Utopia
PREMIERE St. Mark's Church, December 2018
What does Utopia mean to you?
Is it a physical, external place— or, might it reside internally?
Choreographed by Valerie Green and in collaboration with visual artist
Keren Anavy, VG/DE’s newest evening length work, Utopia, explores the
idea of a perfect place through dance and visual art.
Anavy has turned her large-scale paintings into 10-foot cylindrical
pillars to be used throughout the piece. The pillars act as an extension of
the internal world, constantly forming barriers, spaces, and other
environments for the dancers to both react to and orchestrate. This
dynamic art installation is in perpetual motion, being constantly built
and dismantled.
Acting as both props and set, Anavy’s painted pillars contribute to Utopia’s striking energy and challenge the viewer’s conception of how art, dance, and design interact with and influence one another.
Utopia at St. Mark’s Church Photographer: Stephen de las Heras · Location: St. Mark’s Church In The Bowery · Artwork: Keren Anavy
Utopia at Wave Hill Photographer: Nomi H. Rave · Location: Wave Hill · Artwork: Keren Anavy
Utopia at Collaborative Concepts Photographer: Elbert Mills · Location: Saunders Farm, Garrison, NY · Artwork: Keren Anavy
Utopia at Pioneer Works Photographer: Walter Wlodarczyk · Location: Pioneer Works · Artwork: Keren Anavy
Utopia at Queens Museum Photographer: Nomi H. Rave · Location: Queens Museum · Artwork: Keren Anavy
Utopia at Lincoln Center Photographer: Darial Sneed · Event: APAP Booking Dance Festival · Location: Jazz at Lincoln Center
Utopia at NARS Foundation Photographer: Nomi H. Rave · Event: Utopia · Location: NARS Foundation
CHOREOGRAPHY Valerie Green
VISUAL ARTIST Keren Anavy
COMPOSER Mark Katsanounis
LIGHTING DESIGN Kathy Kaufmann
COSTUMES Deborah Erenberg
RUNNING TIME 65 minutes
NUMBER OF DANCERS 7 dancers
PRESENTED BY Pioneer Works • Danspace Project @ St. Mark’s Church • Wave Hill • Queens Museum • Dixon Place • NARS Foundation • APAP Booking Festival • Green Space • Collaborative Concepts • Movement Research • Materials for the Arts
Press Quotes
“A mesmerizing collaboration.”
“Meticulously crafted, contemplative, mesmerizing.”
“Utopia staged alongside the The Crypto Futurist and the New Tribal Labyrinth exhibition at Pioneer Works created a visually stunning and conceptually brilliant dialogue between sculpture and movement. With Utopia already being a collaborative work incorporating sculptural artworks by Keren Anavy, it is poised to be interdisciplinary, innovative in its approach to bridge the gaps between dance and visual art. Dance Entropy’s performance sussed out the ideas and questions implicit in Atelier van Lieshout’s bodies of work in a way that enriched viewers’ experience of the artworks.”