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(dis)connect.

Video Credit: Devin Muñoz

May 6 & 7, 2019 | 8pm

Yaw Theater | 6520 5th Ave S | Seattle, WA

(dis)connect |RECORDED LIVE-FEED VIEWING and ONLINE PROGRAM | May 6 & 7

Map to Yaw Theater

$10 admission*

*A major portion of the donation-based ticket sales will be gifted to local arts organization, Coyote: Creativity in Action, providing service to marginalized populations. This organization will be chosen collaboratively by the artists who are involved in the performance.

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SEATTLE—This May, Yaw Theater will host the premiere work of joBdance., a brand new Seattle dance company founded by Seattle dance artist Joseph “jo” Blake. This ambitious inaugural work will center on a duet between Seattle dance favorites Sean O’Bryan and Alicia Pugh, and will feature an immersive 4-channel video installations by local dance/media artist Devin Muñoz. Based on the past year that Blake spent traveling around the world with a Bonderman Travel Fellowship from the University of Washington, (dis)connect explores the tensions between the individual and their community, and the role technology plays in both forging and complicating our connections with each other. 

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 “Blake’s skill made the difficult task of repeating each motion exactly as before—at the same level in space, with the same energy—look effortless.” –Charlotte Hart, Seattle Dances, 2016

West Coast audiences may know Jo Blake best for his work over the past ten years as a star dancer with the Salt Lake City company Ririe-Woodbury, where he danced for over ten years to the delight of audiences in Salt Lake and beyond. Since coming to the University of Washington in 2015 for his masters in dance, Blake has quickly become one to watch in Seattle’s next generation of choreographers. Following his critically acclaimed solo at Men in Dancelast year, (dis)connect marks Blake’s most ambitious project to date: the audience will sit in an enclosed, inward-facing square, surrounded on all sides with a 4-channel video installation that mixes footage of the city of Seattle with live-feeds of the performance itself. At the same time, audience members who can’t attend may tune in online to watch the performance unfold in real time. At the center of this multi-channel extravaganza are O’Bryan and Pugh: two people, two bodies, attempting to build a relationship in the here and now, surrounded by a whirlwind of screens that traverse space and time.

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“ ‘only he might know?’ by Joseph ‘jo’ Blake…was a very personal, very moving commentary on the dilemma of men who are trapped in the macho universe of physical performance.” –Seattle Gay News, 2018

This contrast between the focused, nuanced duet between Pugh and O’Bryan and the large, looming projections reflects the dilemma faced by Seattle and much of the world today today: in a city laden with technological innovation and a culture that is so relentlessly interconnected, there are resounding questions and anxieties about our ability to meet and connect with other people. (dis)connect places the audience at the center of that conflict, in an effort to connect artist and audience in the same struggle of reconciling these impossible tensions of the modern age. 

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*Note: Both performances will be followed by an open conversation between the artists and the audience, in a chance to engage each other face-to-face, and to commune about the difficulties surrounding (dis)connection in the contemporary world. 

Release courtesy of Gedney Barclay | PR & Communications Consultant

PREVIEWS

Broadway World Seattle

The Stranger

REVIEW

Seattledances. “INTIMATE CONNECTION”

GALLERY

Photo Credits: Sam Wagner

WE ARE STILL CROWDFUNDING IN SUPPORT OF ALL COLLABORATORS INVOLVED!! NO DONATION IS TOO SMALL!!

Please click on link below to find up-to-date information about project and opportunity to donate. You can also find the Fractured Atlas DONATION link on “CONTACT” page of joblakedance.com

https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/jobdance-a-conceptual-experience/campaigns/2421

ARTISTS | COLLABORATORS:

Dancers: Alicia Pugh | Sean O’Bryan

Production Designer: Becca Blackwell

Composer: Trevor Price

Videographer: Devin Muñoz

Photographer: Sam Wagner

Video Consultant: Jim Coleman

Live-Feed Web Designer: Michael Hart

PR & Communications Consultant: Gedney Barclay

Stage Manager: Jana Kincl

Yaw Theater Founder: Stella Kutz

Choreographer/Founder: jo Blake

MISSION OF joBdance. | a conceptual experience

joBdance. | a conceptual experience is a project-based dance company creating conceptual experiences based on inter-/intra- personal connections thru multidisciplinary collaborations.

The goal of joBdance.is multifaceted in that we will focus on collaborative performances utilizing visual, music, and theatrical elements, while diving into societal issues positively and negatively affecting individuals and communities in relation to social interactions. (dis)connect. explores the raw physical and emotional connections created when individuals meet face-to-face. The work was inspired by spontaneous encounters of love, friendship, and conversations during a year of journeying around the world. This new work is a contemporary modern duet in-the-round that will be performed hand-in-hand with visual projections, photographic installation, and multimedia live-feed interaction. The live-feed will the interactive relationship between the dance and the audience members. 

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Thank you to Fractured Atlas for providing performance information, crowd-funding, and fiscal sponsorship. Fractured Atlas is a non-profit arts service organization.