THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

French postcard. Caption: Jack Nicholson luminant un cigare

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also ithat year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholsondid not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards and . He has had a number of high-profile relationships, and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

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Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: γνωστικός gnostikos, "having knowledge", from γνῶσις gnōsis, knowledge) is a modern name for a variety of ancient religious ideas and systems, originating in Jewish Christian milieux in the first and second century AD. These systems believed that the material world is created by an emanation or 'works' of a lower god (demiurge), trapping the divine spark within the human body. This divine spark could be liberated by gnosis, spiritual knowledge acquired through direct experience. Some of the core teachings include the following:

All matter is evil, and the non-material, spirit-realm is good.

There is an unknowable God, who gave rise to many lesser spirit beings called Aeons.

The creator of the (material) universe is not the supreme god, but an inferior spirit (the Demiurge).

Gnosticism does not deal with "sin," only ignorance.

To achieve salvation, one needs gnosis (knowledge).

The Gnostic ideas and systems flourished in the Mediterranean world in the second century AD, in conjunction with and influenced by the early Christian movements and Middle Platonism. After the second century, a decline set in. In the Persian Empire, Gnosticism in the form of Manicheism spread as far as China, while Mandaeism is still alive in Iraq.

A major question in scholarly research is the qualification of Gnosticism, based on the study of its texts, as either an interreligious phenomenon or as an independent religion.

 

Gnosis refers to knowledge based on personal experience or perception. In a religious context, gnosis is mystical or esoteric knowledge based on direct participation with the divine. In most Gnostic systems, the sufficient cause of salvation is this "knowledge of" ("acquaintance with") the divine. It is an inward "knowing", comparable to that encouraged by Plotinus (neoplatonism), and differs from proto-orthodox Christian views.[1] Gnostics are "those who are oriented toward knowledge and understanding – or perception and learning – as a particular modality for living".

 

The usual meaning of gnostikos in Classical Greek texts is "learned" or "intellectual", such as used by Plato in the comparison of "practical" (praktikos) and "intellectual" (gnostikos). Plato's use of "learned" is fairly typical of Classical texts.

 

By the Hellenistic period, it began to also be associated with Greco-Roman mysteries, becoming synonymous with the Greek term musterion. The adjective is not used in the New Testament, but Clement of Alexandria[note 3] speaks of the "learned" (gnostikos) Christian in complimentary terms. The use of gnostikos in relation to heresy originates with interpreters of Irenaeus. Some scholars[note consider that Irenaeus sometimes uses gnostikos to simply mean "intellectual",[note 5] whereas his mention of "the intellectual sect" is a specific designation.

 

The term "Gnosticism" does not appear in ancient sources,[note 10] and was first coined in the 17th century by Henry More in a commentary on the seven letters of the Book of Revelation, where More used the term "Gnosticisme" to describe the heresy in Thyatira. The term Gnosticism was derived from the use of the Greek adjective gnostikos (Greek γνωστικός, "learned", "intellectual") by St. Irenaeus (c. 185 AD) to describe the school of Valentinus as he legomene gnostike haeresis "the heresy called Learned (gnostic)."

 

Origins

The earliest origins of Gnosticism are obscure and still disputed. The proto-orthodox Christian groups called Gnostics a heresy of Christianity,] but according to the modern scholars the theology's origin is closely related to Jewish sectarian milieus and early Christian sects. Scholars debate Gnosticism's origins as having roots in Neoplatonism and Buddhism, due to similarities in beliefs, but ultimately, its origins are currently unknown. As Christianity developed and became more popular, so did Gnosticism, with both proto-orthodox Christian and Gnostic Christian groups often existing in the same places. The Gnostic belief was widespread within Christianity until the proto-orthodox Christian communities expelled the group in the second and third centuries (C.E.). Gnosticism became the first group to be declared heretical.

 

Some scholars prefer to speak of "gnosis" when referring to first-century ideas that later developed into gnosticism, and to reserve the term "gnosticism" for the synthesis of these ideas into a coherent movement in the second century.No gnostic texts have been discovered that pre-date Christianity,and "pre-Christian Gnosticism as such is hardly attested in a way to settle the debate once and for all."

 

Jewish Christian origins

 

Contemporary scholarship largely agrees that Gnosticism has Jewish Christian origins, originating in the late first century AD in non rabbinical Jewish sects and early Christian sects.

 

Many heads of gnostic schools were identified as Jewish Christians by Church Fathers, and Hebrew words and names of God were applied in some gnostic systems. The cosmogonic speculations among Christian Gnostics had partial origins in Maaseh Bereshit and Maaseh Merkabah. This thesis is most notably put forward by Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) and Gilles Quispel (1916–2006). Scholem detected Jewish gnosis in the imagery of the merkavah, which can also be found in "Christian" Gnostic documents, for example the being "caught away" to the third heaven mentioned by Paul the Apostle. Quispel sees Gnosticism as an independent Jewish development, tracing its origins to Alexandrian Jews, to which group Valentinus was also connected.

 

Many of the Nag Hammadi texts make reference to Judaism, in some cases with a violent rejection of the Jewish God. Gershom Scholem once described Gnosticism as "the Greatest case of metaphysical anti-Semitism". Professor Steven Bayme said gnosticism would be better characterized as anti-Judaism. Recent research into the origins of Gnosticism shows a strong Jewish influence, particularly from Hekhalot literature.

 

Within early Christianity, the teachings of Paul and John may have been a starting point for Gnostic ideas, with a growing emphasis on the opposition between flesh and spirit, the value of charisma, and the disqualification of the Jewish law. The mortal body belonged to the world of inferior, worldly powers (the archons), and only the spirit or soul could be saved. The term gnostikos may have acquired a deeper significance here.

 

Alexandria was of central importance for the birth of Gnosticism. The Christian ecclesia (i. e. congregation, church) was of Jewish–Christian origin, but also attracted Greek members, and various strand of thought were available, such as "Judaic apocalypticism, speculation on divine wisdom, Greek philosophy, and Hellenistic mystery religions."

 

Regarding the angel Christology of some early Christians, Darrell Hannah notes:

 

[Some] early Christians understood the pre-incarnate Christ, ontologically, as an angel. This "true" angel Christology took many forms and may have appeared as early as the late First Century, if indeed this is the view opposed in the early chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Elchasaites, or at least Christians influenced by them, paired the male Christ with the female Holy Spirit, envisioning both as two gigantic angels. Some Valentinian Gnostics supposed that Christ took on an angelic nature and that he might be the Saviour of angels. The author of the Testament of Solomon held Christ to be a particularly effective "thwarting" angel in the exorcism of demons. The author of De Centesima and Epiphanius’ "Ebionites" held Christ to have been the highest and most important of the first created archangels, a view similar in many respects to Hermas’ equation of Christ with Michael. Finally, a possible exegetical tradition behind the Ascension of Isaiah and attested by Origen's Hebrew master, may witness to yet another angel Christology, as well as an angel Pneumatology.

 

The pseudepigraphical Christian text Ascension of Isaiah identifies Jesus with angel Christology:

 

[The Lord Christ is commissioned by the Father] And I heard the voice of the Most High, the father of my LORD as he said to my LORD Christ who will be called Jesus, ‘Go out and descend through all the heavens...

 

The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian literary work considered as canonical scripture by some of the early Church fathers such as Irenaeus. Jesus is identified with angel Christology in parable 5, when the author mentions a Son of God, as a virtuous man filled with a Holy "pre-existent spirit".

 

Neoplatonic influences

See also: Platonic Academy, Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism and Christianity

In the 1880s Gnostic connections with neo-Platonism were proposed.Ugo Bianchi, who organised the Congress of Messina of 1966 on the origins of Gnosticism, also argued for Orphic and Platonic origins.Gnostics borrowed significant ideas and terms from Platonism, using Greek philosophical concepts throughout their text, including such concepts as hypostasis (reality, existence), ousia (essence, substance, being), and demiurge (creator God). Both Sethian Gnostics and Valentinian Gnostics seem to have been influenced by Plato, Middle Platonism, and Neo-Pythagoreanism academies or schools of thought. Both schools attempted "an effort towards conciliation, even affiliation" with late antique philosophy, and were rebuffed by some Neoplatonists, including Plotinus.

 

Persian origins or influences

Early research into the origins of Gnosticism proposed Persian origins or influences, spreading to Europe and incorporating Jewish elements. According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,[29] and Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931) most famously situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.

 

Carsten Colpe (b. 1929) has analyzed and criticised the Iranian hypothesis of Reitzenstein, showing that many of his hypotheses are untenable. Nevertheless, Geo Widengren (1907–1996) argued for the origin of (Mandaean) Gnosticism in Mazdean (Zoroastrianism) Zurvanism, in conjunction with ideas from the Aramaic Mesopotamian world.

 

Buddhist parallels

 

In 1966, at the Congress of Median, Buddhologist Edward Conze noted phenomenological commonalities between Mahayana Buddhism and Gnosticism, in his paper Buddhism and Gnosis, following an early suggestion put forward by Isaac Jacob Schmidt. The influence of Buddhism in any sense on either the gnostikos Valentinus (c. 170) or the Nag Hammadi texts (3rd century) is not supported by modern scholarship, although Elaine Pagels (1979) called it a "possibility".

 

Characteristics

Cosmology

 

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The Syrian–Egyptian traditions postulate a remote, supreme Godhead, the Monad. From this highest divinity emanate lower divine beings, known as Aeons. The Demiurge, one of those Aeons, creates the physical world. Divine elements "fall" into the material realm, and are locked within human beings. This divine element returns to the divine realm when Gnosis, esoteric or intuitive knowledge of the divine element within, is obtained.

 

Dualism and monism

Gnostic systems postulate a dualism between God and the world, varying from the "radical dualist" systems of Manichaeism to the "mitigated dualism" of classic gnostic movements. Radical dualism, or absolute dualism, posits two co-equal divine forces, while in mitigated dualism one of the two principles is in some way inferior to the other. In qualified monism the second entity may be divine or semi-divine. Valentinian Gnosticism is a form of monism, expressed in terms previously used in a dualistic manner.

 

Moral and ritual practice

Gnostics tended toward asceticism, especially in their sexual and dietary practice. In other areas of morality, Gnostics were less rigorously ascetic, and took a more moderate approach to correct behaviour. In normative early Christianity the Church administered and prescribed the correct behaviour for Christians, while in Gnosticism it was the internalised motivation that was important. Ritualistic behaviour was not important unless it was based on a personal, internal motivation. Ptolemy's Epistle to Flora describes a general asceticism, based on the moral inclination of the individual.

 

Concepts

Monad

 

In many Gnostic systems, God is known as the Monad, the One. God is the high source of the pleroma, the region of light. The various emanations of God are called æons. According to Hippolytus, this view was inspired by the Pythagoreans, who called the first thing that came into existence the Monad, which begat the dyad, which begat the numbers, which begat the point, begetting lines, etc.

 

The Sethian cosmogony as most famously contained in the Apocryphon ("Secret book") of John describes an unknown God, very similar to the orthodox apophatic theology, but different from the orthodox teachings that this God is the creator of heaven and earth. Orthodox theologians often attempt to define God through a series of explicit positive statements: he is omniscient, omnipotent, and truly benevolent. The Sethian hidden transcendent God is, by contrast, defined through negative theology: he is immovable, invisible, intangible, ineffable; commonly, "he" is seen as being hermaphroditic, a potent symbol for being, as it were, "all-containing". In the Apocryphon of John, this god is good in that it bestows goodness. After the apophatic statements, the process of the Divine in action is used to describe the effect of such a god.

 

Pleroma

Pleroma (Greek πλήρωμα, "fullness") refers to the totality of God's powers. The heavenly pleroma is the center of divine life, a region of light "above" (the term is not to be understood spatially) our world, occupied by spiritual beings such as aeons (eternal beings) and sometimes archons. Jesus is interpreted as an intermediary aeon who was sent from the pleroma, with whose aid humanity can recover the lost knowledge of the divine origins of humanity. The term is thus a central element of Gnostic cosmology.

 

Pleroma is also used in the general Greek language, and is used by the Greek Orthodox church in this general form, since the word appears in the Epistle to the Colossians. Proponents of the view that Paul was actually a gnostic, such as Elaine Pagels, view the reference in Colossians as a term that has to be interpreted in a gnostic sense.

 

Emanation

 

The Supreme Light or Consciousness descends through a series of stages, gradations, worlds, or hypostases, becoming progressively more material and embodied. In time it will turn around to return to the One (epistrophe), retracing its steps through spiritual knowledge and contemplation.

 

Aeon

 

In many Gnostic systems, the aeons are the various emanations of the superior God or Monad. From this first being, also an æon, a series of different emanations occur, beginning in certain Gnostic texts with the hermaphroditic Barbelo, from which successive pairs of aeons emanate, often in male–female pairings called syzygies. The numbers of these pairings varied from text to text, though some identify their number as being thirty. The aeons as a totality constitute the pleroma, the "region of light". The lowest regions of the pleroma are closest to the darkness; that is, the physical world.

 

Two of the most commonly paired æons were Christ and Sophia (Greek: "Wisdom"); the latter refers to Christ as her "consort" in A Valentinian Exposition.

 

Sophia

 

In Gnostic tradition, the term Sophia (Σoφíα, Greek for "wisdom") refers to the final and lowest emanation of God. In most if not all versions of the gnostic myth, Sophia births the demiurge, who in turn brings about the creation of materiality. The positive or negative depiction of materiality thus resides a great deal on mythic depictions of Sophia's actions. She is occasionally referred to by the Hebrew equivalent of Achamoth (this is a feature of Ptolemy's version of the Valentinian gnostic myth). Jewish Gnosticism with a focus on Sophia was active by 90 AD.[citation needed]

 

Sophia, emanating without her partner, resulted in the production of the Demiurge (Greek: lit. "public builder"),[50] who is also referred to as Yaldabaoth and variations thereof in some Gnostic texts.[43] This creature is concealed outside the pleroma;[43] in isolation, and thinking itself alone, it creates materiality and a host of co-actors, referred to as archons. The demiurge is responsible for the creation of mankind; trapping elements of the pleroma stolen from Sophia inside human bodies.[43][51] In response, the Godhead emanates two savior aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit; Christ then embodies itself in the form of Jesus, in order to be able to teach man how to achieve gnosis, by which they may return to the pleroma.[52]

 

Demiurge[edit]

 

A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de Montfaucon's L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures may be a depiction of Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge; however, cf. Mithraic Zervan Akarana[53]

Main article: Demiurge

The term demiurge derives from the Latinized form of the Greek term dēmiourgos, δημιουργός, literally "public or skilled worker".[note 20] This figure is also called "Yaldabaoth",[43] Samael (Aramaic: sæmʻa-ʼel, "blind god"), or "Saklas" (Syriac: sækla, "the foolish one"), who is sometimes ignorant of the superior god, and sometimes opposed to it; thus in the latter case he is correspondingly malevolent. Other names or identifications are Ahriman, El, Satan, and Yahweh.

