MOVEMENT RESEARCH FALL FESTIVAL Sidewinder December 4-6 and 11-13, 2008 • [Thu-Sat] at 8:30pm Admission: $18.00* (members: $12.00) Movement Research, one of the world's leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms, returns to Danspace Project with its annual fall festival. Improvisation is the focus as curatorial advisors Jennifer Monson and Zeena Parkins bring together acclaimed experimentalists to highlight and juxtapose varied investigations into the form. Kathy Kaufmann lights the performances. Week one of the festival (December 4-6) showcases nine contemporary artists who will develop scores in response to conversations and game playing with the renowned Steve Paxton. This performance investigation, which explores conceptual and spatial thinking, takes it cue from Paxton's daily Chinese Checkers game with his neighbor, during which the players continually rearrange the pattern of the board to keep their strategies alive and spontaneous. This cross-generational meeting of minds features performance by dance artists Ray Chung, Scott Heron, Vera Mantero, Mårten Spångberg, Mat Voorter and Thomas Hauert; and musicians Miya Masaoka, Andrea Parkins, and Jennifer Walshe. The second week of programming (December 11-13) juxtaposes autonomy and collectivity. An out-of-town guest will open the program with a solo performance and will later be joined by a configuration of dancers and musicians for an improvisational performance that has been structured to facilitate the friction and absorption between improvising personalities. Thursday, Dec. 11th: Ray Chung, Judith Sanchez Ruiz, DD Dorvillier, Elena Giannotti, and David Watson Friday, Dec. 12th: Scott Heron, Beth Gill, Yvonne Meier, Ishmael Houston-Jones, and Alex Waterman Saturday, Dec. 13th: Vera Mantero, Polly Motley, Jennifer Monson, Zeena Parkins, and Elena Gianotti In conjunction with the fall festival, Movement Research will also host classes and workshops taught by festival participants December 1st through 14th. www.movementresearch.org * Purchase tickets to two or more performances and save with the Movement Research Festival Pass. See two performances for $30, four for $48, or six for $60 (that's almost half price!). The Movement Research Fall Festival 2008 is supported, in part, by the Harkness Foundation for Dance, the James E. Robison Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.