Moment's Notice is back for one show this season:

Saturday, November 13
8pm
$8-15 sliding scale

Western Sky Studio
2525 8th St., Berkeley, CA 94710

featuring:

Gray de Young & Andy Water Schmeder : theater
Jon Raskin, Gino Robair, Meghan Ballog, & Tania Llambelis : music & dance
Katarina Eriksson & Rosemary Hannon : dance
Lilli & Henry Misner : theater & music
Owen Walker : theater

Here's a hint of what you'll see:

Gray de Young is just back from New Mexico, where she performed a one-woman show, Burst! For Moment's Notice, she and Andy Water Schmeder will do "Full Disclosure(tm) brand improv", which she describes as "a quick little improv-ditty where we moment-to-moment take no prisoners, not even (and especially not) ourselves. Info about Gray, including videos of past performances, are at http://www.grayperforms.com/

Jon Raskin returns to Moment's Notice for a musical duet with Gino Robair. Jon is a founding member of Rova Saxaphone Quartet and his accomplishments are too great to list -- check out http://www.jonraskin.com/ for details. Every time Jon performs at Moment's Notice, everyone is happy!

Gino Robair owns Rastascan Records and is an associate editor for Electronic Musician magazine. Besides collaborating with Jon in the Rova Saxaphone Quartet and the Jon Raskin Quartent, he has performed and/or recorded with Anthony Braxton, Tom Waits, John Butcher, LaDonna Smith, Otomo Yoshihide, Eugene Chadbourne, John Zorn, Nina Hagen, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Myra Melford, The Club Foot Orchestra, and he is a founding member of the Splatter Trio. Read more about him & find videos here: http://www.bayimproviser.com/

Nuyorican performer Tania Llambelis lives in Oakland, CA and teaches at ASCEND School. She enjoys clowning, multi-lingual vocal improvisation, as well as dancing tango and samba. Her curiosity about the intersection between dance and theatre began during her time as an undergraduate at Wesleyan University. Recent venues where Ms. Llambelis has performed include: Fresno Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and SomArts Cultural Center.

Katarina Eriksson & Rosemary Hannon will perform another of their experiments towards their envisioned improvisation-based "dansical". They call tonight's duet I'm Only Dancing 4. Rosemary co-produces Moment's Notice, teaches Contact improvisation and performs with Nono Dance (http://www.artsomatic.org/nono/company/rosemary-hannon). Katarina co-founded Moment's Notice way back in 2000. Her latest performance endeavours include touring with Hoppalappa Postfolki Tanziteatteri in Sweden and Germany, and directing a multi-disciplinary improv ensemble piece at Earthdance, Massachusetts.

Lilli Misner has studied clowning, dance, theatre and improvisation and creates solo and ensemble works combining her interests in creative writing, music making, movement, dance and theatre. Some of these pieces have been performed in and around San Francisco. Other works, she says, "are still yet to be born!" Lilli is "most happy while digging her hands in soil, watching flowers grow and grow, writing, playing with children, dancing, jumping, banging on pots and pans, making art with others, and imagining Great Things."

Henry Misner began exploring music at the age 16 with the electric guitar and has not stopped ever since. Eventually learning bass, drums and keyboards, he records and performs under the moniker Toba, a blend of psychadelic rock and melodic electronica with vocals. He has performed with bands such as Creatura, Misner and Smith, and is currently playing bass with Magic Leaves. One of his newest ventures is composing music for different visual media. His music can be heard at reverbnation.com/#!/tobamusic.

Owen Walker returns to Moment's Notice with another Action Theater solo. Last time he joined us, this improv genius managed to weave fatherhood, domesticity, a squirrel, life, death, and things that can/cannot be put off into a tight funny story. Owen is a superb teacher too btw. His web site is:

www.actiontheaterbayarea.com

Kim Criswell, Moment's Notice's other co-curator and co-producer, will MC. Her website is www.awarenessarts.com

See you at Western Sky!

PS: You're always welcome to comment below about how you much you've enjoyed any of these performers at past shows!

Summer vacation

It's summertime, and Moment's Notice is taking a break. We'll be back in the fall, after improvising in far off places. Wishing you all a glorious season of sun.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

8:00 p.m.

Western Sky Studio
2525 8th St.
Berkeley, CA 94710

$8 - $15 sliding scale admission, tickets available at the door.

Performances by:

Cathie Caraker : dance

Katarina Eriksson : dance

Imaginary Friends (Abhay Ghiara, Kim Criswell, Krista Gullickson) : theater

Valerie Smith & Stuart Phillips : dance

Titter (Aurora Josephson, Tony Dryer, Jacob Felix Heule, Kanko Nishi) : music

Tumbleheart (Evan Specter, Jonathan Walker, George Carver) : theater

...And probably a surprise or two...


