Yea, I did some investigative work yesterday. It's hard to find pics of her sister. I hear she had a sister.
This article is about a dance production that both Morleigh & Roxanne were in back in 2006.
At its heart, a dark tale old and familiar
First there is the face: Astonishing in its many guises, this is a visage simultaneously old and young, ecstatic and empty; one where a surprised look becomes a world of wisdom living within a sly, sweet smile. This is the face of Oguri, butoh master and L.A. jewel. That his body is also a pristine, pliant work of art makes an Oguri performance a profound journey unlike any other.
And so it was Saturday at Venice's Electric Lodge, when the dancer presented "Caddy! Caddy! Caddy!" Inspired by William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury," the 55-minute work was its own poetry, gushing with physical, emotional and spiritual depths.
Accompanied by Paul Chavez's deliriously original score (performed live), Oguri pierced the heart of Southern family darkness, and with it, our own. His latest dance troupe -- Honeysuckle (Jamie Burris, Morleigh Steinberg and Roxanne Steinberg) -- completed the remarkable, fractured picture.
Sprawled on a child's chair on a small wooden platform (think cozy front porch), Oguri, in white face and carrot top-like wig, wore baggy pants and a shirt. Unblinking, he moved only his head, so slowly as to be virtually imperceptible in the dim, amber light. A faint train whistle sounded; the head now cocked.
A million stories played out in these moments of near stillness before Burris, clad in a floral print dress, stealthily entered the narrow pool of water separated from the stage/porch by barbed wire. Clutching a calla lily, she began spinning.
Oguri responded with a silent, anguished scream, eventually contorting himself into and around the chair in what would become a prolonged, startling exit.
Roxanne Steinberg appeared in black pumps and dress, an enigmatic tableau moving her long, bony legs unnaturally. She was a 21st century hair-tossing Veruschka to Morleigh Steinberg's athletic mime, the latter arriving in a man's suit, straw boater and cowboy boots. Scattered piano sounds accompanied this squatting, bouncing, backward-walking dance, before Morleigh, wading into the water, stripped down to a slip, then straddled and snipped the wire.
Liberated, the women (three Graces, albeit ones swatting imaginary flies) frolicked in hide-and-seek mode, the music swelling to herald Oguri's reentry. Naked and wigless, he semi-reclined in the pool, smoothly slithering into Morleigh's shed suit.
Finally, upright and facing the audience, Oguri -- hat in one hand, book in the other -- was the mysterious stranger, a gentleman caller, that much-needed emissary beckoning from beyond.
Here's another article about Roxanne.
"Bodies of Light" at James Cohan Gallery
New York
Oct. 23 – Nov. 28
ideo-art pioneer
Bill Viola returns to
James Cohan Gallery with his fifth solo exhibition, "Bodies of Light." With the help of cutting-edge technology, Viola creates immersive works of art in which light reigns and time seemingly stands still. In the gallery’s main space, the viewer first encounters
Pneuma (1994), a projection of alternating images that envelop the room while white noise plays in the background; surrounded by the images, the viewer comes to interpret them as fleeting memories rather than as recordings of real places and events. Also on display are several works from the artist’s ongoing "Transfiguration" series, which he developed from his celebrated installation
Ocean Without a Shore (2007). Here, blurry figures captured in black and white slowly advance through space. As the figures come into focus, they briefly enter a world of color before returning to a colorless state, like spirits caught between life and death. Whether wrestling with the theme of birth or death or human consciousness, Viola continues to explore perception as an avenue to re-creating universal human experiences.
Bill Viola, "Incarnation" (2008). Color high-definition video on plasma display mounted on wall. Performers: Roxanne Steinberg and Oguri, 8:55 min.
Morleigh & Roxanne
Caddy! Caddy! Caddy!! William Faulkner Dance Project
Conceived and choreographed by Oguri
Set Design: Hirokazu Kosaka and Oguri
Soundscore: Paul Chavez
Costumes: Oguri and Roxanne Steinberg
Lighting: Tony Mulanix and Oguri
Dancers: Oguri, Morleigh Steinberg, Roxanne Steinberg, Jesske Hume, Eric Losoya.
Oguri, an internationally acclaimed dancer/choreographer and a resident of Southern California since 1990, conducts Body Weather Laboratory a forum for investigating the body and dance (founded by Min Tanaka in Japan, 1978). In Japan, he studied fine art with Genpei Akasegawa and dance with Tatsumi Hijikata before working extensively with Min Tanaka
farming, performing and presenting solo work in Tokyo.
Since moving to the USA, he has taught and performed worldwide. The 2005 documentary film
Height of Sky by director Morleigh Steinberg follows his 4-year project, an exploration of the California
deserts in search of a dance between the human body and the borderline. He is an artist-in-residence at the Electric Lodge in Venice, California.
Roxanne
Flower of the Season / Body Weather Laboratory
Dance
Jesske Hume, Heather Ehlers
Rosemary Candelario, Eric Losoya
Meyu Kobayashi, Kim Nakakura
Heyward Bracey, A.Dola Baroni
Ariadna Rodriguez Cima, Joyce Lu
Music and Sound Design
Brian Saitzyk, Robert Scott, Joe Berardi, M.Deragon,
Javier Abad, Jesske Hume and Ariadna Rodriguez Cima
Lighting and Staging
Flower of the Season
Flower arrangement by Oguri and Roxanne
Flower of the Season is the extension of the Earthbeat series Oguri and Steinberg began ten years ago to foster collaborations between visual artists, musicians, writers and dancers. Together, with the work of percussionist Adam Rudolph, sculptor Stephan Glassman, artist Hirokazu Kosaka, musicians Wadada Leo Smith, G.E. Stinson and Nels Cline, Robert Scott, Arnie Saiki, Myra Melford and Alex Cline and dancers Roxanne Steinberg, Melinda Ring, Mia Doi Todd and Jamie Burris, Sherwood Chen, Boaz Barkan, Claudia Lopez, Lillian Barbeito, Benjamin Jarrett, Eric Losoya, Jesske Hume, Magali Gajan, Heyward Bracey, Asher Woodworth and Oguri has continually explored boundaries between audience and stage, creating fresh contexts for the presentation of art and performance.
In its fourth year, the series continues to evolve as a platform for the development of new and important dance explorations by a variety of local and international artists. Yearly these dancers are chosen to train together at Body Weather Laboratory, developing individual interpretations of a common vision. Flower of the Season has indeed become a pilgrimage - drawing dancers, choreographers and musicians to a seasonal offering of blossoming creativity.
Dance and performance are temporal arts that exist in the present just as the splendor of the flower is fleeting. A flower seeks the light, growing and developing accordingly. It finds the right time and right place to blossom. It shares its beauty as a function of its being, not an arbitrary choice. These performances will be the unique expression and seasonal response of each solo dancer.
Artistic Direction: Roxanne Steinberg and Oguri
House Manager: Natsuko Satomura
Video documentation: Javier Abad and Moshe Hacmon
Box Office: J. Todd
Special Thanks: Joel Shapiro, Lizl Pace, Alberto Hernaudez Lenny and Bob Steinberg,
This performances is supported in part by City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affair, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission OGP-1 program and The Electric Lodge.
Body Weather Laboratory Training Workshop at Electric Lodge:
Wednesday 10:00 am ~ 1:00 pm |Sunday 12:30 pm ~ 3:30 pm