Repertory & Gallery
Bringing site-specific dance to diverse communities throughout California, At the Oasis transformed a vintage 1961 Oasis trailer into a mobile dance space. With choreography built into and around the trailer, the performance explored the idea of home as something one takes with them as one travels, moves, and participates in daily life. With four pit stops across Los Angeles--West Hollywood Park, South LA's Krispy Kreme, downtown Culver City, and the East Los Angeles Civic Center, At the Oasis reimagined the nature of site-specific performance, bringing a site to audience rather than an audience to a site.
A vacant lot in East Los Angeles, CA
In this sixth installment of the Expulsion series, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre and Danza Floricanto/USA transformed the vacant lot at East 1st Street and North Boyle Avenue, enlivening the space against the backdrop of downtown Los Angeles. With Danza Floricanto/USA telling an expulsion story informed by traditional Mexican culture and folk dance, the performance addressed the idea of “home” and how one builds and shapes one's sense of belonging. As the sixth installment of the company's Expulsion Series, this new rendition uniquely combined Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre's athletic movement and Danza Floricanto’s vibrant, percussive footwork.
Barlow Respiratory Hospital
For more than a century, Los Angeles’ Barlow Respiratory Hospital has guided its patients and California to “breathe easier.” Catch Your Breath examined the intersection of art and learning through the fundamental act of breathing. Designed as an artistic journey through the environs of the hospital, the performance guided the audience through the 110-year-old facility and drew from specific patients’ stories to recovery. Traveling through bungalows, libraries, and historic halls, Catch Your Breath portrayed the life-changing, healing, and compassionate atmosphere found within Barlow. Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Pietras and Adeline Newmann.
Van Nuys FlyAway Bus Terminal
Commissioned by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and Los Angeles World Airports, Kiss n'Ride followed the journey of two star-crossed lovers to their unanticipated departure. Invigorating the Van Nuys FlyAway bus terminal, the performance animated the site's futuristic, multi-functional architecture with a humanistic touch. Against the backdrop of commuters' random entrances and exits, Kiss n'Ride created a "moving painting" that explored the notion of leaving as both a beginning and an end.
La Brea Coin-Op, Los Angeles, CA | 2012
Spin Cycle Laundr-o-mat, Historic Fillipinotown, Los Angeles | 2010
Le Superwash Coin Laundry, West Hollywood, CA | 2008
Laundromat, New York City | 2006
Launderland, Culver City, CA | 1998
A reprise of the company’s signature work which, in 2010, was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as an American Masterpiece. Laundromatinee first delighted viewers and washday customers at Thriftiwash Laundromat in Santa Monica in 1988. The show was reprised for Launderland in Culver City in 1998, in 2006, at the Sitelines Festival in NYC, receiving a rave review in the New York Times and in 2008 in the City of West Hollywood. This work celebrates the local coin-op as a community gathering place, a once-common neighborhood fixture that in recent years has been falling prey to urban gentrification.
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A vacant lot in Los Angeles, CA
In Los Angeles, Little Ethiopia and Koreatown are separated by five short miles, while their respective countries operate six hours apart. Interaction between the two cultures is intercepted by language barriers, distance, and traditions, but Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre brought these communities together in one Expulsion weekend. As the third and fourth segments of the Expulsion Series, HDDT collaborated with world-renown Korean dance company Kim Eung Hwa Korean Dance Company and Guinness World Record Little Ethiopia Cultural Group Dancers to present four performances, three Curbside Conversation Panels, and two workshops. With the support of the Korean Cultural Center and the Little Ethiopia Cultural and Resource Center, HDDT produced a weekend of opportunities for the public to engage in cross-cultural programming and discussion.
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Paul Hastings Tower, 51st Floor, Los Angeles, CA
In the opulent former ARCO headquarters on the 51st Floor of the Paul Hastings Tower, Cleopatra, CEO. interwove the gender biased myths and propaganda associated with the icon Cleopatra, or femme fatale of the east, with the male dominant corporate lineage of the oil men of the west. Between the incredible panoramic views of downtown to Cesar the stunt-man, this multimedia performance challenged ideas of desire and power.
Boston Court Performing Arts Center, Pasadena, CA | 2011
Palace of Culture on the Volga, Yaroslavl, Russia | 2010
In August 2010, Heidi Duckler premiered a new site specific work commissioned by the Link Vostok International East-West Arts Exchange in celebration of the Yaroslavl’s 1000th anniversary as the dance company celebrates its 25th anniversary. The work was performed in the Palace of Culture and is inspired by the life of Yaroslavl resident, Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut who travelled in space in 1963. Upon returning to the US, HDDT created a documentary about the cultural exchange process. The film was screened at the Boston Court Performing Arts Center on November 4, 2011 along with live performances by Steve Moshier's Liquid Skin Ensemble and HDDT's core company members Nick Heitzeberg and Eva Wilder.
A vacant lot in Glendale, CA
For the second of the Expulsion Series, four athletic male dancers from HDDT collaborated with five female dancers from the Iranian-Armenian Djanbazian Dance Company to initiate an open dialogue about the fragile nature of home and the universal experience of being forced to leave it. Upon Architect Alex Ward's industrial set three stories above the audience, the dancers brought the vacant space to life, while being accompanied by Alex Noice’s original score. With support from Glendale Arts, HDDT presented Expulsion in downtown Glendale to hundreds of people. Additionally, the company was honored to be a part of the World Festival of Sacred Music 2011.
[spf:a] Gallery, Culver City, CA
“A Trace of Lipstick,” which expresses themes of shifting relationships among couples, is performed amongst the existing furniture of the gallery. The audience views the work in the round, giving it a voyeuristic character. Inspired by the TV series “Mad Men” and the hypocrisies of the early 1960’s, the choreography explores duplicity, intimacy and the compartmentalizing of private lives.
