Seeks Professional Female Dancer, 50 Years of Age and Up / Employment

Deadline
March 31, 2020


Organization Name: Anna Mlasowsky & Bellevue Arts Museum

Organization Location: Bellevue, WA

Type: Employment

Fee: Free

Discipline:

About:
My name is Anna Mlasowsky and I am a German born visual artist, living in Seattle. I am trained to work with glass but over the years my practice has started involving a lot of video and performance, as well as interdisciplinary collaborations. https://www.annamlasowsky.com/new-page

I have worked with Dancers (Alethea Alexander and Alexandra Bradshaw-Yerby, both from UW) for a previous project which was shown 2018/19 during the BAM Biennial at the Bellevue Arts Museum. For this project I won the John and Joyce Price Award of Excellence, which includes a solo show at the Bellevue Arts Museum in the flowing year.
For this new project I would again like to work with two female dancers. Alethea Alexander is already committed to the project and we are currently looking for the second dancer. Here is a link to her website: https://www.aletheaalexander.com

The theme I am working with for the exhibition are the three stages of womanhood. The new project expands on the collaboration between still objects and moving bodies I did for BAM in the past. Based on the three stages of womanhood, the work tells a story about fluid boundaries and cyclical processes.
My vision is to create glass objects that are activated by the two performers, through a choreography we develop in tandem with the objects together, based on an interaction in three acts. The first act would be a solo for the young body, whereas in the second act both bodies work together and in the third act only the aged body is present for a solo, dividing the space and the interactions in three planes.
For me it is important to work with a female dancer that is fifty years of age and up and someone that is interested in working on choreography together with me and Alethea.

My interest in this project is based on experiencing my own body age. Although at 35 I am not anywhere near feeling old, I cannot deny that my body is changing and that societal pressures towards what I am supposed to feel like or behave like at my age are mounting. Woman are constantly under pressure to perform or be certain ways as females and as professionals. For the piece I want to think about ageing as a woman, while still feeling like a girl, the body as a vessel to carry and the body as an object of sexual desire, agency and beauty outside standard perceptions of such. I have loved working with Alethea, because she embodies agency and independent beauty and a love for her body, and she creates strong but emotional expressions through her movements. I am now looking for an accompanying counterpart to her. Someone that can bring their own body, age, grace and strength but also vulnerability to this project.

For this project I have received funding from 4Culture to pay for rehearsal time and performance events for each performer. Last time each performer received 200$ for each performance, which happens at the Museum every First Friday of the month and took about 3 hours with breaks in between each performance of approx. 15-20 minutes (6 performances total between September 4th and January 17th totaling to 1600$). In addition to that we will have to come up with a fee for rehearsals.

The hard facts:
The performances take place in an exhibition space at the Bellevue Arts Museum
The performers will interact with glass objects and will be surrounded by the audience
The performers will have a room adjacent to the exhibition space to warm up and change.
The performers will wear clothes and shoes and dance on carpeted floor.
There will be six performances between September 4th and January 17th, every first Friday of the month, which are paid for by me. Any additional performances the Museum would like to host, they will have to pay for and organize with the performers.
The performers need to be available between May 2020 and January 2021, with the most intense period being mid-July and August and beginning of September.

Rough timeline:
Beginning of May: meeting and brainstorming about the possible ways to conceptualize the performance, visit to BAM to get a feeling for the space
May-July: mainly creation of the glass objects and a couple of meetings to interact with the work as it unfolds
Mid July- August: Performance practice and further modification of the objects to fit the performance
Last week of August: Delivery and install at BAM
First week of September: video documentation of the performance at BAM
September 4th: Opening of the exhibition with live performance
September through January 17th: once a month (First Friday) live performance in the space, as well possibly for special events and the Bellwether arts festival.

Please get in touch with me if you are interested in participating or have more questions. By email to: annamlasowsky@gmail.com. Or phone: 510-459-0368

https://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/upcoming/anna-mlasowsky

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