Choreographer, Dancer, and Performing Artist, Ryan Heffington and his collaborators confirmed for first Engagement Party Series
Kickoff Event…AND NOW WE ALL DANCE! An interactive dance experience
Thursday, October 7, 2010, 7–10pm
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
152 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
For their three-month residency at MOCA, HEFFINGTON MOVES MOCA will present the following projects, each of which is produced by Kristin Campbell-Taylor. All events are FREE to the public and no reservations are required.
…AND NOW WE ALL DANCE!
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 7–10pm
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
For their first Engagement Party event, HEFFINGTON MOVES MOCA will present …AND NOW WE ALL DANCE!, an all-encompassing dance environment that will offer open classes as well as feature performances and video collaborations. The work will literally move the audience, who will be invited to participate in free-style dancing as well as choreographed routines.
GET YOUR LEAD OUT
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 7–10pm
MOCA Grand Avenue
For their second Engagement Party event, HEFFINGTON MOVES MOCA will invite museum-goers to interpret staged dance tableaux through the act of drawing. Groups of dancers, positioned throughout the museum’s outdoor spaces, will perform in front of large-scale fixed projections created especially for this performance, comprising a series of (almost) still-life installations. Putting pencil to paper, participants will traverse media, translating the three-dimensional art form of dance into a two-dimensional drawing.
HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT: THE MUSICAL
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 7–10pm
MOCA Grand Avenue
HEFFINGTON MOVES MOCA’s final project for Engagement Party will be the punk-rock dance event HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT: THE MUSICAL, a wild collage of performances inspired by the strong hold that MTV had on adolescents living in small-town America during the years it first debuted. Inspired by the 1986 documentary of the same name chronicling the tailgating antics of heavy-metal fans, HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT will pay homage to the MTV that gave hope to a generation by offering it an escape from the banality of everyday life and the embrace of a collective identity through music.
RYAN HEFFINGTON
Ryan Heffington is a dancer, choreographer, and all-around creative force who has lived in Los Angeles since 1991. Primarily self-taught, Heffington has worked collaboratively with others dancers, artists, musicians, designers, and DJs to stage performance events at venues including the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the UCLA Hammer Museum, and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. Passionate about dance, he has also helped to organize monthly events around the city, including Sock-It, Fingered, and Full Frontal Disco, that incorporate dance classes; he is also the founder of The Sweat Spot, a dance studio featuring the now-famous Sweaty Sundays—Dance Class for Everyone, “an open-level dance class where people of all shapes, sizes, and ages come to sweat while exercising their minds and physical beings in the form of dance.” Heffington is artistic co-director of the critically acclaimed Hysterica Dance Company, a cutting-edge ensemble based in Los Angeles, and a member of the music/dance collective WE ARE THE WORLD, which has toured throughout North America and Europe.
Engagement Party
MOCA’s Engagement Party presents new artworks in the form of dynamic social events and performances by LA–based artist collectives. Engagement Party is made possible by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation.
Parking for The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
Parking is available in surrounding lots.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Lyn Winter
Tel 213/633-5390
lwinter@moca.org
Jessica Youn
Tel 213/633-5322
jyoun@moca.org
