Upcoming Performance

BRIDGEDANCE:
BridgeDance April-May 2012 and as a selected Tribute to the 75th Birthday of the Golden Gate Bridge at Crissy Field last weekend in May 2012

BridgeDance is a dance honoring the Golden Gate Bridge with professional dancers and youth.  Our dance will incorporate oral histories, poetry, memories, and stories about the Bridge.

The architecture of the bridge and the theme of "bridging" and "bridge-building" will be central to the dance. A local composer is being sought.   We are working with long time collaborators
Poetry Flash for text.  We will also work with existing oral histories. People’s memories and stories will provide inspiration and provide characters and scenarios.  The dance will be performed both indoors and outdoors.  For the indoors, we can use projected images of the Bridge and for outdoors we will select venues where the Bridge can be seen. We plan to build the piece over the coming year in a series of workshops and open rehearsals, free and open to the public, culminating in free public performances at Ashkenaz Community Dance and Music Center in Berkeley (where Danse Lumiere is based) and we are exploring San Francisco and Marin performance opportunities, including at the Tiburon ferry landing for ferry patrons. We will also dance at Crissy Field as part of the Golden Gate Festival celebration.

Past Performances:

Kathryn Roszak’s Danse Lumiere recently performed “The Star Dances” at the Herbst Thater in San Francisco and at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley.  The East Bay company specializes in collaborations linking the arts, environment, and humanity.  The company has been presented by La MaMa E.T.C., New York, The Smithsonian Washington, D.C., The Copenhagen Cultural Festival, Denmark, The University of San Francisco, Yoshi’s Jazz House, Oakland, Dominican University, San Rafael, and The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. Recent collaborations include creating choreography based on internationally acclaimed Oakland author Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Fifth Book of Peace,” and the current collaboration with U.C. Berkeley scientists on “The Star Dances.”

The Fifth Book of Peace," Creating a Culture of Peace.
"The Fifth Book of Peace" is an innovative program created by Danse Lumiere Artistic Director Kathryn Roszak and inspired by  Maxine Hong Kingston's book of the same name. The program features students from the LinesBallet/B.F.A. program at Dominican in a new dance-theater adaptation of Hong-Kingston's book addressing the social justice issues of war and violence, and creating a culture of peace. The program features a talk by Maxine Hong Kingston who demonstrates unique leadership with her approach to activism.  As a lover of peace she reaches out to war veterans and her work places emphasis on spiritual and artistic ways of creating change.  This project bears witness to the veterans' stories.  As their stories are shared, the accurate transcription of what is in the heart creates community.

"The Star Dances" - Saturday, December 12, 2009 1 - 2 pm,
Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley

In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, UC Berkeley astronomer Bethany Cobb has partnered with choreographer Kathryn Roszak to develop a unique presentation, "The Star Dances," combining the science of astronomy with the art of dance. This performance will be presented at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley on December 12, at 1pm. Kathryn Roszak's "Danse Lumiere" will dance to the music of Gustav Holst, while Dr. Cobb will guide the audience through the stars in a multi-media presentation. This performance has been designed for a general audience and particularly for families. This program is interactive -- so expect to get out of your seats and move with the Universe! Questions can be directed to Bethany Cobb at bcobb@astro.berkeley.edu. This program is FREE with admission to the Hall.

Here is the LHS link:
http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/lhs.html?event_ID=25603&date=2009-12-12

Pensive Spring: A Portrait of Emily Dickinson DanceView Review 2011 by Rita Felciano

Open House at Cal Performances - A Full Day of Free Performances
Sun, September 25, 2011 11 am-6 pm
Zellerbach Hall and Zellerbach Playhouse, Pauley Ballroom, Lower Sproul Plaza,
Wheeler Auditorium, and Hertz Hall the Eucalyptus Grove, Sather Gate and Faculty Glad
Free and Open to the Public— No Tickets Needed Click here for more information

"Pensive Spring: A Portrait of Emily Dickinson"

* Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley, 94704 Sunday May 1st at 2 p.m.
Admission: $25.00, Senior/Students: $20.00, Children: $15.00

* Berkeley Chamber Performances, Berkeley City Club, Tuesday October 19, 2010 8 p.m.

