CAVE

A descent into darkness.

A collision in courtship with the unknown.

An unfolding of hidden spaces and permeable realities.

CAVE / dances made to be viewed in the dark offers audiences two interlaced duets conjuring a lush, nuanced experience of the world just out of view. Semi-separate, simultaneous creations methodically establish and then disintegrate the permeable edges between earth and sky, presence and absence, perception and cognition, demanding a return to simple fascination with the fundamental sensory phenomena that fashion our imperfect understanding of a continually mutating present.

Click here for more about Control Group's dances made to be viewed in the dark series.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

With CAVE / dances made to be viewed in the dark, artists Lauren Beale, Todd Bilsborough, Brooke McNamara, and Patrick Mueller set out to create a singular full-evening event comprised of two separately created dance/theatre works. As the process evolved the concept, the works became simultaneous events literally set on top of each other – one in the basement and one on the upper floor of each venue the work will be presented. The works reach into and affect each other, communicate back and forth in a rich experience that unfurls deliberately, gently into a sum much greater than its parts.

THE WORKS AND THE ARTISTS

Lauren Beale & Brooke McNamara

CAVE is the fertile, liminal space in which two women dissolve into and embody the elegant chaos of the unknown. In the heart of transition, with much at stake, senses sharpen and fine-tune, attention aligns, and the power of nuance ignites a readiness necessary for the work of the in-between. Inside CAVE, we ask: is it possible to prepare for experiences that exist in a realm beyond our capacity to imagine or put into words?

Both refined and messy, Lauren Beale & Brooke McNamara are dance artists committed to the rigorous investigation of the body in movement and stillness as a vehicle to reveal and traverse the mysterious nature of our human condition. As collaborative partners, they seek to create performance experiences that catalyze new perspectives and creative thinking. Lauren and Brooke have created duets that have been performed at the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, ATLAS Black Box Theater, NeXus, the Dance Across the Board conference at NYU, and the American College Dance Festival.

Lauren Beale is a performing artist, choreographer, contemplative teacher, yoga instructor and active mama. She holds an MFA in Dance from The University of Colorado Boulder with an emphasis in somatic based teaching and collaborative, interdisciplinary performance. Lauren has performed nationally and internationally with Colorado based companies Helander Dance Theater, 3rd Law Dance/Theatre, David Capps/Dances, Interweave Dance Theater, Kim Olson/Sweet Edge and artists Jerri Davis and Len Barron, as well as New York City companies Curt Haworth and Dancers, Ellis Wood Dance and Peter Sciscioli. Lauren has co-created and collaborated on interdisciplinary performances with Brooke McNamara, Mark McCoin, Jessica Hendricks, Amanda Leise, and Jimmy Lusero. Her creative work has been presented in Colorado, New York City, Mexico, and Costa Rica. She is currently on faculty in the Theatre and Dance Department at the University of Colorado-Boulder and teaches at Block 1750, Dance Dimensions, the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop, and Running River School K-8.

Brooke McNamara holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a BA in Dance and English from Connecticut College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude. She currently teaches Yoga on faculty at Naropa University and is a lecturer in Dance at the University of Colorado Boulder. Brooke has danced professionally with LEVYdance (San Francisco), Kim Olson/ Sweet Edge (Denver), and Malashock and Dancers (San Diego), and has performed, taught, and shared work in the U.S., Mexico, Lithuania, Italy, China, and Vietnam. She has been most impacted by the dance teaching of Dan Wagoner, David Dorfman, Benjamin Levy, Erika Randall, Michelle Ellsworth, Eddie Taketa, and Jeremy Nelson. She has worked extensively with youth in arts education mostly through Performing Arts Workshop (San Francisco) and is empowered as a Dharma Holder in the Zen Buddhist lineage of Diane Musho Hamilton, Sensei. Brooke's new book, Feed Your Vow // poems for falling into fullness, can be found at www.FeedYourVow.com.

Control Group Productions

There's a thing that happens in the absence of light – an impermanence and mutability of the nature of things, a new, an absence that unfolds a subtle new presence into the invisible space. The world arrives fragmented, partial, fluid and amorphous. A gap opens between perception and cognition, and our awareness unfurls into the delicate, unfamiliar terrain of the present moment.

dances made to be viewed in the dark invites us into the darkness, as a refuge and a yawning chasm, as a dissolution of certainties and separations of self and surroundings. It conjures the darkness, embraces and embodies it, and seeks moments of recognition within its fluid, mutable contents.

Control Group Productions is a malleable platform for live arts research, development, distribution, and advocacy. Based in Denver, CO under the direction of Patrick Mueller, it pursues deep inquiry and dynamic innovation in the creation of compelling, immersive live performance events. Control Group’s works have been co-presented by Denver Theatre District, Denver Office of Arts & Venues, Biennial of the Americas, RedLine, and other local arts presenters. From 2009-2013 Control Group directed two successive venues – The Packing House Center for the Arts and work|space Denver – where it presented over 100 works by local and touring artists representing a broad cross-section of contemporary performance. Control Group now creates its works in residency at Colorado Conservatory of Dance, where it co-administers a Professional Services program offering residencies and training to local dance artists.

CAVE / dances… initiates Control Group’s next multi-work project – an exploration of darkness as a space for solace, communion, fear, and transformation. Over a half-dozen different planned works with varying constellations of collaborators, the project engages the concept of darkness through disparate lenses and experiences, from parenting practices and recurrent childhood nightmares to pre-AIDS gay subcultures and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Patrick Mueller is a Denver-based dance and performance artist. He worked in New York with Troika Ranch DT, Mark Jarecke, and others, and in Europe as a member of Ben J. Riepe Tanzkompanie (Germany) and Mancopy Danse Kompagni (Denmark). Since founding Control Group Productions in 2008 he has created over a dozen full-evening works, presented works by several hundred local and touring artists, and offered comprehensive support to the local dance community, including helping form 3 new companies through Control Group’s Artist Residency program. Patrick taught dance technique and theory at Naropa University, Red Rocks Community College, and Colorado Conservatory of Dance, where he is currently Lead Faculty and Production Manager. He and his wife Kristine are the happily enthralled parents of Levi Volentine Mueller.

Todd Bilsborough, born in Denver, studied music at Naropa University and has been playing and performing in various styles and on various instruments for over two decades. He has been performing with Control Group since 2011, and is primarily responsible for the ensemble's sonic elements: ambient soundscapes, handmade electronic instruments, incidental noises, and live instrumental performance. His own work draws both from the contrapuntal style of Bach and the aleatoric music of John Cage, and focuses on integrating improvisational elements with orthodox concert music. Todd has been featured both as a live musician and sound designer in dozens of theatrical and concert performances since 2010. He regularly performs on electric bass with the acclaimed avant-garde music ensemble Hamster Theatre, and his improvisational percussion work can be heard on Janet Feder's album T H I S C L O S E.