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Composer/Choreographer Series – Jessica Ray & Matt Mehlan “Re preez”

Saturday, March 23, 20138:00 pm

“Re preez”, a new collaboration between Matt Mehlan & Jessica Ray exploits the disintegration of source material in recorded and live mediums. In this new project, the audience experiences a clear visual form mutate in time with live video transforming and presenting multiple viewing of the event, while the audience sees the same event from a radically different perspective. Jessica and Matt are joined by long-time collaborators Jessica Cook (performance) and Megan Byrne (lighting/production).

Jessica Ray  is a Detroit/Brooklyn-based dance artist. Her work, whether as a dancer, a collaborator, or a choreographer is heavily influenced by a long standing improvisational practice. Her work and collaborations have been seen at Movement Research events, the Chocolate Factory, the Flea Theater, Food for Thought at Danspace Project, Roulette Intermedium, Rooftop Dance, and Pieter PASD. In April 2012 she was a participating artist in the first annual Bitch Creek artist residency with fellow artists Megan Byrne, Liliana Dirks-Goodman and Laurie Berg. Jessica has been a moderator for Dance Conversations at the Flea, and was a member of The Adventure, part of Danspace Project’s Platform 2010 curated by Trajal Harrell.  She has performed in the work of Nina Winthrop, Megan Byrne, Elizabeth Ward, Renée Archibald, Charlotte Gibbons, Linsey Bostwick, and Christopher Williams. She has taught improvisation at Bill Young’s 100 Grand, Movement Research, CLASSCLASSCLASS, Yale’s Graduate Student Organization, and Wayne State University, and holds an MFA from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Matthew Mehlan is a musician, songwriter, composer, and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from Chicago, he studied Technology in Music and Related Arts at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Since 2003 he has been performing and recording with his band Skeletons, “…one of the few contemporary bands who can legitimately be called ‘original’.”(Xlr8r).  Skeletons have toured the world and released albums on Shinkoyo (the art and music group Matthew co-founded), Ghostly International, Tomlab, Sockets, and Crammed Discs.  Matt has collaborated with hip hop group Nine 11 Thesaurus on their album “Ground Zero Generals,” the international “supergroup” Congotronics Vs. Rockers (with members of Konono No. 1, Kasai Allstars, Deerhoof, Wildbirds and Peacdrums, and Juana Molina), and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra – which premiered his piece “Canvas” earlier this year.

Composer/Choreographer Series is part of Dance Roulette. Dance Roulette is made possible by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. 

 

Composer/Choreographer Series – Jessica Ray & Matt Mehlan “Re preez”

Saturday, March 23, 20138:00 pm

“Re preez”, a new collaboration between Matt Mehlan & Jessica Ray exploits the disintegration of source material in recorded and live mediums. In this new project, the audience experiences a clear visual form mutate in time with live video transforming and presenting multiple viewing of the event, while the audience sees the same event from a radically different perspective. Jessica and Matt are joined by long-time collaborators Jessica Cook (performance) and Megan Byrne (lighting/production).

Jessica Ray  is a Detroit/Brooklyn-based dance artist. Her work, whether as a dancer, a collaborator, or a choreographer is heavily influenced by a long standing improvisational practice. Her work and collaborations have been seen at Movement Research events, the Chocolate Factory, the Flea Theater, Food for Thought at Danspace Project, Roulette Intermedium, Rooftop Dance, and Pieter PASD. In April 2012 she was a participating artist in the first annual Bitch Creek artist residency with fellow artists Megan Byrne, Liliana Dirks-Goodman and Laurie Berg. Jessica has been a moderator for Dance Conversations at the Flea, and was a member of The Adventure, part of Danspace Project’s Platform 2010 curated by Trajal Harrell.  She has performed in the work of Nina Winthrop, Megan Byrne, Elizabeth Ward, Renée Archibald, Charlotte Gibbons, Linsey Bostwick, and Christopher Williams. She has taught improvisation at Bill Young’s 100 Grand, Movement Research, CLASSCLASSCLASS, Yale’s Graduate Student Organization, and Wayne State University, and holds an MFA from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Matthew Mehlan is a musician, songwriter, composer, and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from Chicago, he studied Technology in Music and Related Arts at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Since 2003 he has been performing and recording with his band Skeletons, “…one of the few contemporary bands who can legitimately be called ‘original’.”(Xlr8r).  Skeletons have toured the world and released albums on Shinkoyo (the art and music group Matthew co-founded), Ghostly International, Tomlab, Sockets, and Crammed Discs.  Matt has collaborated with hip hop group Nine 11 Thesaurus on their album “Ground Zero Generals,” the international “supergroup” Congotronics Vs. Rockers (with members of Konono No. 1, Kasai Allstars, Deerhoof, Wildbirds and Peacdrums, and Juana Molina), and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra – which premiered his piece “Canvas” earlier this year.

Composer/Choreographer Series is part of Dance Roulette. Dance Roulette is made possible by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.