“Human Gardens and Untamed Minds,”

a series of 30 min. contemporary dance installations,-- Inspired by the activist movement Guerilla Gardening— greening cities with personal acts of spontaneous gardening.

Gardens are the places urban dwellers go to connect with nature, bringing beauty to our cemented lives; but gardens were once the places our less “civilized” ancestors created to control and tame nature. Modern cities tame our wild natures and at the same time exist with uncontrollable variables at every turn.

“Human Gardens and Untamed Minds,” brings the living room- its privacy, its civility into the urban jungle of our city’s public spaces. We bring the intimacy of performance into the mix of uncontrolled elements of public space. Intimate. Public. Wild and tame.

“Human Gardens…” asks us to question how we are inhabiting ourselves, our cities- who is responsible in making our cities places we call home?... Connected to the beauty of nature, the ecosystem of the whole planet, and the wildness in our own hearts.

(At the Works Art and Visual Design Festival, Edmonton, 2011)

human gardens and untamed minds- a new KO Dance Project

In Partnership with Alberta Dance Alliance's "FEATS FESTIVAL OF DANCE, 2011."

Postcard design: Karen Campos Photos: Karen Campos, Ted Kerr

Misbehaving as her artistic mandate, maverick local dance artist KO is taking the PROPER out of city property and gearing up for some summertime artistic mischief.

“human gardens and untamed minds,” is a new premiere dance piece by the KO Dance Project and it’s taking urban design to a whole new level.

Inspired by the activist movement Guerilla Gardening— beautifying cities with personal acts of spontaneous gardening, this impulsive traveling dance show, will take live theatre where it needs it most - into the forgotten cement spaces of our downtown core, appearing and disappearing as quickly as it takes the cops to show up!

“It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission!”

With lights and sound instead of shovels, and whirling dancers instead of perennials, these guerilla dance gardens will be planted in the wild outdoors of our city’s downtown core.

Having recently returned from performing in Marseille, France and Rome, Italy, KO was struck by the spirit of imagination in Europe’s urban spaces - where artists wild minds create cities for humans and not just cars.

“human gardens and untamed minds” will transplant some of that beauty, setting up a wild theatrical adventure loose on the streets and leaving Edmonton’s downtown never the same again!

Human gardens and Untamed Minds: A KO Dance Project

Site-specific performance: meet at Sobey’s corner of 104 Street and Jasper Avenue. Rain or shine. Bring your own seating.

30 minute show.

Ticket info: Entree libre

Showtimes:

FRIDAY, JULY 1 - SATURDAY, JULY 2 : 5:30 pm and 8:30 pm

SUNDAY, JULY 3: 5:30 pm

Media Contact:

Kathleen Ochoa

780- 265-1110

kodanceproject@gmail.com

Collision: HD Version: Part One "wallflowers" from asparagusgreen.ca on Vimeo.

COLLISION - the place where Qi Gong, contemporary dance and science collide.

The intent for the creation of “Collision,” was to create a “live human laboratory” where a scientist could come in and process whatever ideas or theories through a different kind of laboratory-- where the materials for processing an idea or hypothesis is the human nervous system, and then observe what comes from this embodied approach to knowledge finding.

Directed & Edited by
D. Jeffrey Buchanan

Filmed by
Ric Gustavsen
Andrew Scholotiuk
D. Jeffrey Buchanan

Choreographer
Kathleen Ochoa

Collaborators:
Organic Gardener: Alex Bolivar
Cosmologist: Jochen Buechel
Photo Essayist: Ted Kerr
Sound Designer: Chris Quesnel
Dancers: Miriam Esquitin, Abby Espejo Nugent, Aliya Jamal, Katrina Smy, Deanne Underwood

Collision- Live, Part 8: "Weeds," directed and edited by D. Jeffrey Buchanan, Expanse Festival, 2009

Dancers: Miriam Esquitin, Katrina Smy, Abby Nugent, Deanne Underwood, Aliya Jamal

Photos/ Photo Collage: Ted Kerr

In the studio: work-in-progress

My Heart is a Pioneer

Premiered: March 7,8,9, 2008/ at Expanse Movement Arts Festival, Catalyst Theatre, Edmonton




Photography/ Poster Design: Ted Kerr, 2008


Video Footage: Alex Viszmeg
Split Screen Footage, Direction and Editing: D. Jeffrey Buchanan

 My Heart is a Pioneer continues Ochoa’ exploration of the female body through Qi gong energy training and new media collaborations.
"Inspired by the Body Worlds exhibit, the dancers and I have come up with a show that turns the human body inside out, visceral, and kinesthetic. The dancers have been given a task to explore what it's like to be in a human body, a female human body, for the first time," quotes Ochoa, choreographer and dancer behind My Heart is a Pioneer.

Collaborating with musician Travis Boa with a video projection by artist Ted Kerr, Ochoa and company examines the female body as a site of both public and private experiences, simultaneously natural and machine, at all times being vulnerable yet in control.

Dancers: Miriam Esquitin, Victoria Rohac, Maggie Bosse, Eryn Tempest, and Kathleen Ochoa
Composer and live music: Travis Boa
Video Installation: Ted Kerr

On set from new KOdance film with director Alex Viszmeg

Dancer: Kathleen Ochoa
Copyright Ted Kerr, 2007
Location: Freemason Hall, Edmonton