Here's a little more detail:

Cathie Caraker is an international dance artist and teacher. Her solo performance work has been presented in NYC by Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace at St. Mark's Church, Movement Research at the Judson Church, University Settlement House and the New York Improvisation Festival, and elsewhere in N. America, Europe, Argentina and Brazil. She was recently Artist-in-Residence at CounterPULSE in San Francisco, where she premiered a new work in collaboration with Katarina Eriksson. (Photo by Frank Revi.)


Katarina Eriksson, back again from Sweden and from the EarthDance E/merge Festival, will be dancing. Katarina coproduces and is cofounder of Moment's Notice. She also teaches dance and improvisation, tours with Hoppalappa Postfolki Tanziteatteri in Sweden, and performed at the SF Fringe Festival with Rowena Richie's LandEscape, a dance theater piece based on Michael Pollan’s texts.

Katarina and Cathie never fail to mesmerize. Often, they collaborate (like when they teamed up for a residency at CounterPulse to produce ANIMoid.) This time, they're each dancing solo... unless another inspiration strikes. In any case, this is going to be good!


Imaginary Friends (Kim Criswell, Abhay Ghiara & Krista Gullickson) has been working together as a physical theater improv trio for over ten years, mostly experimenting in its own private Imaginary Friends Improv Lab. Someone once said they were like "Butoh meets the Marx Brothers." However, Imaginary Friends performs neither Butoh nor vaudevillian comedy. They just like madcap minimalism.


Valerie Smith & Stuart Phillips will perform "Love As Is". This duet bridges the gap between thinking and acting, responding immediately to chosen stimuli in an out of control matter to resolve inner issues through feminine release, the outcome being more life, resolve and questions answered with more evolved vibrancy and refreshing charge.

Stuart Phillips has been pruning and performing improvisation for 28 years and contact improv for 22 years, investigating everything real through contact mode.

Val Smith is dance artist who engages with movement education, performance, and somatic research. Her performance work explores collaboration, creative practice, and composition. Inspired by the intrinsic social politics of Contact Improvisation, Val is currently working with the relational experience of self in dance; how we come to know and identify with ‘self’ and ‘other’, and how does language along with our assumptions and beliefs affect our dance interactions? Val moved to Eugene, Oregon from New Zealand in 2008 and founded Humdance, a proposition for somatic research, practice and performance.

Titter is a music ensemble featuring Tony Dryer (double bass), Jacob Felix Heule (drums), Kanko Nishi (Koto), and Aurora Josephson (voice).


Evan Specter, Jonathan Walker and George Carver are founding members of Tumbleheart, a 3 year old ensemble that transforms recent, memorable life experiences into story, in real-time. They compose spontaneous memoir-scapes, co-written in the moment with one or more members of the ensemble. The memoirs emerge and take shape (in physical movement, with spoken or sung narrative) on the stage in a manner that reveals the deep streams of meaning and emotion that lay within everyday experiences. Tumbleheart’s work is based on ten years studying Motion Theater with the pioneers of this style of theater-making, Nina Wise and Corey Fischer. For more about Motion Theater, visit ninawise.com. Check out www.Tumbleheart.org for more about Evan, Jonathan and George.

And... of course, it's improv, and it's Moment's Notice, so there are always surprises.

See you there!

Moment's Notice returns!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

8:00 p.m.

Western Sky Studio
2525 8th St.
Berkeley, CA 94710

$8 - $15 sliding scale admission

Performances by:

Aurora Josephson & friends : music

Cathie Caraker : dance

Evan Specter & friends : theater

Katarina Eriksson : dance

Eric Glick Rieman : music

Sten Rudstrom : theater

Valerie Smith & Stuart Phillips : dance

...And perhaps a surprise or two...


Here's a little more detail:

(May 11 update: Eric & Sten cancelled. But there's good news: Evan Specter & friends will perform Motion Theater, a form created by Nina Wise. We've also got other another musician lined up; more info to come.)

Bay Area music improv legend Eric Glick Reiman will be playing prepared rhodes piano... (Click on his name: it links to his MySpace page with YouTube video & music samples.)


Katarina Eriksson, back again from Sweden and from the EarthDance E/merge Festival, will be dancing. Katarina coproduces and is cofounder of Moment's Notice. She also teaches dance and improvisation, tours with Hoppalappa Postfolki Tanziteatteri in Sweden, and performed at the SF Fringe Festival with Rowena Richie's LandEscape, a dance theater piece based on Michael Pollan’s texts.


