May 25, 2018
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May 27, 2018

Time Don’t Stop For Nobody

By Ellen Fisher

a black arrow pointing downward

Time Don’t Stop for Nobody is a movement-based performance related to the perception of age. A small ensemble of four performers, each 25-30 years apart, collaborate to highlight their shared experiences on the progression of growing up.

A hundred people aged 5 – 96 years old answered a requested questionnaire. Fisher and her fellow performers thoroughly investigated the provocative and inspiring answers to help guide the structure of this intimate performance with music, dance and text. Questions included: Do you like the age you are? What makes you feel grown-up? How do you change with age?

Performers:
Pablo Vela, Mina Nishimura, Leo Garcia and Ellen Fisher

Ellen Fisher is a movement based performance artist whose work combines gestural actions with visual components such as film, shadow play, objects and puppets. She has received funding for her solo work from NEA, NYFA, Jerome Foundation and others. Ellen Fisher began performing with Meredith Monk/The House in the ’70’s, and continues today. Fisher’s performance work is informed by ethnographic research in trance dance and rituals of South Asia, particularly Sri Lanka where she received grants from Asian Cultural Council and Fulbright as a senior scholar. Fisher continues to teach and collaborate with artists on community intergenerational and intercultural projects, both domestically and internationally.

Pablo Vela has been a member of Meredith Monk/The House since 1975, appearing in theater productions such as Quarry and Specimen Days and on film in Book of Days and Ellis Island. He was also associate director of Monk’s opera ATLAS, American Archeology #1, and Politics of Quiet. He received his theater training at Yale University and, in addition, studied with Viola Spolin (improvisation) and Jacques Lecoq (mask and mime). His work as performer/director/teacher has been presented throughout the United States and Canada as well as Europe and Central America. Vela has created a series of memorable cabaret performances in New York City. The 11th Hour Lounge and Particular People (1&2) were performed in Manhattan, the later at LaMaMa. WB Club WB (a tribute to film noir) and das MAX cabaret (inspired by the paintings of Max Beckman) were presented at the fabled BACA Downtown in Brooklyn. Cocktail Cabaret, was seen at The Club/LaMaMa. In the past, Vela has taught at institutions such as the Dell’Arte School in California, Denmark’s National Theater School, and The Trinity/LaMama Performance Arts Program.

Mina Nishimura, from Tokyo, was introduced to butoh and improvisational dance through Kota Yamazaki while completing the International Program at Merce Cunningham Studio. While making her own work, she has been fortunate to work as performer with various artists in dance, theater, music and film, in recent years, such as Vicky Shick, SIA, Dean Moss, Neil Greenburg, Celia-Rowlson Hall, Nami Yamamoto and Ursula Eagly. She is currently working with John Jasperse, Rahsun Mitchell+Silas Riener and Kota Yamazaki. She was the danceweb scholar at Impulse Tanz (Vienna) in 2009, and has been the Artist-in-Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange in 2010-11, Chez Bushwick in 2013, Movement Research in 2013-15, and Camargo Foundation (France) in 2017. Her latest evening-length work, Bladder Inn (and X, Y, Z, W), commissioned by Danspace Project was just premiered in the past February. She is currently on the Faculty at Movement Research.

Leonardo A Garcia – I’m a 12 year old boy living in Queens, New York. I have a sister named Sophia she is 10 years old. My full name is Leonardo Andres Garcia but I like to be called Leo. On my free time I like to play video games and soccer when I have a ball and someone to play with. I go to middle school in Woodside,this is my first year in middle school. My favorite subject is math and social studies. My favorite hobbies are acting and old school music. I was born in the USA but my dad is from Ecuador and my mom is Uruguayan. My favorite animal is the dolphin.

La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

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La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival continues to support La MaMa’s commitment to presenting diverse performance styles that challenge audience’s perception of dance by featuring performance/installations, experimental film screenings & public symposiums which address dance artists’ engagement with the current political climate, as well as honoring diasporic histories and legacy, ancestral inspirations and inter-generational dialogue.

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