SHAGHAYEGH  CYROUS

 

 

Rock & Mortar

December 4 - 8, 2019

at Z SPACE, San Francisco, CA

 

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Epiphany Dance Theater

Rock & Mortar’s ensemble includes Heather Arnett, Allegra Bautista, Nuria Bowart, Nehara Kalev, Shaghayegh Cyrous, Jhia Jackson, Jenny McAllister, Lucrezia Palandri, and Kaylamay Paz Suarez.

Additional collaborators on Rock & Mortar include director/choreographer/soundscape designer: Kim Epifano

Sound Designer: Uriah Findley, Lighting Designer: Beth Hersh

Video Installation Designer: Shaghayegh Cyrou

Costume Designer: Maria Chenut

Photos: Robbie Sweeny

 

Rock & Mortar was created with support from The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, the Center for Cultural Innovation Investing in Artists Award, the Lighting Artists in Dance Award, a program of Dancers’ Group, Grants for the Arts, Hewlett Foundation, the Fleishhacker Foundation, the Bogliasco Foundation and residencies from Shawl Anderson and Space 124. Z Space’s Technical Development Residency Program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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ABOUT THE PROJECT:
Rock & Mortar is an immersive, multidisciplinary performance featuring an all-woman cast and their stories of gender, ancestry, religion, and politics. In this dance/theatre/song adventure, audiences are invited to explore the venue's physical landmarks amidst an extraordinary collection of intimate vignettes and sensory installations.

Inspired by a visit to her family’s ancestral home in the Abruzzo region of Italy, Epiphany Founder and Artistic Director Kim Epifano developed Rock & Mortar over a two-year period. “I come from a long line of builders,” said Epifano, “people whose principal materials were rock and lime and cement. The strength of their creations is everywhere, to be seen in Italy’s ancient villages, which have literally stood the test of time. As an artist, I see myself as a builder of another kind, supporting the community through the creation of live performances.

Rock & Mortar takes the idea of the ancestral village as a site for artistic excavation, a walled space that serves simultaneously to protect and isolate, with all of the emotions this doubleness entails.”

“In Kim Epifano’s hands, the abstract becomes personal and the intellectual, physical…the passion - which sometimes approaches ecstasy - sets her works soaring.”

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