Praxis

Writer, Director, Set: Hélène Lesterlin
Choreography, Performance: Hélène Lesterlin, Kyra Miller, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, and Elizabeth Ward
Music: Seth Cluett, Stephan Moore
“Voice of God”: Todd Reynolds
Assistant Director: Ramon Tejada
Lighting design: Scott Bolman
Additional choreography: Julie Rose
Produced by ATLAS Dance | Hélène Lesterlin
Presented at HERE Arts Center in NYC as part of the American Living Room Festival, August 2007.

Praxis is a dance theater work that revolves around the translation of thought to effect, theory to practice, dream to life. Steeped in unsolicited advice, dubious interpretations of Marxism, incomprehensible instructions, songs, and game structures, the actions on stage overlap, pitting disparate activities against each other, as scenes shift in and out of focus. In a space constantly under construction, four characters enter, exit, go about their business, and figure out how to move things forward – while pointers rain down on them from the Voice above. Two musicians mix live and prerecorded sound, adding another level of chaos, humor, and surprise, to this circus of theory, praxis, plan and action.

Photos by Steven Schreiber