger
About the Event
We are excited to announce the 5-day run of “Dream Body Body Building”, an unconventional performance directed by acclaimed choreographer Ursula Eagly, which premieres at The Chocolate Factory Theater on March 5, with the support of RCI. The show, commissioned and co-produced by the Chocolate Factory Theater, riding on a soundscape performed live by the Bucharest-based artist Lala Misosniky, is an unexpected and nuanced sensory adventure, with performers in dream states navigating imagined landscapes.
“Dream Body Body Building” is supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute and was developed through residencies at AREAL / space for choreographic development in Bucharest and Dance Alliance’s Lift Off Residency in New York City.
Choreography: Ursula Eagly
Performers: Lala Misosniky, Laurel Atwell, Madeline Best, Justin Cabrillos, and Takemi Kitamura
Lighting: Madeline Best in collaboration with Shana Crawford
Sound: Lala Misosniky
Set: Laurel Atwell
Time & Location
Tuesday, March 5 - Saturday, March 9 @ 7 PM | The Chocolate Factory Theater | RSVP
Synopsis
Bucharest-based performance and sonic artist Lala Misosniky will travel to New York City from February 24 - March 4, 2024 to collaborate with NYC-based choreographer Ursula Eagly on the world premiere of Eagly's evening-length piece Dream Body Body Building. This work is commissioned and presented by The Chocolate Factory Theater, an internationally-recognized, artist-led presenting organization that is a significant hub for experimentation in the New York City dance and performance scene. Performances will take place Tuesday, March 5 through Saturday, March 9 at 7pm.
Eagly and Misosniky first connected when Eagly travelled to Bucharest in spring 2022 for a creative residency at AREAL/ space for choreographic development. At that time, Eagly was in the beginning stages of exploring the artistic process that would become Dream Body Body Building. Eagly's overall artistic research mines physical experiences that are not conventionally regarded as material for choreography, and in this process she was investigating experiences in which the unconscious mind touches the conscious--experiences like lucid dreaming, breathing, and automatic movement. Misoskniky joined the process workshop that Eagly led as a part of her AREAL residency, and the two artists had the opportunity to share ideas and discover how much common ground they shared. While in Bucharest, Eagly attended one of Misosniky's music performances and was enchanted by the home-made instrument she had created for the performance. The seed for Eagly's new work were planted.
Since that time, Dream Body Body Building has grown into an evening-length group work that illuminates the internal body, both of the performers and of the audience members who witness them. Layers of movement, language, and sound craft a multi-faceted sensory experience that invites deeper focus on the felt experience.
Misoskniky is creating the visual and sonic environment that the performers traverse within the work's scores. She is building a set using found objects that create an electronic instrument that will also produce the work's sound score. And she is performing this instrument live, making her a central figure in the piece. During several passages in the composition, Misosniky's performance is the only action taking place on stage. Misoskniky's participation is absolutely central to this work.
Eagly and Misosniky will be joined by a cast of outstanding New York City-based performers: Laurel Atwell, Madeline Best, Justin Cabrillos, and Takemi Kitamura. Each of these artists are tremendous collaborators who are well respected in the performing arts field. They are all eager to experience Misosniky's work and further exchange with the Romanian scene. We feel strongly that bringing Misosniky to New York City to join this encounter with New York City artists and audiences will propel the cycle of reciprocal exchange between Romanian and US arts scenes that was initiated in the 1990s by the Romanian arts advocate Gabriela Tudor.
Meet the Team
URSULA EAGLY is an experimental dance artist who has been based in New York City for over 20 years. Her works are characterized by a "rabbit-hole logic" (New York Times), and she researches physical experiences that are not conventionally regarded as material for choreography: the autonomic, the psychosocial, the perceptual. Ursula's work is regularly commissioned by major New York City presenting organizations and has travelled to Europe, Mexico, and Asia.
LALA MISOSNIKY is a performance and sonic artist who has been active in the Romanian and international independent artistic sphere since 2008 when she graduated in Theatre and Performing Arts at the Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film. She participated in and created many performances and projects throughout the years that were shaped in different forms (one to one, installations, multimedia approaches, etc.) and encountered different fields and disciplines. Currently she is working on sonic art pieces, field recordings, jam poetry experiments and audio-visual performance pieces, independently and in collaboration with other artists, based on new materialist ideas of unifying nature and culture, from her unique perspective as a nomadic subject.
LAUREL ATWELL is a Bessie-nominated artist and performer making work in NY since graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in 2008. Her work and collaborations have been exhibited at MoMA PS1, Performa, Danspace Project, and Abrons Art Center, among others. In 2022,she attended Maumaus Independent Study Program where she began a project that deciphers perceptions of reality, desire, and mortality via the internet. Atwell runs the apothecary and event space, Domain Name. Instagram: @affirmation.machine
Photo credit: Whitney Browne
MADELINE BEST is a Lighting Designer, Performer, Mother and the Director of Operations at the Chocolate Factory. Madeline’s design practice grows from an interest in the way light affects a space and how it feels for audience members and performers alike. Her lighting design supports the work of collaborative artists, most recently Katy Pyle/Ballez, Heather Kravas, Milka Djordjevich, Efrian Rozas, luciana achugar, Andrea Kleine, Anne-B Parson/Big Dance Theater, and others. Madeline grew up in Durham, North Carolina, studied at Bennington College and currently lives in Long Island City, Queens.
JUSTIN CABRILLOS is a choreographer, artist, and writer based in Brooklyn. His work has been commissioned by The Chocolate Factory Theater and Danspace Project. His new solo Untitled will premiere at the Momentary in Arkansas in 2024. He was an artist-in-residence at Movement Research and is the recipient of residencies at Yaddo, Zero Point Berlin, and Ucross. He was a 2016 danceWEB scholar at ImPulsTanz in Vienna under the mentorship of Tino Seghal.
SHANA CRAWFORD is entangled in dance and performance as a lighting designer, dancer, producer & support. You can find her at the Chocolate Factory Theater, LMCC’s River To River Festival or off on her own accord. See more at sortofhere.com
TAKEMI KITAMURA is a dancer, puppeteer, and choreographer. A native of Osaka, Japan, Takemi graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Dance-Education from Hunter College, where she received the Choreographic Award from the Dance Program. Her performances credits include Blood Moon by Beth Morrison Projects, The Oldest Boy at Lincoln Center Theater, The Indian Queen, directed by Peter Sellars, Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed by Dan Hurling, Shank's Mare by Tom Lee and Koryu Nishikawa V, and Falling Out by Phantom Limbs Company.