An abstract work that is not wholly abstract. Figurative moments flicker throughout. Louise Bourgeois is a point of reference.
The piece is composed from movement language that Eagly has been investigating for years -- contorted and fluid, awkward and elegant, spasmodic and languid. Ball-and-socket joints hone a disjointed, disconnected body. The sound and movement structure of this dance mirrors that of its title. It is almost a palindrome, almost the same forwards and backwards, but does in fact change and develop. It invites audiences to look more closely, for shifts of form that beget shifts of meaning.
Setoh Kohji is a Japanese composer, a member of the artist collective flow, and a director of the artist collective ROOT CULTURE. Projects and pieces by flow have been introduced in many museums such as MoMA (NYC), Batofar (Paris), Art Sonje (Seoul), YCAM (Yamaguchi, Japan), and ICC (Tokyo). As a composer, his pieces have been published by Soup-Disk (Tokyo) and Sonore (France), as well as used for a television program of NHK, the Japanese national broadcasting company. He has also worked with choreographer Yoshiko Chuma on "Hold the Clock," which was produced by ROOT CULTURE. Kohji's works are highly renowned in Japan, and he holds a position as an associate professor for College of Music at Ferris University, Yokohama.
Ursula Eagly is a New York City-based dance artist. Her work has been presented by The Chocolate Factory, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Mount Tremper Arts, Movement Research at the Judson Church, the New Museum for Contemporary Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and many other New York venues. She is deeply invested in cross-boarder exchange, and she has maintained an on-going exchange with the Skopje-based choreographer Iskra Sukarova since the two met while performing in a work of Yoshiko Chuma's in 2006. Ursula's works have also travelled to Albania, Denmark, Italy, Japan, and Manipur. They have been supported by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s USArtists International program, New York Live Art’s Suitcase Fund, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Emergency Grant Program, the Japan Foundation’s Performing Arts JAPAN Program, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and the Queens Council on the Arts. Ursula also investigates performance through writing and has published in various magazines, including Artforum, as well as edited the Movement Research Performance Journal, Critical Correspondence, and two Danspace Project PLATFORM catalogues.
Self Made Man Man Made Land was co-commissioned by Mount Tremper Arts and The Chocolate Factory Theater. Additional commissioning support is provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. The Mount Tremper Arts engagement was supported by the Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN program and by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts' Emergency Grant Program. The Chocolate Factory engagement is made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This work was rehearsed at the Mark Morris Dance Center, among other places.
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