DANCEQUICK TAKES

Spare 12 Minutes? A Favorite Short-Form Performance Fest Returns This Weekend.

New curators, new artists, new works. Those are the basic building blocks of the long-running series 12 Minutes Max. The latest installment is this Sunday and Monday. 

 

As the name suggests, each performer in 12 Minutes Max gets 12 minutes to show adventurous audiences snippets of works in progress, or very short works in full form. This installment features 10 artists with eight performances each show, curated by Mario Martinez and Kathy Moore. The series ran for decades at On the Boards (since 1985), before ceasing in 2014. It was resurrected at Base in 2017 and running continuously since then, with different local artist-curators.

Here are the performances you can expect this weekend, with artists in dance and music, and material drawn from personal experience to theoretical exploration.

Can’t get enough short-form dance this weekend? Also check out Solo: A Festival of Dance, co-curated with Dani Tirrell at On the Boards this weekend.

 

 

Performing both days 
Washington Dance Creative

Washington Dance Creative is a project-based company located in Vancouver, WA. Collaborating with local artists, WDC focuses on dance photography, short dance films, full length shows, and community events. All WDC performances include the usage of local live musicians and dancers.

Performing: “The Enigma of Love.” An intimate duet between two dancers expressing the need for love accompanied by solo vocalist and guitar.

 

Melissa Sanderson

Melissa Sanderson is a dance artist and educator who most recently developed solo material as a 10 Degrees Artist in Residence and performed with Jessica Jobaris and General Magic. She holds an MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University and teaches at Bellevue College, Rainier Dance Center, and beyond.

Performing: “Letting Go is an Acquired Taste.” Partially inspired by Meg Stuart’s research in emotional states, this solo work is a dive into vulnerability. It considers a pivotal time in the artist’s recent personal history as an object of study, and seeks to extract potent memories to generate a series of movement tasks, qualities, and other physicalized recollections.

 

Ben Gale-Schreck

Ben Gale-Schreck has been doing sound based performance collaboratively since 2012 as a member of the Flinching Eye Collective, and moved to Seattle in 2014 for grad school to explore personal practice.

Performing: “Balloonacentipede.” Demonstration of the connectivity of community through the creation of a feedback loop.

 

Sebastian Arredondo

Sebastian Arredondo is a third-year dance major attending Cornish College of the Arts, is originally from San Diego, and is pursuing a career in choreography.

Performing: “Ceremonia del Flor.” A solo dance based on the journey from birth to death from the perspective of a flower.

 

SkullKat

SkullKat is the two-headed art-making machine of Katherine Cohen and Angelina Baldoz.

Performing: “The Man.” As the musicians play, several performers join onstage lip syncing, dragging, dancing to, and fucking with the man.

 

Maia Malene Durfee

Maia Malene Durfee is a local freelance dancer and choreographer, who seeks to create and research movement that challenges the body and mind to genuinely display the sensations and textures of her experiences. She is interested in exploring both the abstract and the deeply personal through motion, and creating a surreal environment for her artistry to play in.

Performing: “I’m not a weeping willow.” A study of two contradicting states of mind: a near compulsive drive for rigor and an inconsolable fatigue and ennui. There’s a constant urge, but inability to linger and listen, which causes a recurring question: if this were to last a long time, how do you continue within it?

 

Performing Sunday only  
Alyssa Brutlag 

Alyssa Brutlag is an award-winning choreographer based in Seattle. In 2019 she earned a BFA in Dance from Western Michigan University. She is the 2018 recipient of the Maggie Allesee Choreography award. Her work has been commissioned by Jean Ann Ryan Productions and the Young Dancers Initiative, and presented by several dance festivals around the country.

Performing: “Apo Mesa.” A self choreographed solo is an intimate act of beauty inspired by music, love, impulse, and femininity.

 

Mary Sigward 

Mary Sigward was born and raised in Cincinnati. In 2015 she graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BA in Dance Performance. That fall she moved to Seattle to join Spectrum Dance Theater, where she danced for four seasons. She became a certified Pilates instructor in September 2017. She currently freelances in the Seattle area.

Performing: “back-formation.” Back-formation describes a word formed by trimming down an existing word, like “emote” from “emotion.” Oftentimes we shortchange our emotional well-being, brushing it off as if it were a nuisance. When do we take the time to ensure that ourselves and those around us are okay? When will we stop stunting our senses?

 

Performing Monday only  
Arrhythmio

Arrhythmio is a Seattle-based performer, producer, writer, and director. He can be seen performing drag, burlesque, performance art, and live music throughout the city. He recently produced Danger Angel, a solo durational piece, and Recover, a cabaret by and for people with mental illness.

Performing: “Mad Woman.” An exploration into mental illness and gender. Arrhythmio began writing this story with half a crayon he was given in a mental institution, and delves into the role he occupies because of the body he has. This story is told through lip sync, spoken word, and movement.

 

Kelsey Mullen

Kelsey Mullen has been a singer since the age of 2, a songwriter since middle school, and a guitar player since high school. Mullen started a band in high school with another classmate, and continued to make music together until Mullen’s second year of college. At community college, Mullen began studying music theory, singing, and songwriting.

Performing: ”Original Music from Kelsey Mullen.” Singing and playing songs on guitar related to mental health, life, and love.

 

Curators 

Mario Martinez is from Detroit, and came to Seattle for their degree in Original Works from Cornish. As a #NoGoodDoer they have been navigating through the arts in Seattle, pushing for more QTPOC representation. Mario has worked with Freehold Theatre, Cornish, Theater Schmeater, The Umbrella Project, the 14/48 Projects, and have since then started their drag career as Lola Meraz, performing at Studio Current, Kremwerk Complex, Annex Theatre, and Re-Bar, amongst other queer spaces. Catch Mario aka Lola Meraz at Studio Current every month for Intim@ Cabaret and at On The Boards April 9-12th working with Markeith Wiley. Follow Mario for more info @luigis_bro or Lola @mx.lola.meraz.

 

Kathy Moore is a go-to guitarist ranging from rock to funk to jazz and beyond. She is a studio musician, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and teacher who performs in many theatre projects, and local bands: Thaddeus Turner (Maktub), Mike McCready (Pearl Jam, Mad Season, Flight To Mars), the band Brad, Crystal Beth and the Boom Boom Band, Shawn Smith, Kim Virant, Wayne Horvitz, and others. In her solo incarnation, she brings experiments in song using electronics, guitar, and voice.


12 Minutes Max runs 2/23-24 at Base: Experimental Arts + Space, inside the Equinox Studios complex in Georgetown. Tickets $15, available here. Accessibility notes: main restrooms are gendered (sometimes — they change them up) and multi-stall; two gender-neutral, single-stall restrooms are located down the hall past Yaw, nearest the blacksmith studio. Theatre and common areas are wheelchair accessible through a side entrance toward the northwest side of the building (look for the popsicle stick-style house and sideways motorcycle); however, studio complex has some uneven floors throughout. Read NWT’s previous write-up about Base here.