11 minute read
Arts & Culture
Collective brings modern dance to Museum of Neon Art
Neon lights have stories to tell, stories that can be simultaneously physical and historic.
The stories of California’s retired neon signs have inspired a site-specific, immersive dance concert, “In Liquid Light,” set for that will be performed Thursday, March 3, to Sunday, March 6, at the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale.
The Volta Collective’s founders and directors, Mamie Green and Megan Paradowski, said the space and the donated signs inspired them. The Volta Collective is a modern dance company that pursues multidisciplinary approaches to its art.
After visiting the museum and speaking with the director, Corrie Siegel, they realized it was an ideal place to use dance to tell the stories of the signs.
“We are honored to present this work by Volta,” Siegel said. “Their sensitivity to space, history and community has anchored this project, and the stories contributed by community members provide new context for our collection. This performance brings a new level of embodiment to the stories signs and our bodies can tell.”
What types of stories are being told?
Examples include • Artist and Director Rachel Mason talking about the sign that guided a generation of gay men to her parents’ bookstore, Circus of Books. • Los Angeles Conservationist Celeste Hong, granddaughter of trailblazer and co-founder of LA’s Chinatown, YC Hong, sharing the history of exclusion that led to the formation of New Chinatown. • Sign historians Dydia Delyser and Eric Lynxwiler discussing the meaning of the technology of neon and what preservationists are risking to save these treasures. • Mia Kuwada, a longtime patron of Billy’s Deli, sharing about her favorite waitress. • Maryam Hosseinzadeh using a sign advertising the Pasadena Rug Mart to draw a thread from her Iranian American family to the survivors of Armenian genocide.
Green and Paradowski called for stories about the signs and collected the oral histories that will make up the soundscape that the seven dancers of the Volta Collective will dance to. They asked people to record themselves speaking and gave them free range as to format and content in relation to the signs to which they are connected.
“We got all sorts of information,” Green said. “There were poems people sent
CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 “In Liquid Light” is an immersive dance concert set within the Museum of Neon Art.
Megan Paradowski and Mamie Green, founders and directors of Volta Collective.
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in to interview-style dialog.”
Green and Paradowski then shared the stories with their dancers to create movement and material based loosely and abstractly on the stories. The dancers, in addition to Green and Paradowski, are Allie Milks, Melody Morrow, Win McCain and Ashley Kayombo.
“Each of the dancers, with our guidance, interpreted the words into their own movement styles,” Green said.
They worked with sound architect Nicolas Snyder, who put the oral histories together with recordings from the MONA galleries and electric lab. He amplified the clicks from the signs’ mechanical animators and the hum of electricity running through the vintage neon signs.
“He is taking the sound clips and is in the midst of creating a sound score, a soundtrack to the piece that we’re creating,” Green said. “It will include these audio clips of speech, so you’ll hear them in the space, you’ll see the dancing in relation to the signs. It is abstract and contemporary dance, but you will see the connections.”
In addition to the oral histories, the signs’ shape and sounds contributed to the dance.
“When you’re in the space, you can hear the vibrations of the signs being lit, so there is this sort of natural rhythm in the space,” Paradowski said. “The sounds feel really connected to movement. We sort of communicated that to our dancers. We showed them pictures of the signs and so we can fit the sign with our bodies.”
Carol Young is creating and donating the costumes.
Audiences will follow the dancers through the museum as part of a 25-minute show. Outside, the dancers will perform for guests as they arrive. A DJ will perform, and refreshments will be served at the end of the tour.
The dancers will repeat the show for groups, which will be limited to 20 people. The design will provide audience members with an intimate experience, and then will give them a chance to interact with each other at the end.
Part of Volta Collective’s mission is to make contemporary dance feel accessible. It’s why they seek out places other than stages to perform. Two family shows will be staged at 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
The time is the main change they make to the performance — all the movements and choreography are the same as is the soundscape.
“We both teach children often, and so we think it is really important to show this kind of dance to a younger audience that might not be able to experience it otherwise,” Green said.
Museum of Neon Arts’ director of education, Ben Weber, is especially happy that Volta is hosting a family show.
In addition to the morning performances, Volta Collective will offer a talkback and hands-on activities, which, Weber said, signals the beginning of the museum’s long-term commitment to programming that appeals to all ages. “In Liquid Light” underlines connection. It has created, Paradowski said, connections among their audience members, people who have donated the signs and the businesses that have shut down or donated the signs.
“The project is able to connect on multiple levels in this way and across multiple time periods,” Paradowski said.
The Volta Connective’s “In Liquid Light” WHEN: Various times Thursday, March 3, to Sunday, March 6 WHERE: The Museum of Neon Art, 216 S. Brand Boulevard, Glendale COST: Tickets start at $10 INFO: inliquidlight.info
Pasadena brims over with arts in the spring
Pasadena’s performing arts organizations are gearing up for their spring performances with a mix of caution and optimism. After two years of shows on hold or delayed, arts organizations are tentatively offering seasons, some with smaller casts, others pulling out all the stops.
This weekend offers three performances that run the gamut in cast size.
The Sierra Madre Playhouse launches its first Solo Shows Festival with “Billie! Backstage with Lady Day,” a show written by and starring Synthia L. Hardy that runs Friday, Feb. 25, to Sunday, Feb. 27. The other four in the series include “Frank Ferrante’s Groucho” from Friday, March 4, to Sunday, March 6; “Einstein!” Friday, April 2, and Saturday, April 3; “Independence: The True Story of Dr. Mary Walker” on Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10; and “An Evening with John Wilkes Booth” on Saturday, April 23, and Sunday, April 24.