 

The demiurge creates the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity.[55] The demiurge typically creates a group of co-actors named archons who preside over the material realm and, in some cases, present obstacles to the soul seeking ascent from it.[43] The inferiority of the demiurge's creation may be compared to the technical inferiority of a work of art, painting, sculpture, etc. to the thing the art represents. In other cases it takes on a more ascetic tendency to view material existence negatively, which then becomes more extreme when materiality, including the human body, is perceived as evil and constrictive, a deliberate prison for its inhabitants.

 

Moral judgements of the demiurge vary from group to group within the broad category of Gnosticism, viewing materiality as being inherently evil, or as merely flawed and as good as its passive constituent matter allows.[56]

 

Archon[edit]

Main article: Archon (Gnosticism)

In late antiquity some variants of Gnosticism used the term archon to refer to several servants of the demiurge.[51] In this context they may be seen as having the roles of the angels and demons of the Old Testament.[citation needed]

 

According to Origen's Contra Celsum, a sect called the Ophites posited the existence of seven archons, beginning with Iadabaoth or Ialdabaoth, who created the six that follow: Iao, Sabaoth, Adonaios, Elaios, Astaphanos, and Horaios.[57] Similarly to the Mithraic Kronos and Vedic Narasimha, a form of Vishnu, Ialdabaoth had a head of a lion.[43][58][59]

 

Other concepts[edit]

Other Gnostic concepts are:[60]

 

sarkic – earthly, hidebound, ignorant, uninitiated. The lowest level of human thought; the fleshly, instinctive level of thinking.

hylic – lowest order of the three types of human. Unable to be saved since their thinking is entirely material, incapable of understanding the gnosis.

psychic – "soulful", partially initiated. Matter-dwelling spirits

pneumatic – "spiritual", fully initiated, immaterial souls escaping the doom of the material world via gnosis.

kenoma – the visible or manifest cosmos, "lower" than the pleroma

charisma – gift, or energy, bestowed by pneumatics through oral teaching and personal encounters

logos – the divine ordering principle of the cosmos; personified as Christ. See also Odic force.

hypostasis – literally "that which stands beneath" the inner reality, emanation (appearance) of God, known to psychics

ousia – essence of God, known to pneumatics. Specific individual things or being.

Jesus as Gnostic saviour[edit]

Jesus is identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnōsis to the earth,[61][52] while others adamantly denied that the supreme being came in the flesh, claiming Jesus to be merely a human who attained divinity through gnosis and taught his disciples to do the same.[citation needed] Among the Mandaeans, Jesus was considered a mšiha kdaba or "false messiah" who perverted the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist.[62] Still other traditions identify Mani and Seth – third son of Adam and Eve – as salvific figures.

 

Development[edit]

Three periods can be discerned in the development of Gnosticism:[63]

 

Late first century and early second century: development of Gnostic ideas, contemporaneous with the writing of the New Testament;

mid-second century to early third century: high point of the classical Gnostic teachers and their systems, "who claimed that their systems represented the inner truth revealed by Jesus";[63]

end of second century to fourth century: reaction by the proto-orthodox church and condemnation as heresy, and subsequent decline.

During the first period, three types of tradition developed:[63]

 

Genesis was reinterpreted in Jewish milieus, viewing Jahweh as a jealous God who enslaved people; freedom was to be obtained from this jealous God;

A wisdom tradition developed, in which Jesus' sayings were interpreted as pointers to an esoteric wisdom, in which the soul could be divinized through identification with wisdom.[63][note 21] Some of Jesus' sayings may have been incorporated into the gospels to put a limit on this development. The conflicts described in 1 Corinthians may have been inspired by a clash between this wisdom tradition and Paul's gospel of crucifixion and arising;[63]

A mythical story developed about the descent of a heavenly creature to reveal the Divine world as the true home of human beings.[63] Jewish Christianity saw the Messiah, or Christ, as "an eternal aspect of God's hidden nature, his "spirit" and "truth", who revealed himself throughout sacred history".[25]

The movement spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths,[65] and the Persian Empire. It continued to develop in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but decline also set in during the third century, due to a growing aversion from the Catholic Church, and the economic and cultural deterioration of the Roman Empire.[66] Conversion to Islam, and the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229), greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the Middle Ages, though a few Mandaean communities still exist. Gnostic and pseudo-gnostic ideas became influential in some of the philosophies of various esoteric mystical movements of the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier gnostic groups.

 

Relation with early Christianity[edit]

Dillon notes that Gnosticism raises questions about the development of early Christianity.[67]

 

Orthodoxy and heresy[edit]

See also: Diversity in early Christian theology

The Christian heresiologists, most notably Irenaeus, regarded Gnosticism as a Christian heresy. Modern scholarship notes that early Christianity was very diverse, and Christian orthodoxy only settled in the 4th century, when the Roman Empire declined and Gnosticism lost its influence.[68][66][69][67] Gnostics and proto-orthodox Christians shared some terminology. Initially, they were hard to distinguish from each other.[70]

 

According to Walter Bauer, "heresies" may well have been the original form of Christianity in many regions.[71] This theme was further developed by Elaine Pagels,[72] who argues that "the proto-orthodox church found itself in debates with gnostic Christians that helped them to stabilize their own beliefs."[67] According to Gilles Quispel, Catholicism arose in response to Gnosticism, establishing safeguards in the form of the monarchic episcopate, the creed, and the canon of holy books.[73]

 

Historical Jesus[edit]

See also: Jesus in comparative mythology and Christ myth theory

The Gnostic movements may contain information about the historical Jesus, since some texts preserve sayings which show similarities with canonical sayings.[74] Especially the Gospel of Thomas has a significant amount of parallel sayings.[74] Yet, a striking difference is that the canonical sayings center on the coming endtime, while the Thomas-sayings center on a kingdom of heaven that is already here, and not a future event.[75] According to Helmut Koester, this is because the Thomas-sayings are older, implying that in the earliest forms of Christianity Jesus was regarded as a wisdom-teacher.[75] An alternative hypothesis states that the Thomas authors wrote in the second century, changing existing sayings and eliminating the apocalyptic concerns.[75] According to April DeConick, such a change occurred when the endtime did not come, and the Thomasine tradition turned toward a "new theology of mysticism" and a "theological commitment to a fully-present kingdom of heaven here and now, where their church had attained Adam and Eve's divine status before the Fall."[75]

 

Johannine literature[edit]

The prologue of the Gospel of John describes the incarnated Logos, the light that came to earth, in the person of Jesus.[76] The Apocryphon of John contains a scheme of three descendants from the heavenly realm, the third one being Jesus, just as in the Gospel of John. The similarities probably point to a relationship between gnostic ideas and the Johannine community.[76] According to Raymond Brown, the Gospel of John shows "the development of certain gnostic ideas, especially Christ as heavenly revealer, the emphasis on light versus darkness, and anti-Jewish animus."[76] The Johannine material reveals debates about the redeemer myth.[63] The Johannine letters show that there were different interpretations of the gospel story, and the Johannine images may have contributed to second-century Gnostic ideas about Jesus as a redeemer who descended from heaven.[63] According to DeConick, the Gospel of John shows a "transitional system from early Christianity to gnostic beliefs in a God who transcends our world."[76] According to DeConick, John may show a bifurcation of the idea of the Jewish God into Jesus' Father in Heaven and the Jews' father, "the Father of the Devil" (most translations say "of [your] father the Devil"), which may have developed into the gnostic idea of the Monad and the Demiurge.[76]

 

Paul and Gnosticism[edit]

Tertullian calls Paul "the apostle of the heretics",[77] because Paul's writings were attractive to gnostics, and interpreted in a gnostic way, while Jewish Christians found him to stray from the Jewish roots of Christianity.[78] In I Corinthians Paul refers to some church members as "having knowledge" (Greek: τὸν ἔχοντα γνῶσιν, ton echonta gnosin).[79] James Dunn claims that in some cases, Paul affirmed views that were closer to gnosticism than to proto-orthodox Christianity.[80]

 

According to Clement of Alexandria, the disciples of Valentinus said that Valentinus was a student of a certain Theudas, who was a student of Paul,[80] and Elaine Pagels notes that Paul's epistles were interpreted by Valentinus in a gnostic way, and Paul could be considered a proto-gnostic as well as a proto-Catholic.[60] Many Nag Hammadi texts, including, for example, the Prayer of Paul and the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul, consider Paul to be "the great apostle".[80] The fact that he claimed to have received his gospel directly by revelation from God appealed to the gnostics, who claimed gnosis from the risen Christ.[81] The Naassenes, Cainites, and Valentinians referred to Paul's epistles.[82] Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy have expanded upon this idea of Paul as a gnostic teacher;[83] although their premise that Jesus was invented by early Christians based on an alleged Greco-Roman mystery cult has been dismissed by scholars.[84][note 22] However, his revelation was different from the gnostic revelations.[85]

 

Major movements[edit]

Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism[edit]

Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism includes Sethianism, Valentinianism, Basilideans, Thomasine traditions, and Serpent Gnostics, as well as a number of other minor groups and writers.[86] Hermeticism is also a western Gnostic tradition,[66] though it differs in some respects from these other groups.[87] The Syrian–Egyptian school derives much of its outlook from Platonist influences. It depicts creation in a series of emanations from a primal monadic source, finally resulting in the creation of the material universe. These schools tend to view evil in terms of matter that is markedly inferior to goodness and lacking spiritual insight and goodness rather than as an equal force.

 

Many of these movements used texts related to Christianity, with some identifying themselves as specifically Christian, though quite different from the Orthodox or Roman Catholic forms. Jesus and several of his apostles, such as Thomas the Apostle, claimed as the founder of the Thomasine form of Gnosticism, figure in many Gnostic texts. Mary Magdalene is respected as a Gnostic leader, and is considered superior to the twelve apostles by some gnostic texts, such as the Gospel of Mary. John the Evangelist is claimed as a Gnostic by some Gnostic interpreters,[88] as is even St. Paul.[60] Most of the literature from this category is known to us through the Nag Hammadi Library.

 

Sethite-Barbeloite[edit]

Main article: Sethianism

Sethianism was one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd to 3rd centuries, and the prototype of Gnosticism as condemned by Irenaeus.[89] Sethianism attributed its gnosis to Seth, third son of Adam and Eve and Norea, wife of Noah, who also plays a role in Mandeanism and Manicheanism. Their main text is the Apocryphon of John, which does not contain Christian elements,[89] and is an amalgam of two earlier myths.[90] Earlier texts such as Apocalypse of Adam show signs of being pre-Christian and focus on the Seth, third son of Adam and Eve.[91] Later Sethian texts continue to interact with Platonism. Sethian texts such as Zostrianos and Allogenes draw on the imagery of older Sethian texts, but utilize "a large fund of philosophical conceptuality derived from contemporary Platonism, (that is, late middle Platonism) with no traces of Christian content."[31][note 23]

 

According to John D. Turner, German and American scholarship views Sethianism as "a distinctly inner-Jewish, albeit syncretistic and heterodox, phenomenon", while British and French scholarship tends to see Sethianism as "a form of heterodox Christian speculation".[92] Roelof van den Broek notes that "Sethianism" may never have been a separate religious movement, and that the term refers rather to a set of mythological themes which occur in various texts.[93]

 

According to Smith, Sethianism may have begun as a pre-Christian tradition, possibly a syncretic cult that incorporated elements of Christianity and Platonism as it grew.[94] According to Temporini, Vogt, and Haase, early Sethians may be identical to or related to the Nazarenes (sect), the Ophites, or the sectarian group called heretics by Philo.[91]

 

According to Turner, Sethianism was influenced by Christianity and Middle Platonism, and originated in the second century as a fusion of a Jewish baptizing group of possibly priestly lineage, the so-called Barbeloites,[95] named after Barbelo, the first emanation of the Highest God, and a group of Biblical exegetes, the Sethites, the "seed of Seth".[96] At the end of the second century, Sethianism grew apart from the developing Christian orthodoxy, which rejected the docetian view of the Sethians on Christ.[97] In the early third century, Sethianism was fully rejected by Christian heresiologists, as Sethianism shifted toward the contemplative practices of Platonism while losing interest in their own origins.[98] In the late third century, Sethianism was attacked by neo-Platonists like Plotinus, and Sethianism became alienated from Platonism. In the early- to mid-fourth century, Sethianism fragmented into various sectarian Gnostic groups such as the Archontics, Audians, Borborites, and Phibionites, and perhaps Stratiotici, and Secundians.[99][31] Some of these groups existed into the Middle Ages.[99]

 

Samaritan Baptist sects[edit]

According to Magris, Samaritan Baptist sects were an offshoot of John the Baptist.[100] One offshoot was in turn headed by Dositheus, Simon Magus, and Menander. It was in this milieu that the idea emerged that the world was created by ignorant angels. Their baptismal ritual removed the consequences of sin, and led to a regeneration by which natural death, which was caused by these angels, was overcome.[100] The Samaritan leaders were viewed as "the embodiment of God's power, spirit, or wisdom, and as the redeemer and revealer of 'true knowledge'".[100]

 

The Simonians were centered on Simon Magus, the magician baptised by Philip and rebuked by Peter in Acts 8, who became in early Christianity the archetypal false teacher. The ascription by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and others of a connection between schools in their time and the individual in Acts 8 may be as legendary as the stories attached to him in various apocryphal books. Justin Martyr identifies Menander of Antioch as Simon Magus' pupil. According to Hippolytus, Simonianism is an earlier form of the Valentinian doctrine.[101]

 

The Basilidians or Basilideans were founded by Basilides of Alexandria in the second century. Basilides claimed to have been taught his doctrines by Glaucus, a disciple of St. Peter, but could also have been a pupil of Menander.[102] Basilidianism survived until the end of the 4th century as Epiphanius knew of Basilidians living in the Nile Delta. It was, however, almost exclusively limited to Egypt, though according to Sulpicius Severus it seems to have found an entrance into Spain through a certain Mark from Memphis. St. Jerome states that the Priscillianists were infected with it.

