performance 2008 A Light in My Soul / Una Luz En Mi Alma Working Classroom and The National Hispanic Cultural Center In Collaboration with Tectonic Theater Project photo: Rebeca Mayorga A Light in My Soul / Una Luz En Mi Alma is a visually stunning and emotionally riveting new piece created from the actual words and life stories of New Mexican conversos or crypto-Jews who trace their journeys of faith and identity to the diaspora ignited by the Inquisition. Their stories weave together a wide range of faith journeys and experiences. Some have discovered Jewish roots but remain devoutly Catholic; others have returned to join synagogues and embrace their newly re-discovered faith, a decision provoking skepticism and outright rejection by their families and society. Still others come from families who practiced Judaism in secret for hundreds of years. What binds the people we interviewed is a deep love of New Mexico and a lasting desire to practice their faith freely and openly without fear. Directed by Krista DeNio Created In Collaboration: Amelia Ampuero, Krista DeNio, Nan Elsasser, Aaron Foster, Leigh Fondakowski, Michael Lopez, Gabriela Mayorga, Jesus Mayorga, Richard McClarkin, Marta Rodriguez, Esther Salas, Rachel Sanchez, Lissandra Tena, Sonya Tijerina, Aurin Squire ***with verbatim interview text from New Mexico Conversos, and other found text Performed by The Working Classroom Ensemble Set and Costume Design: Rebeca Mayorga Sound Design: CK Barlow Light Design: Robert Aguilar August 15, 16, 17 National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque NM August 23, 24 Nick Salazar Theater, Espanola NM August 29 Ilfeld Auditorium, Las Vegas NM Sally: M.I.A terraNOVA collective / P.S. 122 soloNOVA festival photo: Jill Steinberg Sally: M.I.A. is a surreal and voyeuristic techno-tragedy (solo version). Awaking- a captive in unknown territory, the all-white cell and sterile sounds of the laboratory splice into Sally's memory recall and emotional life. The subject of a human-auto integration experiment she is at once rat and prisoner, undergoing a stripping away, layer by layer, of her human senses and abilities, as information and technological function are downloaded into her system. Now partially automated, flashbacks of her human past penetrate and fragment her world. Experimental Movement Theater, fluent in visual design and digital soundscape. **This production was developed in part through a residency at EARTHDANCE ( www.earthdance.net). Written and Performed by Krista DeNio Dramaturgy and Direction: Ashley Hughes Sound Design: Liz Stanton Light Design: Bruce Steinberg P.S. 122, NYC June 26, 28, 29, 30 Pavlova Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco paige starling sorvillo / blindsight collaborates with performance artist Violeta Luna, performer/director Krista DeNio, poet Samar Abulhassan, and musicians/performers David Molina and Bethany Clemen to create a new research work on the simultaneity of our romance with the Wild, our obsession with Safety and our fear of Other. Pavlova is presented as part of Identity Shifts: Bay Area Response, to see a full list of the evening's performers see www.ybca.org. Thurs, Fri, Sat May 8th, 9th, 10th - YBCA Forum, SF limblimb in workshop/development photo: Rebeca Mayorga conceived and directed by Krista DeNio the limblimb project, is a bi-coastal performance initiative, limblimb delves into the parts of t he human psyche that both deny and revel in our animal nature. we are that which we destroy. we are afrai d of ourselves as we one up ourselves in the next technological loop, and fear our neighbours advances. even as we reflect nature, we destroy it, and even as we love ourselves in the mirror, we tear one another apart - limb from limb. we live in the technologically advanced matrix of who we are becoming, while still runnin g with the herd, and staking our territory. limblimb examines hu/man in our beauty/ reflections of/as natur e, our savagery/ animalness, and post-human existence, living beyond ourselves. the hunter/ prey relationsh ip is arcing theme using the body and instinct as primary language intelligent, defined and specific prereq uisite to verbal narrative. textual and verbal narrative foundations are: the body artist (don delillo), lor d of the flies (william golding), the omnivore's dilemma (michael pollen), stamina I, a poem (susan maxwell). Ensemble Workshop #1 CounterPULSE/ www.couterpulse.org San Francisco, CA February 16, 17 Weekend intensive investigating human instinct in relation to other bodies, space/ territory, and natural elements, framed through performance work. SOLO film investigation the land Madrid, New Mexico March 23, 24 Site-specific choreographic improvisations, on project concept I: human as/in nature; working directly with the desert landscape: earth, mountains, space/horizon, and tree/plant life. Concept/Movement: K. DeNio, Film/design: R. Mayorga Ensemble Workshop #2 CounterPULSE/ www.counterpulse.org San Francisco, CA May 12-16 One-Week Intensive Workshop, exploring project concept II: human as animal; through framework of performance creation in response to William Golding's Lord of the Flies culminating in an Informal Performance. 