unmapped: 24 hour improv dance/music performance July 21, 2006

UNMAPPED: Erasing boundaries in dance and music
24 Hours, Unpredictable, Unrepeatable

Two men, one guitar, twenty-four hours: Daniel Burkholder (dance) and Jonathan Matis (music) will leap into the unknown performing an improvised piece where neither artist can enjoy the safety of their respective roles. While this might offer an ample challenge for a single performance, they have raised the stakes by scheduling twenty-four consecutive shows.

What happens when an improviser runs out of ideas? What happens when exhaustion is only the beginning? Choreographer, Daniel Burkholder explains, "I want to explore new roles for each of us, push us past our habitual. I want to dig deeper into the possibilities of improvisational performance. I'm also interested in this as a kind of transformational experience, in terms of getting to the end of where we think we can go, and then needing to go further."

Burkholder and Matis have been collaborating intensely for over four years. For both artists, improvisation is a key element to their creative process. Burkholder's dance company, The PlayGround, explores ensemble improvisation in a variety of ways. Matis has constructed music for many of these pieces, but this is the first time they have challenged the boundaries of their roles as dancer and musician. According to Jonathan Matis, "Over the last year or so, Daniel and I have been working on duo material, but I never expected that I'd have to get on stage and dance. When he suggested I get a wireless transmitter for the guitar, so I could move around the stage, I thought that would be frightening enough, but now I've actually got to get out there and improvise movement and music simultaneously. It's a new, scary, and inspiring challenge."

Typically, dance is performed on a single night, or two or three shows over a weekend. Thanks to the Capital Fringe Festival, "unmapped" will be staged outside of those types of restrictions. Performing on the hour, every hour, for twenty-four hours offers the artists a unique opportunity - and the audience as well, as they will be able to witness the development of the work over the course of the twenty-four hours.

Daniel Burkholder is a dancer/choreographer/improviser and the Director of The PlayGround, Co-Director of Improv Arts, inc., Co-Curator for the DC International Improvisation Festival, and serves on the Steering Committee for the West Coast Contact Improvisation Festal. Daniel's work has been presented at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Place, Lisner Auditorium, The Warehouse Theater, The H Street Playhouse and numerous other venues throughout the D.C. region as well as in New York City, San Francisco and the Mid-Atlantic states. Daniel currently teaches at George Washington University, Joy of Motion Dance Centers, and CityDance Center at Strathmore. Daniel has also taught at the West Coast Contact Improvisation Festival, at numerous universities and as guest teacher for Cirque du Soleil.

Jonathan Matis is a composer and performer whose work actively combines the practices of composition and improvisation. He has performed and recorded with a variety of ensembles, and is a co-founder of the DC Improvisers Collective (DCIC), a quartet exploring the intersection of jazz, contemporary composition and experimental music. Matis has composed music for dance, incidental music for theater, and a variety of concert works. Performing with electric guitar, a small collection of low-tech preparations, and live signal processing, Matis coaxes textures from the instrument - in addition to the occasional tried-and-true plucked string approach. Currently, he serves as the Director of the Washington DC Chapter of the American Composers Forum. He is also Co-Director of Improv Arts, Inc.

Presented as a part of the inaugural Capital Fringe Festival. July 20 - 30, 2006. For more information visit www.capfringe.org.

Official Website: http://improvarts.alkem.org/unmapped/