12.02.2011

A Sunday Evening in December

Our next Moment's Notice is on SUNDAY, December 18th at 7pm.

That's a new night and time, but the location is the still Western Sky Studio in the Sawtooth Building at 2525 8th St., Berkeley, CA.

Tickets are sliding scale, $8-$20, available at the door.

We have some great performers this December.

Emily Fox is a physical theater performer who especially delights in improvisation. With her body, voice and presence (and possibly a prop or two), Emily becomes a conduit for characters and images that arise, as worlds form to be explored.

In 1999, Emily performed the solo improvisation Right this Way Into the Fire for the San Francisco Fringe Festival; her solo clown show, One or Two Things won Best of San Francisco Fringe in 2001. Her many ensemble performances over the years have included countless improvisational shows and Heaven’s Radio, with Shinichi lova-Koga’s inkBoat, in 2003. She is a graduate of the Dell Arte School of Physical Theater and has studied, practiced, and taught Action Theater.

Emily retired from theater eight years ago. This performance marks an unexpected return and a coming home.



Katarina Eriksson

Katarina Eriksson has been involved with improvisational dance since 1989, collaborating with Julyen Hamilton, Ray Chung, Cathie Caraker and others, teaching in Europe and the US, and co-curating Moments Notice, which she co-founded.

Recent performance endeavors include: Artist in Residency at CounterPULSE, touring in Sweden and Germany with improvising folk dance troupe Hoppalappa Postfolki Tanziteatteri, directing multi-disciplinary performances at Earthdance, Massachusetts and Movement Research at Judson Church, New York, and co-creating the site-specific performance piece A Perfectly Safe Hideout in Beirut, Lebanon.

For this show, she’s performing with Shree Shyam Das who she had the pleasure to work with in the E/merge Festival in Massachusetts a couple of years ago. They think of their piece as an audio-visual contact duet and calls it: Flying Bones.






Shree Shyam Das

Shree Shyam Das is a percussionist, bassist, and drummer who has worked with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, world-music pioneer Jai Uttal, beatbox/loop phenom Kid Beyond, the New Pickle Circus, Polish reggae band Village of Peace, Indian hip-pop diva Shakti, and world-renowned tabla artist Suphala, among others. His music is on the web at www.thatshyamguy.bandcamp.com and






Gray as Superhero X
Gray draws from an eclectic background of improv theater, dance, gymnastics, linguistics, Zen Buddhism and Corporate America to explore the intersections of identity, culture and spirituality.

Fresh from recent shows in Santa Fe and New York, Gray’s Superhero X continues her search for Who She Is by trying on her next identity: a performance artist. Audience becomes props, stage becomes performer, X becomes Who? Superhero X and the cast of Self-ish come to Moment's Notice to ask the audience Who are You? and what follows is... who knows, it's improv!

Find out more at www.GrayPerforms.com.




Cathie Caraker is an independent dance artist and teacher who has been developing her approach to movement research, improvisation and performance for donkey's years. Her performance work has been presented at theaters including Dance Theater Workshop, Judson Church and Danspace at St Mark's in NYC, Nestheaters in Amsterdam and CounterPULSE in San Francisco. She has also taught at institutes across Europe, North and South America. She currently lives in San Francisco, where she is a frequent collaborator with Katarina Eriksson, Rosemary Hannon and other local luminaries.







Kim Criswell performs improvised physical theater. Her performances often concern the poignant absurdity of being human, poking fun at habits of the mind (especially her own.) Kim occasionally leads workshops in the Bay Area and in Singapore, and she co-produces Moment’s Notice. Her website is www.awarenessarts.com.






This being Moment's Notice, a show all about experimental, wildly creative improvisation, we'll probably have a few surprises, as well. Hope to see you there!

11.24.2011

Save the date: we're doing a show on Sunday, Dec. 18th

Moment's Notice is back - with a new night & time:

SUNDAY, December 18th
7pm
Western Sky Studio
2525 8th St., Berkeley, CA

Sliding Scale: $8-$20 (Tickets will be available at the door on a pay what you will basis.)

As always, Moment's Notice will feature a variety of improvised performances, each lasting around 10-15 minutes. December's performers include:
  • Katarina Eriksson & Shree Shyam Das (dance & music)
  • Gray (theater)
  • Emily Fox (theater)
  • Kim Criswell (theater)
  • Cathie Caraker (dance)
More details will be posted soon.
 

8.19.2011

Summer Time!

Moment's Notice is on summer break.  Our next show will probably be in October.  If you're looking for an improv show this weekend, though, there's an Action Theater performance in Pt. Reyes. All of the performers (including me!) have performed many times over many years at Moment's Notice. 




6.10.2011

Here's who's performing at our June 18th show (8pm @ Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th St., Berkeley, CA):

Cathie Caraker & Henry Kaiser: dance & music 
Katarina Eriksson & Matt Shyka: dance 
Cameron Kelly: dance 
Shay Nichols: music 
Owen Walker: theater 


photo by Frank Revi
Cathie Caraker is an independent dance artist and teacher who has been developing her approach to movement research, improvisation and performance for donkey's years. Her performance work has been presented at theaters including Dance Theater Workshop, Judson Church and Danspace at St Mark's in NYC, Nestheaters in Amsterdam and CounterPULSE in San Francisco. She has also taught at institutes across Europe, North and South America. She currently lives in San Francisco, where she is a frequent collaborator with Katarina Eriksson, Rosemary Hannon and other local luminaries. 


