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June 6-72008 part of Big Range Austin: It is an abstract look at the interplay between people when they are in the process of going someplace new. As we look at the world changing before our eyes this journey is a mix of the routine and the familiar, verses the unknown and the unexpected, that is all to real in our everyday lives. It address the political landscape of today and yesterday to reveal how so many of societies growing pains and embarrassments repeat themselves
_____Cool.Dance. 2006-2007______
cool.dance. and 4Red Lines nominated for 2007-2008 Critic's Table Awards!
featured story here
Interview here
You-Tube Video from 8/12/07 performance at Austin Figurative Gallery Inerview here .
Review from Hot September Flurries 2007 here
1. Flowers . video
2. Bon Voyage . video
Dancers: Ellen Bartel, Dawnerin Larrimore, Janine Plotez, and Maggie Wilhite.
Music: Andy Hadaway. contact
video shot/edited: Colin Lowry
Photo's by: Cindy Light. contact
performance locations: Beauty Bar, Tom Waits Stray Dogs Party, HSF 2006, Dance Carousel 2006, Emo's Lounge, Little City Esp Bar, Trophy's, Austin Figurative Gallery, Dr. Sketchy, HSF 2007, SUNY Potsdam, Blackmail Clothing store.
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4Red Lines
Thursday, March 15, @12:15pm-- 4th and Trinity/Austin Convention Center
Sunday, March 18, @4:13pm--4th and Trinity/Austin Convention Center...see photo's below.
Thursday, April 5@12:30pm---4th and Guadaloupe/ Republic Square Park
Monday, April 9, @5:03pm--Auditorum Shores
Tuesday, April 17, @8:30pm part of Refraction Arts FUSE BOX
Saturday, April 28, @11:01am & 12:30pm Pease Park, Eyores b-day party
Thursday, May 3, @11:45am Saltillo Train Station, 5th and Comel
Sunday, May 6 @4:27pm Big Stacy Park...in the trees, hot and humid!
Hot September Flurries 2007
SUNY Potsdam October 2007
Dancers: Ellen Bartel, Dawnerin Larrimore, Janine Ploetz, Maggie Wilhite & Mari Akita
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4Red Lines (2007) is an original contemporary dance choreographed by Ellen Bartel and by the elements surrounding the dance. 4Red Lines is created to be a dance of transformation, adaptation, and change -vs- stability, strength and constancy. Ellen choreographed a 20-30 minute dance designed to be performed in outdoor, non-traditional venues. Specifically to observe how the audience interacts with the performance, how the sounds juxtapose the movement, and how the dancers adapt the movement to their unpredictable environment. The movement is abstract yet yielding to the characters of each of the performers and the surreal images that 4 red-brightly dressed- individuals can create.
Ellen was interested in breaking down barriers of all kinds for 4Red Lines. Not only has she taken the dance outside, out of the theater to literally break down “the walls”, but there is no fee for any of these events and she is also bringing dance to different locations at different times to break down the “time and money” barrier that keeps people from seeing live performances.
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Greyhounds and Other Virtual Ways to Travel
March 6-26, 2006 @ Blue Theater, choreographed by Ellen Bartel, with original music composed by Andy Hadaway, lighting design by Jason Amato. Performing in Greyhounds and Other...are dancers: Mari Akita, Chika Aluka, Ellen Bartel, Dawnerin Larrimore, Debra McAdoo, Kayo Tsujimoto, and Roberta Villalon.
about how we travel without actually going to a new physical place. Through our memories, with our computer, and sparking our intellect we transport ourselves through space and time. Three new dances entertain this idea of travel without moving. Exploring the past, present, and future of our imagination and thoughts about humanity. Asking where are we going from here?
.KillSport
T. Williams
T. Williams
March 17-April 3, 2005 @ Blue Theater, music by Andy Hadaway (nominated for critics choice award for music composition) Dancers: Ellen Bartel, Amy Cone, Cristina Jesurun, Michel Scott, Kayo Tsujimoto, Matthew Young. Lighting: Stephen Pruitt.
