NOW 2024: Week Three
Bret Easterling, Mallory Fabian, Kensaku Shinohara
WORLD PREMIERE
Past event
- Price
- $25*
- Genres
- Dance, Music, Theater
- Season
- Fall 2024
- DATE
- NOW 21-23
- IN-PERSON
- THU-SAT, 8:30 PM
- STREAM
- SAT, 8:30 PM (PT)
- RUNTIME
- Approx. 90 minutes, with intermission
- Program
- Download Program Notes (PDF)
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About
The 21st Annual New Original Works concludes with a program of works by Bret Easterling, Mallory Fabian, and Kensaku Shinohara. Committed to an investigation of history and contemporary norms, these works use humor, improvisation, and multidisciplinary collaboration to disrupt power dynamics, craft collective rituals of care, and build new modes of community abundance.
BUY A FESTIVAL PASS! SEE ALL 9 WORKS FOR $50!
Bret Easterling
On Second Thought
In this new dance, choreographer Bret Easterling asks: What might we create if we went with our second thought? Refuting the logic of “first thought, best thought”, On Second Thought draws attention to bias and patterns as improvisational structures and set choreography combine to break habits and inhabit new terrain. In a world trapped in trends and stuck in systems of harm, Easterling devises a new mode of decision-making and artistic exploration to craft different potentials and imagine liberatory futures.
Mallory Fabian
I Hate Women
I Hate Women is an energetic multidisciplinary performance that uses dance, theater, text, boxing, and murder ballads to study the complexities of platonic relationships between women—relationships that often go deeper than romantic connections. Created by Mallory Fabian, this quartet explores these intimate friendships by examining internalized personal and collective misogyny, patriarchy, and homophobia. Embracing sisterhood and rehabilitating competition, this work seeks to dismantle stereotypes that shape interactions amongst women.
Kensaku Shinohara
sorry I did not prepare anything today: I will give up my art because I cannot make money and feel embarrassed and also I am trying to be a good father ALTERNATE TITLE: tired music concert
In tired music concert, Kensaku Shinohara incorporates dance and music to explore his firsthand experience as a father, interdisciplinary artist, and immigrant in the United States. Accompanied by a sound score created by the manipulation of ordinary objects, Kensaku’s experiences are shared and embodied by performers in a series of athletic movement scores. Examining stereotypes around masculinity and Asian men, this performance invites audience engagement in a reminder that community is built collectively.
NOW 2024: Week Three will be presented as one shared program of all three works on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Please note: I Hate Women contains mature content; tired music concert contains nudity, mature content, and loud sounds.
NOW Festival 2024 was organized by Katy Dammers, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Performing Arts with Rolando Rodriguez, Administrative Manager through an open application process with NOW alumni Marissa Brown (NOW ‘21) and Emily Mast (NOW ‘12 & ‘16).
about the artists
Bret Easterling
Bret Easterling is a dance artist, educator, and producer based in Los Angeles, California. After receiving his BFA from The Juilliard School, Easterling was a formative member of Gallim Dance and a recognizable contributor to Ohad Naharin’s internationally acclaimed Batsheva Dance Company. Currently, Easterling is on faculty at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and a certified Gaga teacher who stages Ohad Naharin’s works at dance programs and companies around the world. He has built award winning choreographic works for the stage and screen through spaces including The Juilliard School, Jacob’s Pillow, LA Dance Project, b12, and Whim W’Him. As the Founder and Artistic Director of BEMOVING and the Co-Director of Ghost Light Residency, Easterling enjoys providing artists more nurturing spaces to build upon their practices and strives to develop a more supportive ecosystem for dancers in Los Angeles.
Mallory Fabian
Mallory Fabian creates work that thrives on bold, in-the-moment decision-making, which is characterized by its explosive energy, conscious exploration of femininity, subtle humor, and is generationally specific. Her projects seek to evoke genuine, raw emotions onstage by pushing through exhaustion and emotional turmoil in a meditative state. Her recent solo, PLAYLIST, won a Philly Fringie Award in 2023. In addition to her own work, Fabian has performed with RGWW, My Barbarian, Szalt, B. Dunn Movement, among others. She is the Board President for RGWW, Rehearsal Director for Invertigo, and the Artistic Director of FABE (currently on hiatus). Fabian is also focused on producing live events, film, movement directing, and becoming an Intimacy Coordinator.
Kensaku Shinohara
Kensaku Shinohara challenges social hierarchy and systems of exclusion/power through movement and soundscape creation, inviting the disruption of the audience’s comfort. Born in Sapporo, Japan, he discovered dance in 2004 while studying anthropology in Tokyo. After touring as a performer, he moved to the United States in 2009 to further choreographic research. Shinohara’s works have been presented throughout NYC and LA; elsewhere in the United States (San Francisco, Tucson, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh); and internationally in Lisbon, Toronto, Kuala Lumpur, Tainan, and Japan. Shinohara has received support from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Emergency Grant, 92Y Harkness Dance Center AIR, Queens Arts Fund, and the Japan Foundation New York.
