SELECT WORKS
Surrealism - Part 141
SAMPLE TIME: 2:40 -8:00 MIN
Choreography, Costume, Masks, Rope: LROD
Commander: Levi Ryan,
Wolf: Drew Lewis,
Bunny: Hannah McClean
Quartet: Allison P. Burke, Maeve Haselton,
Phenix Laughlin & Julia Sloan
Music: Machine Gun by Portishead, Portal, pt 2 by Aegri Somnia,"Die Walküre, Act 1, Prelude and Scene 1 by Wagner, and sound effects scored by LROD and Brian Murphy
Light design and Technical Direction: Meg Fox
Video/Photography: Joseph Lambert
Note: Surrealism - Part 141 honors the persecuted minority communities during WWII using layers of inspiration driven by historical trauma, identity, and politics, woven by surrealism.
©LROD2016
Livable Futures: Climate Gatherings
Above: JANUARY 2020: Livable Futures: Barnard College, NYC - Residency & Performance.
My most active involvement with Livable Futures spanned from 2016 to 2024. My role began as an experimental dancer in the work and evolved to lighting design and co-creative collaborator. A co-creative environment allows those involved to dive deeply into artistic change and, theoretical and factual implications. During our rehearsals and residencies, we have held space for professionals like Nadia Lauro, Tonya Lockyer, Michelle Ellsworth, Pamala Z, Andre Zachary, and Susan Kozel to participate in the collaboration process. Through these rich explorations, we have discovered the width and depth of different variables essential to the work. Alongside these special guests are the core members, Norah Zuniga Shaw, Oded Huberman, Marc and Ann Ainger, Dorian Ham, Lexi Stilianos, Laura Patterson, Tara Burns, and myself. The audience is crucial to the work. Having intimate experiences with the audience has expanded my research when building co-creative experimental environments.
Sharing the rich dialogue of transmedia performance with more communities is deeply needed in our present moment.
CO-CREATORS
Norah Zuniga Shaw, voice and movement improvisation, intermedia design @nzshaw
Oded Huberman, intermedia design, technical director, interactive sound performance
LROD, movement improvisation, intermedia design @lrod_work
Tara Burns, movement improvisation @taralovinsugar
Dorian Ham, DJ and percussionist
Byron Au Yong, voice and percussion, water, stones, bells @hearbyron
Michael Morris, Ritual Facilitator Columbus, OH
Marc Ainger, multichannel sound design / custom interactive software design
Antarctic expedition tent, loan from Byrd Polar Research Center.
Contributing designers, creative producers, and directors: Nadia Lauro, Michelle Ellsworth, Ohad Fishof, Noa Zuk, Tonya Lockyer
Photos by: Studio Kin, LROD & Seth Moses Meyer
Featured: Tara Burns, LROD, and Audience w/ NZSHAW
F U T U R E REALMS
Harvard Dance Project (HDP) will present an hour-long durational professional performance for the first time since 2020 at the Harvard Dance Center. The HDP ensemble comprises undergraduate and graduate students who are joint and double majors at Harvard University. LROD, the Artistic Director & Head of Dance, designs embodied courses advocating for compelling movement research and creative access in educational settings. The co-creative twelve-week process gathers a team from New York, Rhode Island, and Boston to unfold within an intimate setting around choreographic design.
The script to the right is the blueprint for the F U T U R E. Student’s contributed and LROD drafted, formalized, and shaped during the process.
Harvard Dance Project is generously supported by the Bromley Innovation Fund for Dance at Harvard University and Theater, Dance & Media.
Ensemble
Nancy Hinojos – HKS ‘25
Liliana Price – ‘25
Payton Thompson – ‘25
Lulu Troyer – ‘26
Creative
Artistic Director, Head of Dance, Choreographer: LROD
Costume Design: Dede Ayite
Stage Management: Sam Tirrell
Sound Design: Andy Russ
Lighting Design: Andy Russ
Media Design: Callie Chapman
Set Design: Jesse Cannon & LROD
(AWAKENING SOFTLY FORMING)
SAMPLE LROD’s Designs: 34:00 - 38:00
Co-Creators
Dede Ayite, Costume Design
Andy Russ, Lighting and Sound Design
Callie Chapman, Media Design
Set Design: Jesse Cannon & LROD
Videography & Editing: Taylor Hutchinson
Artistic Director: LROD
Choreographers: Sidra Bell & LROD
Stage Management: Sam Tirell
Assistant Stage Management: Maya Holt-Teza
Production Manager: Andrew Gitchel
Teaching Fellow: Chavi Bansal
HDP ENSEMBLE: Joy Ashford, Laura Coe, Mia Hazra, Alma Kent, Doreen Li, Shojeh Liu, Bryce Reynolds, Micaela Rosen, Yuqi Sun
The score (Awakening Softly Forming) is from the semester-long residency the HDP ensemble had with Sidra Bell and LROD. The left side of the score represents LROD’s contributions and the right side represents Sidra’s contributions. The evening follows this structure. Text and movement together anchor inception to navigate artistic possibility and produce resonating movement research outcomes. Creating spaces and worlds to expand is necessary for all who are co-creating towards livability. The ensemble was made up of mixed levels of first-time performers to experienced dancers.
