The Other Here (2007)

Layered with the company’s fearless fusion of dance, music and visual design, The Other Here collides the rural stories of Japanese novelist Masuji Ibuse (1898–1993) with a global conference of life insurance salespeople. Okinawan pop music and re-inventions of traditional dance punctuate this juxtaposition of master and servant, pop and ancient, East and West.

PREMIERE:
February 7, 2007 | The Japan Society (NYC, NY)

HISTORY:
September 20 – 29, 2007
Dance Theater Workshop
New York, NY

July 12 – 15, 2007
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
Becket, MA

June 12 – 13, 2007
FILO: Festival Internacional de Londrina
Londrina, Brazil

June 4 – 6, 2007
MIT Festival
Brazilia, Brazil

May 2 – 3, 2007
Wortham Theatre, Mitchell Center for the Arts, University of Houston
Houston, TX

April 26 – 28, 2007
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA

February 7 – 10, 2007
The Japan Society
New York, NY

CREDITS:
Directed and conceived by Paul Lazar and Annie-B Parson
Choreography by Annie-B Parson and the company

Lighting by Jennifer Tipton
Sound by Jane Shaw
Set by Takeshi Kata
Costumes by Claudia Stephens
Video by Peter Flaherty
Executive Project Producer Kim Whitener

Performers: Jess Barbagallo, Paul Lazar, Molly Hickok, Jennie Mary Tai Liu, Chris Giarmo, Heather Christian

“Big Dance Theater does, in fact, think big…It’s a richly layered, multitextured work that…always engages and greatly entertains.”
 — Boston Globe

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“Such effortless dream logic, delivered in a whimsical-melancholy slice of enchantment, is only to be expected from Big Dance Theater.” — Time Out New York

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“The Other Here does what art ought to do: it shows us something new. There was something real at the core…alive, fragile and beautiful.”
— Washington Post

The Japan Society, New York, is the lead commissioner, with funds from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and co-producer of The Other Here. The Other Here is co-produced by Big Dance Theater, and co-commissioned by the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, Dance Theater Workshop, and Works & Process at the Guggenheim. Essential development support provided by Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival through its Creative Development Residency Program. Additional residency support provided by Lafayette College in Easton, PA.
The Other Here was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant Program, a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Theatre Initiative. Additional support for The Other Here has been received from The Greenwall Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, Mental Insight Foundation, Altria Group, Inc., The Tobin Foundation, The JPMorganChase Regrant Fund, a project of A.R.T./NY, the Bossak-Heilbron Charitable Foundation and by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
The Other Here would not have been possible without the support of Big Dance Theater’s Commissioning Club: Nancy Crown, William and Mary Gridley, Peter and Helen Hage, Hope Hickok, Lisa Yun Lee of Promesse de Bonheur, Barbara Parson, Starry Night Fund of the Tides Foundation, Catherine Tharin and Monty March, and Micki Wesson.
Big Dance Theater is a participant in the New Generations Program funded by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for American Theater.