A Space Divided is an evening-length performance event featuring three new works by Liss Fain, Amy Seiwert, and Christian Burns, each created on the dancers of Liss Fain Dance and in response to an immersive installation designed by Matthew Antaky. A Space Divided premieres at Z Space in San Francisco April 9-12. More info HERE.
Q: Why did you decide to do this project?
Amy Seiwert: I am utterly fascinated with installation work and work in non-traditional settings. I like the viewer being able to see things close, allowing them to become fascinated with a dancer’s artistic nuance that might never be seen across a proscenium. I also love that the work can be seen from all sides, which presents the challenge of losing a back and front choreographically. It has required a mental shift in my creation process.
Q: What have you found most interesting, exciting, or challenging about making work for an installation environment?
Amy Seiwert: Limitations can often bring about new pathways. I think that’s happened here, but I won’t know for sure until I see the work in the space with an audience. The audience is a real part of the work, and I can’t know how that’ll actually affect how it’s viewed until people are in there. That’s a bit scary, which is wonderful.
Q: What is one thing you found enjoyable about the process? What is one thing you found particularly challenging?
Amy Seiwert: The dancers. This is a great group of intelligent artists who I have really enjoyed spending time with. The challenges–dealing with me being sick, then my psoas spasm, then some dancer injuries… But even with all this, I think we’ve made something special.
Amy Seiwert, Artistic Director of Imagery, was mentored under the wing of the late Michael Smuin, and keeps a relationship with Smuin Ballet as the Resident Choreographer. She has been commissioned by Ballet Austin, BalletMet, Smuin Ballet, Robert Moses KIN, as well as the repertory ballet companies of Washington DC, Atlanta, Oakland, Sacramento, Colorado, Louisville, Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, Dayton and Milwaukee, among others. Her work has earned exuberant praise: “[Seiwert] is quite possibly the Bay Area’s most original dance thinker, taking what some consider a dead language and using it as a 21st century lingo to tell us something about who we are” (San Francisco Bay Guardian). She is honored to be an Artist in Residence at the ODC Theater. www.ASImagery.org
Liss Fain Dance 