Palissimo - The Painted Bird Trilogy: Bastard, Amidst, and Strange Cargo

"A vivid, often anguished, imagination shines through in Zuštiak’s work, as does a welcome directness."—New Yorker

Palissimo, an adventuresome dance theater company from New York, is mounting its enigmatic and atmospheric Painted Bird Trilogy as a complete sequence for the first time as a result of this Wexner Center Residency. Choreographed by Pavel Zuštiak, Palissimo’s Czechoslovakian-born artistic director, The Painted Bird Trilogy is inspired by a classic and controversial novel of the same name by Polish-born author Jerzy Kosiński. The allegorical novel tells the story of a young boy making his way through war-time Eastern Europe and a brilliantly painted bird that is violently killed by its own flock, which mistakes it for an imposter.

Zuštiak's ambitious, emotionally charged project excavates the tale's themes—identity, otherness, displacement, and transformation—in three uniquely staged performance events. His approach integrates dance, video, and visual projections with live music composed by Christian Frederickson, known to Wexner Center audiences as a former member of the acclaimed chamber rock band Rachel’s. As a New York Times reviewer observed, “Essentially, Zuštiak has created a roomful of outsiders. That sensation of being on the outside looking in…along with the live score, gives jolts of spooky energy. There is the sense that, with The Painted Bird, he has found his material, and will be mining it for a long time to come.”

Staging The Painted Bird Trilogy utilizes both our Performance Space and Black Box on Mershon Stage venues set up in novel configurations. You can choose to immerse yourself in a pairing of two sections of the trilogy or come on the final day to experience all three parts, with an optional box supper available from Heirloom at an additional charge of $10 if ordered in advance.

Here’s an excerpt from one more review.

“Zuštiak’s strategies and effects never felt contrived. And, as always, this artist has chosen forceful performers with the physical skills and courage to follow him into the dark, shuttered spaces of human life.”—Dance Magazine

Click "More Info" below for detailed schedule.

Credits
The Painted Bird Trilogy is a Palissimo production co-commissioned by the Wexner Center, Stanica Žilina in Slovakia, and La MaMa, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and Performance Space 122 in New York.

The production residency for this work was supported by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The creation of Strange Cargo was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the MetLife Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The presentation of The Painted Bird: Strange Cargo was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Wexner Center is a NPN 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.

Wednesday, September 12
Part 1 Bastard: 7–8:30 PM [BLACK BOX ON MERSHON STAGE]
Part 2 Amidst: 8:30–9:30 PM [PERFORMANCE SPACE]

Thursday, September 13
Part 2 Amidst: 7–8 PM [PERFORMANCE SPACE]
Part 3 Strange Cargo: 8:15–9:15 PM [BLACK BOX ON MERSHON STAGE]

Sunday, September 16
Part 1 Bastard: 3:30–4:45 PM [BLACK BOX ON MERSHON STAGE]
Part 2 Amidst: 5–6 PM [PERFORMANCE SPACE]
SUPPER INTERMISSION: 6–7 PM
Part 3 Strange Cargo: 7–8 PM [BLACK BOX ON MERSHON STAGE]