Pollination V PART TWO: Mugwumpin and four dancers, Amara Tabor-Smith, Jennifer Gwirtz, Christine Germain and Kerry Mehling

The Red Poppy Art House Presents
The First Annual Cross Pollination People & Performance Festival 
September 24th-28th, 2014

Curated by lu-Hui Chua, Todd Thomas Brown, and Melody Wang

This September, the Red Poppy Art House is producing a new festival aimed at bringing together artists and audiences from different communities and artistic disciplines. It’s all about creating a space of intersection between the different worlds we inhabit; our social spheres, our work life, and our personal paths. Each evening features a mash-up of different aesthetics that highlight the audiences attending as well as the artists presenting. Come experience a weekend of people and performance, magic and medicine, and the space between.

Pollination V: Sunday, September 28, 2014
Time: Doors open at 7:00, Show begins at 7:30pm
Admission: $15-25

All seating is general admission. Please select the admission price you’re most comfortable with within this range. Your additional support is greatly appreciated!

Advanced tickets available here: http://pollination5parttwo.bpt.me
Half of available tickets will be available for purchase at the door.

Mugwumpin presents material in development drawn from the Bay Area’s lost and hidden stories, from personal anecdotes to fairy tales for the ages. Through music, physicality and audience interaction, the company traverses both darkness and whimsy, through tales we might–or might not–have heard as children, asking audiences to consider what folklore is in the here and now. Mugwumpin’s accomplishments begin in 2008 and span all the way to their current performance installation in conjunction with the Asian Art Museum/SFMOMA exhibit Gorgeous. 

Kerry Mehling will present Who Here Thinks They’re a Fish, a one woman’s journey through her once vital life, acceptance of her mortality and her heroic ascension into the unknown. Mehling has performed and toured with many renowned companies including of Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Sideshow Physical Theatre, Della Davidson Dance Theatre and Ririe Woodbury Dance Company.

Christine Germain, will present Corps Étranger, a piece that explores “otherness” and the way people adapt to a new life and identity. A movement explorer and Feldenkrais instructor, Germain honors include the Most Promising Choreographer Award at the 2012 Montreal Fringe Festival, a DAAD scholarship and a CA$H Grant Award from the Dancers’ Group and Bay Area theater. 

Jennifer Gwirtz will perform her original solo piece, Migration. With her group Right Brain Performance Lab, formed in 1998 and dedicated to experimentation in performance, she creates theatrical, movement-based work that challenge how viewers engage with performance in a variety of settings. 

Amara Tabor-Smith will present a work in progress excerpt from a new work inspired by the life and work of Ana Mendieta. Dancer, choreographer, San Francisco native and Oakland resident, Tabor-Smith is the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater, which draws upon influences of traditional rituals to depict modern realities of environmental justice. Tabor-Smith is currently an artist in residence at ODC Theater and teaches dance on faculty at UC Berkeley.