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New Dance & Music Spectacle at Historic Quarry

An all-new sequel to 2007’s Quarryography at Stonington’s Settlement Granite Quarry

STONINGTON, ME: We all want our piece of turf. But in reality, our “turf” is of a single piece, and so must be shared. The question, over and over again, is: how?

Following on the success of “Quarryography” in 2006-07, Opera House Arts (OHA), in collaboration with Maine artists Alison Chase, Mia Kanazawa, and Nigel Chase and local conservation group Island Heritage Trust (IHT), is proud to present the world premiere of a new “story at the quarry” August 3-8, 2010. “Q2: Habitat,” like “Quarryography” before it, is an original multidiscipline performance work commissioned and produced by Opera House Arts at IHT’s historic Settlement Quarry (granite) in Stonington.

“Q2: Habitat” is the story of a place – Stonington’s Settlement Quarry – and of its inhabitants—porcupines, herons, humans, machines--throughout time. It is the universal story of how a location, with its indigenous population and history, accommodates recent arrivals and new inhabitants. The performance strives to present a new kind of storytelling, employing visual images, movement, and musical scoring to uniquely interpret the diversified life of the specific site, The Settlement Quarry, in which it is performed. Creating intimate access for audience members to the quarry’s animating forces, Chase, Kanazawa, and Chase draw together a community of players, allowing observance of moments often unobserved. In a story of seagulls and porcupines, herons and humans, small actions are combined with joyously grand gestures. A dancing excavator operated by Deer Isle’s Rick Weed hauls recycled boat plastic and jungle gym houses to set the stage for play, and steel drums accent the rhythms of natural life. The drama of invasion and cohabitation finds its response in a generous appreciation of the preserve itself. Friends, neighbors, returning dancers, and the audience themselves populate a place we love, a place to which we are all – in ways both challenging and thrilling – inextricably linked: this beautiful Down East coast of Maine.

This theatrical spectacle includes professional dancers in aerial performances; community members in multiple character roles; original steel drum music from a live community band; giant puppets created and choreographed by Mia Kanazawa; and heavy equipment. “Q2: Habitat” is conceived and directed by Kanazawa and Chase, founding artistic director of Pilobolus Dance Theater and of Alison Chase Dance.

From the Primordials—towering, skeletal 15’ puppets swooping and looming above the drama—to the ancient porcupine (a giant puppet, animated by local puppeteers); the Heron, played by legendary Felix Blaska, and seagulls; to the industry and machinery of generations of fishermen; to conservationists and bird watchers, and the visions of “dream home” owners and their architects, all of us will find our desires for and conflicts over this beautiful place represented in “Q2: Habitat.”

In addition to the community dance component, a professional dance company will be lead by returning soloists Matt Kent, a member of the Pilobolus company; Wendee Rogerson of the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company; and Tawanda Chabikwa, who will be joined by Mark Fucik and Blaska. Felix Blaska's remarkable career has taken him to the most prestigious festivals and theatres around the world and has spanned the genres of film, theatre, dance, and circus. Blaska moved to the United States in the 1980s and co-founded the trio 'Crowsnest' with Martha Clarke and with Robby Barnett of Pilobolus Dance Company. Their performances played to packed houses throughout Europe, North America, and Japan. He went on to collaborate further with Pilobolus Dance Company and also choreographed and directed for The Juilliard School, 'Ballets du Nord' in France, and The 'Conservatoire' in Paris. Felix began to work with horses as well as with Flora (an elephant) and he became a regular creator and performer on subsequent productions with Circus Flora. After a cameo film role alongside Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken in 'Romance and Cigarettes' the film's director, John Turturro, asked Blaska to appear with him in the Broadway production of 'Souls of Naples' at The Duke Theater on 42nd Street.
Most recently Felix Blaska was featured in another theatrical production directed by his colleague Martha Clarke: 'KAOS' based on the writings of Luigi Pirandello. It garnered rave reviews from The New York Times.

