ODC Theater Inaugural Season Opening Program October 21, 2010

October 21-24 and 28-30, 8pm

KUNST-STOFF & LEVYdance
Two lauded Bay Area artists and long-standing members of ODC's artistic community are brought together to celebrate the Theater as they dig into their artistic pasts.

ODC Theater and CounterPULSE Present KUNST-STOFF's Rebetiko:
Yannis Adoniou's KUNST-STOFF is renowned for its unusual and highly visual theatrical dance works, which merge different art forms, often creating unexpected collisions and provocative beauty. Rebetiko draws inspiration from the eponymous Greek music genre which is similar to tango, flamenco, the blues, and Fado as it was born out of sorrow, pain, desire, and yearnings of a people. Rebetiko is a commission of the CounterPULSE Performing Diaspora Program, a festival, residency program, commissioning program, and symposium featuring dance, music, theater, media and interdisciplinary artists who are using traditional forms as a basis for experimentation and innovation.

Performing Diaspora is made possible by support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Columbia Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the Ken Hempel Fund for the Arts, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, the San Francisco Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission and the members and supporters of CounterPULSE.

LEVYdance | Our Body Remembers:
LEVYdance Artistic Director, Benjamin Levy, looks through the lens of his Persian Jewish heritage to see what of his ancestry remains in his body. Using the spiraling pathways of ethnic Persian dance as a springboard Levy creates a landscape that blends the traditional and contemporary to explore what family and community mean to us in an age of homogeny and access. Composer and DJ Mason Bates integrates electronica beats into his symphonic work for Our Body Remembers. His composition is accompanied by the eastern fusion of rhythm and ambience of San Francisco duo, Kardash.

Official Website: http://www.odctheater.org/performance.php?param=31