BQdanza

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2011-02-05T11:27:00.000-08:00

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"FRAME" - Site-Specific Dance Art by BQdanza - June 18th, 2009 - McCaw Hall Outdoor Plaza

2009-06-08T16:27:00.000-07:00

Experience site-specific dance art from Ecuadorian
choreographer Carla Barragán's company BQdanza.

What: BQdanza performs “Frame” at Americans for the Arts - Renewable Resources Convention
When: June 18th 6:30 - 6:50pm and then 8:15 - 8:30pm
Where: Marion Oliver McCaw Hall - Outside Plaza
321 Mercer Street, Seattle, WA
Info: http://www.artsusa.org/events/2009/convention/

Friends can come watch it for free from the outdoor areas. Other
performers include Circus Contraption. Info Carla@bqdance.com

Description of FRAME:

FRAME, the most recent choreographic work by BQdanza members and choreographer Carla Barragan, evolved as a site specific work adapted to a wide range of sites. The movement simply emerged from the architecture available to dancers, or from movement stories by dancers and the choreographer's movement developed at sites other than stages.
At McCaw Hall plaza, a beginning section is adapted to poles and water covered floor. The movement in the solos explore false concepts of comfort and security, which in the end prove to be more harmful than helpful. Topics as varied as insurance, internet relationships, cosmetics, plastic water bottles, credit cards, SUVs, home equity, tax rebates, food, etc., are given to dancers to explore in improvisation and eventually are set as solos. In site-specific and no-stage locations, audiences at many different locations can experience the work from a variety of angles, or, in other words, perspectives, or "frames."
Later sections, which include duets, trios, and quintets, offer the viewer the kind of beauty that emerges in an empty floor where dancers can exploit areas of the space through the simple act of moving, independently and in unison- in absence of material consumer goods. A uniquely beautiful part that depicts this harmony is developed with bungee cords hanging.
Greed, territorialism and possessiveness are ideas that guide the last section of the piece, building the tension between members until the sound of an explosion reminds us of war and dancers flee. Original music is by Ecuadorian composer Nelson García, which aids transitions from section to section fluidly and dramatically.

BQDanza performs Rat Race in NWDS' JunkNation - April 25th and 26th, 2009.

2009-03-26T23:59:00.000-07:00

General Admission $18 / Students & Seniors $15

Tickets available at the door and online at www.brownpapertickets.com

NorthWest Dance Syndrome (NWDS) presents JUNKNATION at the Erickson Theater Off Broadway on April 25 and 26 2009 at 8pm. The Erickson Theater Off Broadway is located at 1524 Harvard Ave. Seattle, WA 98122. General Admission $18 and students/seniors $15. Tickets are available at the door and online at www.brownpapertickets.com. NWDS will share the stage with local dance company BQdanza directed by award winning choreographer, Carla Barragan.

JUNKNATION, created by NWDS is a dance centered on waste and reusability. Trash encountered during everyday life turns into physical sculpture, creating interesting pictures and unique movement possibilities. The dance begins with subtle hints of movement and sound. Ghostly dancers skitter in and out of harsh light as a pulse begins to take form. Movement and sound were sourced from ideas, impressions, and images of junk. From hanging industrial size hydrogen tanks to fast food, plastic bags, windup toys and TVs littered through the space, JUNKNATION offers a different look at the ways in which we re-use or waste. Set to original music by local composer Jeff Huston, JUNKNATION takes on the re-invention of the useless. Junk sculpture created by Seattle artist, Paul Haugland.

BQdanza will perform Rat Race. This piece focuses on mankind’s propensity to fight against each other and against time to get ahead, eventually becoming manic in the pursuit of power, destroying one another, regardless of the cost to the planet or other living things. The choreography incorporates intricate murals by Ecuadorian artist Paula Barragan, and is set to music by renowned composer Amy Denio. The dancers’ movements, as well as the projections, depict striking images of half-human, half-animal characters devouring or mutating into one another. They represent a symbolic degradation of the environment and its creatures as a result of our behavior and the ever-expanding explosion of the industrial revolution.

NWDS is a non-profit 501(c)3 Seattle based collaborative modern dance company. With a long history deeply rooted in modern dance, contact, and improvisation, artistic directors Teresa Cowan-Kuist, Anne Motl and Maya Soto have been creating and presenting work as a collaborative team since 2003. NWDS has performed in venues such as: On the Boards, Bagley Wright Theater, Velocity MainSpace Theater, Broadway Performance Hall and the Firehouse Performing Arts Center. NWDS has been featured in festivals including: Northwest New Works Festival, Bumbershoot, The Smoke Farm Festival, SITEWORKS and The Juan De Fuca Festival of the Arts. As a company, NWDS has created 3 full length collaborative dance works: Americanism, Red Tent, and JUNKNATION, a dance film entitled Nocturne and numerous shorter dances. NWDS has commissioned work from local choreographers Jill Leversee (re: Collect(ed) 2006) and Ellie Sandstrom (move me/you move me 2007). In 2007, NWDS was a recipient of the Walrus Performance Productions Space Grant. With this grant, NWDS created Perch, a dance set to symphonic Radiohead. NWDS’s latest collaborative work, JUNKNATION is partially funded by the Allied Arts Foundation. An excerpt of JUNKNATION was performed in the 2008 Northwest New Works Festival at On the Boards in Seattle, WA.

