tiny + rage = love

Another blog for Centrum:

tiny + rage = love

From Ten Tiny Dances, performed in Seattle, September 2007. Choreographed and performed by Amy O'Neal, Music by Zeke Keeble.

On a tiny stage in the round Amy O'Neal is my current favorite time-based kinetic sculpture. A stretch perhaps, but it won't be the last time you catch me showing disregard for the boundaries which are rumored to separate performing and visual art. As part of One Tiny Dance, this piece was originally performed in the lobby of Pacific Northwest Ballet during their Celebrate Seattle Festival. Amy says, "At that time it was untitled with a slightly more playful energy. There were a lot of kids around me dancing with me while I was performing--it was so great!" The piece took on a new vibe and gained a title at Ten Tiny Dances, "It became about owning my anger and channeling it positively, to move forward . . . . embracing my history as a woman and as a dancer."

Amy O'Neal, photo by Gabriel Bienczycki

From Locust website: Amy O'Neal is a performer, choreographer, teacher and the co-director (along with Zeke Keeble)of locust (music/dance/video company) based in Seattle. Amy teaches contemporary dance technique and funk regularly at Velocity Dance Center and has taught and/or conducted residencies at the University of Washington, University of Idaho, University of Oregon, Lane Community College (Eugene, OR), Northwest Vista College (San Antonio, TX), and Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle, WA). Her work has been commissioned by Spectrum Dance Theater, Moving Current in Tampa, FL, and Seattle Theatre Group's Dance This . . . where she collaborated with Sonia Dawkins and Savion Glover. As a performer, she worked with the Pat Graney Co. for 3 years, was a 6-year member of Scott/Powell Performance, was the lead singer of the Seattle band Marrow for 3 years, and performed in Mark Haim's acclaimed Goldberg Variations. Amy also frequently collaborates with musician/comedian, Reggie Watts. For locust, Amy has received funding from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, the international DanceWEB scholarship, the Mary Levine Fund, Artist Trust (Fellowship '05, GAP '04,'06), 4 Culture, the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation of the Arts, the National Performance Network, and the Creative Capital Foundation. Amy holds a BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts and will choreographed for Cornish Dance Theater in Spring 07. In 2007, she was also a guest lecturer at the University of Washington and will conducted a residency at Texas Women's University.

Locust is the dance/music/video performance brainchild of musician/composer Zeke Keeble and performer/choreographer Amy O'Neal. Since 2000, locust has created 5 evening-length works Leave me Inside (2001), Left-out (2002), DEFACE (2003), convenience (2005), and mockumentary (2006). They have toured to Jacob's Pillow (Becket, MA), The Myrna Loy (Helena, MT), PICA's TBA Festival (Portland, OR), and Joyce Soho (New York, NY). locust invites performers on a project to project basis and has worked with some of the most distinctive and talented performers in Seattle. locust has been described as the avante guard garage band of the Seattle dance scene.