 

Valentinianism[edit]

Main article: Valentinianism

Valentinianism was named after its founder Valentinus (c. 100 – 180), who was a candidate for bishop of Rome but started his own group when another was chosen.[103] Valentinianism flourished after the middle of the 2nd century. The school was popular, spreading to Northwest Africa and Egypt, and through to Asia Minor and Syria in the east,[104] and Valentinus is specifically named as gnostikos by Irenaeus. It was an intellectually vibrant tradition,[105] with an elaborate and philosophically "dense" form of Gnosticism. Valentinus' students elaborated on his teachings and materials, and several varieties of their central myth are known.

 

Valentinian Gnosticism may have been monistic rather than dualistic.[note 24] In the Valentinian myths, the creation of a flawed materiality is not due to any moral failing on the part of the Demiurge, but due to the fact that he is less perfect than the superior entities from which he emanated.[108] Valentinians treat physical reality with less contempt than other Gnostic groups, and conceive of materiality not as a separate substance from the divine, but as attributable to an error of perception which becomes symbolized mythopoetically as the act of material creation.[108]

 

The followers of Valentinius attempted to systematically decode the Epistles, claiming that most Christians made the mistake of reading the Epistles literally rather than allegorically. Valentinians understood the conflict between Jews and Gentiles in Romans to be a coded reference to the differences between Psychics (people who are partly spiritual but have not yet achieved separation from carnality) and Pneumatics (totally spiritual people). The Valentinians argued that such codes were intrinsic in gnosticism, secrecy being important to ensuring proper progression to true inner understanding.[note 25]

 

According to Bentley Layton "Classical Gnosticism" and "The School of Thomas" antedated and influenced the development of Valentinus, whom Layton called "the great [Gnostic] reformer" and "the focal point" of Gnostic development. While in Alexandria, where he was born, Valentinus probably would have had contact with the Gnostic teacher Basilides, and may have been influenced by him.[109] Simone Petrement, while arguing for a Christian origin of Gnosticism, places Valentinus after Basilides, but before the Sethians. According to Petrement, Valentinus represented a moderation of the anti-Judaism of the earlier Hellenized teachers; the demiurge, widely regarded as a mythological depiction of the Old Testament God of the Hebrews, is depicted as more ignorant than evil.[110]

 

Thomasine traditions[edit]

The Thomasine Traditions refers to a group of texts which are attributed to the apostle Thomas.[111][note 26] Karen L. King notes that "Thomasine Gnosticism" as a separate category is being criticised, and may "not stand the test of scholarly scrutiny".[112]

 

Marcion[edit]

Marcion was a Church leader from Sinope (present-day Turkey), who preached in Rome around 150 CE,[113] but was expelled and started his own congregation, which spread throughout the Mediterranean. He rejected the Old Testament, and followed a limited Christian canon, which included only a redacted version of Luke, and ten edited letters of Paul.[114] Some scholars do not consider him to be a gnostic,[115][note 27] but his teachings clearly resemble some Gnostic teachings.[113] He preached a radical difference between the God of the Old Testament, the Demiurge, the "evil creator of the material universe", and the highest God, the "loving, spiritual God who is the father of Jesus", who had sent Jesus to the earth to free mankind from the tyranny of the Jewish Law.[113][2] Like the Gnostics, Marcion argued that Jesus was essentially a divine spirit appearing to men in the shape of a human form, and not someone in a true physical body.[116] Marcion held that the heavenly Father (the father of Jesus Christ) was an utterly alien god; he had no part in making the world, nor any connection with it.[116]

 

Hermeticism[edit]

Hermeticism is closely related to Gnosticism, but its orientation is more positive.[66][87]

 

Other Gnostic groups[edit]

Serpent Gnostics. The Naassenes, Ophites and the Serpentarians gave prominence to snake symbolism, and snake handling played a role in their ceremonies.[113]

Cerinthus (c. 100), the founder of a heretical school with gnostic elements. Like a Gnostic, Cerinthus depicted Christ as a heavenly spirit separate from the man Jesus, and he cited the demiurge as creating the material world. Unlike the Gnostics, Cerinthus taught Christians to observe the Jewish law; his demiurge was holy, not lowly; and he taught the Second Coming. His gnosis was a secret teaching attributed to an apostle. Some scholars believe that the First Epistle of John was written as a response to Cerinthus.[117]

The Cainites are so-named since Hippolytus of Rome claims that they worshiped Cain, as well as Esau, Korah, and the Sodomites. There is little evidence concerning the nature of this group. Hippolytus claims that they believed that indulgence in sin was the key to salvation because since the body is evil, one must defile it through immoral activity (see libertinism). The name Cainite is used as the name of a religious movement, and not in the usual Biblical sense of people descended from Cain.

The Carpocratians, a libertine sect following only the Gospel according to the Hebrews

The school of Justin, which combined gnostic elements with the ancient Greek religion.

The Borborites, a libertine Gnostic sect, said to be descended from the Nicolaitans[118]

Persian Gnosticism[edit]

The Persian Schools, which appeared in the western Persian province of Babylonia (in particular, within the Sassanid province of Asuristan), and whose writings were originally produced in the Aramaic dialects spoken in Babylonia at the time, are representative of what is believed to be among the oldest of the Gnostic thought forms. These movements are considered by most to be religions in their own right, and are not emanations from Christianity or Judaism.

 

Manichaeism[edit]

 

Manicheanism priests writing at their desks, with panel inscription in Sogdian. Manuscript from Khocho, Tarim Basin.

Main article: Manichaeism

Manichaeism was founded by the Prophet Mani (216–276). Mani's father was a member of the Jewish-Christian sect of the Elcesaites, a subgroup of the Gnostic Ebionites. At ages 12 and 24, Mani had visionary experiences of a "heavenly twin" of his, calling him to leave his father's sect and preach the true message of Christ. In 240–41, Mani travelled to the Indo-Greek Kingdom of the Sakhas in modern-day Afghanistan, where he studied Hinduism and its various extant philosophies. Returning in 242, he joined the court of Shapur I, to whom he dedicated his only work written in Persian, known as the Shabuhragan. The original writings were written in Syriac Aramaic, in a unique Manichaean script.

 

Manichaeism conceives of two coexistent realms of light and darkness that become embroiled in conflict. Certain elements of the light became entrapped within darkness, and the purpose of material creation is to engage in the slow process of extraction of these individual elements. In the end the kingdom of light will prevail over darkness. Manicheanism inherits this dualistic mythology from Zurvanist Zoroastrianism,[119] in which the eternal spirit Ahura Mazda is opposed by his antithesis, Angra Mainyu. This dualistic teaching embodied an elaborate cosmological myth that included the defeat of a primal man by the powers of darkness that devoured and imprisoned the particles of light.[120]

 

According to Kurt Rudolph, the decline of Manichaeism that occurred in Persia in the 5th century was too late to prevent the spread of the movement into the east and the west.[121] In the west, the teachings of the school moved into Syria, Northern Arabia, Egypt and North Africa.[note 28] There is evidence for Manicheans in Rome and Dalmatia in the 4th century, and also in Gaul and Spain. From Syria it progressed still farther, into Palestine, Asia Minor and Armenia. The influence of Manicheanism was attacked by imperial elects and polemical writings, but the religion remained prevalent until the 6th century, and still exerted influence in the emergence of the Paulicians, Bogomils and Cathari in the Middle Ages, until it was ultimately stamped out by the Catholic Church.[121]

 

In the east, Rudolph relates, Manicheanism was able to bloom, because the religious monopoly position previously held by Christianity and Zoroastrianism had been broken by nascent Islam. In the early years of the Arab conquest, Manicheanism again found followers in Persia (mostly amongst educated circles), but flourished most in Central Asia, to which it had spread through Iran. Here, in 762, Manicheanism became the state religion of the Uyghur Empire.[121]

 

Mandaeanism[edit]

Main article: Mandaeanism

 

Mandaean house of worship in Nasiriya, Iraq

The Mandaeans are Semites and speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. Their religion has been practised primarily around the lower Karun, Euphrates and Tigris and the rivers that surround the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, part of southern Iraq and Khuzestan Province in Iran. Mandaeanism is still practiced in small numbers, in parts of southern Iraq and the Iranian province of Khuzestan, and there are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide.[124]

 

The name of the group derives from the term Mandā d-Heyyi, which roughly means "Knowledge of Life". Although the exact chronological origins of this movement are not known, John the Baptist eventually came to be a key figure in the religion, as an emphasis on baptism is part of their core beliefs. As with Manichaeism, despite certain ties with Christianity,[125] Mandaeans do not believe in Moses, Jesus, or Mohammed. Their beliefs and practices likewise have little overlap with the religions that manifested from those religious figures and the two should not be confused. Significant amounts of original Mandaean Scripture, written in Mandaean Aramaic, survive in the modern era. The primary source text is known as the Genzā Rabbā and has portions identified by some scholars as being copied as early as the 3rd century. There is also the Qolastā, or Canonical Book of Prayer and The Book of John the Baptist (sidra ḏ-iahia).

 

Middle Ages[edit]

After its demise in the Mediterranean world, Gnosticism lived on in the periphery of the Byzantine Empire, and resurfaced in the western world. The Paulicians, an Adoptionist group which flourished between 650 and 872 in Armenia and the Eastern Themes of the Byzantine Empire, were accused by orthodox medieval sources of being Gnostic and quasi Manichaean Christian. The Bogomils, emerged in Bulgaria between 927 and 970 and spread throughout Europe. It was as synthesis of Armenian Paulicianism and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church reform movement.

 

The Cathars (Cathari, Albigenses or Albigensians) were also accused by their enemies of the traits of Gnosticism; though whether or not the Cathari possessed direct historical influence from ancient Gnosticism is disputed. If their critics are reliable the basic conceptions of Gnostic cosmology are to be found in Cathar beliefs (most distinctly in their notion of a lesser, Satanic, creator god), though they did not apparently place any special relevance upon knowledge (gnosis) as an effective salvific force.[verification needed]

 

Islam[edit]

The message of the Islamic prophet Muhammad shows close similarities to many Gnostic ideas. The Quran, like Gnostic cosmology, makes a sharp distinction between this world and the afterlife. The notion of four rivers in heaven, as mentioned in the Quran, separating this world from the other , also appears frequently in Mandaean literature. God is commonly thought of as being beyond human comprehension. In some Islamic schools of thought, somehow identifiable with the Gnostic Monad.[126][127] However, according to Islam and unlike most Gnostic sects, not rejection of this world, but performing good deeds leads to the heaven. And according to the Islamic belief in strict Oneness of God, there was no room for a lower deity; such as the demiurge.[128] According to Islam, both good and evil come from one God, a position especially opposed by the Manichaeans. Ibn al-Muqaffa depicted the Islamic deity as a demonic entity who "fights with humans and boasts about His victories" and "sitting on a throne, from which He can descend". It would be impossible that both light and darkness were created from one source, since they were regarded as two different eternal principles.[129] Muslim theologists countered this accusation by the example of a repeating sinner, who says: "I laid, and I repent";[130] this would prove that good can also result out of evil.

 

Islam also integrated traces of an entity given authority over the lower world in some early writings: Iblis is regarded by some Sufis as the owner of this world, and humans must avoid the treasures of this world, since they would belong to him.[131] In the Isma'ili Shia work Umm al Kitab, Azazil's role resembles whose of the Gnostic demiurge.[132] Like the demiurge, he is endowed with the ability to create his own world and seeks to imprison humans in the material world, but here, his power is limited and depends on the higher God.[133] Such Gnostic anthropogenic can be found frequently among Isma'ili traditions.[134] However, Ismailism were often criticised as non-Islamic. Ghazali characterized them as a group who are outwardly Shias but were actually adherence of a dualistic and philosophical religion. Further traces of Gnostic ideas can be found in Sufi anthropogenic.[135] Like the gnostic conception of human beings imprisoned in matter, Sufi-traditions acknowledges the human soul is an accomplice of the material world and subject to bodily desires similar to the way archontic spheres envelop the pneuma.[136] The Ruh must therefore gain victory over the lower and material-bound psyche, to overcome his animal nature. A human being captured by his animal desires, mistakenly claims autonomy and independence from the "higher God", thus resembling the lower deity in classical gnostic traditions. However, since the goal is not to abandon the created world, but just to free oneself from ones own lower desires, it can be disputed whether this can still be Gnostic, but rather a completion of the message of Muhammad.[129] It seems that Gnostic ideas were an influential part of early Islamic development but later lost its influence. However the Gnostic light metaphorics and the idea of unity of existence still prevailed in later Islamic thought.[127]

 

Kabbalah[edit]

Gnostic ideas found a Jewish variation in the mystical study of Kabbalah. Many core Gnostic ideas reappear in Kabbalah, where they are used for dramatically reinterpreting earlier Jewish sources according to this new system.[137] The Kabbalists originated in 13th-century Provence,[note 29] which was at that time also the center of the Gnostic Cathars. While some scholars in the middle of the 20th century tried to assume an influence between the Cathar "gnostics" and the origins of the Kabbalah, this assumption has proved to be an incorrect generalization not substantiated by any original texts.[139] On the other hand, other scholars, such as Scholem, have postulated that there was originally a "Jewish gnosticism", which influenced the early origins of gnosticism.[140]

 

Kabbalah does not employ the terminology or labels of non-Jewish Gnosticism, but grounds the same or similar concepts in the language of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible).[141] The 13th-century Zohar ("Splendor"), a foundational text in Kabbalah, is written in the style of a Jewish Aramaic Midrash, clarifying the five books of the Torah with a new Kabbalistic system that uses completely Jewish terms.[142]

 

Modern times[edit]

Main article: Gnosticism in modern times

The Mandaeans are an ancient Gnostic sect that have survived to this day and are found today in Iraq.[143] Their namesake owes to their following John the Baptist and in that country, they have about five thousand followers.[143] A number of ecclesiastical bodies that think of themselves as Gnostic have set up or re-founded since World War II, including the Ecclesia Gnostica, Apostolic Johannite Church, Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the Gnostic Church of France, the Thomasine Church, the Alexandrian Gnostic Church, the North American College of Gnostic Bishops,[144] and the Universal Gnosticism of Samael Aun Weor.[145]

 

A number of 19th-century thinkers such as Arthur Schopenhauer,[146] Albert Pike and Madame Blavatsky studied Gnostic thought extensively and were influenced by it, and even figures like Herman Melville and W. B. Yeats were more tangentially influenced.[147] Jules Doinel "re-established" a Gnostic church in France in 1890, which altered its form as it passed through various direct successors (Fabre des Essarts as Tau Synésius and Joanny Bricaud as Tau Jean II most notably), and, though small, is still active today.[148]

 

Early 20th-century thinkers who heavily studied and were influenced by Gnosticism include Carl Jung (who supported Gnosticism), Eric Voegelin (who opposed it), Jorge Luis Borges (who included it in many of his short stories), and Aleister Crowley, with figures such as Hermann Hesse being more moderately influenced. René Guénon founded the gnostic review, La Gnose in 1909, before moving to a more Perennialist position, and founding his Traditionalist School. Gnostic Thelemite organizations, such as Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and Ordo Templi Orientis, trace themselves to Crowley's thought.