* Dominican University, San Rafael, Santa Sabina Chapel Music Series, Sunday October 10, 2010

San Rafael, September 15, 2010—Kathryn Roszak’s Danse Lumiere illuminates poet Emily Dickinson’s life with the acclaimed dance-theater production of  “Pensive Spring; A Portrait of Emily Dickinson,” presented by the Santa Sabina Center (adjacent to Dominican University) in San Rafael.   The intimate Santa Sabina Chapel provides the setting for three artists, a singer, a dancer, and an actress to portray Dickinson in vignettes interweaving her poetry and letters. Joining actress/choreographer Kathryn Roszak will be soprano Kristin Clayton, dancer Hally Bellah-Guther, and pianist Kristin Pankonin.  Music is from “The White Election” by Gordon Getty.  A reception in the cloister gardens follows the performance. For tickets, reservations, and more information about the performance, the public may call 415 457 7727.

Kathryn Roszak, Artistic Director of Danse Lumiere, brings new audience to classical art forms by blending and innovating within the disciplines of dance, literature, music, science and theater. Trained at San Francisco Ballet and School of American Ballet, Roszak performed with San Francisco Ballet, San Antonio Ballet, and San Francisco Opera Ballet.  She trained as an actress with the American Conservatory Theatre, performing with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She choreographed and taught for American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco Opera Center, California Shakespeare Theater, Kent Nagano’s Berkeley Symphony, Opera San Jose, and has created original works for the Goethe Institute, San Francisco Mozart Festival, and Grace Cathedral.  Marin County credits: Marin Opera, Marin DanceTheatre, Marin Ballet, Dance Palace Series, College of Marin, Falkirk Cultural Center, Dominican University.

Kristin Clayton, soprano, sang the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Terence McNally’s At the Statue of Venus for the opening of Denver’s new Opera House. She’s premiered the role of Beatrice with Houston Grand Opera in Heggie’s Three Decembers starring Frederica von Stade.  She’s enjoyed a long relationship with San Francisco Opera making her debut in the world premiere of Susa’s Dangerous Liaisons ( telecast nationally on PBS) and sang and recorded Massenet’s Herodiade with Domingo and Fleming (Sony Classical). Clayton’s sung at Wolf Trap, San Francisco Symphony, Marin Symphony, and this year premiered The Golden Ticket by Peter Ash with Opera Theater of St. Louis.

Hally Bellah Guther, dancer, trained at San Francisco Ballet , dancing soloist roles with New York Theatre Ballet, Armitage Ballet, and Eglevsky Ballet, . She danced as a soloist for five years with the Komische Oper Ballet, Berlin.  In 2009 she created principal roles with Danse Lumeire, performing at the Herbst Theatre, San Francisco.
 
Kristin Pankonin, pianist, is committed to performing the music of contemporary composers, and has appeared in concert with vocalists Frederica Von Stade, Zheng Cao, Catherine Cook, and Lisa Delan. Her concert credits include  Shenson Recital Series at Stanford, Mills College and San Francisco Conservatory Music Faculty series, and Tuscan Sun Festival in Italy

Gordon Getty is an American composer whose works have been performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Festival Hall, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, as well as the Aspen and Spoleto Festivals.  Getty’s The White Election isan often-performed song-cycle on poems of Emily Dickinson.  In 1984, the San Francisco Symphony premiered his opera Plump Jack which is scheduled for commercial recording in 2011. His cantata Joan of the Bells premiered in 1998. His choral works Victorian Scenes and Annabel Lee were premiered by the Los Angles Master Chorale. In 2004, the San Francisco Symphony premiered his Young America. The Bolshoi Ballet presented his ballet suite Ancestor Suite in 2009.

Danse Lumiere creates dance theater linking the arts, environment, and humanity. Founded in 1995 as Anima Mundi, the company specializes in adapting litearturefor the stage, giving it new life through the fusion of dance, theater and music.  The company performed at La MaMa Theater, New York, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. the Copenhagen Cultural Festival, University of San Francisco and at the Herbst Theare, San Francisco, among others.

Kathryn Roszak’s Danse Lumiere illuminates poet Emily Dickinson’s life with their acclaimed dance-theater production of  “Pensive Spring; A Portrait of Emily Dickinson,” presented by the Santa Sabina Center (adjacent to Dominican University) in San Rafael.   The intimate Santa Sabina Chapel provides the setting for three artists, a singer, a dancer, and an actress to portray Dickinson in vignettes interweaving her poetry and letters. Joining actress/choreographer Kathryn Roszak will be soprano Kristin Clayton, dancer Hally Bellah-Guther, and pianist Kristin Pankonin.  Music is from “The White Election” by Gordon Getty.

High-resolution digital color art can be obtained on the website: dlkdance.com