On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 Dixon Place will present CRS Resident Artist Soomi Kim‘s work-in-progress “Testing Testing (Redux),” created with collaborator Zeke Stewart, as part of the dance series Fast Forward, curated by Sangeeta Yesley.
CRS is currently supporting development of Soomi’s new show, “Body Through Which the Dream Flows,” a dance/acro theatre work about gymnastics in the time of the #metoo and #cancelculture movements, which will feature Soomi (a veteran gymnastics coach, choreographer and theatre artist) as well as 6-7 competitive child gymnasts.
“Testing Testing” is a dance theatre work that extracts fragments of text, song and sound bytes from recording sessions by famous artists. Actor/dancer Soomi Kim dissects and craftily assembles pieces of recordings that explore conversations and the unplanned verbiage — from the ridiculous to the profound moments and the space in between, during recordings by celebrity artists. These pieces discover and uncover the fine line of brilliance and absurdity that celebrities experience in their lives and artistic process. This work was developed through the 2014 Mabou Mines Artist in Residence program. The residency was led by Sharon Fogarty, Joanne Akalaitis and David Neumann.
Tickets are $15 – $20 and are available online and at the door:
http://dixonplace.org/performances/fast-forward-4-13-22/
The theme of this installment of the series is “Embracing Absurdity.” Also on the bill is Digital Movement Dance performing “As We Roll Along,” choreographed by Daniel Morimoto.
Theater maker Soomi Kim is a New York City based actor/movement artist and has conceived (and co-devised with director Suzi Takahashi) a trilogy of work based on under recognized figures Asian American visionaries: Lee/gendary, Dictee and Chang(e). Kim’s autobiographical piece MLCG (My Little China Girl) was commissioned by Dixon Place and premiered in 2017. Residencies and awards: 2022 Deceleration Lab artist, Orchard Project’s Greenhouse Lab (2020-21), HERE A.I.R. (2015), Marble House AIR (2019), Hemispheric Institute (2014), Mabou Mines (2014). Grants: Center for Remembering and Sharing (2022) NPN Creation & Forth Fund, Heath Cote Fund, Urban Arts Initiative. 2009 NYITA winner.
soomikim.com
https://www.facebook.com/soomikimnyc
https://twitter.com/soomdawg
@soomdawg
Zëk Stewart was a resident artist with the Pillow Project, an experimental dance company. With them, they performed in 2084 (Redlight), Dirty Swan (Siegfried) and The Jazz Furnace (a 12 hour post-modern dance performance staged in the last blast-furnace in Pittsburgh). In NYC they have worked with NatlieInMotion, Witness Relocation, Alexandra Beller and Soomi Kim on new works of experimental theatre. Their work often questions the nature of reality and the malleability of social constructs played out in visceral display. They also reports about TTRPG news and design cocktails! Zëk has a B.A. in Musical Theatre from Point Park University.
Photo Credit: Leyna Papach for Soomi Kim.
Fast Forward is made possible, in part, with private funds from the Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and public funds from the NY State Council on the Arts with the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the NY State Legislature.