Twice Told

Twice Told

Twice Told

Created by Melanie Kloetzel as a guest artist for dance majors at the University of Calgary, Twice Told is based on A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Carmen Braden composed music for the work, which was performed live by Lacie Marchand and Victoria Orton. Excerpts of the work were restaged for the graduate saxophone recital of Lacie Marchand at the University of Calgary.

Tragedy, a sequel

Tragedy, a sequel

Tragedy, a sequel

Created by Melanie Kloetzel as a guest artist for dance majors at the University of Calgary, Tragedy, a sequel is based on Euripides’ The Trojan Women. The work smashes together contemporary electronica with an ancient text and fulsome physicality for a heart-wrenching and sombre look at the too-often unchanging role that women have been forced to play in society. Text devised by Melanie Kloetzel from Jean-Paul Sartre’s and Edith’s Hamilton’s versions of The Trojan Women.

The Dwindling Dispute (an excerpt)

The Dwindling Dispute

The Dwindling Dispute

A restaging of Act Two from The Alice Odyssey. In this absurd duet, based on the Red Queen/White Queen dialogue from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, the characters battle their way through a soup of nonsensical images and text to best their opponent. With support from The Banff Centre for the Arts and the University of Calgary. Presented at Dancers’ Studio West in Calgary as well as DUMBO Dance Festival in New York City, this stage work inspired the site work Dwindling Dispute TKO and the dance film The Dwindling Dispute.

Icarus Refried

Icarus Refried

Icarus Refried

Commissioned in 2011 by the Horizons Concert Series in Flagstaff, AZ, kloetzel&co. in collaboration with clarinetist John Masserini created the evening-length Icarus Refried, a follow-up to the popular Icarus Fried. In this new version, the humorous tension of Kloetzel and Masserini’s on-stage repartee – fused with the compositions of Joan Tower, Olivier Messiaen, and Robert Cogan, as well as with poetry by Muriel Rukeyser, sculpture by Ben Alexander, and visual poetry by Derek Beaulieu – created an evening of upended myths and ironic invention. A documentary of this process, Icarus Refried: A Pro-Creative Process, was created by filmmaker Kurt Lancaster.

An excerpt from the evening called Fierce Indulgence went on to enjoy performances in Philadelphia as part of the Congress on Research in Dance conference.

The Alice Odyssey

The Alice Odyssey

The Alice Odyssey

kloetzel&co. presented four sold-out evenings of The Alice Odyssey, a project supported by the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, at Dancers’ Studio West. Scampering through playful partnering, heavily exaggerated facial expressions, and daring exploits on mattresses and tables, The Alice Odyssey examines the bizarre and often violent maelstrom that lurks in children’s fantasy worlds, with a particular focus on Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland. Think you know what’s down the rabbit hole? Think again.

From this work emerged the duet, The Dwindling Dispute, which went on to performances at the DUMBO Dance Festival in Brooklyn, NY, Dwindling Dispute TKO, which went on to performances at the Fluid Festival and the Culver Center in California, as well as the excerpt of The Alice Odyssey created for Dusk Dances in Toronto, ON.

From Terezin to M31

From Terezin to M31

From Terezin to M31

Presented by the Dancers’ Studio West Artist in Residence series, kloetzel&co.performed the chilling work From Terezin to M31 that uses as a springboard the relationship between Alice Liddell (upon whom Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is based) and Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll). With support from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Dancers’ Studio West.

Icarus Fried (the evening)

Icarus Fried (live) - photo by Tony Field

Icarus Fried (the evening)

Presented by the Dance@Night series, Icarus Fried joined kloetzel&co. and clarinetist John Masserini in an evening-length work of wit, irony, and surprising beauty. Kloetzel’s choreography of desperate extensions, flippant gestures, and impatient waiting joins with Jeff Curtis’ tongue-in-cheek film collage, Kristin Smith’s delicate sculptural creations, Derek Beaulieu’s visual poetry, and Masserini’s athletic clarinetistry for a fresh look at gender roles, representation, and social expectations.

The signature work of the evening, Icarus Fried, also enjoyed performances at On the Boards as part of the Northwest New Works Festival, as well as at the Collision Symposium at the University of Victoria. The work offers a postmodern take on the modern obsession with climax, joining live clarinet and movement to toy with the influence of the aural over the visual aesthetic.

Smile Capital USA

Smile Capital USA

Smile Capital USA

Presented at the Auburn Bar as part of the Fluid Festival and recapped at the TransAlta Barn for the Feats Festival, Smile Capital USA toys with the paradoxes of small-town life in the United States. Combining pop music, recorded text, lots of physical and facial tension, and sardonic film work, Kloetzel digs into the (more and less) amusing hypocritical stances in the land of the “free.” It takes as its basis the 1948 ordinance by the Mayor of the City of Pocatello, ID, George Phillips, making it illegal not to smile in Pocatello.

Caper

Caper

Caper

kloetzel&co. presented Caper at the Northwest New Works Festival at On the Boards in Seattle. Chalie Livingston and Jeff Curtis joined kloetzel&co. and John Masserini in a joyous romp with gumballs, splintering tables, witty film work, and Eric Mandat’s resolutely non-climactic score. Caper flirts with competition and perspective on a grand scale as music, dance, and film all combine in a bizarrely sexy circus world.

It’s OK, no one’s looking

It’s OK, no one’s looking

It’s OK, no one’s looking

In 2006, kloetzel&co. in collaboration with clarinetist John Masserini, pianist Mark Neiwirth, tenor Geoffrey Friedley, poet Greg Nicholl, and filmmaker Jeff Curtis presented an evening-length gambol through multiple disciplines at the Bistline Theatre at the brand new ISU Performing Arts Center. Pairing kloetzel&co. with live avant garde twentieth century music, textual collage, and film work, It’s OK, no one’s looking tested the boundaries of collaboration and convention: dancers careened off 50s-style tables, singers flew through the air while vocalizing in varied tongues, and a clarinetist discovered pelvic flare as he worked through frantic trilling. Included live performances of John Cage’s chance creation “Aria”, Eric Mandat’s dramatic “Tricolor Capers,” Emma Lou Diemer’s “Tocata,” and Joan Tower’s “Wings”. Pieces from It’s OK, no one’s looking went on to performances in Seattle, Victoria, Flagstaff, and Calgary.