Cathie Caraker is an international dance artist and teacher. Her solo performance work has been presented in NYC by Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace at St. Mark's Church, Movement Research at the Judson Church, University Settlement House and the New York Improvisation Festival, and elsewhere in N. America, Europe, Argentina and Brazil. She was recently Artist-in-Residence at CounterPULSE in San Francisco, where she premiered a new work in collaboration with Katarina Eriksson. (Photo by Frank Revi.)


Katarina and Cathie never fail to mesmerize. Often, they collaborate (like when they teamed up for a residency at CounterPulse to produce ANIMoid.) This time, they're each dancing solo... unless another inspiration strikes. In any case, this is going to be good!


Also dancing for us: Valerie Smith & Stuart Phillips.


Sten Rudstrom lives in Berlin now, teaching and performing Action Theater, a form of physical theater improvisation. So, this is a rare chance to see him. His work is edgy and often exquisite. Maybe you've seen him on past visits, or when he was a Bay Area resident; before he moved to Europe, he did many solo shows, collaborated with Cassie Terman at Moment's Notice and elsewhere, and also performed with InkBoat.


And... of course, it's improv, and it's Moment's Notice, so there are always surprises.

See you there!

Moment's Notice in March

March 20, 2010

Showtime: 8:00 pm
Tickets: $8-15

Western Sky Studio 2525 8th Street, Berkeley

Performers include:
Claire Peaslee - Theater
Kim Criswell - Theater
Diana Lara & Bonner Odell - Dance
Nicki Koethner & Diahna Fortuna - Dance
Rae Shao-Lan Blum - Dance
Rosemary Hannon & Vitali Kononov - Dance
Shay Nichols & Green Huse - Music

Tickets available at door.

For reservations call 510-992-6295 or email MomentsNoticeInfo (at) gmail.com

About the performers:

Claire Peaslee is a citizen of Point Reyes and has a life practice in Action Theater. She wanders in, beholds, and converses with the living world in a field of inquiry known as nature-laughter. Her newest experiment, with kindred improvisers, involves taking instruction from the Earth -- Listening To Gaia. For this equinox Moments Notice, Claire is solo and plans nothing, thank you.



Kim Criswell never does solos, because she loves collaboration. So tonight, she's doing a solo. Like Claire Peaslee, Kim is a long time Action Theater improviser. She's also a former dancer who likes Butoh, performance art, certain cirque-y clown stuff... She has a masters' degree in Transformational Art, so she hopes she can successfully (and artistically) transform herself from Moment's Notice co-producer into... well... we'll just have to find out, won't we? Her work often playfully pokes fun at the catastrophe of being human.

Diana Lara is a choreographer and dancer from Honduras. She graduated from the Choreography Program of the Center for Research and Choreography at the Mexican National Institute of Fine Arts (2003) and from the Somatic Research and Participatory Arts program offered by Moving-on-Center in Oakland, California (2007). She has worked as a dancer and choreographer for contemporary dance groups in México (Caída Libre and Luna Roja) and Honduras (Danza Libre), participating in festivals in Mexico and Central America. At this time, she works as an independent artist developing projects based in the exploration of somatic elements and improvisation.

For Moment’s Notice, Diana will present a structured, improvised piece about our relationships with ourselves, others, space, and time. The piece was developed in collaboration with Bay Area dancer and choreographer Bonner Odell. The music is from Ariel Guzik and was edited by John Rodgers.

Rae Shao-Lan Blum will perform an experimental dance and music improvisation, with a friend who will play music. Rae is the recipient of a Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange (CHIME) Grant 2008 with mentor, Simone Forti. Creating performances for stage, film and site specific locations since 1999, Blum's work spans literary, installation and performance. Blum began her early dance training in New York City in the studios of Alvin Ailey, Jose Limon and Movement Research. In addition to performing, choreographing and directing, she teaches classes and workshops in dance technique, composition and improvisation.

nono dance (Rosemary Hannon & Vitali Kononov) : dance

Nono Dance is a performance collective dedicated to conceptually, visually, and aurally framed improvisation. Formed by Rosemary Hannon and Vitali Kononov in 2007, Nono Dance investigates the somatic realms of dance performance. Nono’s improvisational work explores expanded awareness through non-doing. This authenticity in performance elicits a shared experiential field with the audience, offering somatic resonance and rich imagined non-linear narratives. (nonodance.info)

Free Roaming Chicks (Diahna Fortuna and Nicki Koethner) will perform Syncopated Dreams, a structured, improvised piece about relationship dynamics including spoken word and movement. Syncopated Dreams explores the dynamics integral with bisexual identity. Two dancers explore each other. They are in the moment. They respond. They react. They enable a world of possibility within any relationship.

