Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Before This Was Texas--In Progress

Fri & Sat, September 23 & 24; 7pm: Visual Arts Center
FREE and Open to the Public

Using collaborative ensemble work to create dramatic movement based on poetry by Austin-based poet Kimberly Alidio, Before This Was Texas explores bodies crossing borders and our relationship to this land called Central Texas. The Generic Ensemble Company stretches the boundaries of both form and content through a collaborative process that presents bodies that are still marginal in U.S. theatre and dance today in performance. Featuring performances by kt shorb, Saray De Jesus Rosales, and Krysta Gonzales, this iteration of Before This Was Texas will include guiding the audience through the Visual Arts Center Galleries in a site-specific exploration of space and time.

The Generic Ensemble Company makes the invisible visible through bold, socially relevant, body-centered performance. We embrace experimental approaches in both the rehearsal room and public performance by asking complex theoretical questions based on rigorous scholarship. We believe that creative work is a source to mine profound discourse and strategies for social change. Theory, praxis, and aesthetics are interconnected and equally integral to create a powerful, successful work.

Before This Was Texas is made possible with the support of the University of Texas at Austin Department of Art and Art History and the UT-Austin Engaging Research component of the University Co-op Cohen New Works Festival. This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com.

For more information about the performances and the Visual Arts Center are here and here.

Info on directions are here.