“[33 Fainting Spells] have forged what may be the most incisive dance ensemble on the West Coast. Give them an hour; they’ll remake your vision of the American dance landscape.”—Village Voice
Seattle’s
33 Fainting Spells
continues to gain national attention for its wry combination of polystylistic movement with literary narrative, surprising music mixes, video, and quirky scenic landscapes. The latest dance-theater adventure from co-artistic directors
Dayna Hanson
and
Gaelen Hanson
, Our Little Sunbeam pits the everyday despair of Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov against the ecstasy and optimism of the first American astronauts as they regarded earth from space for the first time. A range of film, literature, rap, and pop-culture influences rounds out this work in unpredictable and delightful ways. 33 Fainting Spells perform Our Little Sunbeam Thursday-Saturday, June 3-5, at 8 pm at the Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Avenue South in Minneapolis. Co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Our Little Sunbeam is presented in association with the National Performance Network (NPN).
Led by choreographers Dayna Hanson and Gaelen Hanson, 33 Fainting Spells is a Seattle-based company making original work in dance theater since 1994. 33 Fainting Spells’ six full-length dance theater pieces have been commissioned and presented nationally and internationally by venues such as Dance Theater Workshop in New York; The Wexner Center For the Arts in Columbus; Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt, Germany; and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. For this work, Dayna Hanson and Gaelen Hanson are joined by New York-based performer Linas Phillips, who brings his own uniquely compelling movement sensibility. Linas’ own work has been seen recently at The Collapsable Hole and other New York venues; he is also a performer in Wooster Group associate Sam Shepherd’s production of Hamlet.
With Northwest Film Forum, 33 Fainting Spells co-presents New Dance Cinema, a biennial festival of international dance film, and has created two short 16mm dance films of its own.
Our Little Sunbeam is a co-commission project by the Walker Art Center in partnership with Dance Theater Workshop (NYC) and the National Performance Network Creation Fund (LA). Supported in part with funds from The Bush Foundation, the David and Catherine Moore Family Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Wallace Foundation. Additional funding provided by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
The presentation of 33 Fainting Spells is one of a series of programs designed by the National Performance Network (NPN). NPN is an independent organization begun by Dance Theater Workshop, and is comprised of arts organizations in 40 cities and 25 states. NPN is made possible through major funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Related Event:
Workshop: Dance on Film
Saturday, June 5, 10 am-1 pm
Free with performance ticket
Southern Theater, Minneapolis
Explore the artistic process of creating dance works on film with 33 Fainting Spells’ Gaelen Hanson and Body Cartography Project’s Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad.
Tickets for Our Little Sunbeam are $20 ($16 Walker members) and are available by calling the Walker box office at 612.375.7622; or visit www.walkerart.org/tickets/. Patrons with special needs are asked to call two weeks in advance.
