THE ALCHEMIST'S VEIL : Excursion

The New York Times on Maureen Fleming

and present

WHAT

: Excursion

A new, sensual re-imagining of Maureen Fleming Company's The Alchemist's Veil , involving RT scenic transport from NYC for a 2-day Excursion into the spellbinding raw beauty of Upstate, NY, bearing witness to this "breathtaking" creation in the rustic oasis the work was created in.

The Alchemist Veil : Excursion performance is followed by a shared home cooked dinner and BB overnight stay at Pumpkin Hollow Arts Center and an AM (optional) Fleming Elastxx class, a peek into Fleming's daily training, before returning to NYC.

WHEN

THE ALCHEMIST'S VEIL: Excursion runs August 2nd – August 17th, Saturdays at 8:30pm.

Saturday-Sunday August 2-3 , 9-10 & 16-17 at in Upstate, NY

WHERE

Pumpkin Hollow Arts Center

This 2-day bird's eye excursion takes place in the landscape that birthed The Alchemist's Veil, in "The Shanty" a rustic barn in Upstate, NY, on the fertile grounds of the remote Pumpkin Hollow Arts Center, a hidden oasis for creativity.

: Excursion

Guggenheim dance artist Maureen Fleming combines surreal movement poetry and mesmerizing visuals inspired by the paintings of American artist Georgia O’Keeffe in a sensual journey crystallizing mystical femininity across generations.

Moving beyond beauty to provide an ultimately redemptive response to suffering, the capacity for endurance and healing, for self-creation and self-destruction, The Alchemist’s Veil is a glorious assertion of femininity. Featuring brilliant lighting and geometric moving sculptures by Christopher Odo and a sound design by Brett Jarvis with violinist Tim Fain on film and hypnotic piano by Bruce Brubaker performing music by Brian Eno and Philip Glass.

THE ALCHEMIST'S VEIL: Excursion runs August 2nd – August 17th, Saturdays at 8:30pm can be experienced as a performance only event OR as an EXCURSION Performance (limited to 6 ticket holders per EXCURSION performance). The EXCURSION includes round trip transportation from NYC (departing NYC on Saturdays at 2pm) to Pumpkin Hollow, home cooked dinner, BB-styled housing accommodations with a private room on the property, and an optional introductory workshop in on Sunday morning before returning to NYC. Tickets are $25 for Performance Only and $270 for EXCURSION, available here.

is renowned for her original form of visual theater realized through choreography for photography, video, and live performance. Fleming connects cultures and art forms in an interdisciplinary celebration of femininity and the universality of the soul’s journey. A 2021 Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Scholar to Ireland, South Korea, Colombia and Latvia, her solo and group works have toured spanning five continents including the Spoleto Festival in Italy, FILO Festival Brazil, Performing America’s Tour Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay, the O’Shaughnessy Women of Substance Series in St. Paul, Jacob’s Pillow Festival, Emerson Majestic and Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and La MaMa, Irish Arts Center, and NY City Center Fall for Dance Festival in NYC.

Born in Japan to American parents, the effects of a severe accident when Fleming was two years old have influenced her approach to movement. The accident left a bone spur and the loss of the disc between her 4th and 5th vertebrae, a condition that would confine most people to a wheelchair. Her distinctive slow-motion style of twisting the body into extreme positions, where the blood builds up and stops, and then slowly untwisting so the blood flows more quickly, creates a kind of cleansing. With a strong belief in the body’s regenerative powers, Fleming explores the evolution of her wounds. Her choreography emphasizes aligning the body’s spiritual center while using the female body as a symbol for the earth’s cycles of regeneration. She brings the discipline of a classicist and the imagination of an iconoclast to her unique style of movement inspired by her studies with Kazuo Ohno, the co-founder of butô. Fleming went on to perform with his son, Yoshito Ohno, and to tour internationally with performance artist and choreographer Min Tanaka. Fleming continued her training in the US under the Cecchetti master Margaret Craske. Since 1994, she has conducted workshops including the Juilliard School, N.Y.U. Tisch School of the Arts, Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Seoul Institute of the Arts.

