RECKONING: A decade of FRESH Festival and 20 years of ALTERNATIVA by KATHLEEN HERMESDORF
San Francisco’s 10th Annual Festival of Experimental Dance, Music and Performance, features four weekends of cutting-edge live art PERFORMANCES; three weeks of immersive training PRACTICES in dance and related forms; and 15 social and interactive EXCHANGES throughout San Francisco, Oak- land and Berkeley. FRESH Festival 2019 PERFORMANCES January 4-5: Sara Shelton Mann, Byb Kongo Bibene, Chrysa Parkinson January 11- 12: Monique Jenkinson + Mica Sigourney, Amara Tabor Smith, Kinetech Arts, Kim Epifano January 18-19: NAKA Dance Theater, Claudia Lavista, Proyecto al Margen, ProyectoCASĀ January 25-26: ALTERNATIVA’s 20th Anni- versary Show, featuring the World Premiere of Reckoning in collaboration with FAKE Company All performances at 8pm at Joe Goode Annex, SF, $25-35 joegoode.org/box-office or 415-561-6565 PRACTICES January 5-6: Sherwood Chen January 7-11: ALTERNATIVA, Sara Shelton Mann, Keith Hennessy January 12: Monique Jenkinson + Mica Sigourney January 13: Kim Epifano January 14-18: ALTERNATIVA, Claudia Lavista, Proyecto al Margen January 20: ALTERNATIVA + FAKE Company January 21-25: ALTERNATIVA, Raha Behnam + Abby Crain, Larry Arrington January 26-27: José Navarrete + Marvin K. White All practices are held at Joe Goode Annex, SF freshfestival.org/practices EXCHANGES Community oriented social and interac- tive events, including live music works-in- process, writing and reading circles, and roundtable talks, created to cultivate and cross-pollinate artists and audiences. Exchanges at Space 124, Red Poppy Art House and ODC, SF; Finnish Hall, Berkeley; and EastSide Arts Alliance, Oakland. freshfestival.org/exchanges Full festival details at freshfestival.org
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INSTALLATION Reckoning 10/20, images, videos and mate- rials from a decade of FRESH and 20 years of ALTERNATIVA. Friday + Saturdays in January 6:30-8pm Studio 124 in Project Artaud, SF FRESH 2019 ARTISTS Jøse Abad, ALTERNATIVA, Juan Manuel Aldape, Arletta Anderson, Larry Arrington, Raha Behnam, Byb Chanel Bibene, Adi Brief, Chani Bockwinkel, Christine Bonansea, Alexa Burrell, Malia Byrne, Sherwood Chen, Gabriel Christian, Abby Crain, Alex Crow, DAFUQ, Claudette Decarbonel, Karen de Luna, Nicia De’Lovely, Ryanaustin Den- nis, Sofia Engelman, Kim Epifano/Epiphany Dance Theater, Regina Evans, Wiley Evans, Asha Fashalacqua, Richard Festinger, C.D. Fisher, Daria Garina, Samcia Gaye, Letitia Goodjoint, Cookie Harrist, Keith Hennessy, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Jesse Hewit, Cherie Hill, Steven Horner, Gwen Hornig, Antoine Hunter, Monique Jenkinson, David Jensen, Jonah Kagan, Debby Kajiyama, Kinetech Arts, Allison King, Ayisha Knight-Shaw, Kata Kovács, Kentaro Kumanomido, Andrew Kushin, Sriba Kwadjovie, Angelina Labate, Raymond Larrett, Claudia Lavista, Daiane Lopes da Silva, Tanja London, Twyla Mal- chow-Hay, Lisa Manca, Ursula Marcussen, Diego Martínez Lanz, Albert Mathias, Elaine Maurer, Delaney McDonough, Magdalena Meyers Dahlkamp, Rena Meyers-Dahlkamp, Gizeh Muñiz, NAKA Dance Theater, José Navarrete, Thomas Anthony Owen, Em Papineau, Chrysa Parkinson, Jonathan Pat- tiwael, ProyectoCASĀ, Proyecto al Margen, Zoe Reich-Aviles, randy reyes, Sebastian Santamaría, Johnny Sapinoso, Najwa Seyed- morteza, Sara Shelton Mann, Coral Short, Mica Sigourney, Manon Siv, Adam Smith, Laurel Snyder, Farah Soltane, Andréa Spear- man, Amara Tabor-Smith, Ainsley Tharp, Janine Trinidad, Jessy Tuddenham, Amy Wasielewski, Hannah Wasielewski, Marvin K. White, Ian Winters, Miriam Wolodar- ski, Dwayne Worthington, Weidong Yang, Pamela Z, more TBA
Reckoning with time.
create and connect, to gather the brilliance of synergistic artists, to cultivate collaboration of mediums and communities, and to create contexts for experimental art.