 

The discovery and translation of the Nag Hammadi library after 1945 has had a huge effect on Gnosticism since World War II. Intellectuals who were heavily influenced by Gnosticism in this period include Lawrence Durrell, Hans Jonas, Philip K. Dick and Harold Bloom, with Albert Camus and Allen Ginsberg being more moderately influenced.[147] Celia Green has written on Gnostic Christianity in relation to her own philosophy.[149]

 

Alfred North Whitehead was aware of the existence of the newly discovered Gnostic scrolls. Accordingly, Michel Weber has proposed a Gnostic interpretation of his late metaphysics.[150]

 

Sources[edit]

Heresiologists[edit]

Prior to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945 Gnosticism was known primarily through the works of heresiologists, Church Fathers who opposed those movements. These writings had an antagonistic bias towards gnostic teachings, and were incomplete. Several heresiological writers, such as Hippolytus, made little effort to exactly record the nature of the sects they reported on, or transcribe their sacred texts. Reconstructions of incomplete Gnostic texts were attempted in modern times, but research on Gnosticism was coloured by the orthodox views of those heresiologists.

 

Justin Martyr (c. 100/114 – c. 162/168) wrote the First Apology, addressed to Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, which criticising Simon Magus, Menander and Marcion. Since this time, both Simon and Menander have been considered as 'proto-Gnostic'.[151] Irenaeus (died c. 202) wrote Against Heresies (c. 180–185), which identifies Simon Magus from Flavia Neapolis in Samaria as the inceptor of Gnosticism. From Samaria he charted an apparent spread of the teachings of Simon through the ancient "knowers" into the teachings of Valentinus and other, contemporary Gnostic sects.[note 30] Hippolytus (170–235) wrote the ten-volume Refutation Against all Heresies, of which eight have been unearthed. It also focuses on the connection between pre-Socratic (and therefore Pre-Incantation of Christ) ideas and the false beliefs of early gnostic heretical leaders. Thirty-three of the groups he reported on are considered Gnostic by modern scholars, including 'the foreigners' and 'the Seth people'. Hippolytus further presents individual teachers such as Simon, Valentinus, Secundus, Ptolemy, Heracleon, Marcus and Colorbasus. Tertullian (c. 155–230) from Carthage wrote Adversus Valentinianos ('Against the Valentinians'), c. 206, as well as five books around 207–208 chronicling and refuting the teachings of Marcion.

 

Gnostic texts[edit]

See also: Gnostic texts and Nag Hammadi library

Prior to the discovery at Nag Hammadi, a limited number of texts were available to students of Gnosticism. Reconstructions were attempted from the records of the heresiologists, but these were necessarily coloured by the motivation behind the source accounts.

 

The Nag Hammadi library [note 31] is a collection of Gnostic texts discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt. Twelve leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found by a local farmer named Muhammed al-Samman.[152] The writings in these codices comprised fifty-two mostly Gnostic treatises, but they also include three works belonging to the Corpus Hermeticum and a partial translation/alteration of Plato's Republic. These codices may have belonged to a nearby Pachomian monastery, and buried after Bishop Athanasius condemned the use of non-canonical books in his Festal Letter of 367.[153] Though the original language of composition was probably Greek, the various codices contained in the collection were written in Coptic. A 1st- or 2nd-century date of composition for the lost Greek originals has been proposed, though this is disputed; the manuscripts themselves date from the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Nag Hammadi texts demonstrated the fluidity of early Christian scripture and early Christianity itself.[note 32]

 

Academic studies[edit]

Development[edit]

Prior to the discovery of Nag Hammadi, the Gnostic movements were largely perceived through the lens of the early church heresiologists. Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1694–1755) proposed that Gnosticism developed on its own in Greece and Mesopotamia, spreading to the west and incorporating Jewish elements. According to Mosheim, Jewish thought took Gnostic elements and used them against Greek philosophy.[33] J. Horn and Ernest Anton Lewald proposed Persian and Zoroastrian origins, while Jacques Matter described Gnosticism as an intrusion of eastern cosmological and theosophical speculation into Christianity.[33]

 

In the 1880s Gnosticism was placed within Greek philosophy, especially neo-Platonism.[29] Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), who belonged to the School of the History of Dogma and proposed a Kirchengeschichtliches Ursprungsmodell, saw gnosticism as an internal development within the church under the influence of Greek philosophy.[29][155] According to Harnack, Gnosticism was the "acute Hellenization of Christianity."[29]

 

The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule ("history of religions school", 19th century) had a profound influence on the study of Gnosticism.[29] The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule saw Gnosticism as a pre-Christian phenomenon, and Christian gnosis as only one, and even marginal instance of this phenomenon.[29] According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,[29] and Eduard Norden (1868–1941) also proposed pre-Christian origins,[29] while Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931), and Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) also situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.[29] Hans Heinrich Schaeder (1896–1957) and Hans Leisegang saw Gnosticism as an amalgam of eastern thought in a Greek form.[29]

 

Hans Jonas (1903–1993) took an intermediate approach, using both the comparative approach of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule and the existentialist hermeneutics of Bultmann. Jonas emphasized the duality between God and the world, and concluded that Gnosticism cannot be derived from Platonism.[19]

 

Contemporary scholarship largely agrees that Gnosticism has Jewish or Judeo-Christian origins;[19] this theses is most notably put forward by Gershom G. Scholem (1897–1982) and Gilles Quispel (1916–2006).[156]

 

The study of Gnosticism and of early Alexandrian Christianity received a strong impetus from the discovery of the Coptic Nag Hammadi Library in 1945.[157][158] A great number of translations have been published, and the works of Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religion at Princeton University, especially The Gnostic Gospels, which detailed the suppression of some of the writings found at Nag Hammadi by early bishops of the Christian church, has popularized Gnosticism in mainstream culture,[web 3][web 4] but also incited strong responses and condemnations from clergical writers.[159]

 

Definitions of Gnosticism[edit]

According to Matthew J. Dillon, six trends can be discerned in the definitions of Gnosticism:[160]

 

Typologies, "a catalogue of shared characteristics that are used to classify a group of objects together."[160]

Traditional approaches, viewing Gnosticism as a Christian heresy[161]

Phenomenological approaches, most notably Hans Jonas[162]

Restricting Gnosticism, "identifying which groups were explicitly called gnostics",[163] or which groups were clearly sectarian[163]

Deconstructing Gnosticism, abandoning the category of "Gnosticism"[164]

Psychology and cognitive science of religion, approaching Gnosticism as a psychological phenomena[165]

Typologies[edit]

The 1966 Messina conference on the origins of gnosis and Gnosticism proposed to designate

 

... a particular group of systems of the second century after Christ" as gnosticism, and to use gnosis to define a conception of knowledge that transcends the times, which was described as "knowledge of divine mysteries for an élite.[166]

 

This definition has now been abandoned.[160] It created a religion, "Gnosticism", from the "gnosis" which was a widespread element of ancient religions,[note 33] suggesting a homogeneous conception of gnosis by these Gnostic religions, which did not exist at the time.[167]

 

According to Dillon, the texts from Nag Hammadi made clear that this definition was limited, and that they are "better classified by movements (such as Valentinian), mythological similarity (Sethian), or similar tropes (presence of a Demiurge)."[160] Dillon further notes that the Messian-definition "also excluded pre-Christian Gnosticism and later developments, such as the Mandaeans and the Manichaeans."[160]

 

Hans Jonas discerned two main currents of Gnosticism, namely Syrian-Egyptian, and Persian, which includes Manicheanism and Mandaeanism.[19] Among the Syrian-Egyptian schools and the movements they spawned are a typically more Monist view. Persian Gnosticism possesses more dualist tendencies, reflecting a strong influence from the beliefs of the Persian Zurvanist Zoroastrians. Those of the medieval Cathars, Bogomils, and Carpocratians seem to include elements of both categories.

 

Gilles Quispel divided Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism further into Jewish Gnosticism (the Apocryphon of John)[89] and Christian Gnosis (Marcion, Basilides, Valentinus). This "Christian Gnosticism" was Christocentric, and influenced by Christian writings such as the Gospel of John and the Pauline epistles.[168] Other authors speak rather of "Gnostic Christians", noting that Gnostics were a prominent substream in the early church.[169]

 

Traditional approaches – Gnosticism as Christian heresy[edit]

The best known example of this approach is Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), who stated that "Gnosticism is the acute Hellenization of Christianity."[161] According to Dillon, "many scholars today continue in the vein of Harnack in reading gnosticism as a late and contaminated version of Christianity", notably Darrell Block, who criticises Elaine Pagels for her view that early Christianity was wildly diverse.[162]

 

Phenomenological approaches[edit]

Hans Jonas (1903–1993) t

French postcard by Edition Librairie Images 'In', no. H 18. Photo: Jack Nicholson in Goin' South (Jack Nicholson, 1978).

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also ithat year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholsondid not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards and . He has had a number of high-profile relationships, and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

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German autograph card by Kino. Photo: Jack Nicholson in Batman (Tim Burton, 1989).

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also ithat year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholsondid not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards and . He has had a number of high-profile relationships, and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

Please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

French postcard by Humour à la Carte, Paris, no. A-C 656. Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious and Chloe Webb as Nancy Spungen in Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986). Sent by mail in 1987.

 

Gary Oldman (1958) is a talented English film star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. He is one of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film, and television. Oldman is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Drexl in True Romance (1993), George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017).

 

Gary Leonard Oldman was born in 1958 in New Cross, London, England, to Kathleen (Cheriton), a homemaker, and Leonard Bertram Oldman, a welder. He won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, in Sidcup, Kent, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early 1980s, including 'The Pope's Wedding', for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor for 1985. Before fame, he was employed as a worker in assembly lines, and as a porter in an operating theatre. He also got jobs selling shoes and beheading pigs while supporting his early acting career. His film debut was Remembrance (Colin Gregg, 1982), though his most-memorable early role came when he played Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986) picking up the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Newcomer. He then received a Best Actor nomination from BAFTA for his portrayal of 1960s playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (Stephen Frears, 1987).

 

In the 1990s, Gary Oldman brought to life a series of iconic real-world and fictional villains including Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991), the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Coppola, 1992), Drexl Spivey in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993), Stansfield in Léon (Luc Besson, 1994), Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997) and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997). That decade also saw Oldman portraying Ludwig van Beethoven in the biopic Immortal Beloved (Bernard Rose, 1994). Oldman tried his hand at writing and directing for Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman, 1997), starring Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke. The film is loosely based upon his own life growing up in London. Nil by Mouth opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and won Kathy Burke a Best Actress prize at the festival. His problems with alcohol were well known during the early 1990s: he checked himself into rehab for alcoholism treatment in 1995. In subsequent interviews, Oldman acknowledged his problems with alcohol and called himself a recovering alcoholic in a 2001 interview with Charlie Rose. Oldman lives a teetotal lifestyle and attributes his success in beating his addiction to attending meetings with Alcoholics Anonymous, whom he has publicly praised.

 

Gary Oldman played Mason Verger in Hannibal (Ridley Scott, 2001), starring Anthony Hopkins. He then played the coveted role of Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón, 2004), giving him a key part in one of the highest-grossing franchises ever. He reprised that role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell, 2005) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (David Yates, 2007). Oldman also took on the iconic role of Detective James Gordon in writer-director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), starring Christian Bale. He played the role again in The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012). Film critic Mark Kermode, in reviewing The Dark Knight, wrote, "the best performance in the film, by a mile, is Gary Oldman's ... it would be lovely to see him get a[n Academy Award] nomination because actually, he's the guy who gets kind of overlooked in all of this." Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in a new version of A Christmas Carol (Robert Zemeckis, 2009) in which Oldman played three roles. He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn (2009). In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli (The Hughes Brothers, 2010). He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood (Catherine Hardwicke, 2011), featuring Amanda Seyfried. Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2 (Jennifer Yuh Nelson, 2011).

 

In 2011, Gary Oldman portrayed master spy George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson, 2011), and the role scored Oldman his first Oscar nomination. In 2014, he played one of the lead humans in the Science Fiction action film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2014). Also that year, Oldman starred alongside Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the remake of RoboCop (José Padilha, 2014), as Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop. Also that year, Oldman starred in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as one of the leads alongside Jason Clarke and Keri Russell. Aside from acting, In 2018 he won an Oscar for best actor for his work on Darkest Hour (Joe Wright, 2017). Last year, he won accolades for his portrayal of alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz in Mank (David Fincher, 2020). Gary Oldman married five times. His first four marriages (to actress Lesley Manville, film star Uma Thurman, Donya Fiorentino, and Alexandra Edenborough) ended in a divorce. Since 2017, he is married to writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt. Oldman has three sons: Alfie Oldman (1988) from his first marriage to Lesley Manville, Gulliver Flynn Oldman (1997), and Charlie John Oldman (1999) with Donya Fiorentino.

 

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Dutch postcard by Boomerang Freecards for H & M, no. P 20-98.

 

Gary Oldman (1958) is a talented English film star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. He is one of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film, and television. Oldman is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Drexl in True Romance (1993), George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017).

 

Gary Leonard Oldman was born in 1958 in New Cross, London, England, to Kathleen (Cheriton), a homemaker, and Leonard Bertram Oldman, a welder. He won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, in Sidcup, Kent, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early 1980s, including 'The Pope's Wedding', for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor for 1985. Before fame, he was employed as a worker in assembly lines, and as a porter in an operating theatre. He also got jobs selling shoes and beheading pigs while supporting his early acting career. His film debut was Remembrance (Colin Gregg, 1982), though his most-memorable early role came when he played Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986) picking up the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Newcomer. He then received a Best Actor nomination from BAFTA for his portrayal of 1960s playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (Stephen Frears, 1987).

 

In the 1990s, Gary Oldman brought to life a series of iconic real-world and fictional villains including Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991), the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Coppola, 1992), Drexl Spivey in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993), Stansfield in Léon (Luc Besson, 1994), Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997) and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997). That decade also saw Oldman portraying Ludwig van Beethoven in the biopic Immortal Beloved (Bernard Rose, 1994). Oldman tried his hand at writing and directing for Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman, 1997), starring Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke. The film is loosely based upon his own life growing up in London. Nil by Mouth opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and won Kathy Burke a Best Actress prize at the festival. His problems with alcohol were well known during the early 1990s: he checked himself into rehab for alcoholism treatment in 1995. In subsequent interviews, Oldman acknowledged his problems with alcohol and called himself a recovering alcoholic in a 2001 interview with Charlie Rose. Oldman lives a teetotal lifestyle and attributes his success in beating his addiction to attending meetings with Alcoholics Anonymous, whom he has publicly praised.

