­­FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

SOIT & Los Angeles Poverty Department

Settlement

 

Performances:

April 4 & 5 at 8pm

April 6 at 4 pm, followed by conversation                                    

 

 

The Box is pleased to bring its third presentation of the Los Angeles Poverty Department.  This time LAPD is collaborating with SOIT of Brussels to create ‘Settlement’, a generative performance project that produces a fictitious community.

 

‘Settlement’ searches for the borders of community and time.

A new group is born and settles on the banks of blank territory.  The performers act as agents that travel through time, exploring unconscious archives of souls from the past.  They resurrect the spirits of the disappeared, inhabiting their visions, thoughts and beliefs.  Can they find a common ground?

 

‘Settlement’ is a performance, constructed in three weeks with a group of performers from LAPD and other Angelenos, directed by SOIT.  Past ‘Settlement’ projects have been performed in Sydney (Australia), Wellington (New Zealand), Harare (Zimbabwe), Vienna (Austria), and Bastia (Corsica).  These ‘Settlement’ productions are created and developed through the socio-political-cultural framework specific to each performer and city.  Settlement performers generate a village whose inhabitants occupy an alternative universe separate from the modern world.  In the process, they research transitional, societal settings such as: secluded subcultures, gated communities, refugee camps, detention camps, alternative gatherings, sects…etc.

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The L.A. ‘Settlement’ project will be one of the last.  This time the journey takes on a new direction: a 'virtual settlement'.  The page is blank and the place of discovery is the actions, words and demeanor of different adopted characters embodied by the performers.  Events, dreams and conflicts are translated into a physical ritualistic release, a living fiction.  The research and investigatory process is essential.  The outcome is unknown until April 4 at 8pm.

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Los Angeles Poverty Department was founded in 1985 by director-performer-activist John Malpede.  LAPD is made up of people who make art and live and work on Skid Row.  LAPD tells the rest of the story, what you don’t hear elsewhere.  They create change by telling the story of the community in a way that supports the initiatives of community residents.  They want the narrative of the neighborhood to be in the hands of neighborhood people.  They work to generate this narrative and to supplant narratives that perpetuate stereotypes used to keep the neighborhood inhabitants down or to justify displacing the community.  They want to create recognition of the community and it’s values.

 

SOIT is a dance company and an artistic platform based in Brussels.  The creative collective work is directed and guided by Hans Van den Broeck and Anuschka Von Oppen.

 

Anuschka Von Oppen studied dance in New York at the Alvin Ailey Dance School and the Merce Cunningham School.  She danced with Esse Aficionado, Cie Toulas Limnaios, TanzApartment Huber & Christen, Adekwhat-Philippe Blanchart and Gemma Higginbothom, Hyoung-Min Kim, Gerals M. Rasanayagam, A. and I. Ramadani amongst others.  For SOIT, she performed in ‘En Servicio’, ‘We Was Them’, ‘Nomads’, ‘Settlement’, ‘Messiah Run!’ and the current  'The Lee Ellroy Show'.  In 2011, she created the solo ‘Nearby Buffalo’, followed by ‘Unnamed My Eyes Ablazed’ in 2012.

 

Hans Van den Broeck studied Psychology at KU Leuven and Film at City University New York.  He performed in numerous pieces by Alain Platel and was part of the collective, with which he cofounded Les Ballets C de la B.  He went on directing several pieces for the company (‘Everyman’, ‘Eat, Eat, Eat’, ‘La Sortie’, ‘Lac des Singes’...).  In 2001, SOIT saw the light, allowing him to produce his own work as a choreographer and director.  With SOIT, he created several stage productions  (‘Almost Dark’, ‘En Servicio’, ‘We Was Them’, ‘Messiah Run’ and the current  'The Lee Ellroy Show') as well as location projects (‘Café Prückel’, ‘Settlement’, ‘Nomads’).  He also directed films and videos such as "Eyes on the back", "Odeur de sainteté", "Ways of watching" and '‘Our Circumscribed Days’, which won the ‘Prix du Jury’ at ‘Entrainements #4’’ in Paris.

 

If you have any questions please contact:

Mara McCarthy, Principal/Curator of The Box at [email protected] / 213 625 1747

 

 

Los Angeles Poverty Department: http://lapovertydept.org/

SOIT: http://www.soit.info/homepage