Artists Registry

Troika Ranch

Portland OR United States

http://troikaranch.org
View
598351_4280.jpg

Future of Memory is a multi-media dance performance created by Troika Ranch Artistic Directors Mark Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello, in collaboration with dancers Danielle Goldman, Michou Szabo and Sandy Tillett. It was premiered at the Duke on 42nd Street in 2003. In Future of Memory, four fictional characters selectively recreate their life experiences by returning to memories. Their stories and actions reveal the fallible and impermanent nature of human recall – a place where romanticized, repressed, lost, and recreated selves are the norm.

One of our inspirations for making this work were the numerous posters and hand-drawn signs we saw in the days immediately after the attack, each of which asked for news of missing loved ones. We were struck by the extremely personal nature of what we saw: photographs of birthdays, weddings, bar-mitzvahs and the like. We felt as if the terrible events of September 11th had forced the creators of these desperate signs to place their most personal memories into public view. Our experience led us to consider how we process memories, how we store, recall, and embody the events of our lives defines who we are as individuals and, thereby, who we become as a community.

But, It was only upon first performing this work, that we came to clearly see it that it was a very personal response to our own experience of the events of September 11th.

Future of Memory was honored with two prizes: The Audience Award at the New York Dance and Performance Awards (the "Bessies") and an honorable mention at the Prix Ars Electronica 2004.

Co-founded by choreographer/media artist Dawn Stoppiello and composer/media artist Mark Coniglio, Troika Ranch is an arts organization that creates contemporary, hybrid artworks through an ongoing examination of the moving body and its relationship to technology. This aesthetic framework has informed Troika Ranch's artistic output on every level since its inception in 1994 and has earned the organization a critically acclaimed international reputation. Now based in Portland, Oregon after a 15 year stint in New York City, and directed by Stoppiello, the company continues to build upon a 'body of work' that fosters many points of contact with the public - through the creation, presentation and touring of collaborative, multi-media performances, installations and films; its annual intensive workshop on live-media collaboration; and through publications and lectures on the history of live-media performance, Troika Ranch maintains a local, national and international presence.

In the 1990's, Troika Ranch and its co-founders were among the pioneers in the field now known as Dance and Technology. The company performed in international festivals and venues and its founders were greatly sought after as guest artists, teachers, and lecturers. Coniglio and Stoppiello conceptualized and invented much of the technology, equipment, and techniques currently in use in the filed and their expertise is unprecedented. The name Troika Ranch refers to its founders' creative methodology, which involves a hybrid of three artistic disciplines, dance/theater/media (the Troika), in cooperative artistic interaction (the Ranch). Troika Ranch produces and supports art that values live interaction - between viewer and viewed, performer and image, movement and sound, people and technology. The works may be presented as performances, installations, or in portable formats-drawing on all that contemporary invention has to offer.

Troika Ranch co-founders Coniglio and Stoppiello have been honored with a 2011 nomination for the Alpert Award in dance; a 2004 Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA (NYC); a 2004 Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica Cyberarts Competition (Linz, Austria); a 2003 Dance & Performance 'Bessie' Award (NYC); and a 2005 'Eddy' Award from Live Design Magazine. The company has received major support from The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), the National Endowment for the Arts, the MAP Fund, the Arts Council England and the Jerome foundation among others.