 

Gary Oldman played Mason Verger in Hannibal (Ridley Scott, 2001), starring Anthony Hopkins. He then played the coveted role of Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón, 2004), giving him a key part in one of the highest-grossing franchises ever. He reprised that role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell, 2005) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (David Yates, 2007). Oldman also took on the iconic role of Detective James Gordon in writer-director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), starring Christian Bale. He played the role again in The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012). Film critic Mark Kermode, in reviewing The Dark Knight, wrote, "the best performance in the film, by a mile, is Gary Oldman's ... it would be lovely to see him get a[n Academy Award] nomination because actually, he's the guy who gets kind of overlooked in all of this." Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in a new version of A Christmas Carol (Robert Zemeckis, 2009) in which Oldman played three roles. He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn (2009). In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli (The Hughes Brothers, 2010). He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood (Catherine Hardwicke, 2011), featuring Amanda Seyfried. Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2 (Jennifer Yuh Nelson, 2011).

 

In 2011, Gary Oldman portrayed master spy George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson, 2011), and the role scored Oldman his first Oscar nomination. In 2014, he played one of the lead humans in the Science Fiction action film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2014). Also that year, Oldman starred alongside Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the remake of RoboCop (José Padilha, 2014), as Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop. Also that year, Oldman starred in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as one of the leads alongside Jason Clarke and Keri Russell. Aside from acting, In 2018 he won an Oscar for best actor for his work on Darkest Hour (Joe Wright, 2017). Last year, he won accolades for his portrayal of alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz in Mank (David Fincher, 2020). Gary Oldman married five times. His first four marriages (to actress Lesley Manville, film star Uma Thurman, Donya Fiorentino, and Alexandra Edenborough) ended in a divorce. Since 2017, he is married to writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt. Oldman has three sons: Alfie Oldman (1988) from his first marriage to Lesley Manville, Gulliver Flynn Oldman (1997), and Charlie John Oldman (1999) with Donya Fiorentino.

 

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

French postcard in the Collection Cinéma Couleur by Editions Le Malibran, Paris, 1989, no. MC 24. Photo: Douglas Kirkland. Caption: Jack Nicholson (1973).

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also ithat year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholsondid not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards and . He has had a number of high-profile relationships, and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

Please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Foto Parjetas, Madrid, no. FC-225. Photo: Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975).

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also ithat year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholsondid not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards and . He has had a number of high-profile relationships, and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

Please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard by Athena International, no. 0334340, BAT, no. 10. Photo: TM / DC Comics Inc. Photo: Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson in Batman (Tim Burton, 1989).

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also that year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of the cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholson did not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now-famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy Meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards. He has had a number of high-profile relationships and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

Please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard by World Postcards, no. X253, 1989. Photo: Albert Watson, 1981. Caption: Jack Nicholson, Snow.

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also ithat year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholsondid not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards and . He has had a number of high-profile relationships, and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

Please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

French postcard by Editions Cahiers de cinéma, Paris, 1997. Caption: Jack Nicholson, Festival de Cannes 1974.

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a firefighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also that year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of the cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholson did not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now-famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy Meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards. He has had a number of high-profile relationships and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

Please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard by Athena International, Bat, no. 11, 1989, no. 0334341. Photo: DC Comics Inc. Jack Nicholson in Batman (Tim Burton, 1989).

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also ithat year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholsondid not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards and . He has had a number of high-profile relationships, and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

Please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

French postcard by Especially for you, no. Réf. 39. Photo: Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975).

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also ithat year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholsondid not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards and . He has had a number of high-profile relationships, and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

Please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 87. Photo: Jack Nicholson in Batman (Tim Burton, 1989).

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also ithat year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholsondid not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards and . He has had a number of high-profile relationships, and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

Please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard by Athena International, no. 0334342, BAT, no. 12. Photo: TM / DC Comics Inc. Photo: Jack Nicholson in Batman (Tim Burton, 1989).

 

Jack Nicholson (1937) is an American actor and filmmaker who has performed for over sixty years. His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films. He is now known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played someone who rebels against the social structure. Nicholson's 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor ever. He won the Oscars for Best Actor twice – for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and As Good as It Gets (1997), and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment (1983).

 

Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 as John Joseph Nicholson in Neptune City, New Jersey. He was the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson). She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realising that he was already married. Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister. In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his 'sister', June, was actually his mother, and his other 'sister', Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed". Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey. When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more, to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor. 'Nick', as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted 'Class Clown' by the Class of 1954. In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard. After completing the Air Force's basic training, Nicholson performed weekend drills and two-week annual training as a fire fighter. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas. He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (Justus Addiss, 1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960), as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven (Roger Corman, 1963), The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963) as a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget Westerns, including the cult successes Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Cameron Mitchell, and The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) opposite Millie Perkins. Nicholson also appeared in episodes of TV series like Dr. Kildare (1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (1966-1967). However, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the counterculture film The Trip (Roger Corman, 1967), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the film's soundtrack. Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971).

 

Jack Nicholson had his acting break when a spot opened up in Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969). Nicholson played liquor-soaked lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million. Overnight, Nicholson became a hero of the counter-culture movement. Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM. Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) alongside Karen Black. Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971), which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. Other roles included Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973). For his role, Nicholson won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's majestic Film Noir Chinatown, opposite Faye Dunaway. For his role as private detective Jake Gittes, he was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor. The role was a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. One of Nicholson's greatest successes came with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975). It was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. Also that year, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. The film received good reviews and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of the cinema's great directors. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976), opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's Western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando.

 

Although Jack Nicholson did not win an Oscar for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. Nicholson improvised his now-famous "Here's Johnny!" line, along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly). In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border (Tony Richardson, 1982, co-starring Warren Oates. Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 1980s, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), where Nicholson portrays the writer Eugene O'Neill with a quiet intensity, Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), and Ironweed (Hector Babenco, 1987) with Meryl Streep. Three Oscar nominations also followed, for Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed. In Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain, the Joker. Batman creator Bob Kane personally recommended him for the role. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million. For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), a film about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off. Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (Bob Rafelson, 1992) and Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny", mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.

 

In About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska, actuary who questions his own life following his wife's death. His quietly restrained performance earned him another Oscar Nomination. In Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003), he played an aggressive therapist assigned to help an over pacifist man (Adam Sandler). In 2003, Nicholson also starred in Something's Gotta Give (Nancy Meyers, 2003), as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend. In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the dark side as Frank Costello, a nefarious Boston Irish Mob boss, based on Whitey Bulger who was still on the run at that time, presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. The role earned Nicholson worldwide critical praise, along with various award wins and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination. In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List (Rob Reiner, 2007) Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. Nicholson reunited with James L. Brooks, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, for a supporting role as Paul Rudd's character's father in How Do You Know (2012). It had been widely reported in subsequent years that Nicholson had retired from acting because of memory loss, but in a September 2013 Vanity Fair article, Nicholson clarified that he did not consider himself retired, merely that he was now less driven to "be out there any more". In 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali in 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali. In 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, but Nicholson dropped out of the project. does not consider himself to be retired. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes (1990), the sequel to Chinatown. Nicholson is one of three male actors to win three Academy Awards. He also has won six Golden Globe Awards. He has had a number of high-profile relationships and was married to Sandra Knight from 1962 until their divorce in 1968. Nicholson has five children. His eldest daughter is Jennifer Nicholson (1963), from his marriage to actress Sandra Knight. He has a son, Caleb James Goddard (1970) with Susan Anspach, and a daughter, Honey Hollman (1981) with Danish supermodel, Winnie Hollman. With Rebecca Broussard, he has two children, Lorraine Nicholson (1990) and Ray Nicholson (1992). Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 years he spent with actress Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard become pregnant with his child. Jack Nicholson is the only actor to ever play the Devil, the Joker, and a werewolf.

 

Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

Please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

French postcard by Sonis, no. C. 1519. Photo: Warner Bros. Gary Oldman in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón, 2004). Caption: The time has come. June 2004.

 

Gary Oldman (1958) is a talented English film star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. He is one of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film, and television. Oldman is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Drexl in True Romance (1993), George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017).

 

Gary Leonard Oldman was born in 1958 in New Cross, London, England, to Kathleen (Cheriton), a homemaker, and Leonard Bertram Oldman, a welder. He won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, in Sidcup, Kent, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early 1980s, including 'The Pope's Wedding', for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor for 1985. Before fame, he was employed as a worker in assembly lines, and as a porter in an operating theatre. He also got jobs selling shoes and beheading pigs while supporting his early acting career. His film debut was Remembrance (Colin Gregg, 1982), though his most-memorable early role came when he played Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986) picking up the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Newcomer. He then received a Best Actor nomination from BAFTA for his portrayal of 1960s playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (Stephen Frears, 1987).

 

In the 1990s, Gary Oldman brought to life a series of iconic real-world and fictional villains including Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991), the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Coppola, 1992), Drexl Spivey in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993), Stansfield in Léon (Luc Besson, 1994), Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997) and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997). That decade also saw Oldman portraying Ludwig van Beethoven in the biopic Immortal Beloved (Bernard Rose, 1994). Oldman tried his hand at writing and directing for Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman, 1997), starring Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke. The film is loosely based upon his own life growing up in London. Nil by Mouth opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and won Kathy Burke a Best Actress prize at the festival. His problems with alcohol were well known during the early 1990s: he checked himself into rehab for alcoholism treatment in 1995. In subsequent interviews, Oldman acknowledged his problems with alcohol and called himself a recovering alcoholic in a 2001 interview with Charlie Rose. Oldman lives a teetotal lifestyle and attributes his success in beating his addiction to attending meetings with Alcoholics Anonymous, whom he has publicly praised.

 

Gary Oldman played Mason Verger in Hannibal (Ridley Scott, 2001), starring Anthony Hopkins. He then played the coveted role of Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón, 2004), giving him a key part in one of the highest-grossing franchises ever. He reprised that role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell, 2005) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (David Yates, 2007). Oldman also took on the iconic role of Detective James Gordon in writer-director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), starring Christian Bale. He played the role again in The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012). Film critic Mark Kermode, in reviewing The Dark Knight, wrote, "the best performance in the film, by a mile, is Gary Oldman's ... it would be lovely to see him get a[n Academy Award] nomination because actually, he's the guy who gets kind of overlooked in all of this." Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in a new version of A Christmas Carol (Robert Zemeckis, 2009) in which Oldman played three roles. He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn (2009). In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli (The Hughes Brothers, 2010). He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood (Catherine Hardwicke, 2011), featuring Amanda Seyfried. Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2 (Jennifer Yuh Nelson, 2011).

 

In 2011, Gary Oldman portrayed master spy George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson, 2011), and the role scored Oldman his first Oscar nomination. In 2014, he played one of the lead humans in the Science Fiction action film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2014). Also that year, Oldman starred alongside Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the remake of RoboCop (José Padilha, 2014), as Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop. Also that year, Oldman starred in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as one of the leads alongside Jason Clarke and Keri Russell. Aside from acting, In 2018 he won an Oscar for best actor for his work on Darkest Hour (Joe Wright, 2017). Last year, he won accolades for his portrayal of alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz in Mank (David Fincher, 2020). Gary Oldman married five times. His first four marriages (to actress Lesley Manville, film star Uma Thurman, Donya Fiorentino, and Alexandra Edenborough) ended in a divorce. Since 2017, he is married to writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt. Oldman has three sons: Alfie Oldman (1988) from his first marriage to Lesley Manville, Gulliver Flynn Oldman (1997), and Charlie John Oldman (1999) with Donya Fiorentino.

 

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

Description:Detail of a bas-de-page scene of a man playing a fife and drum, with a man on his shoulder, while below, a bad baker is being dragged on a horse-drawn hurdle with his deficient loaf of brea around his neck.

Origin:France, S. (Toulouse?)

www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?S...

---

 

Royal MS 10 E IV

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Date c 1300-c 1340

 

Title Decretals of Gregory IX with gloss of Bernard of Parma (the 'Smithfield Decretals')

 

Content The Decretals of Gregory IX, edited by Raymund of Penyafort (or Peñafort); with the glossa ordinaria of Bernard of Parma in the margin. The text is dedicated to the University of Paris (f. 4r), but both the text and gloss were written in Southern France, probably in Toulouse, and include a characteristic southern feature of lemmata underlined in yellow. The Calendarium or table of contents at the beginning (ff. 1v-3v) was added on a separate quire in England.Decoration:The manuscript's decoration was executed in two phases. Phase 1 (Toulouse) includes 5 historiated initials in colours and gold at the beginning of rubrics to each book. Initials in red with pen-flourished decoration in purple, or in blue with pen-flourished decoration in red. the subjects of Initials are:f. 4r, Gregory IX receiving the Decretals (Book 1);f. 91v, A bishop and his adversary pleading in front of the pope (Book 2);f. 167r, A layman being expelled from the choir of the church where mass is being celebrated (Book 3);f. 229v, Marriage (Book 4);f. 251r, A man and his lawyer pleading in fron of a bishop (Book 5).Phase 2 includes historiated borders in colours and gold in the Calendarium (ff. 1v-3v); more than 600 bas-de-page narrative scenes in colours added in London, probably on the request of John Batayle, a canon of St Bartholomew's at Smithfield (his arms: see Provenance) (see Bovey 2000 and 2002). Human figures, flowers, monsters, animals, and hybrids in upper margins and between columns, decorative frames around the text, partial borders around the gloss.The marginal scenes include:1. Promulgation, production and use of the Decretals (ff. 3v-5v);2. Biblical stories, including (a) the story of Joseph and his brethren (ff. 6v-28v); (b) the story of Samson (ff. 29r-38r). 3. Animal fables, e. g. the cycle of Renard the Fox (ff. 48v-49v, 53v-56r; Lion as judge (f. 55v); a cycle about rabbits (ff. 60r-64r, 70r); Lion and bear (f. 65r); monkey and bear (f. 66v), monkeys and other animals (ff. 149r-158v)etc.; 4. Hunting scenes (ff. 40r, 41r, 44r, 46r, 48r, 53r, 59r-59v, 159v, 160, 162v, etc.)5. Miracles of the Virgin, including: (a) the story of Theophilus (ff. 161r-172v); (b) ); (c) The Sacristan and the Knight's Lady and the tale Two Devils in Prison (ff. 185r-191v); (d) A drowning nun rescued by the Virgin (ff. 192r, 192v); (e) Pope Leo (Caesarius) and the Lady (from the Golden Legend) (ff. 193r-195v); (f) The Lost Foot restored (ff. 196r, 196v); (g) St Dunstan's vision (ff. 197v-198v) and some miracles of St Dunstan (ff. 199r-209r); (h) The Painter and the Devil (ff. 209r-201r); (i) The Jew of Bourges (ff. 210v-213v); (k) A story of a monk who robbed a church and was rescued from the stocks by the Virgin (ff. 218r-225v); (I) The Virgin rescuing a drowned monk (ff. 225r-227r); (m and n) the story of the Virgin's Syrup (f. 227v); The story of the Clerk of Chartres (ff. 228r, 228v). 6. Miracles or scenes from the lives of other saints, including: (a) Thais (ff, 177r-184v); (b) St Hubert (ff. 229r-230v); (c) St Eustace (ff. 231r-240v); (d) St Dunstan (ff. 241r-250v); (e) St Mary of Egypt (ff. 263v-290r). 7. Miscellaneous tales and connected scenes, including th following: (a) An uncivil miller punished by having the mill set on fire (?) (f. 70v);(b) A wild man abducting a woman (ff. 72r-75v); (c) story of a lion and a kinght based on the Chevalier an Lion by Chrétien de Troyes (ff. 80v-88r); (d) A knight slaying a wild man and rescuing a lady, who goes off with another knight. The second knight is slain by a third and the woman attacked by bears. (ff. 101r-106v); (e) A clerk with a holy water vessel kisses the cook and robs the pot (ff. 108r-109v); (f) story of the hermit (ff. 113v-118v); (g) Children suckled by a lioness, rescued in a boat, and baptized (ff. 119r-125r); (h) Another story of a hermit (ff. 125v-136v); (i) A housewife sets tasks for her husband or lover; possibly a variant of the Wright's Chaste Wife (ff. 137r-148r); (k) Tricks of a blind man's boy (ff. 217v-220v); (l) The Three Live and Three Dead Kings (ff. 251r-263r); (m) A long series of chivalrous adventures (ff. 290v-314r).

