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Rosanna Gamson/World Wide and Mexico's Contradanza to premiere Aura nationally at REDCAT

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January 25, Los Angeles, CA-Mexico City's acclaimed contemporary dance company Contradanza collaborates with Los Angeles choreographer Rosanna Gamson and her company World Wide to present a new international collaboration, Aura, presented at REDCAT from February 16 - 20 at 8:30 pm The evening-length dance theater piece is inspired by Mexican author Carlos Fuentes' famous novella "Aura," a ghost story set in a labyrinthine unnamed city. RG/WW, in collaboration with Mexican choreographer Cecilia Appleton and her company Contradanza, merge movement, bilingual text and evocative theatrical images to explore the duality of culture and identity implicit in Fuentes' gothic tale of love and horror, and thus Latino and Anglo cultures in Los Angeles.

Aura was first published in 1962 by Ediciones Era. In this complex short story, Fuentes challenges the general notion of time through an innovative narrative technique that uses second-person narration in the present and future tenses, removing the boundaries between present, past, and future. Young historian Felipe Montero accepts a live-in position editing the memoirs of General Llorente, whose elderly widow, Consuelo, wants to publish before her death. Intoxicated by the airless atmosphere of the house, Felipe dreams of escaping with Consuelo's young beautiful niece, Aura. But as he reads the General's writings about Consuelo's infertility, her fantasy of having a child, and her obsession with youth, he discovers that Aura is actually a projection of the 109-year-old widow. Felipe, ensnared by his own desire and actions into the role of the General, couples with Consuelo to give birth to Aura, the epitome of youth and the illusion of life. With intense prose, Fuentes masterfully recreates the suffocating and dreamlike atmosphere of the house and mixes the fantastic and the tangible, keeping readers curious as they attempt to distinguish between the two.

Cecilia Appleton creates dances that speak directly of her experience of life as a Mexican woman through an intensely personal movement language. A primary force in Mexican modern dance, she has choreographed over 40 works since founding Contradanza in 1983. International artistic tours include Costa Rica, Spain, Europe, and Canada, as well as national presentations in Mexico's most important venues, most recently by Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes. Contradanza made its US debut in 2002 in Los Angeles, presented by Grand Performances. Contradanza continues its commitment to its inclusive social vision, performing in men's and women's prisons, schools, barrios and shelters and in festivals in solidarity with marginalized populations.

Rosanna Gamson / World Wide is a Los Angeles-based dance theater company with a large ensemble of dancers, singers, and actors. The company's first major piece Again Not Again premiered in 1997 and since then has established a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-media repertoire of outstanding dance theatre works all with original live music. Honored with four Horton Dance Awards, the company has performed in theaters, museums, and festivals in the US, Canada, and Mexico, including The Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, the Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago, and the Getty Center. Upcoming performances include a remounting of Grand Hope Flower for the Skirball Cultural Center in connection with the Einstein exhibition. Aura will next be presented by the Portland Institute of Contemporary Arts' TBA Festival in September 2005.

RG/WW and Contradanza have both achieved high recognition, earned critical acclaim and toured nationally in their home counties. Now they take the next step with this international collaboration partly commissioned by REDCAT. Aura is a presentation of The Sharon Disney Lund Dance Series and funded in part by the National Dance Project and Cultural Contact, the U.S. Mexico Foundation for Culture, Aura was first presented in Mexico in October 2004.

REDCAT, CalArts downtown center for innovative visual, performing and media arts, is located at the corner of W. 2nd St. and S. Hope St., inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. Performances will be February 16 - 20, Wednesday - Sunday, at 8:30 pm Ticket prices range $32- 20, with student tickets available. Seating is general admission. Tickets may be purchased at the REDCAT box office -- located at the corner of 2nd and Hope streets, by calling 213.237.2800 or visiting the web site.

Aura was made possible, in part, by support from Cultural Contact-- the US-Mexico Fund for Culture, The City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, as well as support from WESTAF, the Western States Arts Federation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. The creation of Aura was also made possible by commissioning funds from REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater) and Arizona State University Public Events, as well as support from the California State University Monterey Bay World Theater. Aura was made possible by the Doris Duke Fund for Dance of the National Dance Project, a program administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. The score for Aura was commissioned by Stanley Epstein on behalf of Rosanna Gamson / World Wide.]

California Institute of the Arts, CalArts, the first U.S. higher educational institution to integrate the visual and performing arts under one roof, is recognized as the nation's leading laboratory for the arts. Housing six schools--Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater--CalArts embraces creative cross-pollination among diverse art forms and traditions, and strongly encourages each artist to pursue his or her vision within a broad context of social and cultural understanding.

Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, REDCAT, is an interdisciplinary arts center that introduces diverse audiences, students and artists to the most influential developments in the performing, visual and media arts from around the world, and gives artists and future artists in this region the production opportunities and creative support they need to achieve national and international stature.

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