KOOL ­ DANCING IN MY MIND, ROBERT WILSON¹S TRIBUTE TO SUZUSHI HANAYAGI

[Marlon Barrios Solano]

AUGUST 08 - AUGUST 09
GUILD HALL TO PRESENT KOOL ­ DANCING IN MY MIND,
ROBERT WILSON¹S TRIBUTE TO SUZUSHI HANAYAGI

Collaboration Developed at Watermill Center
by Wilson and Choreographer Carla Blank
http://www.guildhall.org/calendar.ihtml?id=1087

KOOL is indeed a cool experience
-Linda Yablonsky, Artforum

Austerely beautiful and poetic.
-Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice

A fascinating tribute
-Susan Yung, Thirteen

East Hampton¹s Guild Hall is pleased to present KOOL ­ Dancing in My Mind, a
collaboration between artist Robert Wilson and choreographer Carla Blank
that honors the legacy of dance icon Suzushi Hanayagi. The
performance-portrait will be performed at Guild Hall on Friday, August 8 and
Saturday, August 9 at 8 P.M, and will feature an introductory talk by Wilson
and Alexandra Munroe, Ph.D., Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum. On August 9, Guild Hall will also host a $250 Private
Post-Show Garden Reception with cast and front orchestra seating.

KOOL is a tribute to Hanayagi¹s place in art history, featuring live dance
performances that include excerpts from over thirty collaborations by
Hanayagi with Blank and Wilson, as well as new dances performed by Jonah
Bokaer, Illenk Gentile and others. KOOL also features archival and newly
filmed material by Richard Rutkowski. Wilson¹s performance portrait, a
poetic monument to a working friendship, comes at a time when Hanayagi is
suffering from Alzheimer¹s. As part of the commission, Wilson visited Osaka,
Japan, where Hanayagi lives in a special care facility and is almost
incapable of moving or communicating. Wilson discovered that by encouraging
her to make small gestures and dance movements she has made thousands of
times in the past, she seemed to discover fractions of memories and the joy
connected with these memories returned to her face.

KOOL was co-produced and co-commissioned by Works & Process at the
Guggenheim Museum, Guild Hall, East Hampton and the Byrd Hoffman Watermill
Foundation with support from the Jerome Robbins Foundation and with
additional support from Molly Davies. It was first presented at the
Guggenheim¹s Peter B. Lewis Theater in April 2009 as a part of the Works &
Process series, in conjunction with the museum¹s presentation of The Third
Mind: American Arts Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989.

Through this Guild Hall performance, KOOL is both revisited and revised. A
26-minute documentary film, also titled KOOL, will soon be released in
Europe. Directed by by Robert Wilson and Richard Rutkowski the film was
produced by Jorn Weisbrodt, Rutkowski and Hisami Kuroiwa, and executive
produced by Sylvia (INA) and ARTE.

Robert Wilson first worked with Suzushi Hanayagi in his 1984 production of
The Knee Plays, which was partially developed in Japan. Wilson and Carla
Blank have collaborated on over 15 productions‹more than any of his other
close collaborators. Their work together includes the CIVIL WarS, a tree is
best measured when it is down; King Lear; Gluck¹s Alceste; Gertrude Stein¹s
Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights, The Forest, Debussy¹s Le Martyre de Saint
Sebastien and Madame Butterfly.