Enclosed is information and news regarding the AMERICAN PREMIER of a new
cross-cultural collaboration between Sun Ock Lee's ZEN DANCE COMPANY and
composer JOSEPH CELLI.
Performances are at the Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College/NYC located at
East 68th Street at Lexington Avenue, July 8 and 9 at 8:00 PM. For tickets
and further information contact: 212-772-4448. This event will be the
opening performance of the ASIAN CONTEMPORARY DANCE FESTIVAL.
PARAMITTA II is highly informed by ancient shaman ritual, Buddhist performing
arts, ritual dance and song, and tantric-mudras emanating from Korea. Much
of the traditional work of Korea has a profoundly 'contemporary' feel to it
with extremes in timbre, pitch control and microtones, using improvisation
and some of the slowest music and movement in the world. When viewed within a
contemporary context, these traditional Asian arts reveal a kind of modernism
that is strikingly incongruous to their own ancient origins. The work will
be performed by the six-member ZEN DANCE COMPANY based in Seoul and USA with
double reed virtuoso JOSEPH CELLI and the brilliant HANULSORI shaman drum
ensemble directed by Harry Lee.
The work was one of only twelve commissions by the Meet The Composer,
Reader's Digest Composer-Choreographer Grant, that included such luminaries
as Merce Cunningham, Lou Harrison and others. Additional support for the
musical composition came from a composer residency at the Rockefeller
Foundation Bellagio Center (Italy), a Connecticut Commission on the Arts
commission, Chameleon Studios and a grant to Ms. Lee and Mr. Celli from
Mutable Music.
Press Information, tickets, photos: Vera Michelson at (212) 650-3955
FURTHER INFORMATION REGARDING JOSEPH CELLI'S compositions and performances
can be found at:
http://www.hear.com/o.o./ or at:
http://www.goddard.edu/wgdr/kalvos/cellijo.html