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Short 4 minute excerpt of 50 minute work

Conception, Direction & Choreography: Stephan Koplowitz

Music: Original Score & Performance by Pamela Z

Costume Design: Callie Floor

Costume Assistant: Victoria Mortimer

Rehearsal Director: Gregory Dorado

AXIS Company Dancers: James Bowen, Julie Crothers, Lani Dickinson, Carina Ho, Liv Shaffer, Dwayne Scheuneman, Kimberly Ocampo (Apprentice, supported by the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation)

Core Company Dancers: Lydia Clinton, Elena Martins, Hannah Pierce, Hannah Westbrook

Ensemble Dancers: Colette Bakke, Stephanie Bastos, Keanu Brady, Roxanne Black, Haley Brown, Sarah Cook, Scotty Hardwig, Hannah McNany, Robin Nasatir

OCCUPY

Occupy was a promenade site-specific work in six sections, with a mixed ability cast of nineteen performers, including members of the AXIS Dance Company. It took place in six different locations around the Yerba Buena Gardens in downtown San Francisco and featured a recorded and live score by the acclaimed composer and vocalist Pamela Z. The work mined the intersection of space and its connection to our personal, domestic, physical and spiritual bodies. How does our occupation and navigation of space, when the very notion is being challenged, translate into our sense of who we are? Who gets in? Who gets pushed out?

A quote from the program: 

Occupy is a site-specific work where the creative content of the work originates from the very site it is performed: Yerba Buena Gardens. The history, the design and current use of the Gardens all contribute to this creation as does the unique make-up of the cast of dancers with and without disabilities. Occupy looks at how these specific bodies are affected by and affect the spaces they inhabit. The work mines the notion of space and its connection to our personal, domestic, physical and spiritual bodies. The six sections of Occupy are knit together by collective bodies embodying and activating these chosen specific environments.

Occupy was the last commission by AXIS Artistic Director Judith Smith before her departure from the company. The work was performed four times over the course of two days and seen by over 2,000 people.

(2017)

COMMISSIONED BY THE AXIS DANCE COMPANY

CO-PRESENTED WITH THE DANCERS’ GROUP AND YERBA BUENA GARDENS FESTIVAL

10 minute excerpt of 50 minute work

SECTION 1 All photos by George Simian, Robbie Sweeny & Stephan Koplowitz

SECTION 2

SECTION 3

SECTION 4

SECTION 5

SECTION 5

SECTION 6

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