Before the Rain

Choreographer:  

Dean Saifullin

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Music:

'Kothbiro' by Ayub Ogada

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Costume Design:  

Dean Saifullin, Houyu Pan, Luis Moreno, Cari Smith

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Performers:  

Dean Saifullin, Houyu Pan

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This work is about fractured relationships. After a confrontation, two people keep living together in a shared space. Even though the small room keeps them close, they cannot see, hear or talk to each other and begin transforming into walls of the room itself that are also blind, deaf, mute, and unyielding. Life seems to them slowed down, unchanging, and going in circles. As Frank Lloyd Wright said, "A building is not just a place to be but a way to be."  Will rain save them from drought in the Taliesin West desert utopia?

Dean (Dinar) Saifullin is an Arizona State University first-year graduate student in Dance, teaching assistant. Focused on research in Interdisciplinary Digital Media and Performance. Before moving to the U.S., had been working as a professional dancer with Kazan City Dance Company. In 2018 – 2021, he worked as a Visiting Choreographer and Assistant Stage Director at Kazan Federal University and staged dance works for student art festivals.

Enyato

Choreographer:  

Jayne Lee

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Music:

Ross Edwards, “Enyato”

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Costume Design:  

Jayne Lee

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Performers:  

Jayne Lee

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Taliesin was a sixth century Welsh poet, a patron of all creative people. Frank Lloyd Wright was inspired to call his Wisconsin home Taliesin and his desert home Taliesin West. This dance is born out of the desert and ultimately returns to the earth. Birth, life, death, appearance and disappearance, finding a place to call home. This work is inspired by Taliesin, the desert wind, the architecture of Taliesin West and by the Dale Chihuly sculptures currently at Taliesin West.

Born in Wales, Jayne trained in London at The Place, and at The Juilliard School in NYC, she danced and choreographed for London Contemporary Dance Theatre for 10 years. She moved to Flagstaff to become a Grand Canyon River Guide and still guides river trips in the summers. Jayne co-founded Human Nature Dance Theatre and Studio, an interdisciplinary performance collective. She produced and directed the film DanceDownRiver, a tribute to wildness and water. Jayne is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner.

Prepare for Morning

Choreographer:

Spencer Dennis

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Music:

You Are My Sunshine - Recorded by Spencer Dennis

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Performer:  

Spencer Dennis

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Frank Lloyd Wright defined his work as Organic Architecture. To build in harmony with humanity and nature. “Prepare for Morning” is one man’s realization that no matter what he does, what he creates, or what he becomes he will always be a part of nature. He will always be organic.

Spencer Dennis is a movement artist from Phoenix, Arizona. Over the past ten years he has studied and worked professionally in performance, production, and film. His work is often based on observation of the human condition and aims to explore vulnerability, physicality, and risk.

Creosote

Choreographer:  

Elisa Marie Reed

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Music:

"Come to Light" Brendan Rincon

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Costume Design:

Elisa Marie Reed

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Performer:

Elisa Marie Reed

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"Creosote" was created from similar inspiration as Taliesin West. It looks to the landscape and the life within the desert as the basis of creation. It acknowledges the who and what resided here prior to the architectural structure in hopes to inspire an appreciation of the spirit of the land.

Elisa Marie Reed of Phoenix graduated from ASU with her MFA in Dance in 2020 and holds a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts. She has worked as an aerial and dance performer and teaching artist in Seattle, Chicago, Indianapolis and New Orleans, Phoenix and Flagstaff.

Salvation

Choreographer:  

Nicole L Olson

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Music:

  "Le Penseur" by Shomit Barua and Topu Lyo

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Performers:  

Nicole L Olson

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This solo piece speaks about the vulnerability of being and artist and creative endeavors. It can define who we are or build walls that we hide behind for protection. Inspired by the inventive drive, writings, and stories of Frank Lloyd Wright. "An idea is salvation by imagination." ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

Olson is the Artistic Director of NicoleOlson|MovementChaos, a project-based company, focusing on site-specific and public art. Nicole’s work has been presented in national venues such as the Kennedy Center (DC), Ruth Page Center for the Arts (Chicago), and TBA Festival (Portland).

Maybe It'll Be Windy

Choreographer:  

Amy Symonds and Emily Laird

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Music:

By the Sea and Eternity and a Day by Eleni Karaindrou

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Performers:  

Amy Symonds and Emily Laird

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“The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. In that lies hope.” Guided by this quote from Frank Lloyd Wright, this work seeks to find the connection between yesterday and tomorrow in the ever-shifting present moment. Originally developed within the unique layout and design of Taliesin West, this reimagining for a tiny stage will allow the music of Eleni Karaindrou to inform its direction. Finding inspiration in the film Eternity And A Day, movement, sound, and visuals will be layered to mimic a conversation oscillating between dissonance and harmony.

