ANNI is a transmedia artwork combining an interactive public installation, live performance, and online exhibit. The installation will collect audio via an artificially intelligent time capsule interface, which interacts with participants to tailor highly individualized responses about the nature of humanity. The audio recordings will then be mixed live into a multimedia dance performance as well as becoming accessible online, where viewers will be able remix it themselves. Simultaneously presenting a speculative science-fiction narrative and an experimental, mini-documentary about the community and moment in which it is performed, ANNI will explore questions of consciousness and control over the curation of information, the gulf between digital data and embodied human experience, and the value of intuition in identifying signal in the noise.
ARCOS is an interdisciplinary performing group that experiments rigorously to discover adventurous new forms of contemporary performance—inspired by questioning dominant understandings of the world, turbulent processes of traditions in flux, and the complexity of being human today. They have been invited to present work at MacCallum Choreography Festival, SITE Santa Fe, CURRENTS International New Media Festival, {254} Dancefest, and Barnstorm Dance Festival. ARCOS’ multimedia production The Warriors: A Love Story received Mervyn Stutter’s “Spirit of the Fringe” award at the Edinburgh Fringe. ARCOS has been awarded artistic residency at Texas State University, Colorado College, Playa Summerlake, Ucross Foundation, and KHN Center for the Arts, and received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rea Charitable Trust, Donors Trust, Hatchfund, and New Mexico Arts. ARCOS also offers professional-level training and development workshops for independent artists, community classes, and performance intensives for youth.
Erica GionfriddoErica Gionfriddo, co-founder of ARCOS, has a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Shenandoah Conservatory. She has worked with Second Wind Dance Company, Ekilibre Dance, and Moving People Dance and performed the repertoire of choreographers including Anna Sokolow, David Parsons, Robert Moses, Max Stone, Rob Wood, Gail Gilbert, Arturo Fernandez, John Lehrer, Luciana Achugar, and Curtis Uhlemann. She has been commissioned to choreograph for Moorehead State University, Shenandoah Conservatory, Motion X Dance DC, Billings School of Classical Ballet, Breaking String Theater, Texas State University, and INTERDANSA, where her work toured thirty cities in Catalonia. In Austin, her choreography has received a B. Iden Payne award. She is also a certified Pilates Mat Teacher Trainer, GYROKINESIS®* and GYROTONIC®* trainer, has taught at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, and is currently an adjunct lecturer in dance University of Texas at Austin.
* GYROTONIC and GYROKINESIS are registered trademarks of Gyrotonic Sales Corp. and are used with their permission.
Eliot Gray FisherEliot Gray Fisher has a BA in Film Studies from Wesleyan University, BA in Documentary Studies from Santa Fe University of Art and Design, and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. He propels ARCOS’ inventive integration of new media and compelling dramatic narrative in performance, serving as video producer, composer, pianist, sound designer, writer, and director. He has composed music for short and feature film, theater, and dance and has written and directed several original theater productions with music. His multimedia projects include ethnographic fieldwork with Yoeme natives in Mexico, a documentary about the impacts of a hydroelectric dam in Brazil, dance film for INTERDANSA in Catalonia, and immersive, interactive projections and sound design for ARCOS. He has designed curriculum and taught media arts at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Youth Media Project, Santa Fe Preparatory School, and the E.E. Ford Summer Teachers Colloquium.
Alexa CaparedaAlexa Capareda has a BA in English from the University of Texas at Austin. She was born in the Philippines, where she studied classical and contemporary ballet and modern dance at Ballet Regina, the Royal Academy of Dance, and the Philippine High School for the Arts, before training at Ballet Austin and the École Supérieure de Ballet Contemporain de Montréal in Canada, where she performed with Le Jeune Ballet du Québec in works by Gioconda Barbuto, Shaun Hansell, and Jean-Louis Morin. Alexa trained in contemporary dance and choreography at Springboard Danse Montreal, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Northwest Dance Project. She was one of the founding artists of Mário Radacovský’s contemporary company, Balet Bratislava, in Slovakia, performing a repertoire of neoclassical and contemporary works by Libor Vaculík, Šárka Ondrišová, Ján Durovcík, and Jirí Kylián. Alexa currently performs as a member of ARCOS, as well as with other Austin-based choreographers.
Felicia McBride
Felicia McBride began her ballet training at the age of twelve, attending summer intensives at Houston Ballet, the Chautauqua Institute, Tulsa Ballet, and Ballet Austin. She has danced professionally with companies including Hubbard Street II, Ballet Austin II, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, Hedwig Dances, Kristina Isabelle Dance Company, and Chicago Repertory Ballet. Felicia has performed works by Jirí Kylián, Matts Ek, Mauro Bigonzetti, Dominic Walsh, Stephen Mills, Alejandro Cerrudo, Maurya Kerr, Penny Saunders, Edgar Zendejas, Gabrielle Lamb, and Robyn Mineko Williams. Felicia was also a guest for three seasons with Les Grands Ballet Canadiens in their production of The Nutcracker. She has toured to Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands for various performance opportunities with companies listed above. Felicia recently learned how to dance on stilts from Kristina Isabelle in Chicago and is continuing her freelance performance career with ARCOS Dance and in Austin and nationally.
.jpg)