“She seemed to transcend the material world and enter the realm of pure spirit...wondrous choreographic metamorphosis.” The New York Times

“She is neither Eastern nor Western, belonging neither to butō nor ballet. She is herself, sui generis, made of many diverse elements into one of a kind.”

The Dance Enthusiast

has worked as a designer and performer with Maureen Fleming Company in the USA, Asia, Europe and South America. Designs and performances include New York’s City Center Fall for Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Festival and festivals in Italy, Mexico, Iceland, France, Germany, Russia, and at La MaMa E.T.C., Cleveland Museum, Virginia Museum, Emerson Majestic Theater and Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston among others. Before joining Maureen Fleming Company he performed with butô artist Min Tanaka in Delphi, danced with Solaris/Lakota, a cross-cultural project with Native American artists in the USA, Africa, France and Sweden. He performed Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Public Theater and Lincoln Center Institute and danced in the original Tony award production, M. Butterfly.

(pianist) In live performances from the Hollywood Bowl to Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, from Paris to Hong Kong, and in continuing recordings for ECM, Arabesque, and Bedroom Community, Bruce Brubaker is a visionary virtuoso, an artistic provocateur — the new musician. He performs Mozart with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Philip Glass throughout the world. Profiled on NBC’s Today show, Brubaker was presented by New York’s Carnegie Hall, at Michigan’s Gilmore International Festival, and Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Arts. His collaborations include projects with Ruth Maleczech, Meredith Monk, and Nico Muhly. Brubaker is a frequent performer at New York City’s Poisson Rouge. His blog “PianoMorphosis” appears at ArtsJournal.com. Pulitzer-Prize- winning Washington Post critic Tim Page has said: “I wouldn’t trade Pollini, Argerich, Richard Goode, Peter Serkin or Bruce Brubaker (to mention a terrific younger artist) for any handful of Horowitzes!” Brubaker has appeared at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, at the Tanglewood Festival, at Finland’s Kuhmo Festival, at Wigmore Hall, and Chicago’s Harris Theater. New recording projects include Meredith Monk’s complete piano music (with Ursula Oppens), a recording of music by Glass (for the French label InFiné ), and a recording of Nico Muhly’s “Drones” for Iceland’s Bedroom Community label. Brubaker has premiered music by Philip Glass, John Cage, Nico Muhly, Alvin Curran, and Mark-Anthony Turnage. Brubaker studied at the Juilliard School in New York. A longtime Juilliard faculty member, he originated a series of interdisciplinary performance projects that brought together actors, dancers, and musicians at the school; appeared in public conversations with Philip Glass, Milton Babbitt, and Meredith Monk; and is featured in the documentary film about Juilliard made for the PBS American Masters Series. Brubaker’s articles about music have appeared in several magazines as well as The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Brubaker now chairs the piano department at New England Conser! vatory in Boston. Last fall InFiné released Brubaker’s 12th studio album Eno Piano, including a selection of Brian Eno’s iconic ambient music, including Music for Airports.

(violinist) Whether appearing as soloist with the Pittsburgh and Baltimore Symphonies, Hague Philharmonic, and National Orchestra of Spain; performing on film soundtracks Moonlight, 12 Years a Slave, and Black Swan; composing for a wide array of film, concert music, and extended media projects; giving recitals for the Vatican, Dalai Lama, or at the Ravinia Festival; or collaborating with Google on a VR video for his composition Resonance shown at the Sundance Film Festival, violinist and composer Tim Fain has one of the most wildly diverse careers in the music industry. His adventuresome spirit, vast musical gifts, and dazzling versatility has him performing repertoire from Mozart to Muhly. Collaborations include Philip Glass (duo tours), Pinchas Zukerman, the NYC Ballet, Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty), Bryce Dessner, and multi-media evening "Portals" premiering to sold-out houses featuring Benjamin Millepied, Leonard Cohen, Nicholas Britell, radio personality Fred Child, and a work written for him by Glass.

Please note: the performance features nudity and may be inappropriate for anyone 16 or younger.

Host or Publisher Maureen Fleming Company