Photo: Valerie Oliveiro
Red Eye Presents:
VASTNESSESS
by Valerie Oliveiro
March 1-9, 2024
WHEN & WHERE
Friday, March 1
Saturday, March 2
Thursday, March 7
Friday, March 8 - post-show reception
Saturday, March 9
All shows at 7:30 pm
Red Eye Theater
2213 Snelling Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55404
VASTNESSESS is an evening-length dance work by performance maker Valerie Oliveiro. Conceived during unprecedented time, the piece searches for possibility. The dance finds support through, and relishes in, deep patterning—while accepting the sometimes bizarre coexistences of our current experiences. Techniques are passed down for centuries, birds migrate over great distances over thousands of years, dances move through thousands of bodies on the internet, and there are habitual ways to get off.
The choreography explores vastness at many scales—from durations that span beyond a single lifetime, to the feeling of expansion that may arise from the smallest places in the body. In VASTNESSESS, vernaculars may pass by, get picked up, come apart, walk alongside, or arrive at the same time. Form sets, then resets. Simultaneously we witness the beauty, the labor, and the journey of grief. Dance is devotion, dance is loss, and then—dance is stunningly available.
VASTNESSESS is presented by Red Eye as part of its mission as an artist-run organization. As a Co-Artistic Director of Red Eye, Oliveiro’s creative practice appears alongside the work of peer artists supported through Red Eye’s programs, as well as curated rentals. Red Eye presented Oliveiro’s first full-length work, THE STANDARD, as part of Isolated Acts in 2019. They have recently created the works BUANG SUAY for Lightning Rod’s Q-STAGE series and SOFT FREEDOMS, part of Merges in March at the Cowles Center.
TICKETS:
Tickets: $25
No one turned away for lack of funds. If cost is a barrier, please email boxoffice@redeyetheater.org for discount ticket options.
Tickets to VASTNESSESS on March 7, 8, and 9 are sold out. We are offering first-come, first-served Pay-What-You-Wish overflow seating (edge of a riser platform, no back) starting at 6:45 pm each night. We’ll also keep a waitlist at the door (starting same time) for chairs, and move overflow folks to chairs, in the event of any cancellations or no-shows. We will do our best to squeeze everyone in!
Choreography, lighting, sound design: Valerie Oliveiro
Created with and performed by: Sam Johnson, Judith H Shuǐ Xiān, and Pramila Vasudevan
Guests: Emily Gastineau and Jennifer Monson
Environmental treatment and fabrication: Jess Kiel-Wornson
Liminal space technician: matt regan
Bosslady catchall: Jeffrey Wells
Writing vectors: Emily Gastineau (on devotion), Rachel Jendrzejewski (on deep pattern), Marcela Michelle (on queer versatility), and aegor ray (on grief)
ACCESSIBILITY:
Red Eye’s space is fully wheelchair-accessible. To request ASL interpretation, audio description, large-print programs, or other accessibility-related accommodations for any event, please contact us with as much advance notice as possible. staff@redeyetheater.org | 612.870.7531
Masks highly recommended and will be available at the venue. Please only attend if you are feeling well, and if not, we are happy to change your tickets to a different day at no charge.
The performance includes flashing lights and loud music. Run time is 70 minutes.
More info:www.redeyetheater.org
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Valerie Oliveiro (she/he/they) is a queer artist and activist in performance based in Mni Sota Makoce and born in Singapore. They are first a choreographer and performance maker. Their choreographic work surfaces inquiry through specific, cross-focal, multi-racial and densely relational perspectives, through the lens of SE Asian sensibilities. They also move between worlds of visual art, lighting design, writing, and technical direction. They have designed and performed in the work of Jennifer Monson, Morgan Thorson, Pramila Vasudevan, Rosy Simas, Chitra Vairavan, and Emily Gastineau, among others. Their most memorable performance experiences were at BASE (Seattle, WA), Danspace (New York, NY), New York Live Arts (New York, NY), Portland Art Museum (Portland) and Maui Arts and Cultural Center (Maui, HI). Their own choreographic work has been presented at Walker Art Center, Red Eye Theater, Hair+Nails Gallery and Bryant Lake Bowl and Cowles Center and they have been supported by The Waterers, Racing Magpie, Minnesota State Arts Board, MRAC, and the Jerome Foundation. They are a Co-Artistic Director at Red Eye Theater, core ensemble member at Lighting Rod (a queer trans led performance group), and co-run a performance incubator MOVO SPACE for QTBIPOC dance artists. A 2023-2025 Jerome Fellow for Choreography, they also currently design the work of Meg Foley, dance in the work of Rosy Simas, and cultivate a long term multi-modality creative relationship with Jennifer Monson.
Sam Johnson is a performance maker and doer. He often makes and does as a member of SuperGroup, but also with many other folks, mostly in Minnesota. He's currently learning software development and trying to convince himself that it's all dance.
Judith H Shuǐ Xiān is a choreographer, improviser, and sound artist based in Minneapolis. She is a 2017/2022 Q-Stage: New Works and 2019 Momentum: New Dance Works recipient and was part of the 2022 Red Eye Works-In-Progress cohort. She is currently focused on researching ritual & meditation through experimental performance.
Pramila Vasudevan: “I am grateful to work with Valerie, Judee, Sam, Georgia (best rehearsal director ever), and the mysterious team of artists that are yet to join in on making VASTNESSESS come alive. I love researching the conceptual spaces between local and global, the rhythms between the cellular and the cosmos, and the moments between the yellows of the sunlight.”
Liminal Space Technician matt regan approaches Sisyphean challenges with a modicum of knowledge, elbow grease, and a can-do spirit.
Valerie Olivero is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. This work is additionally made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, MAP Fund, and The McKnight Foundation. Initial research supported by an Arts Impact for Individuals Grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.
Thank you: Red Eye Board of Directors, Karen Quisenberry, Morgan Thorson, Jennifer Monson, Emily Gastineau, Rachel Jendrzejewski, Kristin Van Loon, jess pretty, Sam Aros-Mitchell, Jeffrey Wells, Judith Howard, Rosy Simas, 331 Studio, Chitra Vairavan, José A. Luis, matt regan, Kat Purcell, Marcela Michelle, and aegor ray.