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Stones Will Float, Leaves Will Sink, Paths Will Cross
World Premiere at the Skirball Cultural Center
Los Angeles—The internationally renowned Liz Lerman Dance Exchange will present the debut performance in Skirball Cultural Center’s newest venue Ahmanson Hall on Saturday February 10, 8 pm and Sunday February 11, 4:00 pm. Part of their nationwide Hallelujah Project, the Dance Exchange’s "Stones Will Float, Leaves Will Sink, Paths Will Cross" was created for Los Angeles with the participation of local community members who wil l appear in the performance. The major collaborator on the work is Nobuko Miyamoto of Great Leap. Tickets are $18 general, $15 members, and $10 students; they can be purchased by calling Tickets LA at 323.655.8587 or online at www.Skirball.org.
In The Hallelujah Project, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange has been doing more than a dozen residencies around the country to look at what Americans are "In praise of" at the turn of the Millennium. Several Hallelujahs have already taken place—Tucson; Eastport, Maine; Jacob’s Pillow Festival in Massachusetts—with numerous others (including Burlington, VT; Minneapolis; New Orleans; Detroit; and Lincoln, Nebraska) to take place in the next 12 months. Currently, there are plans underway to conclude the 3-year process with a Hallelujah weekend at the Kennedy Center featuring participants from all the Hallelujahs around the country.
The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange has been developing the Los Angeles Hallelujah since September of 1998. Their earlier performance at the Skirball was a site-specific dance work in our museum celebrating the exhibition of Larry River’s monumental" The History of Matzoah: The Story of the Jews." This performance was named a "Top Ten" event in dance for 1999 by the Los Angeles Times.
The Hallelujah Project is a model of bringing together community, geography, and cultures: the work centers on collaboration between Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and Nobuko Miyamoto (of Great Leap). Miyamoto will tell the story of her Japanese and Anglo grandmothers. Just as critical to the work are the other community collaborators, which include clergy and congregants from Jewish temples in the Valley (Kol Tikvah and Valley Beth Shalom) from Japanese American Buddhist churches (notably Reverend Masao Kodani of Senshin Buddhist Temple in the USC neighborhood, Reverend Tom Kurai of Sozenji Buddhist Temple in Montebello and Reverend Noriyuki Ito of Higashi Hongwanji in Little Tokyo) and Diamond Canyon Christian Church in Diamond Bar. Community participants range in age from 7-85 years old; in contrast, the Dance Exchanges’ company only spans seven decades.
In other cities, the company is working with similar kinds of communities, but the work is completely new in each city. Community members generated the ideas out of which Dance Exchange created "Stones Will Float, Leaves Will Sink, and Paths Will Cross." The idea comes from a Buddhist chant about the possibility of the impossible and the unreality of the real world.
The stories that are included in the performance will center on the risks we take and the gains made by taking them. The show creates a portrait of Los Angeles as a city where, no matter how fast one moves or far that one travels, it is impossible to leave one’s past behind. The evening also feature The Gates of Praise, a company work created to tie all the Hallelujahs together; this work centers on the idea that light illuminates a gateway to celebration, even in the darkest times. Also featured will be Bebe Miller’s work "Blessed." According to The Village Voice, "Blessed propel(s) to a state of grace," and the Washington Post has called Bebe Miller "a cartographer of human emotions, mapping the landscape of the passions in her dance . . . Miller surveyed the terrain of the human heart and revealed its secrets with luminous intelligence."
Since 1976, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange has astounded, delighted and challenged audiences nationally and internationally with pioneering approaches to dancemaking, public participation, and audience engagement. Under the leadership of choreographer Liz Lerman, this contemporary dance performance company has created unique repertory described by the New York Times as "visionary work of extraordinary eloquence." The NY Times also said, "Liz Lerman has made a vibrant, provocative career out of fixing on a moment—an idea, an emotion, an everyday event—and making it come alive in simple plain-spoken dance. God is in the details in her work." From the beginning Lerman has combined nontraditional community performers with professionally trained dancers in order to enhance the artistic content of dance performance. To learn more, visit the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange at www.DanceExchange.org.
Major collaborator Nobuko Miyamoto began writing music 25 years ago, together with Chris Iijima and Charlie Chin, "A Grain of Sand," she created the first album of Asian American music, now part of the Smithsonian Institution collection. Since 1978, Nobuko has been Artistic Director of Great Leap, Inc., a non-profit arts organization that uses the arts to promote deeper understanding between the diverse cultures of America. Some of her works include musicals such as "Chop Suey," "Talk Story," and "Joanne is My Middle Name;" short film "Gaman" and video, "A Gathering of Joy." She also produces and directs "A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens," a traveling multicultural theater production. Nobuko began her career as a dancer in film and Broadway musicals such as "West Side Story," "The King and I" and "Flower Drum Song." Her music and choreography can be seen in the film, "Karate Kid II." She has also written and choreographed three original Japanese American Obon Dance pieces, "Yuiyo Bon Odori," "Tampopo Odori," and the "Gardener’s Song" (Gadena Bushi).
In addition to The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Nobuko Miyamoto, Great Leap, the clergy, and the congregants, the performance will also feature the Gwen Wyatt Chorale. Miyamoto and Bessie Award-winning (2000) composer Robert Een will perform original music, as well as world-renowned taiko master Kenny Endo, and shamisen master Lillian Nakano.
 The Dance Exchange will be finalizing the work in Los Angeles while they are in residence here from January 28 until the first performance on February 10. There are numerous opportunities for the press to observe the process and interview the participants and capture the work on film. This work will offer breath-taking movement and a positive-view of inter-personal and inter-communal relations
The Hallelujah Project received major funding from The California Presenters Initiative, which is funded by The James Irvine Foundation and managed by Arts International.
Additional funding provided by The National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Phillip Morris Companies, Inc.
The collaboration with Nobuko Miyamoto and the development of a Hallelujah Obon is supported by The Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN program and The Durfee Foundation.
Further support was provided by the TourWest program of the Western States Arts Foundation (WESTAF) with support from the California Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Skirball Cultural Center, informed by the American Jewish experience but addressed to people of all backgrounds and ages, presents a range of cultural programs—including museum exhibitions, concerts, lectures, performances, readings, symposia, film and video screenings, and educational offerings for adults and children. The Center’s 125,000 square ft. complex is located on a 15 acre site just off the San Diego Freeway, in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Center is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. , Thursdays 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Saturdays Noon-5 p.m., and Sundays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.. For general information, the public may call (310) 440-4500.
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