Jun 2, 2011 | 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Frye Art Museum, Seattle
The Frye Art Museum is located on First Hill at 704 Terry Avenue, near Boren Avenue and James Street, steps from downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill.
Free parking is available in the parking lot across the street from the entrance on Terry Avenue.
Phone: (206) 622-9250
Fax: (206) 223-1707
Email: info@fryemuseum.org
Degenerate Art Ensemble
Exhibition @ Frye Art Museum
Degenerate Art Ensemble: The Exhibition, March 19–June 19, 2011
This premiere touring exhibition introduces museum audiences to DAE’s dynamic, event-based sensorial extravaganzas through sound works, sculpture, props, costumes, films, photo and video documentation, and video projections. The exhibition includes signature works such as Sonic Tales (2009) and Cuckoo Crow (2006), and features artworks created by DAE for a museum context.
Red Shoes: Premiere Performance
DAE’s performances have ranged from full theatrical stage productions to intimate concerts. Flexible in its configuration and membership, DAE can transform from a dance company to a punk/jazz band to a forty-five-piece orchestra. In all of its iterations, the group electrifies audiences, creates uniquely memorable shared experiences, and explores new territories of perception.
DAE’s latest site-specific performance, Red Shoes, will be presented at the Frye Art Museum and other First Hill locations. The performance—a rich tapestry of dreams, creativity, artistic agency, determination, and reinvention—is an adaption of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of a young girl whose red shoes will not allow her to stop dancing. Beginning in the Frye and spilling onto the streets, Red Shoes features key DAE members, Korean vocalist Dohee Lee, a marching band, a chorus, and the audience. It will be presented on four consecutive Thursday evenings: May 12, May 19, May 26, and June 2.
Degenerate Art Ensemble: Workshops, Programs, Reunion
Degenerate Art Ensemble is accompanied by a an exciting slate of dance workshops, conversations, video screenings, public programs, and a reunion of all DAE members, past and present. In April 2011, as part of the lecture series Performance | Art, curator Robin Held conducts an on-stage conversation with DAE artistic directors Haruko Nishimura and Joshua Kohl, addressing key methods and strategies evidenced in Red Shoes and past DAE performances.
Degenerate Art Ensemble is a performance company that creates original and adventurous productions using live music, physical theater and the visceral language of Butoh dance. Audio elements include live foley art, orchestras/Chamber ensembles, bands, newly invented instruments, and electronics. Their creative approach is intensely collaborative and is in a constant state of invention and re-invention. Aesthetically extreme, influenced by punk, protest, cartoons, nightmares and fairy tales, DAE takes the viewer into otherworldly landscapes — full of compelling characters and music that doesn't just accompany the action, but defines the mental state and reveals secrets to the audience that the characters will never know. DAE's work is a tightly wound mechanism made up of triggers and cues that when released on stage aims to achieve a heightened sense of awareness one might find in a sacrificial rite. DAE has been presented by On The Boards (Seattle), REDCAT (L.A.), New Museum (N.Y.), Festival Alternativa (Prague), T.F.F. Festival (Germany) and many others in ten countries of Europe and North America.
Degenerate Art Ensemble’s Red Shoes: Premiere Performance
DAE’s latest site-specific performance, Red Shoes, will premiere this spring at the Frye Art Museum and several other First Hill locations. This extraordinary performance is a reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of a girl whose red shoes will not allow her to stop dancing.
The performance is DAE’s interpretation of this beloved fairy tale and horror story – a rich drama of dreams, appetites, discipline, desire, transformation, and reinvention, danced through mountains and forests, across rivers, and through time. Beginning in the Frye galleries, the performance will move to the courtyard of St. James Cathedral, and spill into the surrounding streets. The performance will be presented for limited audiences on four consecutive Thursday evenings: May 12, May 19, May 26 and June 2*.
More information on the performance and ticketing information will be posted on http://fryemuseum.org/exhibition/3816/ and degenerateartensemble.com in April and May.
