Pickard Theater will be taken by storm Saturday evening by the eclectically inventive work of dance-theater company 33 Fainting Spells. Performing their latest production Our Little Sunbeam, an interweaving of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's tragedy Ivanov with speculative accounts of the joy of early space travel, they will showcase an innovative 'dance-drama' contemplating life and perspective narrated by original pop and rap music.
The performance, influenced by a wide spectrum of writers and artists including Jean-Luc Godard, Ingmar Bergman, and American conceptual artist Bruce Nauman, intermingles themes and ideas of these influences into those inherent in Ivanov.
Named after a play penned by early 20th century Russian director Vsevolod Emilyevich Meyerhold, 33 Fainting Spells explores and dissects Chekhov's work in Our Little Sunbeam just as Meyerhold's plays did. The company's work serves as an homage to Meyerhold, who was executed in 1940 for being an "enemy of the state," as an artist under Stalin's regime.
The Seattle-based company was founded in 1994 by choreographers Dayna Hanson and Gaelen Hanson, who, incidentally, are not related. With a commitment to creating original, multilayered, dramatic work, the collaboration of these visionaries has produced work that has earned numerous grants, multiple nominations for Alpert arts awards, and the 1997 Artist Trust's Choreography Fellowship.
Both Hansons have extensive theatrical experience. Dayna Hanson, after studying literature, translation, and creative writing at the University of Washington, helped found the interdisciplinary performance group Run/Remain and has acted and danced in various other venues. Gaelen Hanson earned a B.A. from Oberlin College in 1990 in theater and dance and continued to study performance art at the European Dance Development Center in Arnhem, The Netherlands. She, too, has danced for several companies and has performed her own work throughout the United States and Europe.
Our Little Sunbeam is also graced with the presence of New-York based performer Linas Phillips, who has performed dance-theater extensively in the New York area.
In addition to performances of this type, 33 Fainting Spells has created a series of short dance films, starting with their 2000 debut Measure. Hanson and Hanson are currently at work on a series that was launched with their 2003 Entry. Our Little Sunbeam is their sixth evening-length dance theater piece.
With the aid of The Northwest Film Forum, 33 Fainting Spells also helped found the New Dance Cinema festival, the Pacific Northwest's premier festival of contemporary dance film.
The show promises to be exciting, imaginative, and provocative. It begins at 8 p.m. Saturday night. Tickets are available free of charge at the David Saul Smith Union information desk.