| MANCC hosts Living Legacy residency for Eiko and Koma’s world premiere of Cambodian Stories |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: JOYCE STRAUB (850) 645-2449 MAGGIE ALLESEE NATIONAL CENTER FOR CHOREOGRAPHY (MANCC) hosts a Living Legacy residency for Eiko and Koma’s world premiere of Cambodian Stories Born and raised in Japan, renowned artists Eiko and Koma have been based in the United States since 1976. Their works create a unique and riveting theatre of movement out of stillness, shape, light and sound. They have received many awards including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellows (1984); New York Dance and Performance Awards (1984 & 1990); MacArthur Fellows (1996); and the Samuel H.Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement in modern dance (2004). Eiko and Koma are participating in a two-week “Living Legacy” residency at MANCC to prepare and tech their latest work Cambodian Stories for its world premiere and 10-site U.S. tour immediately following their time at FSU. MANCC is pleased to be the first stop on this tour and provide support for this multi-disciplinary, cross-generational collaboration with young artists who study and work at the Reyum Institute of Arts and Culture in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The work explores the intersection of the Cambodian landscape and the voices past and present that inhabit it. A traveling exhibition of the artists’ paintings, both traditional and innovative, will accompany the tour and serve as a catalyst for cross-cultural, cross generational community dialogue about tradition, innovation and the role of the artist in fostering change. In choosing to work with young Asian people of a different nationality who are trained as painters, not as dancers, Eiko and Koma are making an aesthetic as well as socially conscious choice. Touched by these young painters’ collective energy and the challenges they face pursuing artistic careers in a country with little opportunity, Eiko and Koma are discovering where their own movement originates and where it resides. Reaching across boundaries of language, culture and art form, the collaborators come together to create a work that is meaningful to each participant. The public is invited to an informal showing and dialogue with the artists on Sunday, March 26 at 4:00pm in the Black Box Studio of Montgomery Hall on the FSU campus. There is no admission fee, however, seated is limited. Please call (850) 645-2449 to reserve your seat. The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography is a program of the Department of Dance at Florida State University’s College of Visual Arts, Theatre and Dance. Support for the Eiko and Koma residency has been granted from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Leon County Cultural Resources Commission and the National Dance Project (NDP) of the New England Foundation for the Arts. Lead funding for NDP is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with additional funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation. ### |