For Immediate Release: Dance/Events
Media Contact: Sean McMahon, Artistic Director
(415)225-3991 or peckpeckdance@yahoo.com
peck peck dance ensemble and friends
Seventh Annual Season
with special guest choreography
at CounterPULSE May 8-9, 2009
www.peckpeckdanceensemble.com
March 10, 2009, San Francisco, CA—When was the last time that you went to a modern dance show and heard fairy tales about werewolves and vampires? peck peck dance ensemble (PPDE) presents its seventh annual season with premieres by Sean McMahon, and guests Malia Movement Company, Christine Cali (Korea), Tara Fagan, Gretchen Garnett, Sebastian Grubb, Alisa Rasera, Christi Welter, and Claire Willey.
Clark Buchner, of Mission 17 Gallery says, “It’s hard to find work that compares to that created by peck peck dance ensemble; it’s sophisticated, complex and accessible.”
The Show
The evening will include several performances pieces by ppde Co-Director, Sean McMahon and guest choreography from Malia Movement Company, Christine Cali (Korea), Tara Fagan, Gretchen Garnett, Sebastian Grubb, Alisa Rasera, Christi Welter, and Claire Willey.
McMahon’s newest work “story of a little monster girl”, is about a little werewolf girl, who really wants to be a vampire. Snarfina (danced by Rebecca Fettig) stalks the stage in her tattered dress. The piece is an investigation of a solo and chorus structure. The soloist, Snarfina twists and turns her way through the space as her internal struggle is investigated by the narrator The chorus moves with Snarfina, sometimes in unison, sometimes entangling her. In the end, she finds a surprise resolution.
McMahon will also be premiering “Es”, a movement investigation and response to the ego and defense mechanisms. In the piece, the 7 dancers move in harmony and discord, as they investigate interpretations of the way that the mind copes. Set to various music, including Stereo Lab, and local composer Eric Arvai, the dance is broken into 5 sections. The dancer begins with the dancers clumped together. The dancers wave and shift together as a unit. As they begin to bump and collide, they start to burst out of the clump, eventually cutting their way through the space and one another. Throughout the piece, different groupings of dancers are highlighted, as the harmony and discord of the mind is revealed.
In addition to the pieces described above, the show will feature one other premiere by McMahon. “A duet should be a love story”, is a happy duet that highlights partnering, touch, and relationships.
The evening will also include work by guests Malia Movement Company, Christine Cali (Korea), Tara Fagan, Gretchen Garnett, Sebastian Grubb, Christi Welter, and Claire Willey. It’s a show that promises to please a diverse audience with a variety of work ranging from thought provoking to humorous, and starkly serious to ridiculously absurd.
About peck peck dance ensemble
In 2002, Sean McMahon and Sarah Sass decided to commit to creating choreographic work and formed peck peck dance ensemble as a platform to create, sustain and produce their work. One of PPDE’s primary goals in addition to creating and producing choreographic work, was to create a system of artistic support. PPDE functions as the umbrella under which McMahon and Sass support each other during their respective creative processes. Because of the way PPDE functions, the company has fostered a working environment where collaboration is intrinsic to the way the company functions. This exploration of collaborative processes extends to the studio; both McMahon and Sass value collaborations with other artists and performers; as a result ppde has established ongoing relationships with a wide range of artists, filmmakers, musicians and performers.
PPDE has been awarded residencies by the Jon Sims Center for the Arts, as well as multiple Resident Artist Workshop residencies at The Garage, and at Shotwell Studios. Mission 17 Galleries produced PPDE’s second annual season at Dance Mission. McMahon and Sass have shown work in multiple theaters and festivals throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including multiple years at the West Wave Dance Festival, the Dance Is Festival, and the Retail Dance Festival. PPDE has also been produced at ODC as part of the POP Festival, and the PILOT series.
About some of the Choreographers
Sean McMahon, originally from Utah, holds a B.F.A. in dance from the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College, Athens. In addition to choreographing continually since his arrival in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2000, he has performed with AXIS Dance Company, Huckabay McAllister Dance, Christine Cali, EmSpace Dance and many others. During his time with AXIS Dance Company, Sean had the opportunity to work with Victoria Marks, Ann Carlson, Sonya Delwaide, Margaret Jenkins and Kim Epifano. He choreographed a piece for AXIS, “Room 5600” which premiered as part of the 2006 West Wave Dance Festival. McMahon’s work has also been shown in Santa Barbara and Chicago.
Malia Movement Company (MMCo) was created by Malia Connor in 1992 as a vessel to bring together and heal women of varying ethnicities, ages, body types and socio-economic status through the art of dance. Through numerous performances with a wide range of dancers, vocalists, poets, visual artists and audiences, Malia Movement Company’s programs have evolved into visual meditations; experiences that embody a seamless blend of Malia’s fluid movement vocabulary, social consciousness and commitment to artistic diversity.
Malia personally identifies with movement that is healing, socially relevant and multi-dimensional. She prides herself on creating pieces that educate with a light touch, and her choreographic works often shed light on social issues such as single parenting, being of mixed heritage or the plight of indigenous peoples. In addition, Malia often fuses a variety of artistic mediums into her dance pieces including visual art, spoken word, live music, live vocals, large-scale projections and the element of improvisation. Now in its seventeenth year of arts collaboration in the Bay Area, Malia Movement Company is focused on growth and expansion.
(for all of the choreographers bios, go to http://peckpeckdanceensemble.com/dancers.html)
CALENDAR LISTING:
WHAT: peck peck dance ensemble—Seventh Annual Season
new work by Sean McMahon and guests Malia Movement Company, Christine Cali (Korea), Tara Fagan, Gretchen Garnett, Sebastian Grubb, Alisa Rasera, Christi Welter, and Claire Willey
WHEN: Friday-Saturday, May 8-9 @ 8pm
WHERE: CounterPULSE
1310 Mission Street, San Francisco
TICKETS: $18, no one turned away for lack of funds
INFO/RES: (415)626-2060 or http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/54911
WEB: http://www.peckpeckdanceensemble.com
High-Resolution Digital Images Available for Download at http://www.counterpulse.org/press.shtml
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