Monthly Archives: April 2015

Joined by cast of senior citizen extras

Steven Evans & Ms. Neile Martin.

CINCINNATI, OHIO — Modern dance company MamLuft&Co. Dance premieres Memoriam (In Memory of Memory) at the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater on Memorial Day weekend, Friday and Saturday, May 22 and 23, 2015 (8pm, tickets available now at cincinnatiarts.org, more information at MLCo.org/memoriam).

The company — recently named “Best Dance Company Pushing the Envelope” (2012) by CityBeat — is joined by a cast of extras comprised of senior citizens from the community.

CityBeat has also described MamLuft&Co. Dance as “intrepid” and “impressive” by, and the paper’s Kathy Valin calls Jeanne Mam-Luft “a brainy director and accomplished choreographer (and filmmaker).” Seen and Heard International’s Rafael de Acha describes the company’s work as “potent stuff,” “athletic,” and “pure.”

In MEMORIAM, the company and its senior guest performers embark on a journey through the mind, memories, and experiences of unnamed main characters portrayed by MamLuft&Co. Dance artists Steven Evans (originally from Cincinnati, Ohio) and Ms. Neile Martin (Memphis, Tenessee).

While MEMORIAM begins carefree and untroubled, the experiences of Mr. Evans and Ms. Martin’s characters take a foreboding turn when Ms. Martin begins to lose her memories (effectively, the experiences that have made her who she is). The succeeding loss is felt and echoed among the community, portrayed by a chorus of MamLuft&Co. Dance performers and aforementioned extras played by senior citizens from the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area.

Heightened by multi-media projections featuring authentic vintage home movies (dating back to a wedding in 1930s Netherlands) and depictions of stars-turned-memories-turned-brain-synpases, MEMORIAM is a bittersweet story about remembering and fading, memorializing and forgetting, and asking what we lose when we forget.

MEMORIAM (In Memory of Memory) is choreographed by Elena Rodriguez (Rehearsal Director originally from Queens, NY), Susan Honer (Choreographer from Roanoke, VA), and Jeanne Mam-Luft (Director/Choreographer from Dallas, TX), in collaboration with the performers Nicole Suzel (Texas/New Jersey/New York), Clint Fisher (Springfield, Ohio), Vivian Kim (Lincoln, Nebraska), and Delia Constantino (Zanesville, Ohio). The score is composed by long-time company friend and collaborator, Mike Wall (who works under the moniker, soundFORMovement), and lighting design is by Daniel Feith (who has worked with Pilobolus, Doug Varone and Dancers, Momix, Cincinnati Ballet, Dayton Ballet, and many other notable dance organizations).

MamLuft&Co. Dance gratefully acknowledges the operating support of the Ohio Arts Council, which helped fund this organization with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. Memoriam makes its premiere at the Aronoff Center, where MamLuft&Co. Dance is a resident company, and whose rent is subsidized by an award from The Greater Cincinnati Foundation. MamLuft&Co. Dance is also a resident company of the Clifton Cultural Arts Center with generous support from Mark McKillip. Memoriam is made possible through a Project Support Grant from ArtsWave. MamLuft&Co. Dance’s Outreach Program has been supported through a grant from The Summerfair Foundation, whose award will fund the purchase of a dance floor. Last, but not least, MamLuft&Co. Dance has been awarded funds from The Wohlgemuth-Herschede Foundation and The Louise Taft Semple Foundation in support of its Education and Outreach Programming for 2015-2016.