Choreography: Nancy Karp

Dancers: Chris Black, Nick Brentley, Sonsherée Giles, Katie Kruger, Amy Lewis, and Nol Simonse

Music: Jay Cloidt

Pianist: Marja Mutru

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On piano piano, Karp states, “I absolutely love this concept as a way of making decisions and going about life. It is this counteraction to the fast paced immediate culture of most everything in our contemporary world that will be at the heart of this new work; not only the pace and gradual unfolding of the performance, but part of the process in creating the work’s movement vocabulary, music/sound choices, quality of lighting, and the response/treatment of the Dresher industrial space.”

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Dancers: Sonsherée Giles, Sebastian Grubb, Amy Lewis, Megan Lowe, and Charles Slender-White

Music: Charles Amirkhanian

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Inspired by the David Brower Center’s exhibition, “Douglas R. Tompkins: On Beauty”, that celebrated the life and work of the late conservationist Doug Tompkins, Nancy Karp created a site-specific performance work for the company.On Beauty premiered at the David Brower Center February 9-11, 2018.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Dancers: Peter Cheng, Janet Collard, Sonsherée Giles, Sebastian Grubb, Katie Kruger, and Amy Lewis

​Musicians: Sarah Cahill (Piano), Kate Stenberg (Violin), Gianna Abondolo (Cellist)

Production Design by Jack Carpenter with Thekla Hammond

Costume Design by Lydia Tanji

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Memory/Place, a full evening work, featuring two commissioned music compositions by composers Kui Dong and Robert Honstein, and the Grand Duo by Lou Harrison premiered February 10-12, 2017.

Choreography: Nancy Karp
Dancers: Janet Collard, Sonsheree Giles, Katie Kruger and Amy Lewis

A work-in-progress for a larger work to be performed by the dance company in Winter 2016/17 at the ODC Theater in San Francisco, CA. Note: This version of the work was done in silence. Studies I, II, III, IV - Four solos designed for the Annual Emeryville Art Exhibition, October 25, 2015.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Sound design: Jay Cloidt

Costume design: Candace Shoemaker

A work of fiery explosions, movement punctuated by tender moments of stillness. The imagery is drawn from the classic forms of ancient vase painting and the spaces and shapes created by and between the figures on the vases. Featuring music by composers Jay Cloidt, Kui Dong, Vijay Iyer, and Colin Jacobsen. World premiere at the dance company's 35th Anniversary Season in San Francisco, February 2015.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Dancers: Diane McKallip, Randee Paufve

Wardrobe: Babette

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The World Premiere of a-motion-upo-nmotio-n was during the dance company's 35th Anniversary Season in San Francisco, February 2015.* e. e. cummings

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: Nik Bartsch

Visual décor/film: Cheryl Calleri and Thekla Hammond

Three Acts
I. Voice
II. Dance
III. Immersion

A collaboration with Bay Area artists, Cheryl Calleri and Thekla Hammond, presented by the San Francisco Performance Art Institute, 2013.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: John Cage, Carl Stone

A site-specific solo work choreographed and performed by Nancy Karp for the Artesiana Festival at the Villa Romana del Casale in central Sicily in 2012. 

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: Julia Wolfe

Costume design: Sandra Woodall

This pure movement work, Trio Set, was developed during a three month intensive rehearsal period with dancers Christy Funsch, Diane McKallip and Anne-Lise Reusswig. The pace is fast moving and highly rhythmic; interweaving the stylistic strengths of each of the dancers, 2005.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: Alvin Curran

Lighting and visual décor: Jack Carpenter

Costume design: Sandra Woodall

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Stop signs and stop lights are merely a suggestion," Cadagon Guide to Sicily.

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Inspired by the vibrant culture and rich traditions of Sicily, La Traversa was performed to a live commissioned music score by award-winning composer Alvin Curran, 2003.

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*La Traversa – the Intersection/crossing

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IN ITALIANO

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Coreografia di Nancy Karp

Musiche di Alvin Curran

Luci e decorazioni visive di Jack Carpenter

Design costumi di Sandra Woodall

“I segnali di stop e i semafori sono soltanto un consiglio", Guida Cadagon della Sicilia.Ispirato dalla vivace cultura e dalle ricche tradizioni siciliane, la rappresentazione “La Traversa” è stata accompagnata dalla musica live del premiato compositore Alvin Curran nel 2003.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music performed by Green Street Mortuary Band

Created in the spirit of a traditional Sicilian religious procession, this site-specific work for eight dancers from the company and San Francisco’s Green Street Mortuary Band was commissioned for the Choreographers’ Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco in August 2002.

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IN ITALIANO

Coreografia di Nancy Karp
Musiche eseguite dalla Green Street Mortuary Band

Creato ispirandosi a una tradizionale processione religiosa siciliana, questo lavoro per un sitospecifico con otto danzatori della compagnia e la Green Street Mortuary Band di San Francisco, è stato commissionato per il Choreographers’ Festival che ha avuto luogo a San Francisco presso gli Yerba Buena Gardens nell’agosto 2002.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: Charles Amirkhanian

Lighting: Jack Carpenter

Costume design: Sandra Woodall

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In Il Mercato, Nancy Karp created an elaborate choreographic structures that evoke the chaos and energy of the marketplace. The core movement for this work is derived from market and street gesture, 2001.* il Mercato – the market

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IN ITALIANO

Coreografia di Nancy Karp

Musiche di Charles Amirkhanian

Luci di Jack Carpenter

Design dei costumi di Sandra Woodall

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Ne “Il Mercato”, Nancy Karp ha creato elaborate strutture coreografiche che evocano il caos e l’energia della piazza del mercato. Il movimento essenziale di questo lavoro deriva dai gesti del mercato e della strada, 2001.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: Paul Dresher

