Rich in humor and full of questions perhaps too profound to ask, Take Me With You is an exploration of impending loss in the midst of longing for the Beloved. And then there's the blue shark, which may carry different Rorschachs of interpretation, whether one leans towards a Freudian or Jungian iconography. A 35-minute dance/spoken word poem, the trio's singular performance with a stunning score by composer Michael Wall brings one back to the precipice of the present time and time again. TAKE ME WITH YOU RECEIVED A 2013 DANCE METRO DC AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING OVERALL PRODUCTION IN A LARGE VENUE Choreographed and Directed by Sara Pearson Created with and Performed by Raja Feather Kelly, Connor Voss, Patrik Widrig Original Music by Michael Wall Scenic Design by Sali Treek Costumes by Robert Croghan Lighting by Paul D. Jackson
PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER Conceived and Directed by Sara Pearson Choreographed and Performed by Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig “It’s like a bundle of bright scraps of this and that they untie and spread out like peddlers. They dance together- often on the floor, as if all dances began and ended in bed.” The Village Voice www.pearsonwidrig.org
Drama, a dance of long-legged awkward elegance, arresting in its otherworldly logic, moves along an abstract narrative of continually realigning expectations. Conceived and Directed by: Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig Movement Palette inspired by: Tzveta Kassabova Created with and Performed by: Tzveta Kassabova, Betty Skeen, and Erin Lehua Brown, with UMD dancers Michelle Chia, Christina Jackson, Alex Odenwald, Natasha Pcholkina, Veronica Rico, Candace Scarborough, Emily Schwarz Opera Singer: Madeline Miskie Soundscore by: Lauren Burke Scenic design conceived by: Sali Treek with Ann Chismar, Erin Glasspatrick, and Ryan Knapp Costume Design by: Tzveta Kassabova Lighting Design by: Ariel Benjamin
Sayonara, Dear is an elegantly eccentric dance/video drama by PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER reflecting on states of being at the edges of existence. Through continually shifting kinetic designs drawn from silent movies as well as from the orientalist strains in early modern dance, images of endless loss and longing are layered with Ms. Pearson's new monologue of her 88-year old mother's sexual attraction to her male caregiver. Jamie James Wenger’s Japanese chiyogami video (designed in collaboration with Pearson and Widrig) sets a vivid environment for the choreography, intensifying the exploration of what is hidden and what is revealed. www.pearsonwidrig.org
In Heimweh (homesick), Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig are catapulted against themselves and each other as the internalized forces of Catholicism and family traditions reign supreme. “How much they - and we, too - relish the immediacy of any destructiveness we can wreak short of the fatal.” The Village Voice www.pearsonwidrig.org
This video is about Ja!Ja!Ja!
Oashisu (Oasis) is what happened while reuniting with each other after a rough year, when all were in need of a vacation from themselves and ready to connect to a place as free of habit as possible. The Japanese concepts of "ma" (a creative space in which the essence of artistic relationships are made tangible) and "kansha" (simultaneous gratitude and appreciation) provided the framework for this work of tectonic shifts, seismic surprises, and deep calm. Conceived and Choreographed by Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig Created with and Performed by Graham Brown, Lindsay Gilmour, Tzveta Kassabova, Betty Skeen, Patrik Widrig Original Music Composed by James Nyoraku Schlefer Music Performed live by Masayo Ishigure, Sean Katsuyama, Tigger Benford, James Nyoraku Schlefer Premiered at Tenri Cultural Institute in New York City in October 2010
Be Still, My Heart is a duet of timeless connection at the edge of separation where both hurt and great love reside. Tzveta Kassabova and Raja Feather Kelly create an alchemy that at times is impossibly challenging, at others impossibly simple: intimate, brave, hungry, naked. Choreographed and Directed by Sara Pearson Created with and Performed by Tzveta Kassabova and Raja Feather Kelly Original Music by Michael Wall Costume Design by Robert Croghan Lighting Design by Jane Chan Premiere: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD, December 2012
Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig of the PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER discuss their love of teaching and mentoring at University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies.
UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies SHARON MANSUR + PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER DANCEWORKS February 17 & 18, 2011 http://claricesmithcenter.umd.edu/2010/c/performances/performance?rowid=11223 At the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
A full-evening dance/theater/video "live documentary" which addresses and embodies the unfathomable loss and love felt by so many.
If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride is a multi-disciplinary community-based dance theater work in which people remember, explore, and question pivotal moments of change in their lives.
In this edgy evening-length dance/theater/salt epic, Lot's Wife finally confronts God in her 1950's Brooklyn kitchen where she looks back again and again. With great humor and compassion, The Return of Lot's Wife examines the larger questions of human nature, weaving beautifully choreographed images, heartbreakingly funny monologues, original music, and the poetry of 14th Century Persian mystic Hafiz.
HereAfter explores people's relationship to life and death and what comes next, to beginnings and endings - of a life, a relationship, a job, a building, a passion. Finding words for the unspoken, and movement and music that fills the heart, the universal experience of love and loss are broken wide open with curiosity, compassion, and humor.
Muezzin explores choreographically and musically the following questions: What is prayer? What does it mean to call? And whom are we calling - ourselves, another, and more specifically, what part of oneself are we calling out to?
Rodrigo's Solo from this 1994 full-evening work about dislocation and immigration/emigration.
Participants send a message to a loved one who has passed on or out of their lives. Created during HereAfter community residencies in Burlington, VT, Keene, NH, Lewiston, ME, and New York City
A talking dance in which Sara remembers losing it, him, her, that!