Faye Driscoll 837 Venice Boulevard

"One of the most original talents on the contemporary dance scene. Evoking the raw intensity of childhood experience, she suggests—through movement both virtuosic and clunky—that we are only a scary hairsbreadth away from our past."—New York Times

The New York Times picked this breakthrough piece by choreographer Faye Driscoll as one of the top five dance events of the year in 2008, and it's just been selected for a 2009 New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award, too. Here's your chance to see why. New York–based Driscoll has collaborated with theater artists like Young Jean Lee and Cynthia Hopkins while also establishing herself with original works that meld dance-theater and edgy performance art. In 837 Venice Boulevard she casts back to her childhood in Southern California, evoking memories of the challenges of finding your way in the world while tapping into the "Hey, kids, let's put on a show!" spirit she had then and that still fuels her efforts.

In darkly humorous absurdist scenarios, 837 Venice Boulevard cannily illustrates how keenly those formative years—rife with rollercoaster emotions and the need for acceptance—shape our adult lives. Using intentionally outrageous dialogue and off-kilter movement, Driscoll's trio of dancers reveal how friends might be a force to help you soar one moment, and then just jerk you around. As the New York Times' reviewer put it: "Driscoll makes movement the vehicle of meaning, the repository of the inexpressible emotions that seethe beneath our surfaces. Identity may be at issue in 837 Venice Blvd, but Ms. Driscoll's is clear: she is an artist."

"For masterfully invoking a collective past by exploring the raw intensity of childhood; for using text, movement, and song to uncover the falsity of the performance of identity; and for calling forth the true emotions beneath the surface, a 2009 New York Dance and Performance Award goes to Faye Driscoll's 837 Venice Boulevard."—New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award Citation.

Recommended for mature audiences.

The Wexner Center for the Arts is a Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). This project is made possible in part by support from the NPN Performance Residency Program. Major contributors of NPN include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the MetLife Foundation, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Visit the NPN website for more information.