Michelle Smith- management assistant Performers: Elina Akhmetova, Denise Cecchi, Ilona Kannewurf, Diego Poupin, Mariana Taragano
mattmode (assistant soundesigner)
Chris Guy (saxophone)
Dan Robinson (percussion)
Photography: Keira Cullinane
About Nyctolopic
Nyctolopic is an independent dance theatre company based in London. It is the creative vehicle of dancer and choreographer Ana Marambio. C
ombining the vocabularies of contemporary dance and physical theatre, Nyctolopic works with social and political themes. Its pieces aim for narratives that create complicity between performers and spectators. Movements and phrases become pieces of a puzzle that, when put together, build the narrative structure of the piece. About Ana Marambio
Ana Marambio is a dancer and choreographer from Chile, where she trained Leeder technique at the U.A.H.C/Centro Danza Espiral. In 2004, she moved to New York, where she pursued independent research into different movement techniques. Ana was a company member of Dancescores by Ofelia Loret de Mola, and collaborated with a range of choreographers for various projects in New York City. Ana has performed her own choreography in New Steps at the Mulberry Theater, WaxWorks, and UnderExposed at Dixon Place in New York City. She is now based in London, where she is continuing her choreography and dance work independently under the name of Nyctolopic. She has completed postgraduate studies in physical theatre at Royal Holloway-University of London. In 2011, she was the movement advisor for the Chilean-Out Theatre Company's production of Weak Edward at the Rose Bankside Theatre and the Brighton Fringe. In June 2011, her newest solo piece "Deported" was performed for the 50th anniversary celebrations of Amnesty International in London. Ana is also a certified Yoga teacher, trained at YogaWorks, New York, and a member of the Independent Yoga Network and the Registry of Exercise Professionals. David Holyoake: Composer, concept and script co-author-
David is a young Australian/British composer who moved to London in 2010. He holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne. In 2006 David was selected for representation as an Associate Composer of the Australian Music Centre – whose catalogue includes some of his scores and recordings of contemporary classical works for sale (http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/holyoake-david). David has written original music for theatre in a variety of styles. At the CRUNCH theatre festival in Melbourne, he directed and composed music for a variety of shows, including miniature dance work lamentations, choreographed by Gerard Van Dyke of Kage Physical Theatre. David’s music for the concert hall has been performed at venues such as the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. In addition to music David has also experience in directing theatre works and studied script writing at university. In 2006, he won second prize for piano composition at the Keys Australian Music Competition. In 2009, he received an arts development grant from Arts Victoria, Australia, to create and record six new short acoustic works. Martin Sandbu: Concept and script co-author -
Martin is a scholar and journalist currently working as the Economics Leader Writer of the Financial Times. Originally from Norway, he lived in France and the United States before he came to London in 2009. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University and previously worked at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. He has done academic research in economic ethics and underdevelopment, published in leading academic journals, and written Just Business, a book on moral philosophy and business. In his present role, he writes daily commentary pieces for the Financial Times editorial column on the economic and socio-political aspects of the current crisis. Associate artist:
Diego Poupin – actor and director -
Diego is a Chilean-born actor, director, and drama teacher. He is the director of Weak Edward, a modern adaptation of Marlow’s Edward II which in April 2011 enjoyed a well-reviewed three-week run at the Rose Theatre in London’s Borough of Southwark. Nyctolopic is currently collaborating with Australian composer David Holyoake on The City Will Crumble, a vision of the psychological and social dislocation of the mega-city in 2011. A mini-showcase will present an excerpt of the work at The Courtyard at 7.30pm on Tuesday 4 October. The project is a full-length dance-theatre piece that reincarnates a previous aesthetic reaction to a great socio-economic shock: film noir as a reflection of the Great Depression and its aftermath. We live in times with strong parallels to that earlier era Ð most obviously a devastating economic crash. There is more: then and now, breathtaking technological changes seem to offer great opportunities but at the same wears down honest human relations. Then and now, seeming prosperity masks continuing relations of power and the sharpening vulnerability of those at the bottom. Then and now, faith in progress gives way to powerlessness in the face of a social system whose efficiency depends on making each individual replaceable, insignificant, and, therefore, disposable. Our work adapts in original stage movement and music the aesthetic, psychological and narrative elements of film noir to tell the story of our own dark city in 2011. Described as Ôthe aesthetics of anxiety, film noir captured the social and psychological dislocations of its time by visual techniques such as disorienting camera frames, gigantic shadows, and diagonal-upwards chiaroscuro lighting techniques. Conceptually, a key characteristic was the submission of individuality to seriality the replication of individuals seen as mere instances of a collective. Seriality no longer emerges from mass production but from the infinite replicability of digitised virtual identities. The slipping, vanishing, and corruption of oneÕs self against these social trends embodied by the city itself is what this genre expressed and what we express in our piece.