Amy Symonds first began dancing in her early teens and discovered a true love for the art a few years later. She danced with the Youth American Ballet Company for two seasons performing both soloist and principal roles in The Nutcracker, Firebird, Giselle, and Paquita. Since then Amy has worked on numerous projects and shows with Convergence Ballet Company, Scorpius Dance Theatre, Instinct Dancecorps, ELEVATE DanceWorks, JordanDanielsDance, and CONDER|dance. Currently, she is developing her own choreographic voice in addition to performing and teaching around Arizona.

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Emily Laird, originally from Detroit, Michigan, is a freelance dance artist based in Phoenix, Arizona. Since receiving her BFA in dance performance from Arizona State University, Emily has been creating and performing movement-based work around the valley. She is currently in her fourth season with CONDER/dance and has danced professionally with Eileen Standley, Michael Spencer Phillips, and Jordan Daniels. Additionally, Emily has performed at the Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out stage and participated in movement residencies with Eric Handman, Zoe Scofield, and nueBOX.

it's about moths

Choreographer:  

Esteban Rosales

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Music:

Saunter - Arca

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Costume Design:

Esteban Rosales

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Performer:  

Esteban Rosales

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The white, maroon, and golden brown of Taliesin West pillows beneath the being that has shared its space with it since '37. It was always here, and it will always stay. Although fruitful, it grows tired of growth. Its vision too obscured for the desert flower in the dark. The body aches, decays even. But that's just how it feels sometimes until it doesn't. Writhing, gyrating, despairing, truly,

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it's about moths.

Immersed

Choreographer:  

Carley Conder

in collaboration with the dancers

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Music:

Violin Sonata No. 3 by Bach

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Performers:

Carley Conder

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“Immersed” is a duet for two women that explores the form and function of seven pools of water onsite at Taliesin West.  Never taking this resource for granted in the desert, this duet seeks to portray aspects of searching, finding, controlling and respecting water as an element of design and survival.  

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Carley Conder is Artistic Director of CONDER/dance, founded in Arizona in 2003. Based in Tempe, Carley has invested her time and talents towards providing opportunities for contemporary dance artists in Arizona. CONDER/dance enjoys artist-in-residence status at Tempe Center for the Arts and Carley’s recent projects include creative collaborations with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Wonderspaces.  Carley’s choreographhic work has been presented at Dixon Place (NYC), Center for Performance Research (Brooklyn), Martha Graham Studios (NYC), John Ryan Theater (Brooklyn), and the Diavolo Space (Los Angeles). She was profiled in "Phoenix's 100 Creatives" by the Phoenix NewTimes and chosen as “Best Dancer of 2015” by the Phoenix NewTimes. Carley has been the recipient of arts funding through the City of Tempe, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Target Arts Grants and the Consulate General of Israel.  Carley is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Dance in the School of Music, Dance and Theater at Arizona State University.  

Solitude, or is it Unity

Choreographer:  

Joanna Watsch

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Music:

Dona Nobis Pacem Domine, Taize

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Performer:

Joanna Watsch

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Dona Nobis Pacem was a beloved hymn of Frank Lloyd Wright that is commonly sung in Unitarian Universalist congregations. Translated to “grant us peace”, this arrangement was written for the Taize community in France and incorporates the biblical passage Matthew 5:9. While the piece centers around the meditative cycle of inhaling and exhaling, it explores expansion and contraction as a physical representation of asking and receiving, opening and protecting, believing and doubting. The heart of the dance centers on connection, forgiveness, and trust.

Joanna Watsch is a local burlesque artist and a company apprentice with Studio VaVaVoom in Tempe. Her roots in modern dance and performance art help shape the stories she tells on stage. Her work is driven by her need to share her vulnerability and let herself be seen.

Co-regulation

Choreographer:  

Sam Arrow

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Music:

Forever and Planning Date by Labrinth

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Performers:

Alicia Nascimento Castro, Liliana Gomez, Sam Arrow, Zarina Mendoza

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This work represents Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideals about community, building with the landscape and supporting humanity with respect for nature. “All fine architectural values are human values, else not valuable.” - Frank Lloyd Wright. This dance is where our humanity and community meet, where we can lean on or lift up each other, where we are safe to experiment, create, collaborate and build.

Sam Arrow is a dance artist creating work that feels both personal and universal. Their art centers on family needs within ableist, heteronormative, oppressive structures. They are a micro activist who draws on their life as a parent and partner, and knowledge about the human body to empower those around them. They are a Permanent Artist in Residence with [nueBOX] and a pelvic floor physical therapist.