Clinard Dance and Japanese photographer Akito Tsuda have teamed up to create an interdisciplinary work based on Akito’s photos of Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood in the early 1990s. The performances takes place at the National Museum of Mexican Art (1852 W. 19th Street) on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets available here.
Press Release
The static discipline of photography and moving disciplines of flamenco music and dance work like a jigsaw puzzle shifting the foreground and background continuously; the art forms are different but the key is that something gets shared and there’s a richer sense of each other individually, artistically and culturally.
Akito’s photography animates the disciplines of flamenco, beat-boxing, gypsy jazz, and classical Spanish music, continuously shifting the background to the foreground, past to present. Photos of the neighborhood tailor shop, the shoemaker, and a smiling face at the laundry excite flamenco’s percussive footwork to join in with the rhythms of the sewing machine, the washers/dyers and the complex sounds taken in while walking down 18th street. People’s everyday repetitive actions/sounds are the percussive fuel that drive the performance’s choreography and tempo.
‘Everyday People Everyday Action’ is a snapshot, a painting of movements and sounds. It is work that tells a story about everyday people and their everyday actions in service of celebrating and magnifying ordinary and everyday beauty.
The premiere event will celebrate Clinard Dance’s 20th anniversary, with additional performances by the company’s Flamenco Quartet Project, a post-performance reception and discussion with Akito Tsuda, and a ticketed raffle including free classes, the chance to sit in on future rehearsals, and more to be announced. Audience members are invited to bring one or more photographs taken in their neighborhood, past or present, in exchange for raffle tickets.