Lighting and visual décor: Jack Carpenter

Costume design: Sandra Woodall

Kalasam, an evening-length work for eight dancers and two musicians, integrates dance, music, slide projection, color, and light. It was inspired by Nancy Karp and Paul Dresher’s long-time association with the performing arts of India, 2000.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: Charles Amirkhanian, Marcel Duchamp

surface roll was designed for an empty 1920s’ vintage swimming pool located in a natural amphitheater surrounded by gardens and redwoods at Villa Lauriston, in Portola Valley, California. Charles Amirkhanian’s Gold & Spirit and Marcel Duchamp’s La Mariée Mise à Nu…Meme, provided the music, 1998.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: W.A. Mozart, Bill Fontana

Threading Light, a work for ten dancers, was inspired by the architecture of the galleries at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and the paintings of Mark Tobey and Oskar Schlemmer. It was a work in four parts, each part corresponding to a different location within the Center, 1997.
 

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: Alvin Curran

Lighting and visual décor: Jack Carpenter

Costume design: Sandra Woodall

"Kristallnacht shatters emotions."
Octavio Roca, San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 3, 1995"Kristallnacht is an eloquent outcry against the Holocaust…It transcends time and geography."
Paul Hertelendy, The San Jose Mercury News, Nov. 3, 1995"…the jagged rhythms of Karp’s choreography carry powerful emotional echoes…stark and immensely moving…"
Octavio Roca, The San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 3, 1995

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: Terry Riley

Costume design: Sandra Woodall

Arashi/Storm

The gestures and movement phrases for this work have been abstracted from portraits of Bauhaus and Russian Constructivist & Suprematist* artists and their work, specifically the seminal Malevich “Suprematist Painting, 1917-1918," 1992 revised in 2005.

Choreography: Nancy Karp
Music: Ben Johnston
Dancers: Deirdre Carrigan, Laura Fly, Peter Foster, Nancy Karp, Aileen Kim, Randee Paufve, 
and Robert Saito

Falling Angels is a site specific dance work for 7 dancers made at the former Del Monte fruit cannery in Emeryville, CA. These are excerpts from the work presented in cooperation with the Annual Emeryville Art Exhibition. 1992.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: W.A. Mozart, opera overtures

Dancers: Michael Armstrong, Deirdre Carrigan, Laura Fly, Peter Foster, Robert Saito, Libby Rhodes

A site-specific performance at Theater Artaud, San Francisco created for the "Mozart from the Fringe Festival" in 1991.

Choreography: Nancy Karp
Music: Miguel Frasconi
Dancers: Michael Armstrong, Deirdre Carrigan, Laura Fly, Diane McKallip, Robert Saito

Premiered in 1990.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Sound score: Bill Fontana

Costumes:  Michie Yamaguchi

The title of the performance, Terrace Canon, was derived from the action of the 30 performers moving in canon with one another- movement echoing and repeating from one group or pair of performers to the next. The choreography was inspired by the natural landscape of the forest adjacent to the Kyoto College of Art performance area, 1990.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Sound Recording: Bill Fontana

Visual designer: Joyce Cutler-Shaw

Lighting designer: Craig Wolf with images from drawings by Joyce Cutler-Shaw

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Premiered in 1989.

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Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: Ingram Marshall

Visual décor: Carol Law

Costume design: Sandra Woodall

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An homage to Bauhaus artists and their fascination with finding universal images of communication through the exploration of color and shape. A collaboration with visual artist Carol Law and composer Ingram Marshall, Prima Materia, premiered in 1987.

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Choreography: Nancy Karp

Sound score: Bill Fontana

Visual décor: Wolfram Erber

Costume design: Sandra Woodall

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In 1985, Ms. Karp, with the co-sponsorship of the Goethe Institute in San Francisco, invited the visual artist Wolfram Erber to be in residence with Nancy Karp + Dancers and to collaborate on First Light. Ms. Karp also invited sound artist Bill Fontana and costume designer Sandra Woodall to join her in the making of this work. First Light premiered in 1985.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

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On the Greens is a site-specific work for Washington Square, North Beach, San Francisco, created for 10 dancers, and performed to a sound score by composer, Bill Fontana for 2 brass quintets and environmental sound recordings. 1985.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music: Charles Amirkhanian

Visual décor: Carol Law

Costume design: Cara Varnell

Dot Bunch, realized with support from the National Endowment for the Arts Inter- Arts Program funds, was created in collaboration with composer Charles Amirkhanian and visual artist Carol Law, premiered in 1984.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Costume design: Cara Varnell

Terrace Dancing was created for the multiple terraces and rooftops of the Oakland Museum. The dancers moved through the museum site with the audience having the option to travel with the dance or catch it as it went by a window or garden terrace, 1982.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Sound score: Bill Fontana

Projected Imagery: Lutz Bacher

Dancer: Nancy Karp

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Choreographed in 1982.

Choreography: Nancy Karp
Music: Paul Dresher (commissioned by New Arts Foundation/Nancy Karp + Dancers)
Dancers in video: Deirdre Carrigan, Nancy Karp, and Diane McKallip

Choreographed in 1982.

Choreography: Nancy Karp
Sound Score: Bill Fontana
Dancers: Nancy Karp, Diane McKallip, Robert Saito, and David True

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Choreographed in 1982.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

Music for Gamelan by Nancy Karp
Dancers: Deirdre Carrigan, Suzanne Clements-Martin, Nancy Karp, Robert Saito, Julie Smith

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Choreographed in 1978.

Choreography: Nancy Karp

BART, the first site-specific dance work choreographed by Nancy Karp, was created for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system’s stations and trains, 1974.