Photo: CalArts Dance launches nomadic dance floor. Photo: Rafael Hernandez. Courtesy of CalArts. Click here for high-resolution photo.
“It’s a dance studio, theater, gallery, screening room, political forum, music video set, and a moving site-specific production. In short, it’s Los Angeles, where we innovate and pioneer the merging of artistic mediums,” said CalArts School of Dance Dean Dimitri Chamblas.
November 6-16, renowned choreography duo Gerard & Kelly will work with students on the mobile floor. In Spring 2019, the floor will travel to sites in Los Angeles.
Valencia, CA (Oct. 31, 2018) – This fall, the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) launches SoCal’s newest arts venue – a nomadic outdoor dance floor and studio. Created to embed dance into the urban fabric of Los Angeles, the multi-purpose dance floor is designed to travel to sites in LA and beyond.
The floor embodies the mission of CalArts Dance to bring performance out of the studio and into the life of the city. Currently located in a grassy field on CalArts’ campus, the floor will travel to West Hollywood’s MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House in February 2019. Later in the spring, it will relocate to a space outside the Los Angeles Dance Project (LADP) and the adjoining Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles’ Warehouse District. CalArts Dance and host venues will create performances and events using the floor.
“Inspired by the versatility of the dancer’s life in Los Angeles, our mobile dance floor is a prototype for a new artistic venue, one so simple it can be constructed or travel anywhere, showcase any number of disciplines, and serve as both a place of experimentation and performance,” said CalArts Dance Dean Dimitri Chamblas.
Built by student dancers working with CalArts Dance Technical Director Sevim Abaza, the floor measures 32’ by 32’ of square steel deck flooring, elevated and leveled with wood blocks and schedule 40 pipe. Its surface is covered by a white Mylar layer specific for dance and its front face features a mirrored surface intended to reflect its current environment, which will change as the floor is toured to different contexts.
With the goal of training dancers to be versatile professionals working across the arts and entertainment sectors, the mobile floor’s launch caps off a year of performance for CalArts Dance. From the Paris Opera to a performance piece with Solange, from art galleries to the L.A. streets and back to campus, CalArts dancers have participated in an astounding number of collaborations and recruited an impressive roster of faculty since Chamblas took over as dean in summer 2017. In addition to a partnership with LADP announced earlier this fall, the school is also looking forward to future projects with Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, France’s Centre National de la Danse, and the Paris Opera, with others to be announced soon.
Celebrating a repertory of work from iconic choreographers including Trisha Brown, Rennie Harris, and Merce Cunningham, the school’s annual Winter Dance Concert will take place at CalArts on November 29 and 30 at 8 pm, and at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in Downtown Los Angeles on December 7 and 8 at 8:30 pm. A shortened version of the concert intended for children will be performed at LADP in the Warehouse District of Los Angeles on December 9.
Videos: CalArts Dance
CalArts Dance Reel, 2018
CalArts Dance in HHUMAN at Hauser & Wirth Los Angles, 2018
CalArts Dance in Metatronia (Metatron's Cube), 2018, Solange Ferguson