Pace University Presents NYC Debut of Motionhouse's SCATTERED, 2/12-13

After four highly successful tours to venues across the United Kingdom plus performances in Macau, Romania, Belgium and Portugal, the critically acclaimed dance-theatre company Motionhouse comes to North America for the first time with Scattered at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts in New York City.

Scattered, directed by Motionhouse's visionary Artistic Director Kevin Finnan, combines Motionhouse's trademark highly physical dance theatre and mesmerizing imagery in a unique interaction between film and live performance, created in collaboration with filmmakers Logela Multimedia from the Basque region of Spain.

Scattered explores our relationship with water and how it surrounds us in different forms throughout our lives: in birth water ties us to life and on a more elemental scale, while in ice, floods and tides, it can sweep lives away. Scattered delves into both the majesty and savagery of water, a fundamental force in our lives as seven dancers plunge into an ocean, wrestle a raging tide and slide on an avalanche to a frozen landscape of arctic beauty.

Performed on a huge curved floor that disappears skywards, Scattered uses projection technology, daring dancing, plus aerial harnesses and bungees to create an extraordinary world in which the dancers move seamlessly in, on, and through the image. The performers are at one moment on the stage then suddenly sprinting up the upstage curved wall (think half pipe snowboard or skate ramp), immersing themselves in sensational images of cascading waterfalls, rainstorms and swimming pools. They hang, suspended over a frozen landscape of arctic beauty at the very top of the curve before diving onto the stage through the ice floes and frozen waters; they hurl themselves into tidal waves, they stride up projected escalators, they fling themselves onto projected deckchairs and they catch, throw and hold each other in impossible embraces.

Motionhouse Artistic Director Kevin Finnan said, "We create startling, passionate dance theatre. Our productions are designed to challenge as well as delight our audiences and they fuse images with action and dynamism. Our performances are rooted in dance but draw on theatre, circus, acrobatics and film to create works that make audience members think and feel. We pride ourselves on producing shows of outstanding quality that are accessible and enjoyable for all."

Tickets (from $30 to $55) are now on sale for Scattered. To purchase your tickets, call 866.811.4111 or visit their website. For more information and a complete tour schedule, log on to www.motionhouse.co.uk.

Scattered is performed on and within an extraordinary set created just for this production, designed by long-term collaborator Simon Dormon, with an original music score by Sophy Smith and Tim Dickinson and lighting design by Natasha Chivers. Scattered is performed by Jade Barton, Claire Benson, Martina Bussi, Giorgio de Carolis, Daniel Connor, Junior Cunningham (Rehearsal Director), Anthony Middleton, Alasdair Stewart and Rebecca Williams.
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Kevin Finnan and Louise Richards founded Motionhouse in 1988. Their company has since become one of the leading dance theatre companies in the UK making their work locally, touring their work globally. Since its launch, the company has toured eighteen full-scale productions, built up a formidable educational program for schools and colleges across the UK, trained dozens of dancers, pushed contemporary dance into the aerial arena by combining choreography with sling and bungee skills, and developed large-scale site-specific dance spectacles with increasing ambition and shorter festival pieces for performance in a wide range of public places and spaces.
They tour their productions to theatres and festivals throughout the world. They have developed a reputation over the years for ambitious experimentation and their productions, in which setting, action and context collide, have become world-renowned. A wide ranging education and participatory program runs parallel to their touring performances. They have won the 'Audience Prize' at both the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards in the UK and at the MiramirO Festival in Belgium. Recent company milestones include: The Voyage, a spectacular outdoor event with a cast of hundreds for the London 2012 Festival which celebrated the Olympic and Paralympic Games, international touring of Scattered, European touring of festival piecesUnderground and Cascade, the addition of Traction and Waiting Game to their touring repertoire, the development of a new outdoor piece Captive, R&D for a new production Broken, and Finnan's appointment as Choreographer and Movement Director for the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, which was witnessed by a world-wide audience of 1 billion.

Artistic Director Kevin Finnan, together with Louise Richards, founded Motionhouse in 1988. As Artistic Director of Motionhouse he has created, either alone or in collaboration with Louise, each of the company's major touring productions, numbering eighteen full-length works to date as well as his smaller festival works which have taken street festivals by storm over the last few years. Kevin also undertakes commissions and projects for other companies and agencies. In 1998 he founded 'Fierce' performance company, and in 2000 created the critically acclaimed True - a performance event for the Tramway, Glasgow, in collaboration with writer A. L. Kennedy and installation artist Rosa Sanchez.