DANCEfirst! Modernity/Humanity December 16, 2010

DANCEfirst! Modernity/Humanity: The Nzoto Installation
featuring Byb Chanel Bibene and guest artists
Live music by Chris Evans, Marshall Trammell, and David Boyce
THU DEC 16 - 6pm-9pm
OPEN Rehearsal: FRI DEC 10 - 3pm-6pm
All programs are free w/museum admission ($10 adults - $5 students/seniors - free for members)

In the final DANCEfirst! salons of 2010, see. think. dance. partners with MoAD to present the vision of international performance artist, Byb Chanel Bibene.
As dancer and architect of experience, Byb constructs a living response to the current MoAD exhibit, Art/Object: Re-Contextualizing African Art.
Over the course of 2 salons, Byb calls upon the larger dance community to help explore some of the questions of the modern human experience: Why should we care about the traditions that came before us? How can we fully claim this moment? Where are we headed?

The December 16 salon turns the audience/artist experience on its head.
Nzoto means “the body” in Lingala, a Bantu language of 10 million speakers which is spoken throughout a large part of the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo, and parts of the Central African Republic and Angola.
The Nzoto Installation calls forth an ensemble of Bay Area artists to modernize everyday gestures inspired by Kongo tradition and customs across multiple levels of the Museum.

Alongside live music by local creative musicians, The Nzoto Installation expands on the energy of “Kitezo” - a state of the body that can represent the inner being and the emotion of the limbs. Kitezo encompasses references to past, present, and future in a way that is both tangible and abstract and wholly about the creation, the embodiment, and the passage of life. With Kitezo as a base, Byb guides solos, duets, and trios of dancers to find inspiration in relationships: to each other and the audience, to the heavens and the earth, to the past and the future.

About DANCEfirst!
see. think. dance. + MoAD revive the artist salon to turn up the lights on DANCE.
Local choreographers present original INTERACTIVE work for an intimate audience.
The evening wraps up with a discussion + reception to facilitate DIRECT artist/audience exchange.
DANCEfirst! is made possible by individual donors and the Zellerbach Family Foundation

Official Website: http://www.seethinkdance.com