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February 09, 2007
Liz Casebolt and Joel Smith, Performers and Choreographers, 2-9-07
While in the process of enjoying two distinctly individual careers in performance and choreography, Liz Casebolt and Joel Smith met and discovered a shared desire to make dances that confront conventional notions of dance making. They formed casebolt and smith in the spring of 2005. Their focus on collaboration has enabled them to collide two diverse histories, exposing layers of social, cultural, gendered, sexual, and educational differences.
casebolt and smith have presented work all over Southern California including Focus Fish Studios in Hollywood, Garrison Theater in Claremont, Burnight Theater in Norwalk, Anatomy Riot and The Loft in Los Angeles, and 4x4 at the Bluefoot Lounge in San Diego. casebolt and smithwere selected to participate in Hothouse; a three-week residency at UCLA designed to foster the development of new work by Los Angeles–based dance makers, curated by Victoria Marks. Their first full evening, Popped!, premiered in September 2006 at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. Their work has been described as “offering terrific dance-theater insight into the human condition” (David Lemberg, ARTSCAPE) and as “funny and accessible” (East Valley Tribune).
Popped! will be remounted at Scripps College February 16th and 17th, 2007. casebolt and smith can also be seen premiering a new work at Anatomy Riot in Los Angeles on February 12th.
Liz Casebolt is a dancer/choreographer/educator currently residing in Los Angeles. She has a B.F.A. in dance from New York University. While in New York, Liz danced with Partridge/Benford/Dance/Music and Claire Henry and Dancers. She has danced in works by Cliff Keuter, Michael Montanero, Ellen Bromberg, Ann Carlson and many others. In Phoenix, AZ Liz was a principal dancer with Frances Cohen's Center Dance Ensemble, performing lead roles in Hamlet, La Llorona, A Streetcar Named Desire, and the title role in The Snow Queen. She was also a founding member of Lisa Starry's Scorpius Dance Theatre, and was the Artistic Director of lizcasebolt&dancers. The Arizona Republic wrote: “Casebolt turns her head or kicks a leg, and you know she expects the world to take note.”
Joel Smith received his Master of Fine Arts degree for Experimental Choreography from UC Riverside in 2004. His choreography has been produced at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA on several different occasions, various college campuses around southern California, and his career as a concert-dance artist has taken him to New York City, Boston, Miami, Phoenix, and to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has been invited by professors in dance studies at both UCLA and UCR to deliver lectures on making dances, the choreographer’s process, and branding in the commercial world: choreographies of a product.
Posted by David Lemberg at February 9, 2007 08:40 AM Return to ARTSCAPE home page