1024 Tempest

1024 Tempest
1024 Tempest
1024 Tempest
1024 Tempest

1024 Tempest

As part of Springboard Performance’s Front Lawn Dances 2015, kloetzel&co. created the site-specific work, 1024 Tempest, for the household of place-maker Tamara Lee and family at 1024 1st Ave NW in Calgary. Based on Shakespeare’s well-known play, 1024 Tempest is a tongue-in-cheek look at the character of Ferdinand and his manipulation by three place-making ninjas who resemble the characters of Prospero, Ariel, and Caliban. With flying popcorn, tiki umbrellas, and a well-placed balcony, the ninjas fashion an Eden to Ferdinand’s great delight. At the close of the work, audiences were invited to craft their own ornaments to adorn the newly appointed SkakespeariTREE based at the containR site in Sunnyside.

Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

Drawing from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales as well as from the contentious strains of Bela Bartók’s Sonata for Piano, Sz. 80 (88), Pilgrimage offers a world of bizarre characterization and contentious relationships. CrossCurrents dance productions commissioned Melanie Kloetzel as a guest artist to create the group work for performances at the Pumphouse Theatres in Calgary. After the Pumphouse premiere, Pilgrimage was also presented by the Professional Series at the University of Calgary as part of Split Screen, an evening of works by kloetzel&co. and Michele Moss.

Cowboys and Wurst

Cowboys and Wurst
Cowboys and Wurst
Cowboys and Wurst

Cowboys and Wurst

Cowboys and Wurst is a site-specific work commissioned by Springboard Performance for the 2015 Front Lawn Dances series. Created by kloetzel&co. with Deanne Walsh, Cowboys and Wurst is an over-the-top representation of the iconic Illichmann’s Sausage Shop in the Forest Lawn neighbourhood of Calgary. Employing everything from sausage link pillows to red Jell-O to giant stuffed animals, Walsh and Kloetzel dig up the wonderfully quirky and culturally diverse characteristics of this well-seasoned site.

Twice Told

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.

Covert Interiorities

Interiors
Being Covert: Interiors
Being Covert: Interiors

Covert Interiorities

A site-adaptive exploration/workshop led by Melanie Kloetzel and Phil Smith (of Wrights & Sites) that explores publicly-accessible “hidden spaces” with an eye toward nurturing the self-world connection.

Through a workshop format (already taken place in Liverpool, Teignmouth, Exeter, and Plymouth, UK to date), Kloetzel and Smith examine the connections between inner reflection, subtle physical play and public space. A series of movement meditations aids participants in an examination of their interiorities through inherently active methodologies. Using as a premise the fact that our inner lives are under increasing scrutiny and surveillance, the collected meditations encourage participants to put down their phones and tablets to reclaim a healthy and active lifestyle, one that is highly integrated with and inspired by local environs. 

Tragedy, a sequel

Tragedy, a sequel
Tragedy, a sequel - photo by Red Dot Photography
Tragedy, a sequel
Tragedy
Tragedy, a sequel - photo by Red Dot Photography

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.

Dwindling Dispute TKO

Dwindling Dispute TKO
Dwindling Dispute TKO

Dwindling Dispute TKO

Dwindling Dispute TKO, based on the stage work The Dwindling Dispute, is a site-adaptive work created for a square of artificial turf that may be unrolled at various sites. The work premiered at containR through the Fluid Festival in 2013 and was also performed in front of the Culver Center for the Arts in Riverside, California as part of the 2013 Congress on Research in Dance conference. Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, the Red and White Queens delight audiences with their ridiculous mannerisms and absurd clashes in short ‘acts’ that make audiences question ‘on-‘ and ‘off-‘ stage appearances. With support from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

The Dwindling Dispute (an excerpt)

The Dwindling Dispute
The Dwindling Dispute
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.

The Alice Odyssey (an excerpt)

The Alice Odyssey (an excerpt)
The Alice Odyssey (an excerpt)
The Alice Odyssey (an excerpt)
The Alice Odyssey (an excerpt)
The Alice Odyssey (an excerpt)

The Alice Odyssey (an excerpt)

kloetzel&co. and Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre presented an excerpt from The Alice Odyssey crafted for beautiful Withrow Park in Toronto, ON as part of the highly popular Dusk Dances. Deconstructing highly exaggerated facial expressions alongside a tale of Alice in the underworld, the work ran for six nights to crowds of 500-1,500 people per night and was called “well crafted and beautifully executed” in a review in Mooney on Theatre.

To hear an interview about this performance on EVIDance Radio on Toronto’s CUIT, visit https://www.evidanceradio.com/home/podcasts/2013/saturday-july-27-2013 and forward to timecode 5:20.

Icarus Refried

Icarus Refried
Icarus Refried
Icarus Fried (live) - photo by Tony Field

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.