Jessica Koslow

Meredith Monk in “On Behalf of Nature”/Photo by Spencer Davis

Fifteen students in wonderfully white outfits are strewn about the courtyard next to Freud Playhouse. Each one embodies a character of his or her own choosing. One woman’s hand is lightly pounding on a door she leans on. A few stragglers crouch just outside the entrance. Sounds erupt sporadically, sometimes simultaneously. It’s Tuesday evening, and the group is holding its third and final rehearsal for a pre-performance installation before the premiere of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble’s On Behalf of Nature, this weekend as part of the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (CAP UCLA) season.

Despite the 47-degree temperature, Monk and vocal ensemble member Ellen Fisher walk around slowly, offering individuals notes on movement and sound. Monk appears to be floating in her colorful, quilted, floor-length coat with images of clouds around her shoulders.

“Keep your ears open,” says Monk. “That’s the fun of it. Knowing what’s going on around you and seeing where you can fit in.”

Full article at LA Stage Times

Courtesy of Casa Patas

A female Flamenco dancer with black, fitted pants; a violin player with a Mohawk; abstract movements accompanied by silence; a woman playing guitar; mundane acts performed with hairpins and earrings. “The DeMente Territory” was not a traditional evening of Flamenco at Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles’ Theatre Raymond Kabbaz. Partnering with the Consulate General of Spain, the 220-seat, intimate Kabbaz presented a forward-reaching Flamenco ensemble from Madrid’s Fundación Conservatorio Flamenco Casa Patas for a two-night run, beginning Nov. 8.

The first clue of the unconventionality to come was the eclectic musical troupe. Violinist Víctor Guadiana sported a Mohawk; one of the two female singers wore deadlocks. Though her heartfelt singing straddled tradition, her wails and cries screamed defiance. The Norwegian guitarist Bettina Flater stood out for just being female. Apparently, only one other woman makes professional rounds in Spain. It’s not often I can identify a particular Flamenco tune, but I immediately recognized the words of popular Cuban singer Silvio Rodríguez. His inclusion suited the rebelliousness of the evening. Rodríguez leans Left. Revolutionary politics inspire many of his lyrics.

The entire company, including director and choreographer Karen Lugo and her dancing partner José Maldonado, exuded fresh-faced energy. …

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Tiffany Sweat, Julie Lockhart, Melissa Schade and Athena Sterig/Photo by Taso Papadakis

A limber male dancer stands on his hands, his legs split into a triangle; leading actor Brad Culver yells out nonsensical sounds, warming his vocal chords as he stretches his mouth. When the five-minute break ends, Kate Hutter, the artistic director of LA Contemporary Dance Company, huddles with three women, demonstrating how red ribbons flow from their hands to the ground.

Hutter’s collaborator, Aaron Henne, artistic director of theatre dybbuk, watches from the front, his 72-page script in hand. The co-directors (Hutter is also choreographer, and Henne the writer) are holed up at Brockus Project Studios at the Brewery, rehearsing Cave…A Dance for Lilith, their third collaboration, which opens tonight next door at Diavolo Performance Space, running Friday through Sunday until November 18.

The dance theater piece experiments with the collision between text, movement and music. “After our first collaboration Body Mecanique in June 2009, I thought it would be great to continue working together,” says Henne. But for their next joint venture, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a piece that’s more narrative, more like a play, where the dance is as much text as the play itself? We bandied that idea around a lot. Finally, about one and a half years ago when I decided to start theatre dybbuk, I was really interested in the first piece having to do with Lilith folklore and Hebrew Goddess mythology.”

Cave…A Dance for Lilith unearths the humanity behind the myth of Lilith, the Hebrew name for a demon goddess. …

Read full article at LA Stage Times