The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) presents Oscillating While Dreaming, a site-specific dance piece created by Dylan Crossman, in response to an installation of outdoor bronze sculptures– Wandering Mountain (2014) and Temptation (2014) – by the noted sculptor and leading figure in American art furniture, Wendell Castle. The performance will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2015 at 2pm and 4pm, in conjunction with Wendell Castle Remastered on view October 20, 2015 - February 28, 2016 at the Museum.
Oscillating While Dreaming is Crossman's attempt to animate the human hand in Castle's abstract sculptural works. Through an investigation of Castle's sculptural practice, Crossman explores his own creative process and in comparing the two, notes the need for art to acknowledge spontaneous accidents that lead the maker into new realms of discovery. Bridging sculpture and dance, Crossman simulates Castle's balance of organic and modern forms in a fluidly architectural performance that addresses "relative failure." Defining the limits of an idea, a concept, or a space becomes an integral part of the piece, even when it leads to dead-ends.
"Wendell Castle's sculptures are so incredibly dynamic. They are alive even in their stillness and the organic connection with my dancers and me exists as soon as we come in contact with the work." said Crossman. "Castle's sculptures become another set of bodies that we connect to and partner with, just as dancers so often become living sculptures. As the work develops, ambiguity lies in whether we frame them or they frame us."
Joining Crossman is long-time Merce Cunningham Dance Company dancer Lisa Boudreau and new Shen-Wei Dance Arts recruit Russell Stuart Lilie. Oscillating While Dreaming was commissioned for Wendell Castle Remastered by Katerina Llanes, Manager of Public Programs at MAD.
Costume design by Quinn Czejkowski in collaboration with Dylan Crossman.
Bios:
Dylan Crossman (Choreographer / Dancer) graduated from the Laban Centre (UK) in 2006 and performed at Burklyn Ballet Theatre before moving to New York. He joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 2009 after working daily with Cunningham for two years as an understudy. Now freelance, Crossman works with Kimberly Bartosik from Daela, Julia K. Gleich from Gleich Dances, Ryan McNamara, Sally Silvers and Pam Tanowitz.. He is a faculty member for the Cunningham Trust and a NYLA associate artist, as well as a substitute teacher for Purchase College. Crossman has returned to Burklyn Ballet Theatre as a master teacher. He also established his own company, Crossman Dans(c)e, in 2013. The company looks at identity issues in human behavior and has been presented by Abrons Arts Center, the 92nd Street Y: Fridays @ Noon Series, Roulette, and La MaMa. BOUND, his latest solo (2015) received a Foundation for Contemporary Art's emergency grant. Other awards include a Bessie Schonberg Award for his performance in Pam Tanowitz's Be in the Grey with me. In addition, Kid Birds, a project inspired by Merce Cunningham's work and performed by both French and political refugee middle-school children in France, won the French Cultural and Artistic Audacity Award in 2014.
Lisa Boudreau (Dancer), a graduate of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, was part of the Cunningham Dance Foundation Repertory Group from 1994 to 2008. Lisa currently teaches Cunningham technique classes at the Merce Cunningham Trust.
Russell Stuart Lilie (Dancer) graduated from Idyllwild Academy in 2008 and completed his BFA in Dance at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 2011. Since graduation, Russell has danced for Shen Wei Dance Arts, Greene Lilie, Dai Jian Dance, Jordan Isadore and others. His choreographic works have been presented at NYU, Danspace, La MaMa, Gibney Dance Center and Bennington College. He has also taught dance, dance composition and improvisation in New York, at Bennington College and at Beijing Normal University in China.
