Minh Tran & Company
presents
Forgotten Memories
Friday, April 6 @ 7:30PM
Saturday, April 7 @ 7:30PM & 9PM
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St, Portland Oregon
http://www.wonderballroom.com
$22 / $20 / $20 (General / Student & Senior/Working Artist)
Wonder Ballroom Box Office: 503.284.8686
or any Ticketmaster Outlets 503.790.ARTS
Information: 503.998.0381, http://www.mtdance.org
/24-7PressRelease/ - PORTLAND, OR, March 04, 2007 - Minh Tran & Company kicks off its 2007 spring season with the completed rendition of Tran's latest work, "Forgotten Memories" at Portland's Wonder Ballroom before heading off to Alaska for repertory performances in Anchorage.
Called "a blistering evocation of genocide's ghosts," by the Oregonian at it's 2005 work-in-progress premier, Forgotten Memories centers on Tuol Sleng [hill of the poison tree], an abandoned suburban Phnom Penh high school that was code-named S-21and transformed into a Khmer Rouge interrogation center from 1975-1979. Headed by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge combined extremist ideology, ethnic animosity, and a disregard for human life to produce murder on a massive scale. Approximately 1.7 million people lost their lives (21% of the country's population) under the Pol Pot regime. Over 17,000 prisoners were interrogated, tortured, and executed inside the walls of S-21.
Tran toured S-21 in 2004 while on exchange in Cambodia with the Mekong Project, a program of Dance Theater Workshop in New York. After the first work-in-progress showing of Forgotten Memories in 2005, Tran returned to Cambodia to conduct additional research in order to complete the work.
Endeavoring to engage the audience viscerally through the combined mediums of film, original music, sets and movement, the completed Forgotten Memories will be performed as an installation piece rather than in the more familiar proscenium setting. Tran hopes that by eliminating the "fourth wall" and inviting the audience to directly bear witness by being physically near and spatially integrated into the work, they will acquire a first-hand taste of the devastation of war.
Tran's company of dancers (Jae Diego, Jennifer Hong-Berdine, Carla Mann, Samuel Hobbs, Tiffany Watson and Tran), along with long-time collaborators visual artist Christine Bourdette, filmmakers Chel White and Ryan Jeffrey, composer Dariush Dolat-shahi, and lighting designer Melina Rodriguez, combine talents to create a compelling response to this atrocity. The development of Forgotten Memories is made possible in part with support from the Regional Arts & Culture Council, and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
Contributing Artists
Minh Tran's (Choreographer/ Artistic Director) choreography is characterized by its fusion of traditional Asian technique with a contemporary sensibility. Born in Vietnam, Mr. Tran immigrated to the United States in 1980 as a political refugee. In addition to receiving dance training in classical Vietnamese opera at the National School of Fine and Performing Arts in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), he holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Washington and Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration / Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis from Portland State University. Tran's work has been performed nationally in the western United States, at Dance Theatre Workshop in New York, and internationally in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam and has received funding from the Regional Arts & Culture Council, White Bird / Tiffany & Company New Works Fund; Oregon Arts Commission, UCLA's Asian & Pacific Performance Exchange Initiative; Dance Theater Workshop Suitcase Fund's Mekong Project (with support from the Rockefeller Foundation). In 2003 Minh Tran & Company was awarded a production and touring grant from the Doris Duke Fund for Dance of the National Dance Project, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts with funding from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Altria Group, Inc.
Christine Bourdette (Visual Designer) is a sculptor based in Portland, Oregon who works in a wide variety of materials, exhibiting in the Northwest and across the United States. She is the recipient of the 1992 Bonnie Bronson Fellowship and the 2000 Regional Arts & Culture Council's Individual Artist Fellowship. In addition to her studio work, she has been awarded numerous public commissions for her art in Oregon, Washington and Florida. Her work is represented in Portland by the Elizabeth Leach Gallery.
Dariush Dolat-shahi (Composer) began his study of traditional Persian music at age ten at the Tehran Conservatory of
Music. He earned a bachelor degree from Tehran University, studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music and at the
Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, continuing his studies in electronic music at Columbia University where he received his
doctorate degree. Dolat-shahi is a composer, lecturer and musician known for his improvisational work on the Persian tar
and setar. His performances have received critical acclaim nationally and internationally.
Ryan Jeffery (Filmmaker) has emerged as one of Portland's most ambitious and innovative filmmakers. His elaborately constructed films and installations emphasize color, rhythm and atmosphere, and feature close collaboration with musicians, including the multimedia band Adelaide, of which he is a founding member.
Malina Rodriguez (Lighting Design) recently left a steady job in theater to pursue a new passion -- lighting design and tech direction for dance and performance art. So far, she has been fortunate enough to work on various projects with Tanhi Holt and Monster Squad, Marty Schnapf, on Aviator's 22º Halo, and with Mike Barber/Cydney Wilkes. Malina is also the technical director of PICA's TBA Festival where she first worked with Minh Tran in 2003.
Chel White (Filmmaker) has been working as an independent filmmaker for 20 years. With a background in animation and experimental film, his short films consistently defy categorization. Chel's work explores such territories as love, obsession, alienation, death, transcendence, memories, and dreams. He often uses allegory and black humor to paint indelible pictures of the human experience in the age of science. From Sundance to Berlin to Hiroshima, Chel White's short films have been exhibited in film festivals all over the world, and recognized with many awards. Described as a cinematic poet, his work is intricate, beautiful and sublime. Dreams and dream images are ongoing resources in his work.
Minh Tran & Company is a nonprofit dance organization. Please visit http://www.mtdance.org for more information.
About Minh Tran & Company
Minh Tran & Company is a nonprofit dance organization based in Portland, Oregon under artistic direction of Vietnamese-American choreographer Minh Tran, a recipient of the 2005 Oregon Art Commission Individual Fellowship Award. With a growing body of original and distinctive contemporary dance work and an increasing national presence, the company is noted for its singular fusion of traditional and contemporary techniques. Spanning architectural, cultural and social contexts, Minh Tran & Company's repertory reflects its choreographer's fascination with the personal identity, popular culture, sense of place, and the compelling interplay of eastern and western traditions. The Company aims to promote artistic dialogue and educational exchange with audiences and communities through the use of artistic expression as a catalyst for breaking down cultural and racial barriers.
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