BAM and Performa present More up a Tree By de Serpa Soares, Sussman, and White DATES: LOCATION: RUN TIME: #MOREUPATREE #BAMNextWave NOV 19 21 at 7:30pm BAM Fisher (Fishman Space) Approx 50min Brooklyn Academy of Music Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board Katy Clark, President Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer Season Sponsor: BAM Fisher Leadership support for BAM Visual Art provided by Agnes Gund and Toby Devan Lewis.
More up a Tree CONCEPT & PRODUCTION Claudia de Serpa Soares Jim White CHOREOGRAPHY & PERFORMANCE Claudia de Serpa Soares INSTALLATION MUSIC & PERFORMANCE Jim White LIGHTING DESIGN Lenore Doxsee Sandra Blatterer SET CONSTRUCTION Alex Lombard Jiannis Savvidis Simon Lee PRODUCTION MANAGER Catherine Mahoney Never in my life was I more up a tree than today. John Archibald Wheeler More up a Tree has been supported by Montalvo Arts Center in California, Uferstudios GmbH-- Berlin, Istanbul Cymbals, LLumar a division of Eastman Chemical Company, Kino Flo Lighting Systems, E&T Plastics, Sasha Waltz & Guests, RADIALSYSTEM V, Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, and Available Light NY. More up a Tree has been developed in a living room in Portugal, at Montalvo Arts Center, RADIALSYSTEM V, Wallabout Oyster Theatre, and a vacant car showroom in Berlin. ABOUT More up a Tree Emotional reaction to music is so commonplace that it is easy to forget that it is extraordinary. It is as mysterious as gravity. More up a Tree takes an instinctive approach to musical flow, free from conventional melody. The scene takes place in a box that mediates the relationship between the audience and performers. The performers are alone in public; the audience has a heightened and ordained voyeurism. By removing heroic narrative and tonal melody while making the relationship between audience and performers in flux, we point to the meaningful nature of movement. de Serpa Soares, Sussman, & White PHOTO: Courtesy of the Artist CO-PRODUCTION Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg Sasha Waltz & Guests and RADIALSYSTEM V Berlin Wallabout Oyster Theatre Brooklyn
PHOTO: Courtesy of the Artist Who s Who CLAUDIA DE SERPA SOARES Choreography & Performance Claudia de Serpa Soares was born in Lisbon, Portugal. After her dance studies at the National Conservatory in Lisbon and at the Centre National de Dance Contemporaine d Angers, de Serpa Soares danced with Iztok Kovac in Slovenia and Paulo Ribeiro in Lisbon, among others. In 1999 she joined the dance ensemble of the Schaubühne Theater in Berlin under the artistic direction of Sasha Waltz. In the following years and still today, she dances in many works by Sasha Waltz. As an actress, she performed in Fish Love and The 6th Continent directed by Lilo Baur. She assisted Lilo Baur and created the choreography for Dido and Aeneas at the Opéra de Dijon and assisted Jochen Sandig in Human Requiem with the Rundfunkchor Berlin. De Serpa Soares has been working with the Rufus Corporation in New York and has choreographed several video art projects and movies with. She has created and performed Crossroads with Ronald Kukulies, Edgar with Grayson Millwood, The Circuit (a solo performance), and More up a Tree with Jim White and. JIM WHITE Music & Performance Jim White iis an Australian drummer living in New York and playing in Xylouris White. Beyond being the drummer of the band Dirty Three (a band from Melbourne that has created many albums and toured extensively), White has co- curated the festival All Tomorrow s Parties and performed widely with many other groups and projects. His other performance credits include works with Cat Power, playing on the albums Moon Pix and Juke Box; Smog s A River Ain t Too Much to Love and Supper; Bonnie Prince Billy s The Letting Go; PJ Harvey s White Chalk; and with White Magic, CW Stoneking, and the great Cretan lyra player Psarantonis. White also made a duo record with Nina Nastasia called You Follow Me. He has many credits in movies and art pieces including projects with filmmakers Jem Cohen,, Simon Lee, Jack + Leigh Ruby, Brent Green, Braden King and the films Praise, The Proposition and Visionaire no. 53. He composed for the movie The Proposition, as well as a track to Visionaire no. 53. He has been involved with Hal Wilner Projects and was a founding member of the Australian punk band Venom P. Stinger. Most recently he has discovered the Double and, with Sussman and de Serpa Soares, created More up a Tree.
EVE SUSSMAN Installation is an artist who makes films and installations. In 2003 Sussman began working under the rubric Rufus Corporation, incorporating performers, artists, musicians, writers, and programmers. In the past few years she has had work on view at the Leeum Museum in Seoul, Korea, and exhibitions at the Bass Museum, the Musée d art contemporain de Montréal, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. Sussman has received support from the Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital, NYSCA, NYFA, and Hauptstadtkulturfonds- Berlin among others. She has work in collections that include MoMA and the Whitney Museum in New York; and the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Together with Simon Lee, Sussman cofounded the Wallabout Oyster Theatre, a micro theater space run out of their studios in Brooklyn. They are also producing for Jack+Leigh Ruby, two reformed criminals turned artists. Sussman and Lee s latest project, No Food, No Money, No Jewels, was commissioned by the Experimental Media and Performing Art Center (EMPAC) and will premiere in early 2016. LENORE DOXSEE Lighting Design Lenore Doxsee is a New York-based lighting designer for theater, opera, and dance. Her designs for dance include John Jasperse s Within Between, Morgan Thorson s Heaven, and many works by Miguel Gutierrez including Age & Beauty, Parts 1, 2 & 3, And lose the name of action, and Last Meadow. She has received two Bessie awards for her work with Gutierrez. Her designs for theater include Target Margin s The Tempest, Uncle Vanya, and many other productions. Recent designs for opera include Boston Early Music Festival s Monteverdi Trilogy and Almira. Doxsee teaches lighting design at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts department of undergraduate drama. Thanks! More up a Tree would like to thank The Double, Christine Rebet, Daniel Neves, Francesca Noia, Guy Picciotto, Holly Shen, Jeff Wood, Monia Lippi, Pepe, RoseLee Goldberg, Steve Heather, Wally, and Victor Van Vugt. More up a Tree gratefully acknowledges the support of our sponsors, LLumar a division of Eastman Chemical Company, Kino Flo Lighting Systems, E&T Plastics, Istanbul Cymbals, Sasha Waltz & Guests, RADIALSYSTEM V, Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, and Available Light NY. PHOTO: Courtesy of the Artist