World-renowned choreographer Deborah Hay has selected venerable dance artists Karl Jay-Lewin, Janne-Camilla Lyster and Christopher Roman to collaborate on a new trio titled Byproduct of Friction, the first in part of an ongoing series. In her own words, Deborah says:

“This project was conceived as a way for me to examine and combine the practical magic of ‘the trio’ with the support and input from 3 artists, whose dancing/performing, each in separate contexts, have touched me deeply. I cast this trio because of their unique differences and backgrounds and how I imagine their collective input into this opportunity. This trio is the first in which 3 – 5 other trios will come into fruition.
The new work is sourced from earlier solo scores but transmitted and coached from my current perspective on dance with time and space to include input from the dancers. Byproduct of Friction is a trio adaption of The Other Side of O, (1998), choreographed for the first Solo Performance Commissioning Project at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, Langley, WA.”

This week at Vitlycke will be the first of three residencies where we will practice the score together.

Bio

About the three dance artists: Christopher has danced in a variety of ballet companies throughout North America (PNB, Miami City Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Pennsylvania Ballet) and for the last 20 years was a key collaborator with William Forsythe (Ballett Frankfurt, The Forsythe Company) in Germany and for the past 13 years also with Deborah Hay. He has created original works with Rabih Mroué, Ivo Dimchev, Ersan Mondtag, Jan Martens and many others. During the pandemic, he earned a PhD at Roehampton University in London. Karl is an independent choreographer and performer, and Creative Director of Dance North Scotland, based in Findhorn, Scotland. He is a frequent collaborator of Deborah’s and Matteo Fargion. Janne-Camilla is a Norwegian choreographer, artist, published writer. She is an associate professor in choreography at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

Deborah Hay (*1941) was a founding member of the experimental Judson Dance Theater and toured worldwide in 1964 with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. For the last 30 years, she wrote and published while developing her own language for dance practice and choreography, which she applied in her work with both untrained and professional dancers. Commissioned works were produced by The Forsythe Company, Toronto Dance Theater and Cullberg Ballet, among others. Last year, MoMA opened their major exhibition “Judson Dance Theater: The Work is Never Done”, which features Hay’s work alongside that of her pioneering dance contemporaries Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton and others.