SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology Presents NYC Premiere Of

Monk’s Mood: A Performance Meditation on the
Life and Music of Thelonious Monk

Joyce SoHo
December 11 – 13, 2009

SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology, in residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presents Monk’s Mood: A Performance Meditation on the Life and Music of Thelonious Monk at Joyce SoHo on December 11 – 13, 2009. Conceived by and featuring Thomas F. DeFrantz, this solo performance explores tap dance as a narrative form of storytelling, augmented by digital technologies. New Jersey-based poly-media artist Eto Oro provides programming and visual environment.

Monk’s Mood explores Thelonious Monk’s life and music as well as personal relationships with his wife, Nellie, and the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, who befriended Monk and other jazz musicians of the bebop era. The work approaches his isolation, melancholy, creative genius, and ultimately, his madness. The improvisational nature of the work allows DeFrantz to interpret Monk’s chord progression, rhythms, tone and feeling – enhancing the audience’s exploration of jazz, tap dance and emergent technology blending together as a theatrical story.

"One of my concerns is how to use technology to enhance theatrical storytelling, improvisation and artistic performance," said DeFrantz, a Professor of Music and Theater Arts at MIT. “In a way, my steps are analogous to Monk’s piano keys; I’m interpreting his rhythms and collaborating with my feet. The performance is spontaneous and original."

The 50-minute work employs high-tech floor pads, conceptually designed by MIT and Stanford graduate students, to trigger sound and video images during the performance. A digital archive of related content is manipulated within each of the ten scenes, resulting in a one-of-a-kind improvisational and emotional narrative. The use of technology in such a unique performance capability, displays the exploration and educational possibilities of creating new performance platforms.

DeFrantz began developing Monk’s Mood during a summer residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy. He developed it further in residencies at Stanford University and Hampshire College. Sections of the work have been performed at New Haven International Festival of the Arts (2002), Centre National de la Danse, Paris (2005), American Dance Festival (2007), Capetown South Africa International Ballet Gala (2008), and in residency at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (2009).

Performances start at 8:00 PM Eastern. Tickets are $15 or $12 for students and seniors; tickets can be purchased in advance at www.joyce.org, or by calling (212) 352-3101. Tickets will also be sold on site one-half hour before curtain. Post-performance discussions will take place on December 11-12, 2009.

Venue Information

Joyce SoHo
155 Mercer Street (Houston/Prince)
New York, NY 10012

B/D/F/V to Broadway-Lafayette, R to Prince, 6 to Bleecker

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