last days/first field finally had its premiere in NYC May 7-9th at The Invisible Dog Art Center! Here is some info about our final cast and support team, along with my reflections just before going into production…
last days/first field
a dance by jill sigman/thinkdance
Choreography by Jill Sigman (with the performers)
Visual design by Jill Sigman
Performed by Hadar Ahuvia, Corinne Cappelletti, Donna Costello, Sally Hess, Irene Hsi, Paloma McGregor, Jill Sigman &
Devika Wickremesinghe
Original musical score created and performed by Kristin Norderval
Costumes by kymkym
Lighting design by David Ferri
Plants by Camilla Hammer & Henry Sweets
Press representation by Janet Stapleton
Project consulting by Jane Forde
Video documentation by Nic Petry
Production assistance by Robin Cherof, Fernando Romero, Larissa Sheldon
Box office by Chelsea Adewunmi and Christian Smith-Socaris
Event Consulting by Stephanie Ehrlich
last days/first field was co-commissioned by Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This project would not have been possible without the developmental support, care, and understanding Wesleyan provided. It has received additional developmental support from Gibney Dance Center and Yggdrasiltunet Art Center in Norway. These performances have been generously supported by a grant from the Bay and Paul Foundations. Thanks to Matthew Cumbie, Elke Luyten, and Andrew Drury for their earlier artistic contributions to this creative process.
Artist’s Statement
last days/first field is a movement ritual for our time. I have spent the past 3 years building site-specific structures out of trash (The Hut Project)—gathering cast-off materials in different parts of the world, serving tea to strangers, and connecting with urban farmers, permaculture practitioners, compost educators, environmental communicators, climate adaption experts, garbage activists, and anthropologists in an effort to make sense of how we live on this planet. last days/first field is a culmination of this research and an attempt to kinesthetically process my experience through live performance. As the planet heats up and we grapple with environmental and economic instabilities and anxieties, how do we deal? What do we do? And where do we go from here?
The dancers and I have been reflecting on these questions through our shared practice. It has been a practice that swallows everything—work with movement in the studio, visits to farms and green spaces (weeding, planting, dancing), Arctic stones, our experiences of Hurricane Sandy and the fallen branches we have collected, our observations of hipsters on the L train, our reading about fields and food and rituals, our own real estate and economic tribulations, and finally, our being with you here now. last days/first field questions and exorcises and connects and reminds. It is simultaneously a dance, a durational ritual, and a part of real life. –Jill Sigman, May 2013