On July 24th 2015, we held a large-scale performance festival on the Montalvo grounds, Performance in the Park, featuring site-specific performances by Lucas Artist Fellows. This event is documented in a short video by local filmmakers Pierce Leggin and Alexis Constanza. The festival was organized in association with a year-long celebration of the 75/10 anniversary of the Lucas Artists Residency Program.
Joanna Haigood and members of Zaccho Dance Theatre transformed the Italianate Garden with the haunting site-specific performance, The Visitors. Nikki Borodi, Glenn Easley, and Nehara Kalev soared high above us in the trees in new dance and sound performance, Whisper Before Last. Lauren Baines inhabited the Edible Dress Tent, a sculpture created for Montalvo’s grounds by artists Robin Lasser and Adrienne Pao in 2012, with Baines's new performance, Gather. The historic villa was brought to life by Motoko Honda’s exquisite piano performance in the Main Hall. Real Vocal String Quartet, trumpeter Kris Tiner, and hip-hop artist Dahlak brought everyone to their feet at the Main Stage on the Great Lawn. Pamela Z created a riveting new electronic work, Sonic Pool, specifically for Montalvo's Oval Garden. NAKA Dance Theater co-directors Debby Kajiyama and José Navarrete, along with multi-instrumentalist Adria Otte, restaged an excerpt from their acclaimed performance work, Bailout, on the Great Lawn. Audience members produced their own micro-performances inspired by short scores provide by Lucas Artist Fellows. And as darkness fell, an enormous 1940s spotlight illuminated the skies as part of Japanese-born and LA-based artist Hirokazu Kosaka's breathtaking performance, Kalpa, featuring Butoh master dancer Oguri and acclaimed harmonica player Tetsuya Nakamura.
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Watch and Listen
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Joanna Haigood & Zaccho Dance Theatre: The Visitors Montalvo Arts Center’s 2015 performance festival featured the premiere of a new site-specific performance by acclaimed choreographer and artistic director of Zaccho Dance Theatre, Joanna Haigood. The performance featured acrobatic aerial performer Zoe Klein, performing artist Clare Whistler, and dancer Adonis Damian Martin Quinones. Watch Here >> |
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Nikki Borodi, Glenn Easley, and Nehara Kalev: Whisper Before Last The forest as a space of enchantment was the theme of a site-specific performance directed by Nehara Kalev and performed by Kalev, Nikki Borodi and Glenn Easley. The performers rappelled from trees in the Linden Grove and moved gracefully through space both on and off the ground. Watch Here >> |
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Hirokazu Kosaka: Kalpa Los Angeles-based artist Hirokazu Kosaka presented his sculptural and performative installation KALPA as the climactic centerpiece of Performance in the Park. The work, which featured Butoh master dancer Oguri and acclaimed harmonica player Tetsuya Nakamura, was staged across Montalvo's Great Lawn and eerily illuminated by an enormous military search light from the 1940s. Watch Here >> |
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Naka Dance Theater: Found and Lost NAKA Dance Theater co-directors Debby Kajiyama and José Navarrete, along with multi-instrumentalist Adria Otte, restaged an excerpt from their acclaimed performance work BAILOUT! The piece was conceived in response to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in Japan, and considered how humanity copes in the face of catastrophic environmental disasters. Watch Here >> |
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Pamela Z: Voice Garden Sonic Pool Acclaimed San Francisco-based composer/performer and media artist Pamela Z premiered a new site-specific performance, Voice Garden Sonic Pool in Montalvo's Oval Garden. She filled the space with layers of sound using her live voice, processed in real time and manipulated with gestural movement. Watch Here >> |
In the News
- Arts Residency Programs: The Secret Engine of the Bay Area Arts Scene
By Andrew Gilbert, KQED Arts