INNOMINATE
Installation, Choreography, Masks, Sound: LROD
Dance Artists: Becca Blackwell, Hannah Cavallaro, Scotty Flores, Sierra Hendrix,
Molly Levy, Kate O’Day, Levi Ryan, Kince de Vera, and LROD
Sound: LROD & APPVLLO
Lighting and Technical Direction: Meg Fox
Photo & Video: Devin Munoz (choreography strategy)
Base: Experimental Arts + Space
Note: INNOMINATE is an interactive and immersive evening-length production involving home alters, luchadors, and connection. INNOMINATE works with issues on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border by looking at different narratives of tension. The audience is choreographed into this evening-length performance to give a 360-degree experience.
*video correction: Levi Ryan
Las Fronteras Suspendidas
The Suspended Borderlands
Durational performance art installation
Installation, Design, Choreography, Masks, Apparel: LROD
Films by LROD: Borderland Vol 1 & 2, Ventilador, Piñata
Dance Artists: Danielle Barker, 李璐妍 Lily Luyan
Committee Chair: Norah Zuniga-Shaw
Committee Members: Crystal Perkins, Paloma Martinez-Cruz
Las Fronteras Suspendidas / Suspended Borderlands is an interactive performance art installation investigating surrealism, futurism, and the moving body while playing on sight, citation, and location along the US-Mexican border. Sites: El Paso, Del Rio, & Eagle Pass
Thank you to Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Balitrónica Gómez, Saul Garcia Lopez, Emma Tramposch (La Pocha Nostra), Rubén Castilla Herrera (RIP), Nick Pasquarello (Trust the Circle), Paloma Martinez- Cruz (Taco Reparations Brigade), Theresa Delgadillo, Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, Awilda Rodríguez Lora, Michelle Ellsworth, Pamela Z, Susan Kozel, Mitchell Rose, Oded Huberman, mi familia, Eric Howard, and Britta Moe for your support, contributions, and guidance.
MORE VIDEOS AND PICTURES SOON!
Surrealism Part - Fear of the other
A Collaborative Multi-Media Performance Installation
Surrealism Part - Fear of the Other was made possible by the Center of Contemporary Art (COCA) in Seattle, WA. The director of COCA witnessed Surrealism - Part 141 earlier in the year and reached out to see if LROD would be interested in designing an immersive month-long installation of the work. The month-long exhibition included a community conversation with the artists and two performances. The last one invited the audience to deconstruct the space as part of the performance.
Design Artist + Choreographer + Mask Maker + Performer: LROD
Installation + Concept Artist: Becca Blackwell
Dance Artists: Levi Ryan, Scotty Flores, Ashlynn Fletcher, Maeve Haselton, Phenix Laughlin
Opening Reception: January 5, 6-10pm. Immersive and Durational Performance.
Open Conversation with Laura Rodriguez: January 7, 12pm.
Exhibit runs January 5 - 26, 2016.
Photos: Warren Woo + LROD
WORD BOX
Choreography: LROD
Dance Artists: Becca Blackwell, Allison P. Burke, Hannah Cavallaro, Shane Donahue Scotty Flores,
Sierra Hendrix, Molly Levy, Kate O'Day, Levy Ryan, Kince de Vera and Dustin Durham
Music: Music mixed by LROD Skeeter Davis, End of the World Yann Tierson, Porz Goret
Light and Technical Direction: Med Fox
Video/Photography: Cornish College of the Arts
BFA CAPSTONE: Movement study in “isolation” and “emergency bunker” examination of several end of times themes woven together.
0:00 (24 Hours Left)
What happens when catastrophe strikes and all you have are the people around you for the last 24 hours? Investigation to integrate the musician and sound directly into the performance. Dance artists are intergenerational and have different backgrounds in movement.
CO-CREATORS
Choreography: Laura Rodriguez (LROD) + Artists
Musician + Performer: Nico Tower
Dance Artists: Christopher Engelbrecht, Adriana Hernandez, Arlene Martin, Sarah Oakley, Chris Rapinchuk, Julia Sloane, Sonam Tshedzom Tingkhye
Lighting Design: Nico Tower
Video: Matthew Witschonke
©LROD2016