Maureen Fleming premieres her unique butoh-infused new work inspired by Yeats featuring live Irish music.
October 18 - 21 at La MaMa
"Fleming did amazing things…She seemed to transcend the material world and enter a realm of pure spirit… Wondrous choreographic metamorphosis.” -– The New York Times
La MaMa and Irish Arts Center present Maureen Fleming in the World Premiere of WILDFLOWERS, A FEMININE GENESIS. Created, choreographed, and performed by Fleming, this unique production features live music by acclaimed Irish composer/violinist Colm Mac Con Iomaire and uilleann piper James Mahon, with pianist Bruce Brubaker performing music by Philip Glass and geometric moving sculptures and lighting by longtime collaborator Christopher Odo. Performances begin October 18 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa.
WILDFLOWERS, A FEMININE GENESIS is a sensuous celebration of the feminine archetype inspired by the lush symbolism of Irish poet William Butler Yeats. Maureen Fleming’s interdisciplinary work coalesces her singular sculptural movement with original live music, video, text by Yeats and other uniquely theatrical visuals to create a series of “vision poems.”
At age 64, Maureen Fleming is one of the foremost female practitioners of butoh-inspired performance in the US. Born in Japan to Irish-American parents, a childhood car accident and subsequent spinal deformity left her with unique movement abilities. Fleming studied butoh extensively in Japan with Kazuo Ohno, the co-founder of this minimalist art form. She went on to perform with his son, Yoshito Ohno, and to tour internationally with performance artist and choreographer Min Tanaka. Fleming continued her training in the United States as a scholarship student under the Cecchetti master Margaret Craske. Since 1994, she has conducted workshops at N.Y.U.'s Tisch School of the Arts and was a guest artist at The Juilliard School. She has gained international recognition on five continents for her singular form of interdisciplinary performance at such venues as Italy's Spoleto Festival, Japan's Butoh Festival, Mexico's Jose Limon Dance Festival, Iceland's Reykjavik Arts Festival, Colombia’s International Danza Contemporanea, France's International Mime Festival, Korea’s Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, and Jacobs Pillow, among others. www.MaureenFleming.com.
Colm Mac Con Iomaire is a violinist and multi-instrumentalist composer from Dublin. He is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Irish band The Frames. Colm released his first solo instrumental record in 2008 and his follow up album was an Irish Top 10. His music draws on a wide range of styles and influences ranging from classical to traditional. Colm has written for feature film, contemporary dance, animation, TV and theatre, recently scoring the feature films ‘Dare to be Wild’, ‘Out of Innocence’ and an animated short for Cartoon Saloon (Late Afternoon) which won the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival for shorts.
James Mahon is the Uilleann piper for KILA, an esteemed Irish World Music group. Bruce Brubaker has been presented by Carnegie Hall and has performed with orchestras throughout the U.S. and has toured Europe, South America, and Asia. Christopher Odo, an eclectic artist and designer, has worked with Maureen Fleming since 1993 in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Russia and was in the original Tony Award-winning M. Butterfly on Broadway.
La MaMa is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. The Tony Award-winning organization has a worldwide reputation for producing daring performance works that defy form and transcend barriers of ethnic and cultural identity. Founded in 1961 by award-winning theatre pioneer Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has presented more than 5,000 productions by 150,000 artists from more than 70 nations. A recipient of more than 30 Obie Awards and dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie, and Villager Awards, La MaMa has helped launch the careers of countless artists, many of whom have made important contributions to American and international arts milieus. La MaMa’s 57th season highlights artists of different generations, gender identities, and cultural backgrounds, who question social mores and confront stereotypes, corruption, bigotry, racism, and xenophobia in their work. La Mama’s stages embrace diversity in every form and present artists that persevere with bold self-expression despite social, economic, and political struggle and the 57th season reflects the urgency of reaffirming human interconnectedness.
Irish Arts Center, founded in 1972 and based in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, is a national and international home for artists and audiences of all backgrounds who share a passion for the evolving arts and culture of contemporary Ireland and Irish America. The institution presents, develops, promotes, tours, and distributes work from established and emerging artists and cultural practitioners, providing audiences with emotionally and intellectually transporting experiences—the results of innovation, collaboration, and the authentic celebration of our common humanity. Steeped in grassroots traditions, with a commitment to inclusion that dates back to its founding, Irish Arts Center provides education programs and access to the arts for people of all ages and ethnic, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, and an international home for the Irish community to come together and engage with a dynamic global diaspora. Later this year, Irish Arts Center will break ground on a landmark new permanent home, including a state-of-the-art contemporary, flexible performance and arts space for the presentation and development of work across a range of disciplines; a second, intimate performance space—the renovated historic Irish Arts Center theatre—optimized for the most intimate live music and conversation, recordings, master classes and special events; classrooms and studio spaces for community education programs in Irish music, dance, language, history, and the humanities; technology to stream and distribute the Irish Arts Center experience on the digital platform; a spacious and vibrant avenue-facing café lobby that will be a hospitable hub for conversation and interaction between artists and audiences; and a beautiful new courtyard entrance on 51st Street where the historic Irish Arts Center building and the new facility meet.
WILDFLOWERS, A FEMININE GENESIS runs October 18 - 21, Thursday – Saturday at 7pm and Sunday at 3pm. The Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa is located at 66 East 4th Street, 2nd floor (between 2nd & 3rd Aves -- accessible from the F train at 2nd Ave). Tickets are $30 / $25 for students/seniors, available at 866-811-4111 or www.lamama.org.