Kickstarter

Portico Dans Theatre’s newest full-length production, “BorN”, uses contemporary and aerial dance to chronicle a story of man who faces an unthinkable tragedy and his subsequent battle with body and mind. Eventually the sharp distinction between paranoia and waking life dissolves--leaving the man victim to face his own violent psychological demons. “BorN” runs in July 13-14, 2012 and is performed at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center as part of the Summerstage Festival. “BorN” [being OR nothingness] is an interdisciplinary performance installation with video, contemporary and aerial dance, and live original music. Performers create other worldly environments with new media, interactive video, music and dance for film. Conceived by Co-Artistic Director, Michael J. Lopez, choreographed by Artistic Directors, Jennifer Alden and Michael J. Lopez and performed by the Company of Portico Dans Theatre with original compositions by Jeff Porter of The Claptet and Video Art by Sean Lorton.

The main character must find his lost identity, family, and home. He is forced to embark on a journey along an empty road as he attempts to remember the events that led him there. One story line moves forward in time while the other reveals glimpses of his past. Contemporary Dance is activated by music to access the main character’s memories about union and separation, which are stored in his body. Throughout the story his memories forcefully intrude and become more distorted as his body undergoes the stress of physical exhaustion and extreme hunger. “BorN” is a complicated head spinning adventure, which leaves you wondering where reality ends and dementia begins.

Jennifer Alden states “BorN” was developed into a full-length dance production because both she and Michael J. Lopez “prefer to stretch boundaries of what is traditionally called dance in both movement and productions. New, different, cutting-edge, out of the box are all things that Michael and I are always striving for. This piece is a perfect ‘marriage’ of both Michael and my sensibilities and clearly represents Michael as a creator.” It is also follows tradition to bring Lopez’s piece into production this Summer as he is the new Co-Artistic Director, as of July 2011. PDT’s first full-length production [Project Alice] was Alden’s creation, the second [Super Suite] was former Artistic Director Valeria Cordero’s concept.

PDT Artistic Directors Jennifer Alden and Michael J. Lopez fuse dance, theater, music and video to bring new visual art works to life. With backgrounds in ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, hip-hop, musical theatre, tap, aerial dance, stage combat, and historical dance (among other genres) PDT’s choreography is as diverse and unpredictable as it is engaging and entertaining. Portico Dance Theatre is a division of Oklahoma Performing Arts, Inc., a nonprofit 501c3 arts organization.