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KOOL ­ DANCING IN MY MIND, ROBERT WILSON¹S TRIBUTE TO SUZUSHI HANAYAGI

Posted by Marlon Barrios Solano on July 16, 2009 at 4:00am

AUGUST 08 - AUGUST 09 GUILD HALL TO PRESENT KOOL ­ DANCING IN MY MIND, ROBERT WILSON¹S TRIBUTE TO SUZUSHI HANAYAGI Collaboration Developed at Watermill Center by Wilson and Choreographer Carla Blank http://www.guildhall.org/calendar.ihtml?id=1087 KOOL is indeed a cool experience -Linda Yablonsky, Artforum Austerely beautiful and poetic. -Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice A fascinating tribute -Susan Yung, Thirteen East Hampton¹s Guild Hall is pleased to present KOOL ­ Dancing in My Mind, a collaboration between artist Robert Wilson and choreographer Carla Blank that honors the legacy of dance icon Suzushi Hanayagi. The performance-portrait will be performed at Guild Hall on Friday, August 8 and Saturday, August 9 at 8 P.M, and will feature an introductory talk by Wilson and Alexandra Munroe, Ph.D., Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. On August 9, Guild Hall will also host a $250 Private Post-Show Garden Reception with cast and front orchestra seating.

KOOL is a tribute to Hanayagi¹s place in art history, featuring live dance performances that include excerpts from over thirty collaborations by Hanayagi with Blank and Wilson, as well as new dances performed by Jonah Bokaer, Illenk Gentile and others. KOOL also features archival and newly filmed material by Richard Rutkowski. Wilson¹s performance portrait, a poetic monument to a working friendship, comes at a time when Hanayagi is suffering from Alzheimer¹s. As part of the commission, Wilson visited Osaka, Japan, where Hanayagi lives in a special care facility and is almost incapable of moving or communicating. Wilson discovered that by encouraging her to make small gestures and dance movements she has made thousands of times in the past, she seemed to discover fractions of memories and the joy connected with these memories returned to her face. KOOL was co-produced and co-commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum, Guild Hall, East Hampton and the Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation with support from the Jerome Robbins Foundation and with additional support from Molly Davies. It was first presented at the Guggenheim¹s Peter B. Lewis Theater in April 2009 as a part of the Works & Process series, in conjunction with the museum¹s presentation of The Third Mind: American Arts Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989. Through this Guild Hall performance, KOOL is both revisited and revised. A 26-minute documentary film, also titled KOOL, will soon be released in Europe. Directed by by Robert Wilson and Richard Rutkowski the film was produced by Jorn Weisbrodt, Rutkowski and Hisami Kuroiwa, and executive produced by Sylvia (INA) and ARTE. Robert Wilson first worked with Suzushi Hanayagi in his 1984 production of The Knee Plays, which was partially developed in Japan. Wilson and Carla Blank have collaborated on over 15 productions‹more than any of his other close collaborators. Their work together includes the CIVIL WarS, a tree is best measured when it is down; King Lear; Gluck¹s Alceste; Gertrude Stein¹s Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights, The Forest, Debussy¹s Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien and Madame Butterfly.
Tags: DANCING, IN, KOOL, MIND, MY, ROBERT, WILSON, ­
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