DANDELION DANCETHEATER
In collaboration with ODC Theater

Presents
MUTT—Chapters One & Two

“Dandelion Dancetheter achieves eloquence with its ‘naked’ honesty.”
Gus Solomons Jr.,The Dance Insider

"Art that revels and reveals through intimacy and lack of pretense."
-Michael Wade Simpson, SF Chronicle

Dandelion Dancetheater, an experimental, interdisciplinary San Franciscan company is returning to New York with performances at Joyce SoHo from July 16-19. Dandelion will perform the first chapters of the new dance-play, MUTT, a two-year interdisciplinary project.

MUTT is a dance-play that collides new music, piercing physicality and dreamlike story-telling to examine the liquid realm of in-between.  The work follows the story of Miyo, a mixed-race girl born in an Internment Camp during WWII to a Japanese American internee and a Caucasian prison guard from Texas, and takes place during the 49 days after her death. Miyo’s “Bardo”, a liminal state that is believed by many Buddhist cultures to be what we all experience in-between our death and our next life, is a strange, “after-hours” honky-tonk inhabited by a motley crew of spirits, an undead country band, and various characters from her life. This surreal dance-play takes Miyo into many surprising, off-kilter and absurd situations inspired by states of in-between where she wrestles with issues and ghosts from her last identity as she faces terrifying questions about future identities. MUTT switches fluidly back and forth from English to Japanese, utilizing language as raw sound and texture and realizing the themes of mixed-identity and in-between with language. Co-directed by Kimiko Guthrie and Eric Kupers of Dandelion Dancetheater, the work includes different styles of European-American and Japanese dance, music, and theater.

MUTT is supported by the Japan Foundation, the SF Arts Commission, the Wattis Foundation, the Princess Grace Foundation and ODC Theater. For more information, please visit www.dandeliondancetheater.org

Dandelion Dancetheater will perform at Joyce SoHo from July 16-19, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm. A post-performance Q&A with the artists will follow the performances on July 17 and 18. Tickets are $18 and $10 for students, seniors, and low income. Performance tickets may be purchased online at www.joyce.org or via phone at (212) 352-3101. Please note: Joyce SoHo tickets may be purchased in advance or onsite at the theater one half hour before curtain (subject to availability). Joyce SoHo is located at 155 Mercer Street (between Houston and Prince) in Manhattan. Via Subway: B/D/F/V to Broadway – Lafayette; 6 to Bleecker; R to Prince. All programs are subject to change. For additional information please call (212) 431-9233.

About Dandelion Dancetheater

Through dance, collided with experimental theater, video, writing, music, and image, Dandelion Dancetheater aims a kinesthetic microscope at the ever-changing intricacies of the human heart. Its work is emotionally driven and grounded in a fascination with the intersections of bold risk-taking and public accessibility. The company, which was founded in 1996, is committed to the individual and combined artistic visions of Kimiko Guthrie and Eric Kupers. It views the bodily exploration of human vulnerability, strength and paradox as a potent means for personal and collective growth, and through teaching and creating with people of diverse sizes, shapes, ages, cultures and abilities, Dandelion Dancetheater allow viewers of all walks of life to find themselves reflected in its work.

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The creation of Joyce SoHo was made possible by the magnanimous support of the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.  Joyce SoHo is supported by private funds from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, First Republic Bank, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Shubert Foundation and The Starr Foundation; and by public funds from the New York City Council; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.  Special support for Joyce SoHo provided by the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund established in The New York Community Trust by the founders of the Reader’s Digest Association, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Foundation

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