Obsessive, athletic, raw, sexy, mysterious dance theater, brimming with dark humor, the
latest work from award-winning Pina Bausch-trained Argentine choreographer Diana
Szeinblum combines a custom-tailored language of expressive movement with a pulsing
live score and stark theatrical staging. ALASKA speaks of "that place that we
all know, but where no one has ever been" – an Alaska of the mind.
Buenos Aires-based Szeinblum works with a hand-picked cast of dancers and musicians for
every new work, building powerful, physically charged dances. In ALASKA, two
women and two men come together and fall apart in angular pairings and ménages
simultaneously pan-erotic, veering towards violent and coolly held-back. Clothes are
pulled off and put back on again (the evening contains brief nudity) as bodies rebel
against the ordinariness and underlying loneliness of everyday life.
Szeinblum began her career with the prestigious contemporary San Martin Ballet Company
under the direction of Oscar Araiz. On a Goethe Institute scholarship, she studied with
Pina Bausch at the Folkwang Tanz Schule (FTS) and danced with the company. In Germany
Diana also worked with Susanne Linke and Urs Dietrick, among others. In 2003 her prior
work Secreto y Malibú toured Europe, Asia and the U.S, including
performances at The Walker Art Center, Dance Theater Workshop and PICA in Portland, OR.
Diana Szeinblum Dance Company performances are part of a weeklong Tigertail residency
in Miami as part of a National Performance Network (NPN) Performing Americas four-city
tour to PICA in Portland, Oregon, Dance Theater Workshop in New York City, Tigertail
and REDCAT in Los Angeles, California.
"... impressive craft and imagination." The New York Times
ALASKA is funded, in part, by the National Performance
Network (NPN), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Miami-Dade County Department of
Cultural Affairs, the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and Miami Beach Cultural
Affairs Program.
