GUEST ARTIST SERIES: TERE O’CONNOR
Velocity is delighted to partner with On the Boards to celebrate master American choreographer, Tere O’Connor.
“Tere O’Connor, known for his radically multifaceted movement and exquisite craftsmanship . . . Images proliferate, overlap, dissipate: Some of them you grasp; others pass you by.
– The New York Times
“A major force in contemporary dance.”
– The New York Times
SISTER
SUN NOV 23 / 5:30PM
TICKETS $12 / $9 MVP
Part of Open For(u)m: Irreconcilability Tere O’Connor
Performed by fearless and unparalleled NYC dancers, David Thomson [Trisha Brown, Ralph Lemon] and Cynthia Oliver [Ronald K. Brown/ Evidence, Bebe Miller], Sister weaves various dance vocabularies into a complex yet often playful tapestry, creating an unexpected universe. The performance of Sister will lead into a presentation/conversation by O’Connor – a major force in contemporary dance equally renowned as the “smart, affable (The Village Voice)” provocateur who squared off with The New Yorker, as he is for being a charismatic influence on scores of today’s leading choreographers.
“I tried to escape the omnipresence of theme and variation in dance by immersing myself in what I call ‘variation and variation.’ I looked to sisters as a metaphor for duplication, sameness and difference. I was attempting to validate a different idea regarding ‘development’ in a dance, one that didn’t offer an anchoring point.”
– Tere O’Connor on Sister
“Sister ebbed and flowed through sounds and silences with a sense of infinite invention . . . “
– Amy White, Indy Week
Photo Paula Court
open for(u)m: IRRECONCILABILITY
OPEN FOR(U)M: IRRECONCILABILITY
TERE O’CONNOR
NOV 16-23
November 16: O’Connor Workshop Making Dances, Velocity
November 17: O’Connor Happy Hour Book Club, Hosted by Velocity at OTB
November 20-21: performance of BLEED, On the Boards
November 22: reading, Claudia La Rocco The Best Most Useless Dress, OtB
November 22: performances of poem and Secret Mary, On the Boards
November 23: performance of SISTER, followed by O’Connor Community Forum, Velocity
Velocity partners with On the Boards in a celebration of master American choreographer Tere O’Connor, culminating in performances of his seminal works BLEED, poem, Secret Mary and Sister.
As part of this educational/community partnership, Velocity and OtB host Irreconcilability, nine days of activities focused on O’Connor’s influential views on dance and contemporary culture. Irreconcilability features dance screenings, discussions, classes, book readings, dinners and more, curated by Velocity Artistic Director Tonya Lockyer with Tere O’Connor.
This Open Forum is a partnership between Velocity and On the Boards.
TERE O’CONNOR WORKSHOP MAKING DANCES
SUN NOV 16 / 12-4PM
REGISTER $50 / MVP $43
Velocity Founders Studio / 1621 12th Ave
Rejecting a “good/bad” paradigm, O’Connor’s desire in teaching choreographic method is for artists to create problem-solving systems based on the structure of their own thought process and to rigorously pursue the “science” of their poetics. Through the daily creation of little dance works, the artist focuses attention on developing an analytical eye for the fundamental metaphors in the work. The process involves locating, through a hyper-personal investigation, the seeds of a universal voice.
READ Workshop insight from Seattle Dances
O’CONNOR HAPPY HOUR BOOK CLUB
MON NOV 17 / 6:30 PM
Hosted by Velocity
On the Boards Merrill Wright Mainstage Theater Lobby / 100 W Roy St
FREE + OPEN TO ALL
A celebrated writer on dance and ideas, O’Connor will engage in conversation around his BLEED blog posts over drinks. Readings will be available on Velocity’s website.
READ Unviable Structures on BLEED, the jumping off point for this Book Club
LEARN MORE + READ O’Connor’s BLEED blog
photos by Paula Court
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Tere O’Connor (NYC) is an influential American choreographer based in NYC. The 1993 Guggenheim Fellow, 2009 Rockefeller Fellow and three-time Bessie award winner has been making and teaching dance for over three decade. A tireless investigator and educator, he has taught at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, University of Illinois in Urbana-Champagne, and Movement Research in NYC. Velocity first brought Tere O’Connor to Seattle in 2007. This will be the first time his company’s work will be seen in Seattle. TereOConnorDance.org
Photo Karsten Moran for The New York Times
INSIGHT
READ Interview – Clarity is a Useful Fiction, The Stranger, Melody Datz Hansen, November 21, 2014
READ Review — Not a Patriarch, but a Leader All the Same, The New York Times, Claudia La Rocco, November 6, 2009
READ Review — Frozen Mommy Review, The Village Voice, Deborah Jowitt, November 13, 2009
READ Review — As Life’s Chaos Fades to Dark, Still a Glow Remains, The New York Times, Claudia La Rocco, September 30, 2008
READ Review — Tere O’Connor’s ‘Rammed Earth’ hits with emotional force, Thea Singer, The Boston Globe, July 12, 2008
READ Review — Giving Birth to ‘Baby,’ in Front of Everyone , Gia Kourlas, The New York Times, March 19, 2006
Open For(u)m Irreconcilability, a partnership between Velocity and On the Boards is made possible by the generous support of The Boeing Company, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 4Culture, ArtsFund, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, The Office of Arts & Culture, and Media Sponsor KUOW.
