Tag: Gen Hashimoto

Open House @ Jennifer Muller/The Works

Thursday September 24th, 2015 – Jennifer Muller/The Works kicked off their 2015-2016 season with an open house/studio event attended by friends and supporters of the Company. Ms. Muller, ever the cordial hostess, spoke of the Company’s work (both in terms of performing and outreach) before turning the floor over to her vibrant dancers who performed excerpts from the Muller repertory, dancing full-out in a compact space yet never brushing against the viewers – nor the ceiling, despite some high lifts.

Jennifer Muller welcoming her guests

The works presented this evening dated from as far back as 1991 (Gen Hashimoto in a solo from REGARDS set to a Tracy Chapman song) to a glimpse of the Company’s current work-in-progress, INTERVIEW: THE WARHOL PROJECT with music by Steve Reich. Also in the mix were excerpts from FLOWERS (2004), ALCHEMY (last season’s brilliant multi-media dancework), and WHEW! (a light-hearted, full-company work that premiered in 2014).

Jennifer’s dancers are hard to capture in still photos: they are always on the move. I took a few photos during the showing, more as souvenirs for myself:

Michael Tomlinson, Seiko Fujita

Caroline Kehoe

Sonja Chung

Michael Tomlinson eyeing the female ensemble

Jennifer Muller/The Works have always been a mullti-national, multi-cultural dance troupe. This season the young Frenchman, Alexandre Balmain (above) has joined the Company.

September 24, 2015
Jennifer Muller: THE WHITE ROOM

Above: Mariana Cardenas of Jennifer Muller/The Works photographed by Matt Murphy.

Friday March 25, 2011 – THE WHITE ROOM is an evening-length creation by Jennifer Muller/THE WORKS which will premiere at the Cedar Lake Theater on June 22nd. We have been following the creative process of this piece since April 2010 when we were invited into The White Room for the first time. In October 2010, Kokyat and I went back to Jennifer’s studio again to see how the work was evolving.

Today I asked photographer Matt Murphy to join me for a third visit as Jennifer prepared to show us newly-created scenes from the second act of THE WHITE ROOM. This dramatic dancework, to a score compiled from various works featuring the cello, runs an emotional gamut from violence to tenderness. Power (and the corrupting influence of power), deceit, passion, despair and the myriad facets of human relationships are depicted by Jennifer’s brilliant ensemble of dancers who move with a distinctive combination of raw physicality and spiritual grace thru her demanding steps and often harrowing dramatic situations.

One of the most exciting aspects of a visit to Jennifer Muller’s studio is that her dancers go into full performance mode, giving unsparingly of themselves both from a technical and an emotional standpoint. Above: Elizabeth Disharoon and Pascal Rekoert. Since I began blogging I have had many wonderful experiences of getting close to dance both figuratively and literally. That is especially true at Jennifer’s studio where the intensity of the atmosphere seems to put the viewer in the very center of the dance.

Matt produced a beautiful portfolio of images from the rehearsal which I think reflect the generosity of spirit that the choreographer and dancers of Jennifer Muller/The Works always evince.

The men of the Company

Seiko Fujita

Abdul Latif, Elizabeth Disharoon

Jen Peters

Gen Hashimoto

Rosie Lani Fiedelman

Elizabeth Disharoon, Pascal Rekoert

Ensemble with masques

Elizabeth Disharoon and ensemble

Pascal Rekoert

Rosie Lani Fiedelman

Dancers watching dancers: Mariana Cardenas, Duane Gosa, Jen Peters, Mario Bermudez Gil and Seiko Fugita.

Jennifer Muller.

All photos by Matt Murphy.

June 22, 2011