On The Nature of Rabbits Work-In-Progress Showing & Discussion

Title: On The Nature of Rabbits Work-In-Progress Showing & Discussion
Date & Time: Friday, June 16, 6:30-8:30pm
Registration Encouraged!

Join us on Friday, June 16^th at 6:30pm for a work-in-progress showing of Pontus Lidberg’s On the Nature of Rabbits, based on the true story of a young dancer arriving from former East Germany to Paris in 1993. Following the work-in-progress performance, Pontus Lidberg and the project creative team will host a discussion with the audience.

Lidberg will collaborate once again with animator Jason Carpenter, who created projections for works including Siren (Danish Dance Theatre) and Dogs and Wolves (Vienna Staatsoper). The projections form an interactive backdrop to the dance.

ARTIST BIOS:
Pontus Lidberg, Choreographer, Dancer
Choreographer, filmmaker, dancer and recipient of a 2019 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Pontus Lidberg has firmly established himself as a visionary artist, merging dance and film.

As a choreographer for the stage, Lidberg has created works for luminary dance companies including Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Vienna Staatsoper Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Semperoper Ballet Dresden, Royal Swedish Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Acosta Danza, Ballet Theater Basel, Beijing Dance Theatre and many more, as well as for his own concert group, Pontus Lidberg Dance. His work has been commissioned and presented by festivals and venues including Montpellier Danse, Théâtre National de Chaillot, The Joyce Theater, the National Arts Center of Canada, New York City Center’s Fall For Dance Festival, the Havana International Ballet Festival and the Spoleto Festival. His work Siren received a Villanueva Award from UNEAC, The National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, as one of the best performances presented in Cuba in 2018. His film, The Rain, received numerous awards. The New York Times wrote “memorably, The Rain illustrates what filmed dance can say that staged dance cannot.” His film Labyrinth Within won Best Picture at the Dance on Camera Festival in 2012. His first feature film, Written on Water, starring Aurélie Dupont premiered at Le Festival International du Film sur l’Art in Montréal in 2021.

Raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Lidberg trained at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and the Conservatoire National de Musique et de Danse de Paris. He holds an MFA in Contemporary Performing Arts from the University of Gothenburg, Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts. From 2018-2022 he was the Artistic Director of Danish Dance Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Adrian Guo Silver, Writer
Adrian Guo Silver is a dance dramaturg and writer, currently working with Pontus Lidberg, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, and Colleen Thomas. He has also worked with Karin Coonrod as movement director, and Martha Clarke as assistant director. His translations from Yiddish have been supported by Target Margin Theater, NYSCA, and The National Yiddish Book Center. He holds a BA in English from Colby College and an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University.

Rachel Quarmby-Spadaccini, Special effect costumes
Rachel Quarmby-Spadaccini designs costumes for dance and film, including for Pontus Lidberg, Jo Strømgren, Tero Saarinen, Joelle Bouvier and Carolyn Carlson. For film and television, she has created special-effect costumes for Roman Polanski, Luc Besson and Dany Boon. Her collaboration with Pontus Lidberg spans companies including The Royal Swedish Ballet, New York City Ballet, Vienna Staatsoper, Grand Théâtre de Genève and The Royal Danish Ballet. Born in England, Rachel studied constructed textiles in Manchester College of Art receiving a BA Honors Degree. Her early career was in sculpture installations for public buildings. In 1992 she moved to France, where her love of textiles motivated her to begin her career in costume design.

Stefan Levin, Composer
Composer, guitarist and music producer Stefan Levin blends acoustic instruments with electronic sounds. Levin started a collaboration with Pontus Lidberg in 2014 with a work commissioned by New York City Center’s Fall For Dance festival, after which they have created multiple works together, for Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Acosta Danza, Danish Dance Theatre and Pontus Lidberg Dance. Levin composes music for theater and for film, and recently collaborated with the 2014 Emmy-awarded director Maryam Ebrahimi. He studied classical guitar at the Faculty of Fine, Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg, Sweden and at the Academy of Music in Malmö, Sweden.

Jason Carpenter, Video Animation
Emmy and Annie Award animation director and artist based in Santa Monica, CA, Jason Carpenter has over 20 years of experience creating animation and artwork for film, TV, interactive installations, and live events. His theater work includes projects with Pontus Lidberg for New York City Ballet, The Vienna Staatsoper and Danish Dance Theater. His documentary series credits include directing the animation sequences for Worn Stories on Netflix, and Watch the Sound, with Mark Ronson for AppleTV+.