Henry Kaiser (according to Wikipedia) is an American guitarist and composer. Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "first generation" of American free improvisers. Seriously: it's an honor to have Henry perform in an intimate venue like Moment's Notice. Check out the Wikipedia bio, or better yet, Google him!


Katarina Eriksson has been involved with improvisational dance since 1989, collaborating with Julyen Hamilton, Ray Chung, Cathie Caraker and others, teaching in Europe and the US, and co-curating Moments Notice, which she co-founded. Recent performance endeavors include: Artist in Residency at CounterPULSE, touring in Sweden and Germany with Hoppalappa, and directing multi-disciplinary performances at Earthdance, Massachusetts and Movement Research at Judson Church, New York. In July, she'll be leading a workshop on "Accidental Excellence" at the annual WCCIRF (West Coast Contact Improv Research Forum.)


Cameron Kelly is interested in authentic humor and low-grade embarrassment. She's also curious about borrowing language from traditional Chinese medicine (the five elements, organ meridians, and heaven and earth, for example) to think about improvised movement practice and peformance. Infusing imagination and fantasy into sensation-based impulses, a layered and sometimes contradictory experience of "now" emerges.


Owen Walker is an actor who improvises. He teaches and performs in the Bay Area and nationally. His work draws heavily from Action Theater, a performance practice which integrates movement, voice and language. Owen uses physical improvisation to explore the terrain of human experience, from the mystical to the mundane, and from the animal to the urbane. He enters the performance space empty, without any preconceived structure or plan, and then builds a world based on the emerging action.
www.ActionTheaterBayArea.com



 Shay Nichols, a singer and vocal improviser from the Bay area, loves creating music for the moment. Inspired by nature and vocal traditions around the world, she sings in imaginary languages that are a bridge from the primal to the sublime. Shay completed the CIIS Voice/Sound Healing certificate program in 2007 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. She has been leading workshops and teaching privately since 2007. 

So, come to our show!

Saturday, June 18, 8:00 pm.

Tickets sliding scale at door: $8-15

Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th Street (@Dwight), in Berkeley.



5.22.2011

June will be a very good month!

Our next Moment's Notice is coming up:

Saturday, June 18, 2011, 8:00 p.m.
$8 - $15 (Sliding scale.)

Featuring:  Cammie Kelly ... Cathie Caraker ... Henry Kaiser ... Owen Walker ... Shay Nichols ... and more.  We'll update this site with more detail soon.  

But first: 

Do you remember past Moment's Notice shows when our co-curators/co-producers Katarina Eriksson & Rosemary Hannon danced joyously to David Bowie music? Wasn't it fun? Didn't you want to see MORE, a LOT more?  Good, because the first weekend in June, you can: 


3.06.2011

Moment's Notice dance segment

Here's a delicious, bite-sized slice of the February Moment's Notice show!

Dance: Cathie Caraker, Rosemary Hannon, Ronja Ver
Music: Peter Whitehead
'Goldilocks' improvisation score created by Katarina Eriksson
Performed 26 February, 2011 at Moment's Notice, Western Sky Studio, Berkeley CA



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRxiM6vZmZ0&feature=player_embedded

(Click over to YouTube to see a larger, full-screen version.)

1.30.2011

If it's February, it must be time for Moment's Notice


Happy Year of the Rabbit! We're celebrating with a brand new Moment's Notice show.


Moment's Notice
Saturday, February 26, 2011
8:00 pm

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

$8-$15 sliding scale

featuring:

Claire Peaslee : theater
Hana Lee Erdman : dance
Philip Gelb : music
Cathie Caraker, Kristen Greco, Rosemary Hannon, Ronja Ver &Vitali Kononov: dance
Wolves at the Door (Ben Yates & Michael Davenport) : theater

and Katarina Eriksson as MC.

As always with Moment's Notice, there may also be surprise special guests!


Claire Peaslee lives in greater Point Reyes and has regular conversations with birds and shrubs and the weather. She considers Action Theater, taught by Ruth Zaporah, a sort of life practice: improvisation of presence, indeed! Isn't that the essence of a fun existence? With her rather ridiculous range of activities in nature-laughter, Claire invites you to keep in touch via the worldwide web -- at clairepeaslee.net.
Claire invites fellow improvisers to join her in Berkeley on April 8-10 in a workshop taught by Action Theater great Ruth Zaporah. Learn more here.




Philip Gelb is a shakuhachi player who teaches and performs all over the United States, Japan, Europe and Canada at major festivals and venues as well as alternative art spaces, galleries and other venues. He has an active freelance career as an improvisor and runs one of the largest shakuhachi teaching organizations outside of Japan!

Philip has collaborated with choreographers, composers and ensembles too numerous to mention; to find out more (prepare to be impressed) visit www.philipgelb.com




Wolves at the Door (Ben Yates & Michael Davenport) improvise dramatic scenes with comedic elements. Their work is based on creating strong character and relationships, often with an absurdist twist. You can see videos Wolves at the Door at magicjestertheater.com







Cathie Caraker, a native San Franciscan who's spent most of her adult dancing life in Amsterdam and western MA, has been involved with Contact Improvisation for almost 30 years and still considers herself a beginner.

Katarina Eriksson is co-founder and co-curator of Moment's Notice, teaches Contact Improvisation (currently at CounterPULSE, San Francisco), and has lately taken an interest in directing improv-based multi-disciplinary performances.

Kristen Greco loves playing in the snow, walking on the beach, making dances, and being quiet.

Vitali Kononov is a movement artist, bodyworker and somatic movement educator, working with improvisation as a performance discipline, therapeutic tool and a contemplative practice.

Ronja Ver is a working artist. http://soluja.blogspot.com