Stephan Koplowitz: TaskForce "Liquid Landscapes"

DANCE: A site-specific performance tour of water related sites throughout the Los Angeles area.

Under the direction of veteran site artist Stephan Koplowitz, LA-based dancers Nicole Berger, Joshua Marin-Hepfl, Kevin Williamson, Alexandria Yalj, Rachel Butler-Green, Marisa Jimenez, and NY-based dancers Storme Sundberg and Sarah Young, with NY-based composer/performer Todd Reynolds and invited area artists converge on historically, culturally and ecologically significant sites throughout Los Angeles. TaskForce performs in response to these unusual, inspiring and challenging spaces connected by water, an enduringly controversial resource in Southern California. All performances are FREE. For event details visit www.taskforceproject.com [1].

"TaskForce is about process, experimentation and creating an exchange between the public, the city's landscape and art making." –Stephan Koplowitz

Performance Schedule, Sites and Tour Dates:


The Watercourt @ California Plaza
Presented by GRAND PERFORMANCES
Sunday, June 29, 2008, 8:00 p.m.
www.grandperformances.org [2]
300-350 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles 90071
Parking garage located on Olive Street between 1st and 4th Streets. $7.50 after 5pm on weekdays and all day Saturdays and Sundays.

The one-week tour of Los Angeles water themed sites will launch with the screening of an original dance film inspired by locations from Roman Polanski's Chinatown. A full length viewing of the original film follows.

The Watercourt @ California Plaza
Presented by GRAND PERFORMANCES
Monday, June 30, 2008, 12:00 noon and 5:00 p.m.
www.grandperformances.org [2]
300-350 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles 90071
Parking garage located on Olive Street between 1st and 4th Streets. $7.50 after 5pm on weekdays and all day Saturdays and Sundays.

TaskForce presents hour-long ambient installations of structured improvisational dance and music in which eight virtuoso dancers push the boundaries of order, chaos, fluidity and form echoing the rhythms and sculptural design of Cal Plaza's water garden. Danced to original music in combination with spontaneous performance elements the TaskForce embodies Koplowitz site inspired scores bridging the gap between place, meaning, and imagination.

FARMERS MARKET
Presented by THE A.F. GILMORE COMPANY
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
9:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m. inside the Farmers Market
12:15 p.m.-1:00 p.m. on the Market Plaza
www.farmersmarketla.com [3]
Located at 3rd and Fairfax (6333 West 3rd Street, Los Angeles)
Parking is available in either of the Market's two convenient lots.

TaskForce dances at the historic Gilmore Farmers Market. As the location stirs to life in the early hours of the day TaskForce creates a sculptural garden of movement. Flowing gently through the maze-like channels of the market place this ambient environmental performance is inspired by the mood, tone, history and architecture of the space. Then at noon, near the market clock tower, eight highly skilled dancers perform Koplowitz's complex movement scores blurring the line between virtuoso choreography and free spirited improvisation.

TASKFORCE REMIXED
Presented by THE OPEN SPACE
Wednesday, JULY 2, 2008, 8:30 p.m.
www.TheOPENspace.info [4]
Suggested Donation $10.
Proceeds to benefit Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR)
209 S. Garey Street, Los Angeles 90012
Street Parking

Live in studio performance-jam and improvisational remix session along with film screening of Koplowitz's most recent dance shorts plus performances by collaborating artists in the TaskForce company including NYC composer Todd Reynolds.

PORT OF LOS ANGELES-BANNING'S LANDING COMMUNITY CULTURAL CENTER
Presented in association with
THE CALARTS COMMUNITY ARTS PARTNERSHIP (CAP)
AND THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
Thursday, July 3, 2008, 6:00 p.m.
www.portoflosangeles.org/facilities/bannings.asp [5] www.culturela.org [6]
100 E. Water Street (at Avalon) in Wilmington
Parking for 80 vehicles including handicapped accessible spaces is available on site.

The tour takes us on the site of the Banning's Landing Community Cultural Center at the Port of Los Angeles. TaskForce in collaboration with CAP visual artist-educators Manuel Cuchilla, Levi Brewster and middle school art students from the community will create a visual installation as a backdrop for TaskForce's physically charged site-specific performance integrating the dynamic architecture and ambiance of the location.

THE BEACHES OF MALIBU
With guest artists LOS ANGELES URBAN RANGERS
Friday, July 4, 2008, 2:00 p.m.
www.laurbanrangers.org [7]
Malibu’s Carbon Beach Coastal Access Point near 22126 Pacific Coast Highway

TaskForce goes to the beach with guest artists LOS ANGELES URBAN RANGERS on a series of adventurous performances capturing the natural fireworks of bodies in motion against the dramatic landscape of the Pacific Coastline. Performers dance a highly kinetic series of improvisational scores embodying the Rangers' playful public tour of a Malibu beach.

UNDER SPRING STREET BRIDGE
Presented by FARMLAB/STUDIO FOR SOCIAL SCULPTURE
Saturday, July 5, 2008, 3:00 p.m.
www.farmlab.org [8]
1745 North Spring Street, Los Angeles 90012
Parking available behind the Farmlab building on Baker Street adjacent to Los Angeles State Historic Park.

TaskForce dances under the Spring Street Bridge, at the Studio for Social Sculpture and at the neighboring Cornfield – LA's birthplace. The LA River regularly flooded the Cornfield, nurturing the crops that grew a young city. In a kinetic exploration of the theme TaskForce's eight virtuoso dancers push the boundaries of structure and freedom as they embody Koplowitz's complex movement scores during a 45 minute triptych designed for three different sites on this historic locale.

LOS ANGELES RIVER
Presented by
THE FRIENDS OF THE LOS ANGELES RIVER (FoLAR)
Sunday, July 6, 2008, 9:30 a.m.
Guided Bus Tour begins at 9:30 a.m and ends at 4:00 p.m.
Cost: $50, FoLAR members $45: call FoLAR
at 323-223-0585 to purchase tickets and get further info.
www.folar.org [9]
Tour begins at the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens
560 West Avenue 26, Los Angeles 90065
Map available at www.lamountains.com/maps/riverCenter.pdf [10]

For the series finale, TaskForce will collaborate with Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR) on an "edu-tainment" performance tour. Featuring acclaimed LA poet Suzanne Lummis and noted writer and guide Jenny Price, TaskForce will perform at scenic and historic locations along the 51-mile river. Audiences will spend a half-day taking in the sites and stories that shape both LA history and the Task Force's final forays into movement music and water. Tour includes transportation by air conditioned bus and Lunch.

About TaskForce (the company)

TaskForce is a new and unique touring performance company that brings art out of the black box and into the town square, out of the gallery walls and into the public. Artistically directed by veteran site artist Stephan Koplowitz, TaskForce is made up of artists drawn from the fields of dance, music and visual media who will move across a range of locations to create performances in response to unusual, inspiring or challenging spaces. Working together tightly the group will spend two weeks in the scenic mountains of Idyllwild, California in residence creating and performing pieces that both trace the history of the village and respond to the more natural environment of that area before moving on to a four week stay in the greater urban Los Angeles region. Sponsored by Transatlantic Arts Consortium (TAC) this is the first in three phases of the TaskForce project. The second phase will continue in Europe during July 2009 at sites in Plymouth and Dartington, UK before culminating at locations in Essen, Germany for the final phase of the project early summer 2010. The Los Angeles, Plymouth/Dartington and Essen sites are all united by the common theme of "water" as the basis for site selection and creation.