 

View: bindings

 

643 images available

 

Languages Latin

 

Physical Description

Materials: Parchment codex.

Dimensions: 450 x 285 mm (text space: dimensions variable).

Foliation: ff. A + 314 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end; f. A is a medieval parchment flyleaf).

Collation: Gatherings of 12 leaves, except for: i3, ii13, xx8, xxii10, xxviii4; Catchwords and bifolium signatures.

Layout: Written in two colums of a variable number of lines, with marginal glosses.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. Royal Library binding of brown leather with the arms of George II and a date of 1757.

 

Ownership Origin: Southern France (probably Toulouse); ff. 1v-3v, and marginal scenes added in England (London).Provenance:John Batayle, a canon of St Bartholomew's at Smithfield, mentioned among other canons in a clerical subsidy roll of 1379 and named in a will of 1382, made by John Chyshull, another canon of St Bartholomew's (see Bovey 2002), probably illuminated for him: the Batayle arms (ff. 3v, 4r, 43v, 47v, 65v, 66r, 75v, 90v, 178v, 179v, 180r). The Augustinian priory of St Bartholomew's at Smithfield: inscribed, 'Liber domus sancti barthomomei in smyth fylde', 15th century (f. 1v).The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Henrician title 'Decretales' and Westminster inventory number 'no. 1059' (f. 1r), included in the Upper Library at Westminster after the inventory of 1542; in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 9v; and in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James's Palace (see [Edward Bernard], Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), no. 8377, 8378, 8380, or 8388). Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.

 

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Hilary M. Carey, 'What is the Folded Almanac? The Form and Function of a Key Manuscript Source for Astro-medical Practice in Later Medieval England', Social History of Medicine, 16 (2003), 481-509 (p. 493).

Justin Clegg, The Medieval Church in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), p. 53, pl. 44.

Peter Kidd, Review of 'Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10 (London: British Library, 2002)' in The Library, 7th series, 4 (2003), pp. 304-06.

Pamela Porter, Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), pp. 9, 44.

The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. by Paul Binski and Stella Panayotova (London: Harvey Miller, 2005), p. 138.

Peter Murray Jones, 'Image, Word, and Medicine in the Middle Ages', in Visualising Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200-1550, ed. by Jean A. Givens, Karen M. Reeds, and Alain Touwaide, AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, 5 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 1-24 (p. 9 n. 13).

Michelle P. Brown, The Holkham Bible: A Facsimile (London, British Library, 2007), p. 16, pl. 16.

Deirdre Jackson, Marvellous to Behold: Miracles in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), pls 39, 40.

Elizabeth Morrison, Beasts: Factual & Fantastic (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007), p. 61.

Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 72.

Scot MacKendrick, John Lowdem, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 108 [exhibition catalogue].

www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_10_e_iv

Pedestrian plaza is part of the Calvin S. Hamilton Pedway:

 

"The Calvin S. Hamilton Pedway, as the system is formally known, is a network of elevated walkways that was first presented in the 1970 Concept Los Angeles: The Concept for the Los Angeles General Plan. Hamilton was the city planning director at the time, having taken the position in 1964. The plan, adopted by the city in 1974, promoted dense commercial developments connected to one another by a rapid transit system. The plan was abandoned in 1981 when federal funding for the project was eliminated. Hamilton stepped down from his position in 1985 after a criminal investigation."

www.kcet.org/socal/departures/landofsunshine/block-by-blo...

 

"The pedways fall within the Downtown Center Business Improvement District, but the organization's CEO says its strained resources can only cover maintenance crews on the pedways about once a week."

articles.latimes.com/2013/may/23/opinion/la-ed-pedways-20...

  

----

 

Bunker Hill Towers (aka Bunker Hill Apartments aka Bunker Hill Residential Towers):

Built ca. 1966–68.

Architect: Robert Evans Alexander.

 

www.you-are-here.com/los_angeles/bunker_hill.html

www.essexapartmenthomes.com/apartment/bunker-hill-towers-...

www.yelp.com/biz/bunker-hill-towers-apartments-los-angeles

www.apartmentratings.com/rate/CA-Los-Angeles-Bunker-Hill-...

laforum.org/content/articles/downtown-again-by-peter-zellner

 

ZIMAS data:

Central City Community Plan Area, Freeway Adjacent Advisory Notice for Sensitive Uses, Greater Downtown Housing Incentive Area, Los Angeles State Enterprise Zone, General Plan Land Use= "Regional Center Commercial", Downtown Adaptive Reuse Incentive Area, Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project, w/in 500 feet of USC Hybrid High, Downtown Center Business Improvement District, Central City Revitalization Zone.

 

Assessment:

Assessed Land Val.: $15,262,053

Assessed Improvement Val.: $30,664,155

Last Owner Change: 04/01/98

Last Sale Amount: $18,080,180

...

Year Built: 1968

 

"The 19-story, Robert Evans Alexander-designed Bunker Hill Towers opened in 1968. After the demolition of 7,310 pre-existing homes and forced relocation of their residents, Bunker Hill Towers became the residence for nearly all of Bunker Hill's remaining residents. More than a decade would pass before the nearby residential Angelus Plaza and Promenade Towers opened. Long before the redeveloped loft crowd discovered downtown thousands lived in such residences, including Cathay Manor, Little Tokyo Towers, and hardest to ignore, on the streets."

www.kcet.org/socal/departures/landofsunshine/block-by-blo...

 

Robert Evans Alexander:

rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM03087.html

digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/architects/180/

www.modernsandiego.com/RobertAlexander.html

archive.org/details/architectureplan01alex

archive.org/details/architectureplan02alex

articles.latimes.com/1992-12-02/news/mn-1120_1_r-e-alexander

joshtonies.com/?p=79

babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027871386;seq=3;v...

 

----

 

Walt Disney Concert Hall:

111 South Grand Avenue

 

Project search announced: 1987.

Initial design approved: 1988.

"Final" design approved: 1991.

Ground broken for the garage: 1992.

Hall actually built: 1999–2003.

 

Architect: Frank Gehry / Gehry Partners, LLP / Frank O. Gehry & Associates (“FOG/A”)

Executive Architect: Dan Dworsky / Dworsky Architects (at least initially, off the project by '94)

Project Designers: Michael Maltzan (at least initially, left to start his own firm in '95), Craig Webb (I believe).

Acoustic Design: Yasuhisa Toyota for Nagata Acoustics, with preliminary work by Minoru Nagata

Overall Project Management: Fred Stegeman for Stegeman/Kastner Inc. (initially until ca. '95, I think)

Project Management w/in Gehry's Firm: James Glymph (at least initially)

Structural Engineering: CBM Engineering (at least initially)

Garden Design: Melinda Taylor

Woodwork: Columbia Showcase (headed by Joe Patterson)

 

Software: Catia (by Dassault). (Primary responsibility for pushing for use of this software in Gehry's office goes to partner James Glymph. During the later construction phase [2001–3], a 4D scheduling modeling system was also used that was developed by CIFE at Stanford and Walt Disney Imagineers, using Catia as its base, I think.)

Software consultants: C-Cubed (ca. 1991–94)

 

Client: A seven-member architectural search committee was set up by the Music Center in 1987 and chaired by Richard Koshalek, with Daniel Commins as acoustic advisor. In 1989, the twelve-member Walt Disney Concert Hall Committee was formally established and thereupon headed by Frederick M. Nicholas on a volunteer basis until about 1995. The land ("Parcel K") was owned by Los Angeles County and the County was represented in negotiations by attorney Richard S. Volpert, at least from 1989 to 1995. Sally Reed was CAO of the county for much of this period until 1995, but I'm not sure how directly involved she was with this project. The Philharmonic was initially represented by Ernest Fleischmann, managing director, with input from Esa-Pekka Salonen, the music director. (In 2001, Debra Borda became the new head at the Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen remained music director.) Lillian Disney represented herself and her family as the single largest private donor until her death in 1998, with Diane Disney Miller also on the committee and serving as its vice-chair at one point. Sharon Disney Lund was also involved in the negotiations until her death in 1993. They also acted through the family attorney, Ron Gother. From 1995 to 1997, Harry Hufford served as volunteer full-time CEO of the committee, with Suzanne Marx his vice-president for development, and a mandate to save the project and recapitalize it. At various points, other committee members included Stuart Ketchum, James A. Thomas, and Ronald J. Arnault. Mayor Riordan was also heavily involved. Riordan brought in Eli Broad to help finance the completion. In 1996, Andrea Van De Kamp became the new chair of the Music Center. (Sheldon G. Stanfill was president of the Music Center in the early 1990s.) In 1997, a new oversight committee was formed, with Eli Broad and Diane Disney Miller as chief guiding members. In 1998, William Siart, a member of the oversight committee, became chair of the main committee (the legal entity at the center of this confusion).

 

Financial auditing/oversight: Hines Interests (beginning in '94, with Bruce Frey heading this work).

 

Owner: The County of Los Angeles, with the facility operated by a nonprofit under a Master Lease Agreement. (I believe this is an accurate summary of the situation, but I am not fully certain. The agreement is complicated and I believe it involves a sublease back to the County that obliges it to provide building and grounds maintenance, and then another subsublease to the organization that runs programming, which has subleases to the Philharmonic and the Music Center. So if I've made a muddle of that, I apologize.)

 

Major Donors: Lilian Disney, Eli Broad, The Disney Corporation, Ron Burkle, The Ralphs/Food4Less Foundation, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, The Times Mirror Foundation, Richard Riordan, Roy E. Disney (specifically for REDCAT), Pacific Bell Foundation, and Deloitte & Touche. (The County also provided significant funds to the parking garage.)

 

Seats 2,265.

 

Current home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

 

Features an organ with 72 stops, 109 ranks, and 6,125 pipes, co-designed by Frank Gehry and Manuel Rosales, with assistance from Kevin Gilchrist, and built by Caspar Glatter-Götz, with engineering assistance from Heinz Kremnitzer. Early in the process, a special committee was formed (with Cherry Rhodes, Robert Anderson, and Michael Barone serving)—just for finding the right organ designer, settling on Manuel Rosales in 1990. Michael Barone also served as a consultant during the final design process.

www.gg-organs.com/eng/projects/images/Aprcovfeat.pdf

 

"In 1982, the family company, Retlaw Enterprises, sold the rights to Walt Disney's name and likeness to the Walt Disney Co. for $47 million. That money was put aside for an unspecified charitable gift. . . . In 1987, Music Center then-Chairman F. Daniel Frost, who had been Walt Disney's tax attorney, presented Lillian Disney with Los Angeles Times articles detailing the Music Center's desire for a new concert hall. Disney readily agreed to donate her funds. At the time, Frost was the son-in-law of Music Center founder Dorothy Chandler and was a board member of Times Mirror, parent company of The Times. He has since divorced and has left the Times Mirror board."

articles.latimes.com/1995-02-27/news/mn-36686_1_disney-hall ('95)

 

The 1987/88 idea to use Parcel K for a new Philharmonic was not without significant opposition, including that out the outgoing CAO of the county, Jim Hankla, and architect Barton Myers, who both proposed that the new concert hall be built on the L.A. mall:

articles.latimes.com/1987-02-22/local/me-5387_1_music-cen...

 

"Lillian Disney made an initial gift of $50 million in 1987 to build a performance venue as a gift to the people of Los Angeles and a tribute to Walt Disney's devotion to the arts and to the city. . . . Upon completion in 2003, the project cost an estimated $274 million; the parking garage alone cost $110 million. The remainder of the total cost was paid by private donations, of which the Disney family's contribution was estimated to $84.5 million with another $25 million from The Walt Disney Company. By comparison, the three existing halls of the Music Center cost $35 million in the 1960s (about $190 million in today's dollars). . . . The walls and ceiling of the hall are finished with Douglas-fir while the floor is finished with oak. The Hall's reverberation time is approximately 2.2 seconds unoccupied and 2.0 seconds occupied."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_Concert_Hall

 

It is worth pointing out that the final building hardly resembles the competition designs and models from the invited design competition in 1988 and substantially deviated from the 1991 designs and models in several key areas such as cladding and landscaping.

 

By the end, the design process apparently included over 30,000 drawings and models.

www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/disney-hall-turns-a-corner_b1653

 

From an initial field of ca. 80 entrants, then winnowed to a list of 25, the other three finalists in 1988 were Gottfried Böhm, Hans Hollein, and James Stirling.