2007 Sally: M.I.A. CounterPULSE Winter Artist Residency photo: Ian Winters Sally: M.I.A. is a surreal and voyeuristic techno-tragedy; a futuristic theatrical experience wherein time and space, memory and imagination, inner and outer worlds blur together; where the possibilities of post-human consciousness are embodied in post-modern movement, experimental theater, and digital soundscape. An idealistic telephone operator is offered the chance to become the first fully automated human being, and accepts, in hopes of better understanding the technology which is governing so much of her world, from the inside out. Once adrift in cyberspace, her memory fragments, distorts, and we are taken back and forth in time, attempting to discover the relationship between Sally's memories, her automate existence, and which is which. As Sally attempts to rediscover herself, we are not only taken into the cyborg's simulated consciousness, but provoked into reflection on who we are, where we are headed, and who we'll call when we get there. This production explored the piece in an ensemble, dance-theater form. Concept: Krista DeNio Written by: Ryan Eggensperger, K. DeNio Directed by: Susannah Martin Choreography: K. DeNio with the ensemble Light Design: Allen Willner Set Design: Luiza Silva Sound Design: Robert Quillen Camp Ensemble: Krista DeNio, Carolyn Doyle, Ryan Eggensperger, Aura Fishbeck, Helen Sage Howard, Cameron Kelly, Amy Kingwill and Micah Miro 2006 Sally: M.I.A. Naropa University, Boulder International Fringe Festival, San Francisco Fringe Festival photo: Ryan Eggensperger These solo/duet pieces, investigated Sally's childhood in the wide open and idealized space of the *great Western frontier* and her tiny screen-view adult life. With her husband in Iraq now fighting on *the latest frontier* the stark contrast between her childhood ideals of freedom and the American Dream, with her current existence have her on the brink of utter isolation. Will she stay or will she go? Naropa University MFA Theater program (draft 1): Written and performed by Krista DeNio (with Ryan Eggensperger), Directed by Ashley Hughes, in collaboration with Leigh Fondakowski, Light Design by David Ortolano. Fringe Festivals (drafts 2 & 3): Written by Eggensperger and DeNio Performed by DeNio / Meridith Crosley at Boulder Fringe Festival, and DeNio /Eggensperger (voices) at San Francisco Fringe Festival. February 2006, Naropa University August 2006, Boulder International Fringe Festival September 2006, San Francisco International Fringe Festival 2005 Le Caractère Féminin CounterPULSE, SF Boulder International Fringe Festival **Best of Fringe photo: Ian Winters Le Caractère Féminin portrays two women. Each in her apartment. Alone. Neighbors who relate through the sounds of their technological battlezones, this modern day fiction, interfaces the ancient Medea with the modern Lady Automate, the Lady at your fingertips, programmed as you wish her to be. These characters only step out of their isolation to meet on the playing field of Le Caractère Féminin (a video game) where Kung Fu battles, western gunfights and electric chairs collide. Joan Bruemmer and Krista DeNio bring together their distinctive comedic and theatrical styles to create an explosive and engaging evening of highly physical movement theater. Written, Choreographed and performed by Krista DeNio and Joan Bruemmer Directed by Elizabeth Watt Light Design: Riley (SF)/ David Ortolano (Boulder) 2003 Under the Leaves: Shuberta's Fall New College of California, San Francisco photo: Louise Bertelsen Under the Leaves (Shuberta's Fall) travels between myth and fairytale, employing the languages of clowning, physical theater, film projection and dance to bring the audience on a humorous and tragic journey from heaven to earth and onward into a timeless place. Shuberta, a laughing goddess, who was always laughing way too much, being way too big, causing way too much rain, and spilling her excessively growing teeth everywhere, finally got herself kicked out of heaven. Now all alone, without her laughter, and without the rain, she finds herself in a barren, desert wasteland. No longer can she sit under the Big Leave trees, to ponder her free-floating thoughts and laugh out loud. Shuberta is left to discover her fate, and the fate of the strange planet she has landed on. Luckily, she has one god and one goddess on her side. The three have a hysterical, sometimes somber, often sublime journey together in search of Shuberta's laughter and the rain. Conception/ Direction: Krista DeNio Created/ Performed: by Krista DeNio, victoria mcnichol Kelly, Jenny Schaffer Written by: victoria mcnichol kelly and K. DeNio Light Design: Allen Willner Film projection: Frances Nkara Set Design: Jon Lustig, Kezia Zichichi 2000 Flight W-2: Emergency Exodus CELLspace, San Francisco Photo: Marnie McCurdy Flight W-2 is a multi-media excursion into the microcosmic BUBBLE of a commercial airplane flight. Through dance, theater, live/original music and sound, video, photography, and a set/installation housed in the shells of actual airplanes, the piece seeks to investigate the consumer-based and technologically-driven realities we find ourselves living in, with interactive audience participation in the flight as guided by your crew. Our flight destination is Esperpento, a lush and tropical paradise, away from HOME. However, leaving HOME doesn't necessarily mean getting AWAY, as the news from home , on W-2 s In-Air NEWS clips demonstrate (video footage focused on the immediate effects of the dot com boom on the Mission Neighborhood community, artists and non-profit organizations). Join us on a trip between dreamscape and urban reality, challenging us all to take a look into the mirror of CONSUMER CULT mentality. The VOICE of the Captain interspersed with plane engines and live, reverberating mechanical and percussive instrumentation, folk melodies, gospel music, and flight attendant SAFETY tirades, meet the soaring, and contorted movement of the birds. ALL this and MORE through the eyes of one passenger named SANE, aboard the flight W-2. Conception/ Direction: Krista DeNio, in collaboration with violent dwarf Written by: Susan Maxwell and Krista DeNio Choreography: Tanya Calamoneri/ K. DeNio Sound and Light Design: Allen Willner Video Design: Francine Cavanaugh Photographic Installation: Marnie McCurdy, Grant Faulkner, Abby Tuttle, Andre Dekleva, Katie Krantz Set and Installation Design: Kezia Zichichi/ K. DeNio Ensemble: Captain: victoria mcnichol Kelly Flight Attendants: Dorothy Henning, Cinzia Sperou- Gloekler Sane: Kezia Zichichi Birds: Tanya Calamoneri, Mair Culbreth, Marnie McCurdy © Krista DeNio