FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May Premiere of Lourdes Perez & Jose Luis Bustamante Collaboration, The Leaf Storm
CONTACT: Cindy Goldberger (S+BD): 458-8158
TICKETS (UTTM): 471-6060
Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks presents
THE LEAF STORM/La Hojarasca
a collaboration of dance and music
with choreographer JOSE LUIS BUSTAMANTE
and vocalist/songwriter LOURDES PEREZ
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Fri., May 5 at 8 p.m.
Sat., May 6 at 8 p.m.
Sun. May 7 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Fri., May 12 at 8 p.m.
Sat., May 13 at 8 p.m.
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at the Winship Theatre Room (23rd and San Jacinto)
University of Texas at Austin
$15 general admission, $10 students, seniors and UT faculty & staff
Please call UTTM for tickets: 471-6060
For other info about the performance, call S+BD at 458-8158
"They say that from only one brushstoke
You drew yourself quickly an exit
And that the abyss was converted into a blue coast
That you have painted your life…"
- translated from Tribute to the Leafblower by Lourdes Perez, c2000 BMI
Austin, TX - Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks, now celebrating its 17th season, is pleased to announce our season finale, The Leaf Storm, a new work by S+BD's Artistic Co-Director Jose Luis Bustamante and vocalist/songwriter Lourdes Perez. The Leaf Storm premieres May 5, 2000 at the Winship Theatre Room at UT.
The Leaf Storm emerges as the result of a special collaboration: Bustamante, who is originally from Mexico, and Perez, who was born and reared in Puerto Rico, have woven personal remembrances together with elements from the Nobel Prize-winning novella by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, La Hojarasca (The Leaf Storm), for a meditation on the longing and the beauty of a life lived outside of one's homeland - on "painting a life" in a new culture with vestiges from a traditional culture and from the past.
The Leaf Storm has received major funding from CEMEX, Int.
The Leaf Storm features: new compositions and lyrics by Perez (which she will perform live with cellist Margaret Coltman-Smith and pianist Kay Sparks), layered with segments of oral history field recordings that she has gathered in her travels; projected images by Chilean painter Liliana Wilson Grez; excepts from Un Hogar Solido (A Solid Home) by Mexican playwright Elena Garroas with appearance by actress Melba Martinez; and beautiful costumes and masks created at the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.
A living testimony to art in exile, migration and the continuing transformation of the Americas, this remarkable new piece is a fascinating step in the careers of two artists who are cherished and celebrated in Austin, in Texas and abroad.
Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks, the Company-in-Residence at the University of Texas at Austin, has been a vital fixture in Austin's creative community for 17 years. The company's Artistic Co-Directors Yacov Sharir and Jose Luis Bustamante have wedded their respective cultural experiences with the riches of this region, resulting in a repertoire that has been regularly commended with grants from, among others, the City of Austin, Texas Commission on the Arts, the mid-America Arts Alliance, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to the creation/presentation of three programs per year at home, S+BD and its principals have appeared in festivals and competitions throughout the world, including France, Israel, Spain, Canada, Holland and Portugal. Jose Luis Bustamante's broad career as a dancer, choreographer and artist has included, along with his work with Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks, residencies with companies throughout the U.S. and in Mexico and appearances at dance festivals and competitions worldwide (such as the 1997 International Computer Music Festival in Greece and ACARTE 1997 in Lisbon, Portugal). He has been awarded numerous times with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Jose is currently Associate Professor/Dance Program Coordinator at Austin Community College.
Lourdes Perez is a vocalist, guitarist, poet, composer, recording artist and activist. A significant voice among Latin American singer/songwriters, Perez is an ambassador of a lesser known aesthetic in Latin music that in world music circles is more often associated with the "longing" genres of Western Africa and Cape Verde, but also appears in Sephardic cante jondo and rural Puerto Rican jibaro styles. A contemporary troubadour, Perez combines musical memory of the western mountain region of Puerto Rico where she was born, is haunted by Mexico and South America, and bears witness to each new landscape she encounters. With her unique contralto and an approach much in the spirit of her mentors, the Argentinean singer/activist Mercedes Sosa and Mexican improvisational decimista Guillermo Velazquez, Perez has been performing throughout the U.S. and Mexico since 1993, including repeated concert appearances with Sosa, Velazquez, Jane Siberry, Tish Hinojosa, the Indigo Girls and others, and last season made her concert debuts in Canada and Puerto Rico. In addition to The Leaf Storm, Perez has also been commissioned to compose the score for con flama, a new theater piece by Sharon Bridgforth premiering September 2000, and the score for the short film, When, by filmmaker Jen Tsai. Perez recently returned to Austin to work on these projects as well as the local recording of her third CD, Aguas Benditas, scheduled for release in the fall of 2000. Perez' acclaimed Vestigios (Vestiges) CD and Recuerdate Por Mi (CD) are available in Austin through Waterloo Records or online at: www.lourdesperez.com.
The Leaf Storm premieres May 5-7 and 12, 13 at the Winship Theatre Room (23rd and San Jacinto)), UT at Austin. Tickets are $15 general admission, $10 seniors, students, and UT faculty and staff. Tickets are available through UTTM: 471-6060
Black & white and color slides of this project are available. Jose and Lourdes are also available for interviews.
To schedule an interview, or for any other information regarding The Leaf Storm, please call Cindy Goldberger at Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks, 458-8158.
Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks is in residence at the University of Texas College of Fine Arts and is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the City of Austin under the auspices of the Austin Arts Commission.
