"Gale Winds & Turiya" follows the journey of women struggling to reconcile contradictory dialogue within, perceived limitations of one’s desires, and abandonment of composure to indulge in fantasy.  Our new work "Swoon" is a duet created by Elaine and Kaoru Watanabe (composer/flautist/taiko artist).   It is about the fleeting moment of connecting with someone, the inevitable separation, and the quiet subtext that resides in the space in between. It is the interplay between refined, sculpted, and contained movement and behavior and the lapses of formality that dissolve into private tender moments. "Swoon” is also a study on how to push the typical roles and boundaries between musician and dancer, as this Japanese flute/fue musician and composer will not only be playing his instrument but also dancing and partnering within the movement context of modern dance. In addition, our other new work “Exposed: Part 1 - Pfannenstiel Incision Marks the Spot” (a solo of accumulated gestures set in silence) by Lenora Lee, dives into the complex emotional and psychological ramifications of having one’s future fertility at risk and examines living through the trauma of the post-surgical experience.

Footloose presents AIM: Artists in Motion in collaboration with Asian Improv aRts - “Memory, Reflection, Passage,” a new multimedia work on the nature of memory in various sensory moments, manifesting in a collage of image, movement, and sound. Choreographer/dancer Lenora Lee is working with dancers Marina Fukushima and Sebastian Grubb, lighting designer Melissa Weaver, video collage artist Olivia Ting, and new music composer/instrumentalist Francis Wong to create a hybrid movement/light/video/sound language that pursues interactive relationships between the disciplines that are brought to bear in this piece. Lenora’s long history of collaboration with Francis Wong is brought to a peak in “Memory, Reflection, Passage” with Francis’ beautiful sound score of live solo and recorded group compositions. With the added visual element of video projected on multiple screens, an environmental journey is created by Olivia Ting with video and photo collage exploring aspects of proximity between vast landscapes of nature to magnified chemical reactions, from the topography of the body to the intimacy of human gesture. Lenora, Marina, and Sebastian Grubb share their individual stories of connection and fragmentation through memories, reflection, and ultimately passage in this new multimedia work. 

The piece will be performed at Shotwell Studios in San Francisco September 25 – 27, 2009 and is supported by CA$H, a grants program administered by Theatre Bay Area in partnership with Dancers’ Group, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Performing Arts Assistance Program, Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, and Generous Individuals.

"Lenora Lee's solo was a stark, tightly choreographed portrait of one woman's fear and anguish about her own body... her feet planted as if nailed to the ground and her hands veering between tendrils and claws...Performed in silence, Pfannenstiel Incision Marks the Spot was small in scale, but it resonated in a big way."

  - Rita Felciano, The San Francisco Bay Guardian