PERFORMANCES

Imprint II (2010)

Imprint II is a daring, site-specific work for dancers, large music ensemble and telepresence technology. It explores the resonance of cultural artifacts and stories as transmitted from place-to-place, time-to-time, and person-to-person. Music by Owen Underhill is paired with Henry Daniel’s spectacular combination of modern technology and movement. Imprint II – Henry Daniel and Owen Underhill The Imprint project began when Curator Jill Baird approached Henry Daniel to create a new work for the opening of the new Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC. Henry approached Owen Underhill who in turn brought in the Turning Point Ensemble, and a complex journey was begun. On January 23, 2010, the first project, Imprint I, was premiered at the MOA. Extensive assistance with this project was provided by Chief Robert Joseph and William Wasden, both of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation. With this ongoing project, our intention was to explore the imprint of cultural artifacts and stories as transmitted from place to place, time-to-time, and person-to-person. As a result and given the site-specific nature of the piece and subject matter, the second version created for SFU Woodward’s and the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre is a profoundly transformed work from what was premiered in January. This new work, Imprint II, has almost entirely new choreography, new music for the TPE and music that has been expanded from 7 to 16 instruments. New languagescapes have also been created based on interviews with participants in Imprint II, and many other original elements including the boxes designed by visual artist Alan Storey and an installation in the Woodward’s Audain gallery designed by Majid Bagheri that the dancers interact with during the performance.

The work divides into three sections:

Part One – Multiple Worlds 
Above World - Images from another place, Boxes, Inhabitants
Music – Big Bang – High Ensemble
Real World – Out of the Box, Identities, Relationships
Music – Box City – Low Ensemble

Part Two – Stories
Meeting Place, Memory, Risk, Vulnerability
Music – including Flute-Bird, Trombone Walking, Clarinet Transformation Mask, Cello River
Languagescape in Kwakwala Language based on interview with Chief Robert Joseph, Languagescape in multiple languages based on interviews, Story Circle. Film by Sonia Suvagau and Felix Olten based on the relocation of the choreography in an urban setting

Part Three – Harmonia Mundi
Music - Harmonia mundi sympathica – based on seventeenth century chart of Athanasius Kircher – The Wholesome Harmony of the World, Manifesting the Symphony of All Nature in 10 Enneachords (nine-note chords).

Other Credits:

Assistance with Languagescapes in Imprint II: Recording, Mixing and Editing - James O’Callaghan. Recording of Chief Robert Joseph - James Maxwell. Sound design assistance and 8 Channel Interface - Adam Basanta.

Thanks to the following who participated in Languagescape: Recordings -Chief Robert Joseph with the support of the UBC MOA and Curator Jill Baird, Felix, Janelle, Janina, Jessica, Nazanine, Nasim, Sammy, Sonia, and Xiaonan.

The production of Imprint II is made possible by a Canada Council/NSERC New Media grant; grant holders are Henry Daniel, Ivan Bajic and Jie Liang. Canada Council grant administration is by Barbara Clausen and New Works.

Imprint I (2010)

World Premiere of new work created by Henry Daniel and Owen Underhill with assistance from Chief Robert Joseph Commissioned for MOA’s Celebration of Creativity, presented by Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad Saturday, January 23, 2010, 7:00 pm When you try to do new things, it is necessary to take risks, go outside your comfort zone, and meet new people. The creation of Imprint has been such an experience – requiring a number of people to dream and imagine something outside of a standard artistic or cultural collaboration. We would especially like to thank Jill Baird and Jennifer Robinson from MOA for the invitation to create this work, and for introducing us to Chief Robert Joseph and William Wasden. Both ‘Bobby’ and ‘Wa’ generously shared Kwakwaka’wakw songs and stories. The resulting contemporary piece has been created from these experiences. We would like to express our humble appreciation for the invitation to join the celebration of the rejuvenation of this most special place.                                                                                                          Henry Daniel and Owen Underhill 

Imprint I is an interdisciplinary work created by choreographer Henry Daniel and composer Owen Underhill for the Celebration of Creativity and the launch of the new MOA. This live performance will take place as part of the opening day celebrations at 7:00 pm on Saturday January 23, 2010. A collaborative process involving the principal creators, MOA Curator Jill Baird, Kwakwaka’wakw participants Chief Robert Joseph and William Wasdan, and the Turning Point Ensemble, has led to a unique contemporary work that responds and extrapolates from Kwakwala language and song to new music, dance and technology. The intention of the creators is to explore the imprint of cultural artifacts and stories as transmitted from place to place, time-to-time, and person-to-person. 