Meanwhile, the Pasadena City College is bringing a centuries-old play to its stage with a much larger cast. “The Inheritors” by Susan Glaspell runs Friday, Feb. 25, to Friday, March 4, on the Center for the Arts Theatre on campus. It explores issues of oppression, academic freedom and the “ownership” of America. It’s four acts and nearly three hours.
Young Stars Theatre beckons its audience to Agrabah for three weeks as its performers tell the story of “Disney Aladdin Jr.” from Friday, Feb. 25, to Sunday, March 13, on its Fremont Avenue stage. From here they will stage the classic “The Music Man” from Friday, April 15, to Sunday, May 1.
Boston Court’s 2022 spring season features numerous musical acts and a play that investigates Black joy. The season starts on Saturday, March 5, with “Amanda McBroom: Lady Macbeth Sings the Blues” and continues with “Bridge to Everywhere” on Saturday, March 19, “Michael Michetti Honors Sondheim” on Tuesday, March 22, and “Josh Nelson’s Ode to Sondheim” on Saturday, March 26. Then, Carolyn Ratteray will perform the play she conceived and wrote, “Both And (A Play About Laughing While Black)” from Thursday, April 7, to Sunday, May 15. On Thursday, May 26, the season will wrap up with pianist Inna Faliks.
The Pasadena-based LA Children’s Chorus will join the LA Opera and the
Hamburg Ballet in performing “St. Matthew Passion” on Saturday, March 12, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Pasadena’s MUSE/ique invites its audience to travel to Beverly Hills to celebrate the music of Sunset Boulevard with its concert “Sunrise at Sunset” at The Wallis. They’ll celebrate music with origins on the famous 22-mile stretch from “West Side Story” to Pearl Bailey to Motown to Bob Marley. The concerts run Saturday, March 12, and Sunday, March 13.
In April, the group will again explore the music of yesteryear with its “Laurel Canyon” concert featuring the music of The Mamas & the Papas; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell. They’ll perform at The Huntington on Wednesday, April 6, and Thursday, April 7, and the Skirball Cultural Center on Sunday, April 10.
A Noise Within, which promises to bring modern magic to classic theater, closes its run of William Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well” and opens Nilo Cruz’ “Anna in the Tropics,” which will run on their stage from Sunday, March 20, to Sunday, April 17. The Pulitzer Prize-winning drama follows events and people at a Cuban American cigar factory in Florida in 1929. They’ll then wrap up their 30th anniversary season with Mary Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses” from Sunday, May 8, to Sunday, June 5. The play reimagines Greek myths — while immersed in a pool of water on stage.
The Pasadena Symphony has two concerts this spring. The first, on Saturday, March 19, has Brett Mitchell conducting the ensemble performing Mozart Symphony No. 40. Then, on Saturday, April 30, Keitaro Harada will conduct the Beethoven Symphony No. 5. Both concerts are held at the Ambassador Auditorium.
About Productions takes its audiences into the world of punk music with the world premiere of “Adobe Punk,” a theatrical zine with music set in 1980s Los Angeles. Performances will be held Saturday, March 19, to Sunday, April 3, at its stage on North Raymond Avenue. The show features original music by Theresa Chavez and Nina Diaz.
Ann Richards takes center stage at the Pasadena Playhouse from Tuesday, March 22, to Sunday, April 24. Written by and starring Holland Taylor, “Ann” tells the story of former Texas governor Ann Richards, a tribute to the politician, leader, mother and grandmother.
The Robey Theatre tackles the issue of police and others murdering Black people with “A Heated Discussion” by Levy Lee Simon. Running from Saturday, April 9, to Saturday, May 14, and directed by theater Artistic Director Ben Guillory, the theater commissioned the play.
Pittance Chamber Music presents the complete “Liebeslieder” of Johannes Brahms on Saturday, April 23, at the First United Methodist Church, Pasadena. It features Elissa Johnston, soprano; Melissa Treinkman, mezzo-soprano; Edmond Rodriguez, tenor; James Martin Schaefer, baritone; Grand Gershon, piano; and Jeremy Frank, piano.
Also on Saturday, April 23, the Pasadena Conservatory of Music offers “The Secret Piano: From Mao’s Labor Camps to Bach’s Goldberg Variations,” part of its Musical Interludes series. The concert by Zhu Xiao-Mei tells the story of how she survived Chinese labor camps and was transformed by the work of Bach and Beethoven.
The Pasadena Civic Auditorium will host Celtic Woman on Friday, May 6.
May also sees the arrival of two music festivals at the Brookside at the Rose Bowl Stadium. The goth-inspired Cruel World Music Festival added a second date after the first sold out, with performances scheduled for Saturday, May 14, and Sunday, May 15. On Saturday, May 21, it will host the Just Like Heaven Festival.
Finally, the Alex Theatre in Glendale is hosting a full slate of shows this spring. They start with Lokillo Florez on Friday, March 4, and continue with “Revelation,” the U.S. tour of Dingdong Avanzado, Jessa Zaragoza and Jayda on Saturday, March 12; Glendale Youth Orchestra’s “Symphonic Adventures” on Sunday, March 13; “Se Los Cargo El Payaso” on Friday, March 18; Ara Malikian on Saturday, March 19; “Oa Sa Love in the USA” on Saturday, March 26; and the Russian Ballet Theatre’s “Swan Lake” on Thursday, March 31.