Diahna Fortuna is founder of Fortuna Life Bodywork & Movement, teaching ways to embody creative power and enrich mind-body connection. In private practice since 1994, Diahna draws on an extensive repertoire of techniques and her BA in dance. She has been performing in theater and dance since she was four years old and has been teaching Essential Motion classes & groups throughout the Bay Area since 2000. She's studied with Karen Roeper, founder of Essential Motion, since 1997 and continues to assist Karen's trainings and groups in the U.S. Diahna enjoys inspiring her clients, students, and audience members in becoming more enlivened, relaxed, and joyful in their bodies. http://fortunalife.com and http://www.essential-motion.com/

Nicki Koethner is a multimedia artist, Marriage and Family Therapist and Expressive Art Therapist, specializing in spirituality, creativity, sexuality, attachment, trauma and parenting. She has given Expressive Arts workshops and performances in NY, the Bay Area and in Germany. Her performance work is inspired by her practice of Body Tales and Authentic Movement. She is a passionate advocate of the Expressive Arts for healing trauma as well as celebrating our aliveness and common humanity in sustainability. She is the Executive Co-Chair of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association and is on the Board of Body Tales. She is a bisexual modern-day mystic who is curious about how the psyche expresses itself in the here and now and loves to explore consciousness and touch others through embodied experience.



A singer and vocal improviser from the Bay area, Shay Nichols loves creating music for the moment. Inspired by vocal traditions from around the world, she sings in imaginary languages that are a bridge from the primal to the sublime. Shay recently completed the CIIS Voice/Sound Healing certificate program and is certified as a Sound Practitioner through the Open Ear Center. Her work combines the freedom of improvisation with the wisdom of sound healing traditions to encourage well being and transformation.



Green Huse is a songwriter with an unforgettable voice and a warm performance style. She loves to write songs; she loves to sing them. She takes the listener on a journey through her most recent incarnations of life. Departing from an insecure innocence, traveling to deep jungles and dreams within her heart, she reaches a humble, ecstatic destination.

Last night's show raised $370 for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières!

Thanks to the Moment's Notice audience & performers, we were able to make two donations today, this one and another, totaling $370.

The performers were amazing, too.

Dance, narrative theater, and music, all masterful and each referencing or evoking nature. But don't take my word for it. Here's an email we received:

Doesn't everyone think last night was about the best MoNo ever? I was enthralled from start to finish -- and wowed by the high level, diversity, and gorgeous execution of the performances. THANK you all for producing this thing (and for considering the Haitian sorrow...)

If you weren't there, here's what you missed:

Margit Galanter opened the show with a solo dance. She transformed the space with a few simple props, including large paper circles on the wall and floor. Then she transformed herself, again and again. After the show, she gave away gift certificates for her Physical Intelligence body work sessions, which combine acupressure and Feldenkrais. She teaches, too. Contemplative Dance, Tuning… Definitely worth checking out: http://physicalintelligence.org/)

Owen Walker followed, doing an Action Theater solo about fatherhood, domesticity, a squirrel, life, death, and things that can/cannot be put off. He wove these themes into a tight, funny story. Owen is a superb teacher, too, btw. He leads a weekly class and he's teaming up with Linda Rodeck -- you might remember her from our 11/7/09 Moment's Notice -- to offer a workshop on Jan. 30-31: http://www.actiontheaterbayarea.com

Anka Draugelates & Cheryl Leonard played music on instruments made of reeds, stones, water, wood -- mostly things collected in nature. It was ethereal, moody, fascinating -- and hard to take our eyes off them. But, we did, because they were joined by surprise guests: exquisite dancers from Capacitor (Jody Lomask, Mayuko Hosoai, Marvin Vergara and Ashley Johnson). They're collaborating on a series of workshops and dances to raise awareness and funds for marine sanctuary, The Ocean Project: http://capacitor.org/

Olivia Corson gave us an engaging Body Tales narrative about motherhood, bats, and environmental crisis. It was personal in a way that made the political come alive, and vice versa (If you define ecological issues as political, that is. Anyway, I went home and Googled "bats dying"; now I want to do a fundraiser for them, too. Go ahead and Google it yourself. I dare you to. ) Olivia teaches her way of blending dance with storytelling, and she's gifted at creating a nurturing environment for risk-taking; here's her website: http://www.bodytales.com/

The evening ended with Rajendra Serber and Kristen Greco dancing gorgeously to another set of Anka's and Cheryl's exquisite nature-inspired music. Rajendra is just so fun, and he'll be teaching contact improv at Counterpulse in February: http://counterpulse.org/calendar/classes-and-workshops/

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this evening so satisfying! We "heart" you!