The Imprint I performance will be site-specific, beginning in the Great Hall and dispersing out to other parts of the Museum including the Multiversity Galleries. Elements of Imprint include seven live musicians of the Turning Point Ensemble performing music composed by Owen Underhill, a soundscape based on the recording of Chief Robert Joseph in the Kwakwala language, seven dancers choreographed by Henry Daniel, and telepresence technology developed by engineers Ivan Bajic and Jie Liang with Daniel through a Canada Council/NSERC new media grant. 

Collaborators:

Composer: Owen Underhill
Choreography: Henry Daniel
Advisors: Chief Robert Joseph, William Wasden
Dancers: Brenna McLaud, Henry Daniel, Michelle Cheung, Tara Dyberg, Thoenn Glover
Musicians – Turning Point Ensemble:
Lorna McGhee, flute
David Owen, oboe
François Houle, clarinet
Marie-Julie Chagnon, bass clarinet
Jeremy Berkman, trombone
Ariel Barnes, cello
David Brown, bass
Owen Underhill, conductor
Soundscape Assistance: James Maxwell, Adrian Underhill, Martin Gotfrit, Barry Truax
Sound Designer: Adam Basanta
Telepresence Technology: Ivan Bajic, Xiaonan Ma
Multiview Camera System: Jie Liang, Xiu, Xiaoyu, Clavin Che
Media Design: Sammy Chien
Videographers: Barry Liu, Adrian Underhill, Riley Maruyama
Production Manager: Allyson McGuire
Costume/Set Design: Jay Havens
Stage Manager: Kim Plough

Imprint I is curated by Jill Baird, MOA Curator of Public Programs, and made possible by a Canada Council/NSERC New Media Grant, a BC Arts Council Special Project Unique Opportunities Grant, New Works, IRMACS Centre at SFU, UBC Department of Theatre & Film, SFU Contemporary Arts, Barry Hegland, and Stefan Smulovitz. A Celebration of Creativity and the exhibition Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures are presented with Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. Additional sponsors: BC Arts Council, The Vancouver Foundation, The Canada Council, NSERC, Consulat Général de France à Vancouver, Audrey Hawthorn Fund for Publications, and Alican Mould & Plastics. Many thanks to sponsors CBC, NUVO Magazine, The Georgia Straight. MOA Partnership of Peoples Renewal Project funded by Canada Foundation for Innovation, The Province of British Columbia, The Koerner Foundation, Stewart and Marilyn Blusson, The Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts, Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund.

t2 echo (2009)

t2: echo explores notions of co-location via Performance Telematics. Simply put, this is the use of computers in concert with telecommunication systems in performance. t2: echo considers the impact on us as human beings of perceptible dislocations in our linear sense of space/time. The piece is part of the larger Touched Project funded by the Canada Council and the National Science and Engineering Research Council to develop video coding and processing for telepresence in the performing arts (2007-2010).

Collaborators:

Choreography and Direction: Henry Daniel 
Dancers: Brenna McLaud, Chengxin Wei, Donald Taruc, Tara Dyberg 
Music: Julie Sun Lee-violin Partita for Violin Solo by Vytautas Barkauskas 
Additional Music composed by: James O'Callaghan 
Media Design: Chris Ziegler 
Telepresence technology: Ivan Bajic, Xiaonan Ma 

Multiview camera system: Jie Liang

T2 (2009)

"T2: Telepresence, Co-Location and Simultaneity". The choreographic work T2 explores notions of co-location and simultaneity in dance using telepresence technology. It is an attempt to break up and redistribute the continuous flow of images audiences are accustomed to seeing onstage, the aim being to have the viewer reconsider not only what the dance means, but also how the images we are accustomed to become strange and even alien in these new settings.