 

From 1990 to 1991, the project faced a lawsuit brought by a group called A Local and Regional Monitor, represented by Sabrina Schiller, which alleged that there had not been a sufficient review of environmental and traffic impacts. Gary Justice, Pamela Schmidt, and Helen Parker represented the project and defeated the lawsuit and appeal.

www.gibsondunn.com/fstore/documents/pubs/AForbes_Eye_For_...

 

Another set of delays in 1990 came from a newer demand from the county that the site incorporate a hotel, in order to raise further revenue in the form of hotel taxes. Gemtel was to be the hotel developer and they were to bring in Ritz Carlton as operator. This was scrapped in 1991 when Ritz Carlton refused to agree to hire unionized labor and/or take on a living wage rule (the exact disagreement is somewhat unclear to me).

 

The 1991 models and other mock-ups premiered at the Fifth International Exhibition of Architecture at the Venice Biennale in 1991 to great acclaim, before being submitted for approval.

 

These mock-ups for the models were designed using Catia, "a 3D modeler made for the aerospace industry by Dassault, a French software company associated with IBM."

larrybarrow.com/assets/dissertation/Vol-2-back/A4-FOGA.pdf

 

"At one point, someone estimated that the project had over 90 consultants."

www.economist.com/node/86629 ('97)

 

During the first phase of the project, "a consortium of General Contracting firms, (Peck Jones, Turner Construction, and Obayashi) were selected to form the building entity, Concert Hall Builders." Yet I am not sure who the final constructing firms were.

larrybarrow.com/assets/dissertation/Vol-2-back/A4-FOGA.pdf

 

In 1994, the cost estimate skyrocketed by $50 million and the project was put on hold pending auditing and financial review by Hines.

"According to committee budgets, some of the biggest increases in construction and material costs were in the steel framing, $8.6 million more than originally thought; in wood purchases and millwork, up $7 million, partly because of a decision to add interior wood; and in drywalling and plaster, up $4.9 million. 'The drywall designed for this hall has curves and movement that don't have any comparison to anything else that's been built in this city,' Nicholas said. 'The people who were bidding the drywall had never seen anything like it, hadn't had any experience with it. So they put a lot of contingencies in it and they bid it very, very high. A bright spot is the purchasing, cutting and installation of the exterior Italian limestone--a process Gehry has closely supervised. Bids on that stonework are reported to be $325,000 below its original $22.6-million estimate.'"

articles.latimes.com/1994-08-27/news/mn-31646_1_disney-ha...

 

As described above, a major shake-up of operations occurred ca. 1995.

"Dworsky indicated, as a matter of tracking what happened to whom, it is quite simple, of all the major original participants (i.e. architects, engineers, builders, and project managers), no one survived except FOGA."

larrybarrow.com/assets/dissertation/Vol-2-back/A4-FOGA.pdf

 

The garden, initially a major feature of the design brief, has all but disappeared. It is supposedly partially on the roof? I have no idea. I never much noticed a garden during any of my visits to Disney Hall, although I didn't mind the landscaping I did notice. In any case, Melinda Taylor was a fairly late addition to the project.

 

"She came in after a number of other designers, including Philadelphia landscape architect Laurie Olin and Nancy Goslee Powers, who did the Norton Simon Museum's garden, had come and gone on the job."

articles.latimes.com/2002/mar/21/news/lv-disney21

 

“‘Wow! Did I do that? Holy shit! Did I do that?’ Sometimes you look at it that way,” Gehry says, taking in the flowing ribbons of steel at street level and then gazing up at the luffing “mainsails” at the center of the building—forms which seem to defy engineering, and which were conceived by Gehry as squiggly lines on a piece of paper more than 16 years ago. . . . Gehry, probably the most famous architect in the world right now, and arguably the most important and influential, is a modest figure in a profession known for its massive egos."

www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2003/09/disney-concer... (2003)

 

"If Gehry lived in Idaho, we would see snowmobiles in his designs; he is an architect stuck in a feedback loop with his surroundings. As it is, he lives by the Pacific and owns a sailboat, and so it is seagoing vessels we see in his buildings: the boat-shaped main gallery of the Guggenheim Bilbao, the concert hall in Disney. 'When I started Disney Hall,' says Gehry, 'I saw a show at the Toledo Museum in Ohio called In Praise of Ships in the Sea, and I got really excited about these shapes. I saw them in the wood ceiling I was already doing, and I brought them in.' A metaphor took hold of Gehry: A concert was a journey, the hall would be a boat, the steel forms that shot into the air over L.A. its sails."

www.lamag.com/features/2003/10/12/how-disney-hall-redeeme... (quote on page 5)

 

For a student's perspective on the use of nautical forms, see: couplarchideas.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/similarity-betwee...

 

books.google.com/books?id=WWl29hn0C9gC&lpg=PA72&v...

www.latimes.com/news/local/cl-ca-uroussoff19oct19,0,64916... (Ouroussoff, 2003)

www.nytimes.com/2003/10/23/arts/architecture-review-a-moo... (Muschamp, 2003)

www.slate.com/articles/arts/architecture/2003/10/epic_arc... (Hawthorne, 2003)

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1264860 (Stamberg, 2003)

www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2003/08/17/a-mighty-monume... (McGuigan, 2003)

www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/cl-et-swed1jul01,... (Swed, 2003)

www.businessweek.com/stories/2003-10-05/frank-gehrys-high... (Palmieri, 2003)

www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2003/oct/23/victory-at-... (Filler, 2003, paywall)

www.riprense.com/Silverstunt.htm (contrarian view, ca. 2003)

articles.latimes.com/2003/oct/25/entertainment/et-fisher25 (blurb round-up, 2003)

books.google.com/books?id=c2Kwa-EZR2IC&lpg=PA106&... (photo of opening night, 2003)

articles.latimes.com/1988-04-29/news/vw-2468_1_concert-hall (1988)

articles.latimes.com/1991-09-05/local/me-2333_1_walt-disn... (Isenberg, '91)

articles.latimes.com/1991-09-15/realestate/re-3191_1_disn... ('91)

www.nytimes.com/1992/12/13/arts/architecture-view-gehry-s... (Muschamp, '92)

articles.latimes.com/1992-11-22/magazine/tm-2024_1_disney... ('92)

articles.latimes.com/1994-11-03/news/mn-58297_1_concert-hall (1994)

books.google.com/books?id=rF0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT72&lp... ('96, scroll back a page or two for the start of the article titled "Why L.A. Hates Frank Gehry")

www.newyorker.com/archive/1997/07/07/1997_07_07_038_TNY_C... ('97)

www.laphil.com/philpedia/about-walt-disney-concert-hall

www.laphil.com

www.aia.org/cities/los-angeles/all-stories/disneyconcerth...

www.arcspace.com/features/gehry-partners-llp/walt-disney-...

www.laweekly.com/2003-10-30/music/organomics/ (on the organ, 2003)

www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-disneyhall6... (Swed, 2008)

illumin.usc.edu/177/

interactive.wttw.com/tenbuildings/walt-disney-concert-hall

en.wikiarquitectura.com/index.php/Walt_Disney_Concert_Hall

www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/symphony-...

www.johnmartin.com/publications/Disney%20Concert%20Hall/D...

books.google.com/books?id=CooTi-asobIC&lpg=PA48&o...

 

Frank Gehry:

www.foga.com

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry

www.gehrytechnologies.com

www.getty.edu/pacificstandardtime/explore-the-era/people/...

www.getty.edu/pacificstandardtime/explore-the-era/archive...

www.latimesmagazine.com/2008/10/frank-gehry-annie-gilbar....

www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-angeles/frank-geh... (Frances Anderton)

larrybarrow.com/assets/dissertation/Vol-2-back/A4-FOGA.pdf

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ-Kf3sJfok (ca. 5 minutes)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRjnoNkaJUs (+1 hour long talk with Frank Gehry and others about him and the Los Angeles arts community)

 

Catia:

www.3ds.com/products/catia/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CATIA

worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2012/05/whats-the-price-o...

www.mcadcentral.com/catia-software-development/

www.caddigest.com/subjects/aec/select/022304_day_gehry.htm

 

4D modeling:

cife.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/WP064.pdf

 

James Glymph:

Was a partner at Gehry's firm for 19 years (ca. 1989–2008) and was founding CEO of Gehry Technologies.

 

"In the 1980s, he worked with LMN Architects in downtown Seattle, heading the team that designed the San Diego Convention Center."

www.aiaseattle.org/KBD/about_glymph.htm

 

www.laiserin.com/laiserinlive/speakers/glymph.php

www.miamialum.org/s/916/interior-3-col.aspx?sid=916&g... (scroll down to "Edges Torn Open")

archrecord.construction.com/innovation/1_TechBriefs/0310G...

businessmodelalchemist.com/blog/2010/09/on-business-model... (scroll down for video)

 

Dan Dworksy:

I feel the need to point out that though Dan Dworsky is currently rather maligned within the Los Angeles architectural community, especially for his involvement in this project, he's directly responsible for my favorite Bunker Hill buildings, the Angelus Plaza senior housing complex, as well as the very decent Figueroa Courtyard. The vision of a revived Bunker Hill with more than just tall glass boxes of office space owes a great deal to his efforts over the years.

digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/architects/273/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Dworsky

sma.sciarc.edu/subclip/takeyama-minourou-and-daniel-dwors...

 

Michael Maltzan:

A rising star in the California architectural scene, recently garnering praise and awards for his New Carver Apartments for the Skid Row Housing Trust. A building that provides transitional housing for the recently formerly homeless, it's one I don't like for a number of nit-picky reasons, but whose social conscience I credit. One of his most prominent commissions was for another performance hall—Mashouf Performing Arts Center for SF State. My favorite of his works is the Billy Wilder Theatre at the Hammer, which is a great size for films they screen and makes me think every time that I've snuck inside a fancy, sexy lipstick holder from the late 1980s: hot pink, sleek black, kiss kiss. I also think he did a wonderful job with MoMA QNS, the temporary (and more fun) home of MoMA while the main building was being revamped during the early 2000s.

 

"Michael Maltzan established his independent practice in Los Angeles in 1995. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design (1985) and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (1988), he worked briefly in Boston for Schwartz/Silver Architects and then for Machado and Silvetti Associates. . . Then in 1988, Maltzan moved to California, where he joined the office of Frank Gehry. . . In Gehry’s office, Maltzan worked on the initial design stages of the acclaimed Walt Disney Concert Hall (1988–2004) for Los Angeles and was project designer for the tautly elegant Vontz Center for Molecular Studies (1993–1999) at the University of Cincinnati."

www.mmaltzan.com/essays/essay-alternate-ground/

www.mmaltzan.com

www.mmaltzan.com/profile/michael-maltzan/

www.arcspace.com/features/michael-maltzan-architecture/

www.arcspace.com/the-architects-studio/michael-maltzan-sk...

places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/

 

Yasuhisa Toyota:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuhisa_Toyota

live.stanford.edu/bingconcerthall/files/ch-na.pdf

www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,543822,00.html

www.nagata.co.jp/e_index.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagata_Acoustics

 

Craig Webb:

Senior partner (currently?) at Gehry Partners and the main designer assigned to Disney Hall after Michael Maltzan left the firm.

 

Before joining Gehry, Webb worked at Albert C. Martin & Associates and Barton Myers Associates.

 

"The 125-employee office is structured like a pyramid, with Gehry delegating creative work to two principal architects: Webb and Edwin Chan, who oversee design and direct project teams. . . . And while Bilbao was the defining project for Chan, Disney Hall belongs to Webb. 'There's a lot of him in there,' says Gehry. . . . 'They're different personalities,' says Gehry. 'When Craig makes stuff, it's more real. Edwin is more outgoing with people,' he continues. 'He seems to enjoy dealing with clients, the personal stuff. It's different than how Craig does it. He is a little shy or reticent, not as gregarious. He gets a little fussy sometimes. Like everybody else, he gets insecure.' . . . Gehry describes the younger architect as intuitive, with good communication and analytical skills and what he calls excellent 'hand-eye coordination' -- the ability to see, explore and realize Gehry's ideas. 'He can play with me on that level.'"

articles.latimes.com/2003/sep/17/entertainment/et-roug17

 

Manuel Rosales:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Rosales_(organ_builder)

 

Caspar Glatter-Götz:

www.gg-organs.com

www.gg-organs.com/eng/projects/disney.htm

www.gg-organs.com/eng/projects/images/Aprcovfeat.pdf

books.google.com/books?id=cgDJaeFFUPoC&lpg=PA225&...

 

Melinda Taylor:

Landscape designer, married to Craig Webb. This seems to have been her single largest project, although she has also worked on smaller projects and private gardens in Los Angeles.

www.melindataylor.com

articles.latimes.com/2002/mar/21/news/lv-disney21

 

Frederick M. Nicholas:

"Frederick M. Nicholas, an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of California since 1952, is a specialist in Real Estate Development and Leases. He is President of The Hapsmith Company, a Real Estate Development Firm with major interests in Northern and Southern California."

www.frederickmnicholas.com

www.frederickmnicholas.com/400_images/wdchpdfs/1993%20fal...

www.gibsondunn.com/fstore/documents/pubs/AForbes_Eye_For_...

 

Frederick Stegeman (d. 2009):

www.s-and-k.com/about/index.html

 

Harry Hufford:

"Hufford served as the chief administrator for Los Angeles County from 1974 to 1985 and worked as interim chief administrative officer in Ventura County from December 1999 to [2001]."

articles.latimes.com/2001/may/13/local/me-62999

 

"As CAO, Hufford was responsible for preparation and presentation of the County budget to the Board of Supervisors; administrative supervision of County departments; and management studies."

ceo.lacounty.gov/pdf/bio/hlh.pdf

 

Prior to being named acting CAO in 1974, Hufford had spent almost his entire career, with some interruptions, working in the staff of the CAO office, beginning initially in 1953.

 

He also served as an administrative officer at Gibson Dunn, and as a past president of the Music Center.

 

In 2001, he won the Earl Warren Public Service Award.

In 2003, there was a settlement in a sexual harassment suit against him.

 

articles.latimes.com/2003/apr/23/local/me-hufford23

articles.latimes.com/keyword/harry-hufford

 

----

 

A discussion on the 1979 Bunker Hill CRA competition and Gehry's participation in that. Most of the proposed projects mentioned did not get built:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rUrkUi2GKM

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

Detailed record for Royal 10 E IV

www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MS...

  

ff. 4-314

AuthorEdited by Raymund of Peñafort, with gloss of Bernard of Parma

TitleDecretals of Gregory IX with glossa ordinaria (the 'Smithfield Decretals')

 

ff. 1v-3v

AuthorEdited by Raymund of Peñafort, with gloss of Bernard of Parma

TitleCalendarium, Decretals of Gregory IX with glossa ordinaria (the Smithfield Decretals)

 

OriginFrance, S. (Toulouse?)

