Art on the Grounds 2015: Performance in the Park

On July 24th 2015, we held a large-scale performance festival on the Montalvo grounds, Performance in the Park, featuring site-specific performances by Lucas Artist Fellows. This event is documented in a short video by local filmmakers Pierce Leggin and Alexis Constanza. The festival was organized in association with a year-long celebration of the 75/10 anniversary of the Lucas Artists Residency Program.

Joanna Haigood and members of Zaccho Dance Theatre transformed the Italianate Garden with the haunting site-specific performance, The Visitors. Nikki Borodi, Glenn Easley, and Nehara Kalev soared high above us in the trees in new dance and sound performance, Whisper Before Last. Lauren Baines inhabited the Edible Dress Tent, a sculpture created for Montalvo’s grounds by artists Robin Lasser and Adrienne Pao in 2012, with Baines’s new performance, Gather. The historic villa was brought to life by Motoko Honda’s exquisite piano performance in the Main Hall. Real Vocal String Quartet, trumpeter Kris Tiner, and hip-hop artist Dahlak brought everyone to their feet at the Main Stage on the Great Lawn. Pamela Z created a riveting new electronic work, Sonic Pool, specifically for Montalvo’s Oval Garden. NAKA Dance Theater co-directors Debby Kajiyama and José Navarrete, along with multi-instrumentalist Adria Otte, restaged an excerpt from their acclaimed performance work, Bailout, on the Great Lawn. Audience members produced their own micro-performances inspired by short scores provide by Lucas Artist Fellows. And as darkness fell, an enormous 1940s spotlight illuminated the skies as part of Japanese-born and LA-based artist Hirokazu Kosaka‘s breathtaking performance, Kalpa, featuring Butoh master dancer Oguri and acclaimed harmonica player Tetsuya Nakamura.