Tov (good)
For where we come from
there is no division into Yes and No,
into is, was, and will be.
-- Czeslaw Milosz
by Rosanna Gamson
with Timur Bekbosunov, Rachel Butler-Green, Eric Esparza, Suna Lavinia Findikoglu, Delilah Gamson Levy, Michael Gomez, Sarah Goodrich, Tomasz Krzyzanowski, Li-Ann Lim, Lilia Lopez, Edgar Miramontes, Carin Noland, Paul Outlaw, Tamara Pullman, Tomasz Rodowicz, Elina Toneva, and Alexandria Yalj
Lights and set by Christopher Kuhl
As part of the Sharon Disney Lund Dance Series, REDCAT presents the world premiere of Rosanna Gamson/World Wide's Tov . Choreographed and directed by Los Angeles-based artist Rosanna Gamson, Tov features a vocal score created by acclaimed Polish theater group Stowarzyszenie Teatralne CHOREA (CHOREA Theatre Association) and sets and lights designed by Christopher Kuhl. Developed in the US and Poland with artists from both countries, Tov is premieres with a bi-national cast at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater Thursday, March 18, 2010 through Saturday, March 27, 2010.
Deftly weaving together intense physical movement, spoken word, vocal music, and the "theater laboratory" ensemble techniques originated by Jerzy Grotowski, Rosanna Gamson stages a profusely evocative dance drama around the story of the tarpan--an extinct species of Eurasian wild horse that was genetically "reassembled" in the 1930s through back-breeding of domestic horses. The Los Angeles choreographer braids this allegory of regeneration with reflections on the history of her own Polish-Jewish ancestors, horse traders from Szczecin, and the fate of Polish Jewry. Tov takes its title from "Gamzu l'tovah" ("This too is for the good"), a favorite saying of one of Gamson's forebears, Talmudic scholar Nachum ish Gamzu, who found God's hand even in tragedy. The full-evening work features a cast of fourteen American and three Polish performers, with text spoken and sung in Hebrew, Polish, English, Yiddish, Bulgarian and German.
After watching a work-in-progress showing of Tov during REDCAT's 2008 New Original Work Festival (NOW), Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed proclaimmed, "...The choreography and music are gripping, the company is impressive and the uses of mixed-media are meaningful. Tov is too good for 24 minutes. An evening is called for." REDCAT agreed and partnered with the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing and Media Arts and NPN to co-commission a full-length version .
Since the showing in 2008, Gamson expanded upon the original work, and established a collaboration with CHOREA Theatre Association, based in Lodz, Poland, which brought the theater company to the United States for the first time. As part of a three-week development residency, on January 9, 2010, Rosanna Gamson/World Wide and REDCAT invited the public to the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater for a free presentation, demonstrating CHOREA's ensemble training techniques and virtuosic singing, and previewing some of the source material for Tov. CHOREA's Artistic Director, Tomasz Rodowicz, and two performers from the company return to the United States to perform in Tov.
For additional information about the performance at REDCAT, images, media and interviews, please contact Diana Wyenn at 213-237-2873 or dwyenn@calarts.edu.
Read review of Tov in progress