A satirical portrayal of the killer instinct in the most innocent of creatures. Taking from images of the current political environment, video games and family pets, Bartel's imagination brings to life the darker side, the aggressive nature of society, and how it changes from a Utopia to a battle ground and innocence lost.
June 10-19, 2004 @Blue Theater, music by various artists. Dancers: Mari Akita, Ellen Bartel, Amy Cone, Cecilia Proeger, Matthew Young. Lighting: Stephen Pruitt.Created to express elements of things that are Black. Intrigued by how movement can portray and capture human nature in ways that language may describe less poetically, Bartel unwraps the idea of "black", opens the box and lets the audience inside the darkness. A dense void, thick and shapeless, the dancers shape, gesture and move in ways that describe literal, metaphoric and emotional levels of black. It is a dance about political and social observations that are timeless, relevant and sure to make the imagination question ones own view about black things.
All 2003, @ Various Venues, Austin, Dallas and Houston, music by Parmegiani, Dancers: Mari Akita, Ellen Bartel, Amy Cone
July 10-20, 2003 @ Off Center, music by Golden Arm Trio and video by in the RA studio. Dancers: Ellen Bartel, Matt WilliamsVisually and aurally this dance will be sensual and emotional; a complete idea. Sonambulo is truly a dance and multi-media collaboration performance that is made to peek inside the male perspective of love and relationships, designed by a woman and created for everyone.
J. Jobst
January, 2003 @ Blue Theater, music by Andrew Baron. Dancers: Megan Knotz, Cecilia Proeger, Kristen Studer, Krista DelGallo, Nancy Moran, Milissa Epstine, Lindsay DiGiaseppe, Gail Gresham, Amy Cone, Jennifer Tietz, Emily Fawcett, Janine Ploetz, Rhianon Renee, Genevieve Salmon, Whitney Hocke, Ellen Bartel, Dawn Bishop, Debra McAdoo, Jenna Weikerth, Susan Tietz.A dance featuring twenty female dancers which describes a brief moment of personal interaction between two women. It is an inside look at how women think of themselves when they are feeling insecure about the way they look as well as how aggressive they can be toward one another.
August 22-25, 2002 @ Dougherty Arts Center, music by Andrew Baron. Dancers: Ellen Bartel, Megan Knotz, Jennifer Tietz, Nancy Moran, Cecilia Proeger, Kristen Studer, Cristina Jesurun. Lights: Brian Davis.
August 16-19, 2001 @ Dougherty Arts Center, music by Andrew Baron. Dancers: Ellen Bartel, Alison Gross , Cecilia Proeger, Cristina Jesurun, Rhianon Rene, Megan Knotz, Nancy Moran, Jenna Weikerth. Lights: Brian Davis.
C. Light
C. Light
August 11-19, 2000 @ Movements Gallery, music by Golden Arm Trio. Dancers: Ellen Bartel, Jenna Weikerth
Based on three poems written by Ellen Bartel on overcoming personal obstacles and realizing that no one is alone when faced with difficult times.
April 13-16, 2000 @ Metz Park and Rec, Music by Andrew Baron. Dancers: Ellen Bartel, Chell Garcia-Trias, Carmen Knight, Rachel Ladov, Michelle Owns-Pierce, Chris Cogburn, Dawn Bishop, Michelle Savage, Eric Detablan, Jenna Weikerth, Janine Plotez, Arron Johnson, Kayo Tsujimoto, Gail Grasham, Shay Hartung, Beth McMillan, Kathleen Atwood, Barry Dersh, Casey Cumpacker, Neil Ellis Orts, Paxton Knight, jen Walters, Nicki Tipton Tallent, Keligh Reynolds, Heather Burmeister, Ally Sweet, Beth Brady, Ashley Overton, Frank Rendon (RIP-Frank).Performed on an outdoor stage and timed perfectly to conclude at sunset, the show involved 30 dancers set to original music by Andrew Baron performing live with 6 musicians. The dance was a fairy-tail about two lovers who were gleefully walking through the park only to be tricked into separating from one another by the playful and rambunctious park fairies, ultimately to be reunited by the magic hands of the wizard for a joyful ending.