Collaborators: 

Henry Daniel: Concept, choreography and direction 
Scheherazaad Cooper: Odissi dancer/choreography 
Cara Siu : Assistant to the Choreographer 
Dancers: Livona Ellis, Brenna McLaud, Olivia Shaffer, Chengxin Wei 
Kate Burrows: Costume Designer 
Composers: Adam Basanta, James O’Callaghan
Tabla: Neelamjit Dhillon 
Media Artists: Sammy Chien, Shang-Han Chien 
Videographer: Barry Liu 
Technical Director & Lighting Designer: Jeff Harrison 
Stage Manager: Kimberly Plough 
Assistant Lighting Designer: Carmen Hung 
Assistant Stage Manager: Kelsey Peacock 
Curator, Interurban Gallery: Christoph Runne 
Telepresence: Ivan V. Bajic, Xiaonan Ma, Choong-Hoon Kwak 
Multi-view Camera System: Jie Liang, Calvin Che, Xiaoyu Xiu 

Robotics: Richard Vaughan, Ash Charles, Jens Wawerla, Alex Couture Biel, Adam Lein

Touched (2008)

Touched is a performance research project that investigates the twin concepts of Creation and creativity. It features human beings and semiautonomous robotic systems as “performers” in a constructed environment. The work takes two popular images from two very different religious/philosophical traditions as its starting point. The first is a detail from Michelangelo’s fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, The Hands of God and Adam. This image symbolizes the transference of the spark of consciousness from the divine to the human in the Christian religious tradition. The second image is the dancing form of Lord Shiva in the Nataraj. Shiva, a key figure in Hindu religion, represents the source of all movement in the cosmos as (s)he dances the world into and out of existence.

Scientists Richard Vaughan (robotics) and Arthur Kirkpatrick (haptic interfaces) from Simon Fraser University’s School of Computing Science, guest media artists Mark Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello of Troika Ranch (NYC), and choreographer Henry Daniel (Full Performing Bodies) from the School for the Contemporary Arts collaborate to bring this new work to the stage.

Collaborators:

Henry Daniel – Concept & Choreography
Mark Coniglio - Guest Artist, Troika Ranch – Media Designer
Dawn Stoppiello - Guest Artist, Troika Ranch - Choreography
Jai Govinda - Bharatanatyam Instruction
Jamie Griffiths - Media Instruction
Scheherazaad Cooper - Guest Performer

Performers:
Victoria Dawe, Kim Dixon, Lily Hsu, Jeanette Kotowich, Anna Kraulis, Anny Lin (Violinist), Rachel McIlroy, Sarah Russell, Olivia Schaeffer, Janette Tseng, Jennifer Yau, Marc Arboleda, Shang-Han Chien, Chancz Perry, Justin Reist

Adam Basanta – Composer
Sammy Chien– Graphics, Media Design
Shang-Han Chien– Graphics, Media Design
Barry Liu – Videographer, Editor
Stefan Smulovitz– Interactive Technician
Richard Vaughan – Robotics
Arthur (Ted) Kirkpatrick – Motion Capture
Nelson Talbot, Graham Talbot, Nathaniel Sol – Running Crew
Rob Groeneboer – Camera/Pool Shoot

SFU Theatre Production Team:
Olive Pang – Stage Manager
Kelsey Peacock & Jessica Cvjetkovic – Assistant Stage Managers
Carmen Hung – Lighting Design
Anil Chauhan – Technical Director
Scott Owens, Grace Park - Assistant Technical Directors

This performance is supported by the Iris Garland Visiting Choreographers Fund; the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University, Robert Gardiner's SSHRC Research/Creation Grant at the University of British Columbia, Henry Daniel's Canada Council/NSERC New Media Grant, and Theatre at UBC. Canada Council Grant Administration is by New Works.