DateLast quarter of the 13th century or 1st quarter of the 14th century

LanguageLatin

ScriptGothic

Decoration5 miniatures in colours and gold, with full (f. 4) or partial borders decorated with foliate and interlace patterns, at the beginning of each book (ff. 4, 91v, 167, 229v, 251). Foliate initials in colours and gold at the ebginning of each book. 'Champ' initials in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in white. Initials in red with pen-flourished decoration in purple or blue, or in blue with pen-flourished decoration in red. Line-fillers in brown ink highlighted in yellow.

Dimensions in mm450 x 280 (370 x 245)

Official foliationff. A + 314 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end; f. A is a medieval parchment flyleaf)

FormParchment codex

BindingPost-1600. Royal Library binding of brown leather with the arms of George II and a date of 1757.

ProvenanceThe text dedicated to the University of Paris (f. 4).

John Batayle, a canon of St Bartholomew's at Smithfield, mentioned among other canons in a clerical subsidy roll of 1379 and named in a will of 1382, made by John Chyshull, another canon of St Bartholomew's (see Bovey 2002), probably illuminated for him: the Batayle arms (ff. 3v, 4r, 43v, 47v, 65v, 66r, 75v, 90v, 178v, 179v 180).

The Augustinian priory of St Bartholomew's at Smithfield: inscribed, 'Liber domus sancti barthomomei in smyth fylde', 15th century (f. 1v).

The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Henrician title 'Decretales' and Westminster inventory number 'no. 1059' (f. 1), acquired by the Upper Library at Westminster after the inventory of 1542; in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 9v; and in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James's Palace (see [Edward Bernard], Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), no. 8377, 8378, 8380, or 8388).

Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.

NotesFull digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at www.bl.uk/manuscripts.

Part I: the text and gloss written in Southern France, perhaps in Toulouse: lemmata underlined in yellow, with the decoration left unfinished.

Catchwords and bifolium signatures; numerous corrections.

Part II: the Calendarium illuminated and added on a separate quire at the beginning of the manuscript (ff. 1v-3v); marginal decoration and scenes in the lower margins added by a different artist, probably on the request of John Batayle, a canon of St Bartholomew's at Smithfield (his arms: see provenance) (see Bovey 2000 and 2002).

Select bibliographyJ.R. Green, Short History of the English People (London, 1893), passim.

  

J. J. Jusserand, English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (London, 1899), passim.

  

J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 230.

  

R. S. Loomis, 'A Phantom Tale of Female Ingratitude', Modern Philology, 14 (1916/1917), 751-55.

  

George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), I, p. 334.

  

Otto Pächt, 'A Giottesque Episode in English Illumination', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 6 (1943), 51-70 (p. 55).

  

Joan Evans, English Art 1307-1461, Oxford History of English Art, 5 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1949), pp. 33, 41 n. 3.

  

Margaret Rickert, Painting in Britain: the Middle Ages (London: Penguin, 1954), pp. 118, 124.

  

K. Varty, ‘Reynard the Fox and the Smithfield Decretals’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institues, 26 (1963), 347-54.

  

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 123.

  

Virginia Wylie Egbert, The Mediaeval Artist at Work (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), pp. 66, 68, pls 23, 24.

  

Janet Backhouse, 'Manuscript Sources for the History of Mediaeval Costume', Costume: Journal of the Costume Society, 1 (1968), 9-14 (p. 12).

  

W. B. Yapp, 'The Birds of English Medieval Manuscripts', Journal of Medieval History, 5 (1979) 315-48 (p. 335).

  

Peter Murray Jones, Medieval Medical Miniatures (London: British Library, 1984), pp. 62-63, figs 23-24.

  

Gerhard Schmidt, ''Belehrender' und 'befreinder' Humor: Ein Versuch über die Funktionen des Komischen in der bildenden Kinst des Mittelalters', in Worüber Lacht das Publikum im Theater? Spass und betroffenheit Einst und Heute: Festschrift zum 90. Geburtstag von Heinz Kindermann, ed. by M. Dietrich (Vienna: Herman Böhlaus, 1984), pp. 9-39 (p. 25, n. 47, il. 21).

  

Lucy Freeman Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 5 (London: Harvey Miller, 1986), I, no. 101.

  

The Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagent England 1200-1400, ed. by Jonathan Alexander and Paul Binski (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1987), p. 382, fig. 130 [exhibition catalogue].

  

Ewa Sniezynska-Stolot, 'Christian Interpretation of the Zodiac in Medieval Psalters', Umeni, 37 (1989), 97-111 (pp. 107, n. 33, 109).

  

L. L. Brownrigg, 'The Taymouth Hours and the Romance of Beves of Hampton', English Manuscript Studies, 1100-1700, 1 (London: British Library, 1989), 222-241 (p. 223)..

  

Michelle P. Brown, A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 (London: British Library, 1990), pl. 48.

  

Alison Stones, review of 'Sandler, Lucy Freeman, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, 1: Text and Illustrations, 2: Catalogue', Speculum, 66 (1991) 691-94 (p. 693).

  

Michael Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (London: Reaktion, 1992), pl. 83.

  

Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 98.

  

Lucy Freeman Sandler, 'Pictorial and Verbal Play in the Margins: The Case of British Library, Stowe MS 49', in Illuminating the Book: Makers and Interpreters, ed. by Michelle P. Brown and Scot McKendrick (London: British Library, 1998), pp. 52-68 (fig. 20).

  

Alixe Bovey, 'Didactic Distractions Framing the Law: British Library Royal MS 10 E IV' (Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of London, Courtauld Institute, 2000).

  

The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H2.1059.

  

Susan L’Engle and Robert Gibbs, Illuminating the Law: Legal Manuscripts in Cambridge Collections (London : Harvey Miller, 2001), p. 94.

  

A. Taylor, Textual Situations: Three Medieval Manuscripts and their Readers (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), pp.137-96.

  

Alixe Bovey, 'A Pictorial Ex Libris in the Smithfield Decretals: John Batayle, Canon of St Bartholomew's, and his Illuminated Law Book', in Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10 (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 67-91.

  

Alixe Bovey, Monsters and Grotesques in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 56-57, pls 48-49.

  

Jessica Brantley, 'Images of the Vernacular in the Taymouth Hours', in Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10 (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 83-113 (p. 85).

  

Hilary M. Carey, 'What is the Folded Almanac? The Form and Function of a Key Manuscript Source for Astro-medical Practice in Later Medieval England', Social History of Medicine, 16 (2003), 481-509 (p. 493).

  

Justin Clegg, The Medieval Church in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), p. 53, pl. 44.

  

Peter Kidd, Review of 'Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts', English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10 (London: British Library, 2002), in The Library, 7th series, 4 (2003), pp. 304-306.

  

Pamela Porter, Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), pp. 9, 44.

  

The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. by Paul Binski and Stella Panayotova (London: Harvey Miller, 2005), p. 138.

  

Peter Murray Jones, 'Image, Word, and Medicine in the Middle Ages', in Visualising Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200-1550, ed. by Jean A. Givens, Karen M. Reeds, and Alain Touwaide, AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, 5 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 1-24 (p. 9 n. 13).

  

Michelle P. Brown, The Holkham Bible: A Facsimile (London, British Library, 2007), p. 16, pl. 16.

  

Deirdre Jackson, Marvellous to Behold: Miracles in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), pls 39, 40.

  

Elizabeth Morrison, Beasts: Factual & Fantastic (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007), p. 61.

  

Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 72.

  

Scot MacKendrick, John Lowdem, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 108 [exhibition catalogue].

  

Images

ff. 4-314

Edited by Raymund of Peñafort, with gloss of Bernard of Parma Decretals of Gregory IX with glossa ordinaria (the 'Smithfield Decretals')

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF SOUNDS AND SIGNS

April 27th, 2010

@ Mobius

725 Harrison Avenue, Suite One

Boston MA 02118

  

Dancers:

Olivier Besson

Ellen Godena www.mobius.org/user/27

Liz Roncka www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

  

Musicians:

Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) www.myspace.com/jatul

Amir Milstein (flute)

Jamey Haddad (percussion) www.jameyhaddadmusic.com

 

A very special evening of improvised music and dance featuring musicians Haggai Cohen Milo (bass) and Amir Milstein (flute) and movement artists Olivier Besson, Ellen Godena and Liz Roncka.

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Olivier Besson - Movement Artist - is an improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston. In the period from 1980 until the mid 90's, Olivier studied Contact Improvisation with Robin Feld, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and Improvisation / Real Time composition with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also practiced and performed Bugaku (Court dance from Japan) with Arawana Hayashi. Other training includes Butoh with Maureen Feming and Action Theater with Ruth Zaporah.

 

Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Radford University (Virginia), *and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris) and with Compagnie Vertige (Nice, France). He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt, Debra Bluth, Ming-Shen Ku, Pamela Newell, Toshiko Oiwa and musicians/composers Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith. Locally, he has guest danced for Dawn Kramer, Micki Taylor-Pinney and Diane Noya. His ongoing performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka in Boston and Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice (France) .

 

Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory (dance division). He has been on faculty at Canal Danse (Paris), the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Le Centre Choregraphique de Danse / Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia). He has also taught masterclasses for teen / pre-teen programs at Walnut Hill, Cambridge School of Weston, Jeanette Neil Dance Studios, Brookline High and Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Haggai Cohen Milo - At the young age of 25, bass player and composer Haggai Cohen Milo is already a known name in the international music scene. Mr. Cohen Milo, currently operating from Berkeley, CA, brings exotic flavors to his music from his native middle east country, Israel. In both his compositions and in his playing, there is a contemporary mix of sound between East and West. His group the Secret Music Project, that features his personal musical sound and vision, has performed in some of the most important festivals around the world including the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Jazz Festival (Canada), Boston First Night and many more.

Mr. Cohen-Milo first gained international recognition when he won the First Prize in the International Ensemble Competition in Belgium 2006. In the same year, Cohen Milo was also awarded the DownBeat Magazine Music Awards and the grand prize at the Fish Middleton Jazz Soloist Competition held in Washington, DC.

 

As a Composer, Cohen Milo has composed the score for two full enough feature films, Intimate Enemies (2008), by the internationally known Mexican director Fernando Sariñana and SPAM (2009) by the director Charlie Gore. Cohen Milo released his debut album in January 2007 under the prestigious record label “Fresh Sound - New Talent”. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the US and in Europe. Cohen Milo also recorded with different artists for Warner Music, Sunnyside Records and more.

 

With a fast growing touring career, Cohen Milo has already performed on some of the most important stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Birdland (New York), Getxo International Jazz Festival (Spain), The Jazz Station (Belgium) and Rome Music Festival (Italy), to name a few.

 

Cohen Milo graduated in 2009 from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with such masters as Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jamey Hadad and Jerry Bergonzi.

 

"... Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he's in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is!" (Graham Pilsworth, "The Coast", Canada)

 

Amir Milstein - Flutist and composer - is a graduate of the "Rubin Academy of Music" in Jerusalem (B.M. in jazz and classical flute), and the New England Conservatory (Masters degree in music performance, 2010) Amir established his career in the world-music scene founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.

 

His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean and Latin. He has collaborated with artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek and Armando Macedo, among others and has participated in distinguished concert venues and festivals, both as a player and a composer.

He has collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for modern and flamenco dance groups and has composed and recorded several film scores. (His recent work on the documentary film "The Case for Israel- Democracy's Outpost" is currently presented at film festivals worldwide). Amir played in musical shows in the Israeli television and has collaborated and recorded numerous albums with Israel's leading artists, such as Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Gidi Gov, Miki Gavrielov, Leah Shabbat, and many others.

 

With over twenty years of experience teaching flute, recorders and music theory, Amir developed a unique musical education program and has instructed at the "Karev Music Educational Program" in Israel. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and has lectured and presented workshops at music schools such as the Berklee College of music, Boston and Berkeley University, CA. Before moving to Boston, in 2004 Amir was also a faculty member at the "Hed College of Contemporary Music" in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir presents an interactive workshop for schools and colleges called: "A World of Flutes"- Introducing the evolution of woodwinds through live music, stories, and a demonstration of over 80 musical instruments.

Ellen Godena - Movement Artist - is an experimental performer, choreographer, and Mobius Artists Group member. Her recent work has focused on the relationships between human, non-human (organic), and machine (non-organic) movement as a method for studying human development. Recent solo and collaborative works have been quests to define these relationships through the use of primitive, robotic entities in performance.

 

Ellen’s training, artistic influences and inspiration derive from the study of Japanese avant-garde movement and theater forms that have developed since the early 1960’s, primarily the butoh dances created by Japanese artists Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, physical theater, and contemporary dance. Since 1998, she has performed solo, group, and ensemble work in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York City. She was a former dancer with the Boston-based Kitsune Dance Theater (2003-06) under the direction of Deborah Butler, and the NYC post-modern butoh troupe, the Vangeline Theater (2006-08) under the direction of Vangeline. She has performed with Master butoh artist Katsura Kan (Curious Fish, 2002, 2008), and has studied with internationally recognized artists such as Zack Fuller, Hiroko Tamano, Su-En, Diego Pinon, and Katsura Kan. Her primary, long-term training has been with American artists Deborah Butler, Vangeline, and Jennifer Hicks. Currently, Ellen is presenting solo robotics – movement projects in addition to performing regularly with Liz Roncka's Real-Time Performance Project in Boston, MA. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Studio Painting (1997), and a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (2005).

  

Liz Roncka - Movement Artist - is an avid practitioner of movement improvisation and contemporary dance. She is the director of lizroncka/Real-Time Performance Project,a Mobius Artists Group member and a collaborating artist with Emma Jupe, a Paris-based improvisation collective. Her work has been presented in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Budapest and Paris.

 

Liz's early training was in the tradition of classical ballet at the School of the New Bedford Ballet. In college, Liz’s focus shifted toward contemporary dance and improvisation. She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005. Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of: Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran,Ellen Godena, Andrew Harwood, Michael Jahoda/White Box Project, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, Karen Murphy-Fitch and Micki Taylor-Pinney.

 

Much of Liz's work is developed in deep collaboration with sound artists, most notably Jane Wang, Haggai Cohen Milo, Jessyka Luzzi, Sean Frenette and Akili Jamal Haynes. Current projects include an improvisational duo with Forbes Graham (trumpet) and an collaboration with Philippe Lejeune (visual artist) developing a movement piece within a glass installation exploring the intersection of reality and reflected images. For more information please see:

 

www.dailydanceproject.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/realtimeperformance

www.mobius.org/user/29