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Five celebrated artists from across different mediums – dance, music, theater, visual art – are collaborating for the first time to create Unstill Life, an evening-length work. What was initially an intimate duet for Jaroslow and Shick has grown into a vibrant quintet. The five come together as equal partners in the making and performing of this work after decades of experience directing and being directed. They will pay particular attention to physicality, endurance, compromise and the joy and loss surrounding their lives now.

 
PERFORMANCES ON TWO COASTS IN MARCH 2024:

New York City, NY: March 7-10
Arts on Site (12 St Marks Place)
Thu, Fri, Sat at 7:30pm — Sun at 5:00pm

 

 

 



Oakland, CA: March 21-24
Dresher Ensemble Studio (2201 Poplar Street)
Thu, Fri, Sat at 7:30pm — Sun at 3:00pm

 


 
 

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Live music by Rinde Eckert with Jon Kinzel
Tickets are available online at the links above or at the door.


Thank you to The Kenneth Rainin Foundation and generous individuals.
Photos by Sarah Palmer.

Rinde Eckert is a writer, composer, musician, performer and director who has collaborated across genres. His Opera/New Music Theatre productions have toured throughout America and to theater festivals in Europe and Asia where he has also taught workshops. With a virtuosic command of gesture, language and song, he moves beyond the boundaries of what a ‘play,’ a ‘dance piece,’ an ‘opera’ or ‘musical’ might be, in the service of grappling with complex issues.

 

Risa Jaroslow is a dancer, choreographer and teacher in Oakland where she put down roots eleven years ago after 40 years based in New York. Her work has been presented in the Bay Area at ODC Theater, CounterPulse, Oakland Theater Project and, in New York by, among others  Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, and Central Park Summerstage.  She has performed abroad at the Dublin Dance Festival in Ireland, OpenLook in Russia and at other festivals. In 2005 she was the first Jerome Robbins Fellow at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy. Jaroslow brings together trained and non-trained dancers in performance and has led many community-based projects, most recently as co-founder and Director of the Elders Project at Destiny Arts Center in Oakland.

 

Margaret Jenkins is the founder and artistic director of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company (1973). She is also a performer and designer of unique community-based programs. Jenkins has worked collaboratively with writers, composers and visual arts luminaries for decades, performing annually in San Francisco as well as touring in this country and abroad. Prior to returning to San Francisco in 1970, she was Merce Cunningham’s assistant in restaging his works (1967 -1976), and is honored to have danced in Twyla Tharp’s original company with Sara Rudner and with Viola Farber and Gus Solomons, Jr.

 

Jon Kinzel has presented his work, including numerous commissions and solo shows, in a variety of national and international venues. He has served as a sound designer and curator, collaborated with people across several disciplines – recently with Vicky Shick, Jodi Melnick, Elena Demyanenko, Cassim Shepard, Nina Katan, and Kuldeep Singh – contributed to publications such as SCHIZM Magazine and SFMoMA Open Space, and maintained an interrelated choreographic and visual art practice. He is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow.

 

Vicky Shick has been in the New York dance community for four decades, performing, teaching, and choreographing. For six years, she was a member of the Trisha Brown Company. She has collaborated and performed with many others - most recently with Jon Kinzel, Juliette Mapp and Marilyn Maywald Yahel - originally with Risa Jaroslow and Sara Rudner. Shick is a two-time Bessie recipient and Guggenheim Fellow, and was a guest artist for Encounters Over 60, presented by Margaret Jenkins Dance Company.

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