There is something thrilling about a new year, a fresh start, the beginning of another cycle around the sun. There is also the reck- oning it invites, to acknowledge the past and set things right or free to make space for change. As I prepare for FRESH Festival 2019, a celebration of a decade of FRESH and 20 years of ALTERNATIVA, my com- pany with musician Albert Mathias, I’m noticing what of the past lingers, what has impact on this moment in time, and what reflects into the future. As I collect and con- nect the years leading up to these anniversa- ries, I see ripples in a body of water created by a stone thrown long ago, and find myself in a boat made of my own body, throwing more stones to make more ripples. I am an artist in the field, professionally nomadic, working outside of and in collabo- ration with more formal institutions. From this position of relative freedom, I want to create alternative situations and structures for dance to develop within, and to connect people and places, joining forces and gener- ating situations for artists, including myself, to deepen our focus, expand our range, and widen our exposure. One of the first events that Albert and I produced was OPEN FIELD, an improvisation swap/meet in which we brought together an idiosyncratic group of dance, music, spoken word, and perfor- mance artists. FRESH Festival has become the fulfillment of those initial impulses to The need to create. The need to connect.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
FRESH is an ARTLAB, ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ aspect of ALTERNATIVA that satis- fies two of our main missions - the sharing of creative resources and the expansion of what art can be. The Festival became possible because of sublime timing, affordable spaces [co-sponsors Kunst-Stoff Arts from 2010-14 and Joe Goode Annex from 2015-19], and substantial community support. With this tri- angulation of time, space and effort, we have been able to construct an immersive arena for collective, diverse, and inclusive energy and exchange. FRESH has changed shape and size over 10 years, expanding from a week of training and informal performances to 4 weekends of mainstage performances and 3+ weeks of Practices and Exchanges. This has only been possible because of the ongoing, invested energy of FRESH art- ists, participants, audiences, volunteers, and funders. FRESH 2019 extends our curatorial reach, mixing local artists with guest art- ists from Mexico and Europe. Co-curator José Navarrete has attracted Regina Evans and Nicia De’Lovely, Juan Manuel Aldape, Byb Chanel Bibene and a cast of 20 dancers, Antoine Hunter and Ayisha Knight-Shaw, and EastSide Arts Alliance, and will share new work by NAKA Dance Theater with Debby Kajiyama. Chrysa Parkinson, Amara
Monique Jenkinson and Mica Sigourney / photo by Robbie Sweeny
NAKA Dance Theater/ photo by Debby Kajiyama
Tabor-Smith and Sherwood Chen are back, along with Festival regulars Sara Shelton Mann, Abby Crain, and Keith Hennessy. All of the participating artists are fantastic and the entire list is in the box on the right-hand side of this page.] We’re hosting a cohort of collaborators from Ponderosa, near Ber- lin, Germany, including FAKE Company, an eclectic group of international performance artists. I have been spending my summers at Ponderosa since 2000, collaborating with Stephanie Maher on projects and program- ming, and am overjoyed to bring so many folks from there to here. We’re also engaging in cultural exchange with artists from Maza- tlán, Guadalajara and Mexico City, Mexico. By inviting our colleagues from beyond bor- ders, and representing generational and aes- thetic lineages from different regions of the Bay Area and wider world, we’re instigating an embodied, articulate exchange of cultural contexts, current considerations, and creative propositions. The theme of FRESH Festival 2019 and the title of ALTERNATIVA’s 20th Anniversary piece is Reckoning. We are in the thick of it, facing the music and figuring the math. What is fake and what is fact? Who needs to talk and who needs to listen? Where is the bal- ance, the justice? How are we accountable? In response, we gather close to 100 artists to share their art practices, processes and proj- ects, as well as their perspectives on somatics and society, art and culture, the personal and the political, and individual and collective responsibility. Reckoning - facing the music, figuring the math.
As FRESH goes into double digits, and ALTERNATIVA heads towards 25, pos- sible futures unfold. Will we expand or con- tract? What must change? Who will join us as production partners, community allies, and curatorial collaborators in the Festival? How can we create more exchange, equity, and accessibility? Where will this new cycle around the sun take us? And the ripple effect of this rising tide? I invite you to celebrate with us and reckon with what is next.
FRESH Festival, classes and workshops in the Bay Area, and residencies and commissions at universi- ties, festivals, and studios worldwide. la-alternativa.us KATHLEEN HERMESDORF is an international dance artist, educator, and producer based in San Francisco. She is the director ALTERNATIVA, with musician Albert Mathias, and teaches, creates and performs around the world. She was a member of Bebe Miller Company, Contraband and Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Hermesdorf is the co-director of PORCH Training Program at Ponderosa in Stolzenhagen, Germany.
Surrounding and permeating it, a collection of images and video shares the work of hun- dreds of artists who have participated in the company and the Festival. I might live there. Come visit me. I’ll tell you stories……. ALTERNATIVA , directed by dancer Kathleen Hermes- dorf with musician Albert Mathias, is an apparatus for deeply integrated contemporary dance and music. Active in San Francisco since 2000, the organization supports the creative work of the directors alongside programming which includes an annual January
The need to collect. The need to recollect.
I need a time machine. Reckoning 10/20 is an installation, event horizon, gathering space, community library, and live archive that inhabits Space 124 in Project Artaud for the entire 24 days of FRESH 2019.
ALTERNATIVA / photo by Robbie Sweeny
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