ODC Theater presents Bring on the Lumiere! November 11, 2011

Nov. 11 & 12 at 8pm; Nov. 13 at 7pm

ODC Theater is pleased to announce the world premiere of Bring on the Lumiere!, a poetic performance piece encompassing dance, theater, and light installation in which the Lumiere brothers, French founders of cinema, find themselves trapped inside their own films. Choreographed and directed by ODC Theater Resident Artist Catherine Galasso and featuring lighting design by Elaine Buckholtz, Bring on the Lumiere! offers a meditation on transience and immortality, and an ode to cinema.

Auguste and Louis Lumiere were among the first filmmakers in history when in 1895 they filmed workers leaving their family factory in Lyon. At 17 meters in length the film lasted only about 50 seconds, but its impact still reverberates with us today. It ushered in an era of moving pictures that has evolved into a global industry worth more than $100 billion worldwide (Screen Daily).

In Bring on the Lumiere! Galasso uses the history of the Lumiere brothers as inspiration for her own work of speculative non-fiction. "The piece features two amazing dancers -- Christine Bonansea and Marina Fukushima -- as they inhabit the Lumiere brothers," says Galasso. "By casting the brothers as women I obviously avoid any temptation to recreate an objective history, but more to the point it is a gesture which opens the field for further abstraction. Ultimately, Bring on the Lumiere! is about the Pandora's box the [Lumiere] brothers unsealed."

It is, nevertheless, a felicitous accident of film history that the brothers' name - Lumiere - means "light" in French. Taking this as a cue, Bring on the Lumiere! makes light one of its central shaping elements. Elaine Buckholtz, a revered lighting and visual designer in the Bay Area for more than 20 years, is collaborating with Galasso on the project. Together they are experimenting with new ways of integrating the motion of the filmic image with the performers.

Official Website: http://odcdance.org/performance.php?param=78