upcoming performance

Richard Povall (Richard.Povall@oberlin.edu)
Fri, 24 Sep 1999 10:17:46 -0600

Hi all

Just wanted to let you know about an upcoming performance at the Banff
Centre. The piece will receive a public preview performance at the Eric
Harvie Theatre at the Banff Centre (Banff, Alberta, Canada), on FRIDAY,
OCTOBER 1, at 8pm. The piece will premiere at the Firkin Crane in Cork,
Ireland, on November 4 and 5, at 8:15pm.

THE SECRET PROJECT is a Dance-Theatre production by half/angel using new
interactive technologies and co-produced by Firkin Crane Cork and The Banff
Centre for the Arts Canada. These technologies include motion-sensing
systems which connect movement with sound, text and video. THE SECRET
PROJECT is about the idea of the secret, personal, cultural, political and
Irish. Performers use their voices in singing and text work, as well as
their bodies in choreography / performance. The production will use
original writing by Jools Gilson-Ellis, sonic and interactive environments
by Richard Povall, and video by the company.

Mary Nunan, director of Daghdha Dance Company in Limerick, Cindy Cummings,
Dublin-based choreographer, and Jools Gilson-Ellis, co-director of
half/angel will perform THE SECRET PROJECT. These three women, all
choreographers in their own right, have come together for this project to
engage with a contemporary take on secrecy and the possibilities of new
technologies for their own practice and for Dance in Ireland.

half/angel is a performance production company based in Cork co-directed by
Jools Gilson-Ellis and Richard Povall. Gilson-Ellis is a choreographer and
writer, Povall is a composer and digital artist. They have been working
together as half/angel since 1995 and researching motion-sensing
technologies since 1996. half/angel's performance work is characterised by
the use of original text, sound and image in relation to new technologies.
The company's first production was the critically acclaimed CD-ROM
mouthplace.

THE SECRET PROJECT is being developed in Ireland and Canada. Developmental
residencies at Firkin Crane began at Easter, and continued in July. In late
August the company moves to The Banff Centre in Canada for the final
production phase of the work. THE SECRET PROJECT will premiere in Banff in
October, before previewing at Firkin Crane on Wednesday 3rd November at
8.15pm, with performances on Thursday 4th & Friday 5th November also at
8.15pm.

Extracts from THE SECRET PROJECT have been performed internationally.
half/angel has been invited to show the work in Buenos Aires in 2000.

"And the delicacy of Jools Gilson-Ellis's performance in 'The Secret
Project' created with Richard Povall, suggested that motion-sensor
technology
could sometimes create effects as subtle as live dancing."
NEW YORK TIMES 3rd March 1999

This project has been funded by the Arts Council's Interdisciplinary
Collaborative Commission Scheme, and was recently awarded a grant from the
Arts Council of England to tour the piece in the UK in the Spring of 2000.

R i c h a r d P o v a l l
Director, Div. of Contemp. Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Ohio (US)
Senior Fellow, RESCEN (Centre for Research into Creation in the Performing
Arts), Middlesex University/South Bank Centre (UK)
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URL: http://www.timara.oberlin.edu/people/~rpovall/home.html