Spank Dance Company would not have the unique execution of movement vocabulary if it were not for the 6 years that Bartel directed the slow-motion group The Creeps. The Creeps began in 1995 and is a philosophical movement study in space and time.
Originally designed to be performed in the streets juxtaposition to "normal" time, the slow-motion performers were to surprise onlookers and create a "happening" for that day. A year after street performing The Creeps were becoming a group invited to perform at parties, art openings and unique art events. By The final year of Creeping the group was working and receiving pay from AMOA for very special events.
The group disbanded in 2001, but not before receiving critical acclaim for Ascension/descend in 1999 by receiving a #10 in the top 10 dance events, a three page feature in Austin Arts Magazine in 1997 and in 1998 a full page article and interview in the Austin American Statesman.The Creeps performed almost once a month for six years and for each performance Ellen taught slow-motion as a movement practice.
Ellen has honed the unique movement form and has created a new choreographic technique from her experience called Infinite Gesture. In Infinite Gesture slow motion is combined with chaos theories giving the movement-artist a new and advanced way to create dance vocabulary that is unlike anything being created from traditional choreographic techniques.
This technique is applied at a core level into Spank Dance Company's development of movement and artistic concept for each new dance, and is what makes this company uniquely different when comparing to other modern dance companies.PLACES THE CREPS HAVE PERFORMED
THE DRAG #1 pedestrian 8/95UT CAMPUS 9/956TH & COLORADO 11/95AUDITORIUM SHORES 12/95RUTA MAYA 1/96PERFORMANCE ART CHURCH solo lost child1/96THE WALK BRIDGE UNDER MOPAC 2/96EYORE'S BIRTHDAY #1 pedestrian 4/96THE DRAG #2 night along the wall 5/96SELLING SHAKI performance collaboration Zac-Scott 6/96LITTLE CITY played musical chairs 9/96CAFE BREMOND 10/96ALTON OF THE SPOT public access show 10/96CAROL'S & MARKS WEDDING ?LAUGHING AT THE SUN ART OPENING#1 found objects 1/97LAUGHING AT THE SUN ART OPENING #2 dream show 4/97EYORE'S BIRTHDAY #2 formal picnic 4/97CLARKSVILL JAZZ FESTIVAL#1 yellow & toilet paper 6/974TH & COLORADO wrote sayings on paper wearing black 8/976th STREET 10/97WORLDLY DUST backyard performance art show collaboration 11/974 YEARS IN AUSTIN duets performed during the duration of a solo dance concert 1/98FRONTERA FESTIVAL collaboration with film & music 2/98THE DRAG #3 follow the leader 3/98EYORE'S BIRTHDAY #3 rat race 4/98CLARKSVILL JAZZ FESTIVAL #2 bouncing balls 6/98FUNHOUSE CINEMA collaboration with film & music 6/9828.5 #1 performance art collaboration at Movements Gallery 8/98ARTPLEX the dada exhibit, living art 11/98AUSTIN DANCE FEST Break On Through 1/9928.5 #2 progress 2/99ARTPLEX the blue show 3/99PUBLIC DOMAIN fund raiser 3/9928.5 #3 code 6/99(won #10 top ten dance performance 1999) ASCENSION/DESCEND solo performance at four coffee shops in four nights 7/99ARTPLEX the surreal show -Ascension/descend duet 9/99TRAIL OF LIGHTS canceled due to weather 12/99AUSTIN DANCE FEST Crystal Leaves 1/00AUSTIN MUSEUM OF ART Crystal Leaves 3/00ARTHIP AMOA platinum statues 10/00AUSTIN MUSEUM OF ART fine arts festival people flowers 4/01
