Avy K Productions will dance anywhere®  on March 28th at noon on Pacifica Ocean Beach, dancing with sculptures, as a continuation of the idea  of ‘art object’.  The company will use their multimedia performance model from last year, when they participated for the first time as part of dance anywhere® at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Avy K at Productions YBCA / dance anywhere®

As the clock struck 12 noon on March 25^th 2013, Erika Tsimbrovsky and Avy K Productions moved to a percussive drum beat in rhythm to the chimes of the clock tower. From fast paced, directional movements, the dancers slowly turned inward, improvising in insular and private patterns throughout the space. Onlookers watched fascinated as the performers around and on large white statues. The work provided an intimate and raw glimpse of these performers as they interacted in an external and highly public environment. Erika Tsimbrovsky, the choreographer of Avy K, observed, “the energy was monumental! dance anywhere® creates such a unique exploration of space, audience and time”.

Avy K Productions at YBCA 

Avy K Productions performed their improvised multimedia performance work, The Book, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA. The work was an “open diary for the audience”  which explored the internal state of an individual versus the external sphere of technology and media.  The Book is a multidimensional installation in which guest musicians, artists and dancers are invited into the structure of the piece to contribute their own unique interpretation of this paradigm. Kristen Greco, Daniel Bear Davis, Mihyun Lee, Andrew Ward, Ronja Ver, Sarah Day Hanson, PC Muñoz, Aleksey Bochkovsky, and Kedar Lawrence collaborated on The Book.

Avy K Productions at YBCA

The improvisational structure of The Book relied on an active audience, who intently observed the piece. Said Erika, “the best draw to the piece is for the audience to be active observers, because they have the chance to explore and experience the piece”. During Avy K’s performance, the onlookers proximity to the piece gave them an immediate and nuanced experience. Erika found this dimension of her YBCA performance very exciting. “You never know what will happen and how the audience will become part of the living diary that is unfolding”.

Avy K Productions at YBCA / dance anywhere®

 Erika is interested in the way that objects change space and distance. The sculptures were created by visual artist/ performer Vadim Puyandaev. “These statues were objects that changed and distorted the space. From any point of view they were beautiful”. The sculptures inspired the dancers to further explore “gravitational energy and weight, they  [the sculptures] begged for contact”.

Avy K at YBCA / dance anywhere®

Surprisingly, this performance was Avy K’s first foray into site-specific performance. “This was a very important step for Avy K in that so many new things happened and it begged so many new questions”. Erika found it interesting to explore the dynamic of the public entering the performance space and interacting more directly with the piece, thereby breaking the fourth wall. “The dynamic of audience- performer relation added a whole new layer to the theme of an open diary”.

Avy K with sculptures for Dance Anywhere at YBCA 2013 from Avy K Productions on Vimeo.

Erika Tsimbrovsky intends to further explore site-specific work with her new performance piece, Minotaur: “this project is inspired by the Minotaur of Greek mythology, a half-bull, half-human creature with royal and godly origins, who is trapped within the labyrinth designed by Daedalus. In our project we present the Minotaur as a mutant of our contemporary world, with desires for love, pleasure, power, and flesh, that can never be satisfied. When Minotaur premieres, the audience will experience a labyrinth of feeling and sound and will enter a convoluted world of flesh and spirit.”

For more information about Erika Tsimbrovsky and Avy K Productions view their dance anywhere® page or avyk.org