Bay Area Dance Week Sunday Afternoon Workshop & Performance Led By Byb Chanel Bibene, Iu-Hui Chua, and Todd Thomas Brown

The Red Poppy Art House is excited to participate in this year’s Bay Area Dance Week on Sunday, April 26th, 2015. Come explore the intersection of African contemporary dance, Butoh/experimental movement, and Argentine tango in a free Bay Area Dance Week afternoon at the Red Poppy Art House. Red Poppy resident artists Byb Chanel Bibene, Iu-Hui Chua, and Todd Thomas Brown share their artistic and pedagogical practice and process through movement workshops, artist performances, discussion, and sharing. Please wear comfortable clothing and shoes for movement.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS:

11am – 11:45pm: Byb Chanel Bibene – African Contemporary Dance

Byb Chanel Bibene uses movements inspired by the traditional dances from the Congo as a springboard into the African contemporary dance aesthetic. His teaching style is warm, friendly, and filled with humor. Whether you are new to African contemporary dance or have years of experience, you are welcome.

12:15pm-1pm: Iu-Hui Chua – Butoh/Experimental Movement

Iu-Hui Chua, guided by Butoh master Akira Kasai’s philosophy of “It is not what we do, but how we do it,” aims to cultivate our personal expression through movement. No experience is necessary, just an open bodymind and a desire to be oneself.

1:30pm-2:15pm: Todd Brown – Basics of Argentine Tango

Red Poppy founder Todd Thomas Brown covers the fundamentals of Argentine tango partnering techniques. At it’s most basic level, Argentine tango is a dance of walking in the the embrace of another. While the dance can become quite complicated with complex figures, at its core is a spirit of improvisation. No experience or partner necessary.

Each artist will present a 45-minute workshop session, followed by performances by Byb and Iu-Hui. The afternoon will conclude in a group sharing session with an open floor for movement and discussion.

ARTISTS’ BIOS:
Byb Chanel Bibene is a choreographer and performer working in theater and contemporary dance. His own technical and aesthetic sensibility is rooted in the culture and dances of his country of origin. He has toured and performed internationally with companies originating from Africa, England, France, and the USA, and has performed with local choreographers such as Paco Gomes, Amara Tabor Smith, Sherwood Chen, Rashad Pridgen, Folawole Oyinlola, Robert Henry Johnson, and Joanna Haigood. In 2006, Bibene co-founded Li-Sangha dance company, whose work Mona Mambu received two laurels and the 3rd Place award at Les Rencontres chorégraphiques de l’Afrique et de l’Océan Indien and won the 2006 Radio France Internationale Dance Prize. Upon Byb’s relocation to San Francisco in 2009, he has had the opportunity to present his work in the San Francisco International Arts Festival, the Museum of the African Diaspora, a collaboration with See.Think.Dance, the Black Choreographers Festival with mentor Robert Moses, and Oberlin Dance Common/Pilot Program 58. He currently is the Artistic Director of Kiandanda Dance Theater.

Iu-Hui Chua choreographs, performs, directs, and devises physical theater, dance, and video performance. She manifests work that is creative, intuitive and impacting. Simultaneously experimental, performance art, installation, physical theater, sculpture, and memory, her work utilizes intense visual and physical components to encourage connection, curiosity and change. She has been a member of Anna Halprin’s Sea Ranch Collective for several years (including performing in the Isadora Duncan Award winning re-staging of Parades and Changes) and been an associate teacher for Ms. Halprin, teaching her classes while she has been on tour. In 2011 she collaborated with the distinguished Asian American performance artist Dan Kwong on a multi-media production which premiered in Los Angeles. Recently her interest has led to creating environmental dances for video with collaborator Terre Parker. In 2012, their film All Flesh is Grass toured internationally with Videoholica’s International Video Art Festival as a Special Selection Finalist. In 2013 she collaborated with award winning actor Bobby August Jr., devising a full-length original production focusing on the theme of identity and touch. She also created, Nexus, a dance film with collaborator and fellow Poppy resident artist Christine Germain which won Best Experimental Film at the University of California Davis Film Festival in 2013. Currently she is working on the new film Ligilo with Eric Koziol and Bobby August Jr., and an experimental dance piece with Kimi Eisele.

Todd Thomas Brown is an interdisciplinary artist engaged in performative inquiry and visual arts. As a visual artist, Brown has 25 years combined experience in oil painting and mixed media, with 11 years professional teaching experience. Todd began his study of Argentine tango in 1997 in Montréal, Canada, with dancer Mylène Pelletier. Thereafter, his primary influence was acclaimed Buenos Aires-based tanguero, and dear friend, Pedro “el Indio” Benavente, the two of whom later formed the project Tango Protesta, utilizing tango as a vehicle of social-political engagement. While Pedro began organizing actions in Buenos Aires, Todd was training dancers to join in anti-war rallies in the Bay Area. Tango Protesta (SF) later evolved into the Milonga Masala Tango Project, through which Todd began to convene friends and artists of different disciplines and cultural stripes for a monthly gathering at his then home in Cole Valley. Unknown to him at the time, these gatherings were sowing seeds for what would come to be the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco’s Mission District, where he and co-founder Alex Allende taught classes throughout it’s first year.

Admission: Free
Time: 11am-4pm. All ages welcome and experience levels welcome.

Join the conversation at the Poppy – volunteer with us! Click here.