Khecari Debuts THE CLINKING, CLANKING LOWESLEAF and PALES in Chicago, 7/20-29

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Celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Khecari, choreographers Jonathan Meyer and Julia Rae Antonick present two world premieres co-presented by Links Hall. Khecari chose to premiere the works at the Storefront because it is one of the most versatile spaces in the city, allowing a huge range of possibilities in performance in a central location. Khecari specifically crafted the works to utilize the space, especially the element of verticality. The Clinking, Clanking Lowesleaf and Pales spans over two weekends, July 20 – 22; July 26 – 29, Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm/Sunday at 3pm.

Tickets are $25 for general admission; $15 for low-income. All performances will be at the Storefront Theater, 66 E Randolph St. To purchase, call 312.742.8497 or click HERE.

The collaborative duet The Clinking, Clanking Lowesleaf was created by Julia Rae Antonick and Jonathan Meyer by installing the work in progress in different venues like the Museum of Contemporary Art for the Dance/USA conference in June 2011 and then in December at Hamlin Park. Born from a long study of partnering techniques including tango, swing, and contact improvisation and influenced by movement as diverse as capoeira, butoh, Indonesian and modern dance, the work is a paean to the "kinetic joyride"; a deep exploration of physical connection and momentum flow. It ranges from fierce to soft, explosive to subtle. In starting with a narrative as source material to generate a non-narrative work, the artists reconfigured fairy tale tropes to look at what was underneath – the odd combinations in fairy tales of the childish and sinister, frivolous and somber, sweet and ominous.

According to choreographers and performers Julia Rae Antonick and Jonathan Meyer, "choosing fairy tales as a starting point created a fair amount of discomfort for us, especially in the gender roles laid out and the mixed messages of body image attached to them. A lot of the richness of the process came from how we grappled with the discomforts in confronting this challenge."

Pales, a work for four dancers created by Jonathan Meyer, derives from a fertile mythology interweaving fact and fiction, wandering from Croatian shepherds to the Portuguese overthrow of the Moors. This exegesis presents a playground mined with turmoil. Somatically-derived partnering and intricate floorwork sculpt refined concert dance and awkwardly denuded pedestrian moments to engage a fascination belying an ambiguous terrain binding and fracturing community, identity, and ownership. Music for Pales is composed by Christopher Preissing, with whom Meyer has collaborated on multiple occasions, and includes a multi-speaker score complemented by four live chamber musicians.

Khecari is a Chicago based non-profit contemporary dance company presenting the work of choreographers Julia Rae Antonick and Jonathan Meyer as well as their collaboration together. We are committed to rigorous artistic inquiry supporting emotionally grounded and socially relevant performance. Our work stems from somatically based choreographic generation, investigation into momentum and kinetically exuberant partnering, and re-envisioning the intricacies of the theatre to offer unexpected modes of audience experience. For more, go to www.khecari.org.

Jonathan Meyer began dancing at Oberlin College and graduated from UNC Greensboro. He was certified as a Somatic Movement Educator from the School For Body-Mind Centering in 2008. His dancing and choreography reflect his diverse studies in modern and post-modern techniques, gymnastics and capoeira, taiji and aikido, ballet, butoh, and contact improvisation. He has danced with The High Risk Group, The Seldoms, Asimina Chremos, and others. Meyer has been a LinkUp Artist, a CDF Lab Artist, a DanceBridge Artist, a mentee with Shirley Mordine, an Artist In Residence at the Ragdale Foundation and the Djerassi Foundation, is currently a Chicago Park District Arts Partner in Residence at Revere and Indian Boundary Parks, and has received grants from the Driehaus Foundation, CAAP, and the Illinois Arts Council. With long-standing fascinations with floor work, release work, and partnering techniques, Meyer's choreography takes place largely in the intersection between physics and human relationships. Meyer has served as Artistic Director of Khecari since founding it in 2002.

Julia Rae Antonick is a dancer and choreographer whose movement and choreography reflect a digestion of modern/contemporary dance, contact improvisation, ballet, yoga, Klein/Mahler technique and Indonesian dance with an emphasis on kinetics and fillagree. Julia graduated from the Chicago Academy for the Arts with the Dance Department's Award of Excellence and received her BFA in dance from CalArts. She has received choreographic residencies at Links Hall (LinkUp), the Chicago Cultural Center (DanceBridge), the Ragdale Foundation, Djerrassi Resident Artist Program, is currently a Chicago Park District Arts Partner in Residence at Revere and Indian Boundary Parks and was chosen for Shirley Mordine's Emerging Artist Mentoring Program. She has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, CSDP, CAAP and was awarded the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Grant for 2009/2010.

For more information about group discounts, parking, directions and more visit linkshall.org.