Dancers: Barbie, Melanie, Lili, and Jorge Luis Morejon
Momentum Dance Company Children's Series-New Children's Ballet - The Emperor and the Nightingale - A Tale From China
Coral Gables, FL 33134 (305) 442-8706- Saturday, May 13, 12:00 am
Sunday, August 27, 2017
The Emperor and the Nightingale - A Tale From China / Gables
The Emperor and the Nightingale - A Tale From China / Miami Beach
Barbie, Melanie, Lili, and Jorge Luis Morejon
Momentum Dance Company Children's Series:
The Emperor and the Nightingale - A Tale From China in Miami Beach.
The Emperor and the Nightingale - A Tale From China - A benevolent, but sickly Chinese Emperor is healed by the magical song of a simple gray Nightingale. The Emperor and the members of the court are amazed, and want to keep the Nightingale in a golden cage. But when the Emperor of Japan sends a golden, jewel encrusted, mechanical bird, the Emperor and the members of the court forget about the Nightingale, and she flies away. Eventually, the glittering mechanical bird breaks, and the Emperor falls ill again, but the kind Nightingale comes back to to save the Emperor, who agrees that she can be free.
PERFORMERS:
Kathy Brennan, Barbie, Melanie, Lili, and Jorge Luis Morejon
May 14, 2017
Sunday 3:00 PM
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Side Show Freaks and Circus Injuns - Studio Work - 2017
Actors Monique Mojica, LeAnne Howe, Lena Recollet, Evanne Saint, Justin Manyfingers, Jeff Legacy
during rehearsal of Side Show Freaks and Circus Injuns at the Center for Indigenous Theatre, Toronto.
Photography: Leslie McCue
Side Show Freaks and
Circus Injuns' studio work, based on the play written by LeAnne Howe and
Monique Mojica, on May 25, 2017, in
Miami, started on July 28 under the direction of Jorge Luis Morejon. The
trans-indigenous project is one of the first attempts to bring together
indigenous performers from different parts of the continent. They establish, in
a very short rehearsal period, a successful process that integrated a new
indigenous dramaturgy-in-the-making with embodied creative work by indigenous
actors. Their collective aim was to cover the full content of the written
script, to then have an open-studio presentation on August 14th. The plan was
to share the results of the documented process with a selective audience of
colleagues, friends and supporters. By Sunday, August 6th, before the EDO
(Equity Day Off), the team had already worked through thirty pages of the
script. Morejon's direction of this fase of the project ended abruptly on
August 6th, 2017.
Side Show Freaks and Circus Injuns - Blowoff
Lukas Avendaño as the Authentic Cockboy
Aluna Theatre, Toronto
Photography: Monique Mojica
Norma Araiza as the Serpent Woman
Aluna Theatre, Toronto
Performance artist Lukas Avendaño and actress Norma Araiza during the recording of the blowoff pieces of Side Show Freaks and Circus Injuns written by LeAnne Howe and Monique Mojica. The blowoff pieces were directed by Jorge Luis Morejon, produced by Sue Balint, recorded by Andrew Moro and Samay Arcentales; prop mastered by Tim Hill and costume designed by Erika Annie and Kinoo Arcentales. This work, sponsored by Chocolate Woman Collective, was rehearsed and recorded from July 14 to 17, 2017, at Aluna Theatre in Toronto.
The trans-indigenous team aimed at producing these two pieces in the context of the enfreakment perpetrated by the circus industry in North America. At the beginning of the XX century, indigenous people were exhibited as freaks because they were "indians." Lukas and Norma embodied their own freak creation process for the blowoff section of the play. They recreated the spectacle of viewing and exhibiting their own version of an indigenous freak, zapotec and yaki respectively, as they layered their indigeneity with other traits such as sexual orientation and disability.
The process included the performers' discussion and exploration of their own background in terms of language, traditions, and cultural markers. Then, there were chosen costumes and props that would aid the process of enfreakment. Third, there was created a dramaturgy that guided the performers throughout the piece in rehearsal and during the recording. They also engaged in character development and the use of voice, props and movement in function of their characters. Finally, the recording team gave the performances the final touch by lighting the set while using multiple cameras for future editing and production of the final blowoff pieces.
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