November 3, 2008

Of Volcanoes and Rocks, Featuring Sardono W. Kusumo
Intra-Cultural Dance and Music

"Kusumo mines deep investigations into the nature of the body to make dances that reveal a state ‘before beauty’ or before form." Dance Insider

"How Much Better If Plymouth Rock Had Landed On The Pilgrims... seems to echo those innate psychical tides that govern the flux of human thought and feeling... instants seem stretched to eternities..."The Washington Post

Celebrated Javanese choreographer, dancer and filmmaker Sardono W. Kusumo joins with a circle of CalArts master musicians to forge new links across Hindustani, Indonesian and Western performance practices. Known for his ongoing exploration of intra-cultural creative paradigms, Kusumo most recently staged a massive choreographic spectacle on and off the shores of Denpasar, Bali — a piece that involved more than 10 ships from different tribes and countries, and included a fantastical presentation about the evolution of cultures and the rumblings of volcanoes. Kusumo is collaborating this evening with performer-composers Swapan Chaudhuri (tabla), Vinny Golia (winds), Aashish Khan (sarode), Daniel Rosenboom (trumpet), David Rosenboom (keyboards and electronics) and I Nyoman Wenten (Balinese gamelan instruments) as part of an extravaganza that spins off from a new realization of David Rosenboom’s 1969 composition, the sensuous and mystical How Much Better If Plymouth Rock Had Landed On The Pilgrims.

Funded in part by a generous grant from The George and MaryLou Boone Fund for Artistic Advancement.