Here Now Dance Collective

BURSTNOW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The first full-length version of “BURSTNOW – A Valediction to your Rampart” will be premiered in March 14-15, 2012 at The Garage (975 Howard St., SF, CA). The contemporary dance theater piece begins with a girl in a chair hidden by a mound of pillows (known by younger ones as a “pillow fort”) as the piece unfolds the audience witnesses portraits of the invisible walls people build around themselves and the dynamics of the relationships surrounding them. The work ranges from a gracefully danced duet depicting a couple growing apart with original classical music composition by Ari Picker to a sharp, dynamically danced duet featuring a stubborn stone-face and a raging trouble-maker with bluegrass banjo music by David Grier. Inserted through out BURSTNOW is the non-linear portrait of the hero in the story – the girl in the chair. As the piece progresses, others try to dismantle the invisible yet obvious walls she has built around her. What ensues is heart-breaking, comedic, and ultimately revelatory.

Michelle Fletcher founded HNDC in 2008. Based in San Francisco, CA, Here Now Dance Collective originated as a simple gathering of friends and performers. Together they collaborate in a playful, disciplined way. Each project has its own aesthetic, and with this freedom the group creates immersing, often charmingly awkward, drama’turgical environments. HNDC’ creative work is rooted in the performance of contemporary dance, but not exempt from video, multimedia, full-length installations, and post-modern environments/landscapes. Since HNDC’s inception, the company has produced 3 evening length works, participated in over 30 curated theater/gallery performances, danced in a variety of festivals, and reached over 100,000 people throughout the United States and world-wide with their dance for camera short films.

Here Now Dance Collective is currently comprised of 6 dancers: Michelle Kinny, Angela Mazziota, Sarah Gould, Sarah Pomarico, Caitlin Hafer, Summer Bowie. Each dancer brings with them a strong contemporary dance training/technical ability and specialities that include circus skills, singing, acting, film making, choreography, acrosports, painting, and writing. We are Here Now. Our bodies sing your stories. We are humans fishing for humans. Acknowledging the fast pace of our society and embracing the impermanence of life, Here Now Dance Collective feels the urgency. There is no time to be passive, to sit in a dark theater and wait for our audience. We are bringing our dances to you. Taking our cue from counter culture and the guerrilla art movement, we hit the streets and leave our hearts on the grass, beside a building, near a stream, on a sidewalk, splattered on the
pavement.

Michelle Fletcher lives in San Francisco, participating fully in the SF art community as a choreographer, director, mentor and writer. Fletcher works with multi-discipline artists as a coach/director and teaches at The Garage in San Francisco – home to cutting edge artists. Fletcher founded Here Now Dance Collective in 2008 and consistently creates new work with the company. Widely recognized for her installation, multi-media, post-modern experiments that remain personal to the human experience. Her company (Here Now Dance Collective) is engaged to perform in venues across the country and internationally. Fletcher has received prestigious awards including The Zellerbach Family Foundation Grant and a Margaret Jenkins’ Dance Lab CHIME Grant.  Fletcher received her BFA from North Carolina School of the Arts and her MFA from Florida State University.

“It is my observation that individuals in our community have increased the invisible barriers between us. These ramparts we create with space, emotion distance and amplified attitude. We prefer these walls because they give us comfort and make us feel safe in an increasingly hostile and lonely world. In “BURSTNOW”, HNDC examines what happens when we come up against these walls in our relationships…can they be dismantled once built? Is it possible to function and be vulnerable?”

- Michelle Fletcher, Director of Here Now Dance Collective

CALENDAR LISTING
Please note that high-res photos are available for publication
WHAT: “BURSTNOW”-A Valediction To Your Rampart
WHO: Here Now Dance Collective under the direction of Michelle Fletcher in association with RAW
DATES: Wednesday and Thursday, March 14-15, 2012
WHEN: 8:00pm
WHERE: The Garage, 975 Howard St, SF, CA (http://975howard.com)
COST: $10-$20, tickets available for purchase at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/214321

FUTURE PERFORMANCES: April 26, 2010, Installation perf. of BURSTNOW, Unspeakable Projects Gallery

July 19-22, 2012, SPF5 (Summer Performance Festival) ODC Theater