VIDEOS
Artists' Statement
Naked With Shoes, a duo company founded by long time Rudy Perez veterans Anne and Jeff Grimaldo present “Common Side Effects,” with guest musicians Mrs. Hobbs and Quentin Josephy. Taking place in a living room setting, like any living room existing in any city or state, the family unit assumes multiple configurations and relationships, both visually and viscerally. The noted cabaret artist, Mrs. Hobbs, performs on her accordion, and in her hands, it becomes a virtual fifth member of this non-traditional family unit, while Quentin Josephy’s percussion drives the rhythm onward. Anne and Jeff hurl themselves against walls and into furniture in an attempt to escape and survive this volatile landscape. Habitual, ritualistic, everyday activities become sharp, regimented actions, close-order drills – sometimes propulsive, sometimes soft, always compelling. This bipolar ensemble plays with time and distorts space, creating a dreamlike and surreal private world. This tenderly dysfunctional group creates a miasma of physical and sonic theatre.
Press Reviews
QUATTROFORMAGGIO PRESS SHEET (pdf) Photos and text of articles from LA Times Calendar, LA Weekly, Flavorpill, and The Argonaut, Dec. 2007
QUATTROFORMAGGIO: This program of interdisciplinary movement-and-music pieces has a slight scent of inscrutable modern dance about it. Despite phrases like "the presence and absence of love" and "surreal private world" being bandied about, the solo and ensemble performers — as well as guest dancers and musicians like post-pop cabaret squeeze-box diva Mrs. Hobbs — are far more sultry and subversive than you might think. Working with intense physicality, dreamlike distortions of space and time, and collective metaphors for intimate psychological conditions, each of their "four cheeses" offers its own sweet and pungent pleasure.
-- Flavorpill (Shana Nys Dambrot, Dec. 2007)
RECIPE FOR SUCCESS: Like its namesake Italian pasta and pizza dishes that layer four cheeses into an entity that respects the value of each component but strives for an exponential result greater than the arithmetic total, the secret to success rests in the quality of the individual ingredients. In the case of this aptly named dance concert, the four dancer/choreographers have distinguished themselves as part of the highly respected Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble as well as in their own right.Anne and Jeff Grimaldo are also known under the arresting moniker Naked With Shoes; here they offer Common Side Effects, with guest musicians Mrs. Hobbs and Quentin Joseph. Stefan Fabry is known for his improvisational explorations, this time it’s 1% Rot, with guest dancer/visual artist Yicun Sun. Today’s headlines provide grist for Vox Dance Theatre’s Sarah Swenson in her new solo, Pavane for an Iraqi Girl. Swenson also offers Civilization, with background text recorded by her grandfather. A bracing antidote in this season of sweets.
-- LA Weekly (Ann Haskins, Dec. 2007)
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