Daria Kaufman
Interdisciplinary Performer/Choreographer (USA)
Below are selected excerpts from Daria's work. Click the image to watch video.
Phi (2016)
Performed at UferStudios, Berlin, DE
Co-created by Daria Kaufman and StratoFyzika
Choreographed and performed by Daria Kaufman and Hen Lovely Bird
Visual/lighting design by Alessandra Leone | Sound design by Lenka Kocisova
Phi is inspired by the slowly changing, repetitive structures of minimalist music, and their incremental alteration of perception. In constant duet, two dancers phase in and out of unison with slight variations in timing while a lighting installation continually wavers between light and shadow, and a spatial sound pool emits shifting, electronic soundscapes. As in StratoFyzika's previous works, Phi creates an atmosphere where image, sound, and movement are continually interwoven into a striking, cross-sensory experience, redefining the architecture of the body and space.
Residency support: Cultivamos Cultura (Sao Luis, PT), LakeStudios DanceTech AIR, sponsored by TroikaTronix (Berlin, DE). Photo edit by Alessandra Leone.
Holding it Together (2016)
Premiere: Atelier Concorde, Lisbon
Co-created by Daria Kaufman, Francisco Pinheiro (visual artist), and Sezen Tonguz (choreographer/performer)
Holding it together is a performance installation that investigates the way bodies interact with objects, how they deconstruct and re-contextualize each other. Often bound to the constraint of holding an object suspended, two perfomers move through a series of task-based duets that challenge their level of intimacy and trust. The piece unfolds amidst an installation of roughly 100 ceiling-length wooden planks, which stand vertically and change formation throughout the piece, compelling the audience to move and negotiate its own relationship to physical boundaries, in tandem with the performers. The result is a highly immersive, intimate performance that challenges the divide between viewer, performer, and spectacle.
Supported by: GDA Foundation, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, European Cultural Foundation STEP Beyond Travel Grant. Residencies and studio support: Devir-Capa, Atelier Concorde, Çatı Dans, Polo Cultural Gaivotas. Photo still by Sofia Marques Ferreira.
Undercurrents (2015)
Premiere: Escola Superior de Dança, Lisbon
Choreographed by Daria Kaufman in collaboration with the performers
Performed by the 1st year students of the school
Music: "Dancer on a Tightrope," composed by Sofia Gubaidulena, performed by Katha Zinn and Illya Filshtinskiy
Set to the moody, improvisatory music of Sofia Gubaidulena, "Undercurrents" explores a range of fiery tones inspired by the internal struggle for clarity - the fight to find one's own voice among a storm of influences, assumptions, and desires that can often contradict each other.
Photo by Carolina Colaço Pereira.
Restless Myth (2014)
Premiere: Joe Goode Annex, San Francisco
Choreographed and performed by Daria Kaufman
Music: "all moments stop here and together we become every memory that has ever been," composed by Ken Ueno (www.kenueno.com)
Along with Product, Restless Myth is part of a series of solo portraits exploring femininity, sexuality, and representation. It is deeply inspired by the music - a brassy, jarring, polyphonic score that refuses to settle. A physical persona emerges from this sonic backdrop - someone not easily contented, filled with angst and non-sequiturs.
Supported by Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, and a successful Kickstarter campaign. Photo by Katherine McKinley.
In her tower (2014)
Premiere: Joe Goode Annex, San Francisco
Choreographed by Daria Kaufman, in collaboration with the dancers
Performed by: Bianca Brzezinski, Rebecca Chun, and Aura Fischbeck
Music: Zbigniew Preisner, Philip Jeck, Luciano Berio (interpreted by Cathy Berberian), and Roy Orbison
Kaufman views this piece as a psychological journey through her own female fictions and truths, through angst, tenderness, glamour and hysteria, desire and power. These are the demons and angels that she tussles with, all for some absent witness, some silent judge. She sees no end in sight, but relishes the game.
Supported by Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, and a successful Kickstarter campaign. Photo by Katherine McKinley.
Product (2013)
Premiere: Mills College Dance Alumni Concert, Oakland
Choreographed, written, and performed by Daria Kaufman
Initially inspired by the Japanese contemporary art movement "Superflat" and its critique of hollow cuteness, Product takes an unflinching look at women in the marketplace and the roles they are compelled to play. It depicts a saleswoman giving an instructional session on how to sell an object, the identity of which is never revealed. With words and movement, this anonymous vendor's pitch swells as she ultimately comes undone by the need to sell.
Habitat (2013)
Premiere: Foundry Nights X, Berkeley
Choreographed by Daria Kaufman, in collaboration with the dancers
Performed by: Bianca Brzezinski, Rebecca Chun, Brittany Delaney, Aura Fischbeck, and Karla Quintero
Music: Luciano Berio (interpreted by Cathy Berberian), Roy Orbison, and Daria Kaufman
Habitat is a site-specific dance theater work that unfolds amidst the labyrinthine, industrial architecture of The Foundry - a former factory turned interdisciplinary artspace. Juxtaposing alternative domains and skewed realities where relationships are forged and broken, movement ripples across time and space as multiple environments unfold, overlap, and collide.
Supported by the Foundry and a successful Kickstarter campaign.
ARTI ULATE (2012)
Premiere: NOHspace, Sound is the Movement Series, San Francisco
Created and performed by Bianca Brzezinski and Daria Kaufman, in collaboration with musician Richard Warp
ARTI ULATE approaches sound and movement as communication – its deconstruction and (re)formation. Interwoven through the piece is Kaufman's true account of trying to explain to a recorder the experience of having a seizure. Taking sound and movement cues from the audience, each other, and a pre-recorded score, the three artists perform a dialogue wrought with misinterpretation, interruption, and occasionally, understanding.
Supported by the Zellerbach Family Foundation and a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Forge (dance for camera, 2013)
Created, shot, and edited by Daria Kaufman
Performed by Lynn Huang and Melissa Kennedy
Choreographed by Erin Malley, in collaboration with the dancers
"Forge" is a short dance film that follows two sisters through an abandoned factory on a sunny day. In lieu of a traditional narrative, the film invokes a distinct atmosphere of listlessness and tension. Time becomes elliptical against a sonic backdrop of found objects and engines.
Screenings: The Roxie Theater, San Francisco; Joe Goode Annex, San Francisco; The Milkbar, Oakland; Official Selection, San Francisco Tiny Dance Film Festival; KILL ALL Festivals, Portland (OR); Temescal Arts Center, Oakland.
Supported by the Milkbar Projects Room Residency.
Atavistic Matter (dance for camera, 2013)
Collaboration with Berlin-based interdisciplinary performance collective, StratoFyzika
Choreography and dance by Hen Lovely Bird and Daria Kaufman
Music: Akkamiau
Camera: Alessandra Leone and Akkamiau
Editing: Alessandra Leone
Screenings:
Boddinale Film Festival, Berlin (DE)
Rose Transformation Salon, Berlin (DE)
KINO Moviemento, shortCUTS, Berlin (DE)
Shooting Wall Film Festival at PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia (USA)