The Book of Breath

As snow falls on a December afternoon, I am pleased to announce that The Book of Breath will blossom again in the summer of 2014 on the Inside/Out stage at Jacob's Pillow.  Shown with it will be The Great World Spins, a trio first developed at The Yard in 2010. And beyond that, I'm dreaming of a mini-tour of live work, something I've done only rarely lately.

My current modus operandi isn't exactly typical. My dance company only exists when new work is first being created or in rare repeat performances, sometimes years apart.   For any subsequent performances, I try to  re-unite the original cast whose creative contributions and characters were crucial to the process of making it.

In the 80's and early 90's when Marta Renzi & the Project Co. was at its busiest my crew might spend weeks at a time, making new work at the Pillow, showing it for feedback at Inside/Out and then most likely touring it elsewhere.  But, more or less concurrent with a commitment to staying in Nyack with my two sons, that model stopped making much sense for me, creatively or financially.

Nowadays rather than repertory touring, the projects of the Project Co. range from a college commission like Book above, to Arcadia, the film I self-produced in New Hampshire in August, to the new film I'm heading off to do in early January, commissioned by the Dance Department of Rhode Island College.

But a summer tour of live work? Gazing out at the snow today, I'm dreaming up a way to make it happen, based around one date on that lovely stage in the Berkshires.   So if anybody has a bright idea about where to present Book of Breath and/or Great World this summer, give me a shout.  

Of course when my short films make appearances elsewhere, that's a kind of touring:

December 4
890 Broadway
Sans Souci Festival on Tour
Boulder, Colorado

December 7
890 Broadway 
InShadow
Lisbon, Portugal

December 19
Adagio & Danseuse
DFA/Moviehouse Screening
IFP Media Center, Brooklyn, NY

January 24-25, 2014
Her Children Mourn
Trail Dance Film Festival
Duncan, Oklahoma