Alison Becker Chase, a founding artistic director of Pilobolus Dance Theater, is a resident of Brooksville. She was the 2009 Maine Arts Commission Performing Arts Fellowship Recipient. She was born and raised in St. Louis, received her B.A. in Intellectual History and Philosophy from Washington University and her M.A. in Dance from UCLA. She was choreographer-in-residence and Assistant Professor of Dance at Dartmouth College for three years before joining Pilobolus in 1973. Ms. Chase co-created many Pilobolus works through the years, as well as making pieces on her own for the company, most recently the acclaimed Star-cross’d and Night of the Dark Moon. With Moses Pendleton she premiered the company Momix at the Milan Festival in1980. Ms. Chase taught at Yale from 1991-1997. She was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1980 and a Connecticut Governor's Award in 1997 and a Scripps Award in 2000. She has choreographed for La Scala Opera, the Geneva Opera, the Ballet du Rhin, the Fete de l'Humanite, the Ririe-Woodbury Company, and for the Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall.

Mia Kanazawa constructs, choreographs and performs her own work. She uses dance, handmade felt, paper, fabric, foam, rattan and bamboo to create one of a kind functional and theatrical objects. Her dances explore issues of ethnic and cultural diversity; of finding a place for oneself in society. With designer Debby Lee Cohen and husband Mark Kindschi, Mia has constructed, choreographed and performed giant endangered species puppets for the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, sculptural costumes for Meredith Monk, Houston Grand Opera, PBS’s Kratt’s Creatures, Ben & Jerry’s and the Festival Quartier d’ete Parade in Paris. Funded by a grant from the Jim Hensen Foundation, she constructed two giant dog puppets for David Rousseve’s production of “Love Songs.” In 2002 she built giant puppets for Urban Bush Women’s “Shadow’s Child.” In 2003, the Stonington Opera House commissioned Come...stay...go , a theater piece with dance and puppets. Most recently, Mia worked on a television project with HBO. She has participated in exhibitions at the Portland Museum of Art and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art as well as many other places; and her feltwork is sold in galleries and stores around the country. Mia has a B.S. in dance and music from the University of Wisconsin. She has taught at College of the Atlantic and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, as well as numerous workshops and residencies in the U.S; and is the recipient of a prestigious Henson Foundation grant for her puppet design and creation for “Q2: Habitat.”

Nigel Chase, also of Brooksville, is the founder and director of the Pan Institute in Blue Hill. Nigel performs around the New England region as a bass can player and arranger

Matt Kent is a noted international dancer and teacher who has worked with Alison Chase since 1996 when he began collaborating with Pilobolus Dance Theatre under her artistic and choreographic direction. He served as Pilobolus Dance Captain for three years. Together they have worked with circus performers, dancers, composers, musicians and authors of different cultures, backgrounds and styles. Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times says Matt is “hilariously camp,” and “he strides admirably through a performance of some physical risk.” Matt has worked with the Pilobolus Institute as a consultant as well as master teacher and performer, bringing the unique lessons of improvisation and collaborative play from Lincoln Center Institute to Universities, high schools to kindergarten, and prestigious private schools to public schools in the Bronx. Matt now works with a division of the Woodruff Arts Center, Young Audiences of Atlanta, to bring dance into the city's schools.

Wendee Rogerson is a half-time resident of Stonington. A native of Northern Ontario, Canada, she began her formal training with The Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Eventually she went on to train and dance with The Toronto Dance Theatre. In 1991, she moved to New York and studied at the Limón Institute under Risa Steinberg. Wendee has been dancing with the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company for the past 10 years.

Audience members are strongly encouraged to purchase tickets in advance and to car pool as there is limited parking at the Settlement Quarry. Shuttle service will not be provided from downtown Stonington. Annotated maps will be available upon purchase of advance tickets. Those driving to the Quarry will be directed to parking and may need to walk as much as a half a mile to get to the performance area. Audience members with accessibility needs may be dropped off at the performance entrance, and will be shuttled to the rim of the amphitheater, making the performances fully accessible for all. Audience will be admitted to the performance area no earlier than 4 p.m.

The six performances of “Q2: Habitat” are at 5 p.m. each night, August 3-8. There will be no advance sales for Sunday, August 8, which will be used as a rain date.

General admission tickets for the performance are $20 with fixed income and group sales discounts available; Deer Isle-Stonington school students attend for free. Tickets may be purchased and printed directly at www.operahousearts.org;  by calling the Opera House box office at 207-367-2788; or by stopping by the box office on the corner of Main and School Streets in downtown Stonington Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.