BQdanza collaborates with artists of different media and cultures to continuously reinvent the company’s own language of movement. “BQ” is an abbreviation of Birlibirloque, the previous company name which was founded in New York City in 1991 by Carla Barragan. Birlibirloque refers to the way things magically appear or disappear. Barragan chose this old Spanish word to represent the ephemeral nature of dance. Carla Barragan is an Ecuadorian dancer, choreographer and educator working between Seattle, Mexico and Ecuador since 1998. In 2008, Barragan won the Margaret K. Williams “Excellence in the Arts” award in Pierce County. In 1993 she received an MA in Dance Education from teachers College, Columbia University and in 1990, a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase, NY. The Seattle Children’s International Festival, The National Dance Company in Ecuador, UDLA Danza in Puebla, Mexico, and others, have commissioned her work. BQdanza received the 2008 4Culture Arts Group Project Award. It was selected amongst 10 best arts events in 2007 in Tacoma, (Tacoma News Tribune). Other awards include: Tacoma Artist Initiative Program 2007, the former Seattle and King County Arts Commissions, The Thurstan Foundation, The Secretary of Culture in Puebla, Mexico, and the Parrot Foundation in New York.

(photos by Tim Summers)

Contact: Teresa Cowan-Kuist

Phone: 206-354-4659

Email: nwdancesyndrome@yahoo.com

Website: www.nwdancesyndrome.com

Frame at Artopia

2008-06-25T16:36:00.000-07:00

BQdanza is performing Frame at Artopia Georgetown!!!

What: Frame – a Site Specific dance

Who: BQDanza/Carla Barragan

(as part of ARTOPIA Georgetown

www.artopiaseattle.com )

When: Saturday, June 28th - 3:00pm and 7:30pm

Where: The Brew House in Georgetown,

5900 block of Airport Way S. and S. Nebraska Street.

Tickets: Free

BQdanza re-invents its own movement style with each collaborative process or site it adapts to. Frame, a site-specific work developed by BQdanza members at the Old Brewery House in Georgetown, depicts movement stories performed in alcoves, hanging from bungee cords, and other elevated spaces that can be viewed from different angles. Carla Barragan, the choreographer, is an Ecuadorian-born artist who presents work through BQdanza in North and South America since 1990.

Georgetown's Artopia is a collaborative grassroots celebration of emerging and established artists and communities. This annual celebration, presented by the Seattle Weekly, takes place in Seattle's historic Georgetown neighborhood.

Frame, a collective creation by BQdance members and choreographer Carla Barragan, is a site-specific work developed at the Old Brewery House in Georgetown. Frame depicts movement stories that can be viewed from different angles. The audience is intended to walk freely through the space experiencing the work in a number of frames, in other words, perspectives. Some of the gesture work performed in the alcoves illustrates the vast amount of goods and comfort that exist in our society, which in the end, prove to be more harmful than helpful. Dancers create their own movement perspectives on an array of items, e.g., nuclear weapons, cosmetics, plastic bottles, insurance, tax rebates, online relationships, etc. On the other hand, other sections offer to the viewer the kind of beauty that emerges in a site without commodities where dancers can adapt and exploit the surfaces of the ruins of a building where normal human comfort no longer exist.

BQdanza (www.bqdanza.com) is a contemporary dance company that is presently based in Tacoma, presenting work also in Seattle, as well as Ecuador and Mexico. BQdanza, directed by Ecuadorian-born Carla Barragan, collaborates with artists of different media and cultures to continuously reinvent the company’s own aesthetic language. “BQ” is an abbreviation of Birlibirloque, the previous company name, an old Spanish word referring to the charm or spell which make things appear or disappear, as is the ephemeral and enchanting nature of dance. Members include Hendri Walujo, Sruti Desai, Katy Sullivan; and guest members, Katie Stricker, Stephanie Krieger.

Carla Barragan is a choreographer and educator presenting choreography in festivals, concerts, and site-specific events in North and South America since 1990. The Tacoma Arts Commission recently granted Carla an award to present, LOUD OMISSION. In the past, her work has been commissioned by the Seattle International Children’s Festival, the National Dance Company in Ecuador and UDLA Danza in Puebla, Mexico, amongst others. Grants received include Four Culture, CityArtists, Arts International, Seattle Arts Commission, King County Arts Commission, Puebla’s “Subsecretaria de Cultura”, The Field, NY, The Parrot Foundation, N.Y.

“Carla Barragan’s choreography is a subversive mix of rigorous modern dance and delicate physical allusion. (SANDRA KURTZ performance picks Seattle Weekly, 2004)

Thanks to the Seattle Weekly, The Sabey Corporation for use of the Brew House, and to 4Culture.