| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Scott Wells & Dancers Present "at 848" Who: Scott Wells & Dancers What: at 848 Celebrates Scott Wells & Dancers 10th Anniversary Season with 3 works including: a new dance entitled Together? Again featuring: Jesselito Bie (SteamRoller) with Erika Shuch as co- director, a high velocity (untitled) premiere with Gitta Sivander (European Acrobat) and On the Rebound, a classic choice from Wells repertoire. Where: 848 Community Space/counterPulse 848 Divisadero Street SF CA 94117 When: Friday-Sunday April 25-April 27 2003 Thursdays-Sundays May 1-May 11 2003 Thursday-Saturday at 8:30pm Sundays at 7:30pm *Sunday April 27 FREE in honor of National Dance Week* www.bacndw.org Tickets: $15 Thursday-Sunday General Seating. Tickets and Reservations call (415) 931-8648 or www.848.com (March15, 2003) at 848 celebrates 10 years of choreography and performanceby Scott Wells & Dancers (SW&D). A milestone in Wells career, this show will be the longest performance run to date, with 11 performances! Including a free performance (Sunday, April 27th @ 7:30pm) in honor of National Dance Week. Over the past decade SW&D have created 15 full -length productions. The company has been consistently recognized with excellent reviews and awards. Wells creates highly physical/athletic movement and sews it together with often humorous nuances, he also maintains an unwavering commitment to the craft and formalism of choreography. at 848 finds Wells teamed up with Jesselito Bie (Steamroller) in Together ? Again. The two dancers originally met at a High-Risk Group (an SF dance company comprised of all men) rehearsal in 1991. Bie joined SW& D in 1992. Their new duet is co-directed by Erika Shuch, who lends a constructive outside eye and serves as a catalyst. Together? Again is a multi-media work that utilizes video projection, showing phrases and partnering from earlier work with Jesselito and Scott. The text and movement chronicle various recollections from both Wells and Bie. Together? Again observes the dynamic between the straight, white, male juxtaposed with gay, HIV+, Asian male. The recorded text consists of personal reminiscences of the early awakening to the devastation that AIDS reaped; especially in the arts communities. The projected images will be echoed on stage and developed into new material. Wells recalls early impressions of San Francisco, "It was the first time I met so many men with AIDS and I remember thinking are all these guys going to be dead in a couple years?" at 848 proves that SW&D are still up to their high velocity antics and are currently joined by the outstanding acrobat, Gitta Sivander. (Originally from Germany and trained in Paris). This premiere (untitled as of now) will exploit 848's spatial confines and triumph over the boundaries of its limited dimensions. The movement will slice the small square stage and continue up the walls offering some anti - gravity moments and up-close athleticism. The company has even ventured to remove the ancient ceiling heater and paint the walls in an effort to enhance viewing pleasure! The audience will undoubtedly feel the excitement and perhaps a twinge of fear! An anniversary celebration would not be complete without an old favorite. SW&D break out On The Rebound, a trademark piece from Wells that consists of 3 dancers, numerous balls of many sizes and company member Sean Feit as a referee, spiritual mentor and impish catalyst. On The Rebound is another brand of SW&D athletic insights. Scott Wells & Dancers mission is to create accessible dance works of high artistic value that stimulate public interest in contemporary dance and to further the dialogue. Wells choreography has been hailed as " thinking, feeling, sensory-reeling stuff not to be missed" by dance critic, Rachel Howard / The San Francisco Examiner. at 848 pushes the boundaries, soars over them and dances right up the walls! SCOTT WELLS In 2002 Ballettanz, Europe's largest and leading dance magazine,acknowledged Scott Wells as one of the year's outstanding choreographers.Every summer, Wells tours in Europe, where he choreographs, performs and teaches. He teaches contemporary technique for professionals in Europe and for students in the United States and is recognized internationally as a leading teacher of Contact Improvisation. Scott began dancing at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, CA. While earning his MFA in dance from University of Illinois, he received the Martha Hill Award from the American Dance Festival and the Emerging Choreographers Commission from the Bates Dance Festival. Since moving to San Francisco in 1991 he has received: an SF Bay Guardian GOLDIE Award (1994), the 1995 Lester Horton Award for Choreography (L.A.'s award for best contemporary choreography); and the 1998 SF Weekly - Black Box Award for Best Dance Ensemble. ERIKA SHUCH Co-Director /Together ? Again Erika Shuch is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher living and working in San Francisco she has been creating dance theater works since 1995, when she changed her major from anthropology to dance and theater at UC Santa Cruz (from which she graduated with a BA in 1997). She is a founding member and on faculty with the new Experimental Performance Institute, a multi -disciplinary performing arts program in residence at San Francisco New College. In addition to creating her own work, Erika has been a guest choreographer at the Magic Theater for Charles Mee's Summertime, directed by Kenn Watt and First Love, directed by Erin Mee. This is her second year as a collaborator in the Hybrid Project, a forum for artists of varying disciplines to bridge their mediums; Hybrid is in residence at the Intersection for the Arts.In 2001, she lived in Berlin where she performed with the Alex B Company.In 2001 Shuch also founded The Erika Shuch Performance Project (ESP Project)founded in San Francisco with a group of musicians, actors, dancers, and designers dedicated to creating original works of Dance Theater. GITTA SIVANDER Gitta was born in Germany and brought up with Swedish traditions; she started exploring the world of upside down on all fours on horses at age 6. Since then she has been teaching and performing Balance-Acrobatics in Germany, Paris and the United States, attending circus school in Paris and discovering the passion of contact dance. Besides moving herself Gitta likes moving her clients through a Somatic approach to Physical Therapy and Bodywork, including new discoveries she gains in her studies of Laban/Bartenieff movement studies. Her overall passion is to put the world and her boyfriend upside down. SCOTT WELLS & DANCERS Melecio Estrella, Sean Feit, Gabriel Forestieri, Anke Full, Jesse Howell, Frieda Kipar, Gitta Sivander, Vitaly and Scott Wells. Featuring special co-direction on Together? Again by Erika Shuch. FOR MORE INFORMANTION CONTACT: Molly Barrons |