Raising funds for Haiti

We've decided to donate funds (after expenses) for the January 16 show to Doctors Without Borders, to help them help survivors of the earthquake in Haiti. We hope to see you there! (Show details are in the post below.)

Come see us on January 16!

Our next show is shaping up to be another good one. Here are details, bios, & links to more info:

Moment's Notice

Western Sky Studio
2525 8th St.
Berkeley, CA 94710

8pm, Saturday, Jan. 16
Tickets sliding scale, $8-$15

Featuring improvised performances by:

Anka Draugelates & Cheryl Leonard - music/sound art
Margit Galanter - dance
Olivia Corson - body tales
Owen Walker - action theater
Rajendra Serber - dance

..and inevitable surprises...


Anka Draugelates & Cheryl Leonard are doing a piece called "winterstillness."

Anka Draugelates was born in Munich, Germany. She is an improvisational voice artist and musician who composes both experimental and classical pieces. Draugelates studied music therapy in the Netherlands at hoogeschool nijmegen and received her diploma in 1996. Draugelates has participated in solo and group shows throughout Germany, Europe and San Francisco. She enjoys working collaboratively, and has worked extensively with diverse artists, including filmmakers, visual artists, dancers and musicians.

Cheryl Leonard is a composer, performer, improviser and instrument builder. Over the last decade she has focused on investigating sounds, structures, and objects from the natural world. Leonard’s works cultivate stones, leaves, wood, water, sand, shells, feathers, and bones as musical instruments in compositions that reveal the unique voices hidden within these materials. Leonard’s music has been performed worldwide and featured in several television and video documentaries. She has received grants from ASCAP, the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, American Composers Forum and Meet the Composer, and awarded residencies at Djerassi, Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Villa Montalvo and Engine 27. www.allwaysnorth.com



Margit Galanter is a movement artisan and collaborative investigator. Her fascination regarding the construction and value of movement has led her to improvising for many years. Margit’s practices span forms such as the Feldenkrais Method®, Wild Goose Qigong, tuning scores, acupressure, and improvisational dance/research/performance, coalescing. She lives in Oakland, where she practices Physical Intelligence and co-curates the SEEDS Festival. To learn more about her biz, check here: www.physicalintelligence.org and for art matters, www.margitg.wordpress.com.

 For Moment’s Notice, Margit will present a chapter of Y, a long term project that investigates the androgyne and the beginning of the word.


Olivia Corson is a spirited and inspiring San Francisco Bay Area movement theater artist, noted for her powerful and transformative teaching and performance work. She skillfully interweaves movement and story, feeling and thought, the sacred and the ordinary, with humor and compassion. Corson has performed hundreds of evenings of improvised narrative dance pieces and been a much-loved teacher for over 30 years. She has also created — written, choreographed and directed — many movement theater pieces over many years, (including her pivotal one woman eco-theater show, "Third Stone From the Sun." For more info: www.bodytales.com


Owen Walker teaches and performs improvisation in the Bay Area. Originally a visual artist, he gave up brushes and paint for a more immediate medium - the expressive body. As a performance artist and dancer, Owen was captivated by Ruth Zaporah's work (www.actiontheater.com); he began studying with her intensively in the early nineties. Owen's training also includes vocal work with the Roy Hart Theater, Authentic Movement, Contact Improvisation and modern dance. Owen is a member of the International Action Theater Ensemble. For seven years he was a member of Mobius Artists Group in Boston. Owen also co-founded Four Goats and a Virgin, an improvisational theater ensemble. He has performed throughout New England, New York, the Bay Area, and in France.


Rajendra Serber was a 2008 recipient of the Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange award. He directed and performed in his own multimedia group, The RK Corral, supported by grants form the Zellerbach Family Fund, had residencies at The LAB and 848 Community Space, and was nominated for multiple Isadora Duncan Awards and Lester Horton Dance Awards. From 1996 to 1997 he was the Associate Producer of House of Dance, which was broadcast bimonthly on San Francisco’s public access channel. As a dancer, Rajendra has had the privilege of collaborating with many wonderful artists: The Residents, Scott Wells, Sara Shelton Mann, Ilaan Egeland, Jon Weaver, Kimiko Guthrie and Eric Kupers of Dandelion Dancetheater.