Lyra
The Living Earth Show and Post:ballet present Lyra, a new collaborative production featuring the music of composer Samuel Adams, the movement of choreographer Vanessa Thiessen, and the cinematography of Benjamin Tarquin.
Rooted in the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Lyra delves into today's most urgent questions regarding empathy, technology, and our relationship to the natural world. Created both in quarantine and in person, Lyra weaves together the digital and the physical through a seamless, highly collaborative synthesis of dance, projected film, live music, and Meyer Sound’s new spatial sound technology Spacemap Go.
Lyra premiered as part of the SF Performances Pivot Series in October 2021
Lyra is made possible by the generous support of the following partners:
The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Meyer Sound, the Fleishhacker Foundation, and New Music USA.
SAMUEL ADAMS, COMPOSER
Recently named a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, Samuel Adams (b. 1985, San Francisco, CA) is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. His work has been hailed as “mesmerizing” and “music of a composer with a personal voice and keen imagination” by The New York Times, “canny and assured” by The Chicago Tribune and “wondrously alluring” by The San Francisco Chronicle.
Adams served as the curator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's MusicNOW series from 2015-2018, a period that saw the commissioning of nine new works, including Amy Beth Kirsten's SAVIOR and a new work by Manual Cinema, as well as the development of an audiovisual collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago. He has also curated for the San Francisco Symphony as part of their experimental SoundBox series.
Adams has held residencies at Civitella Ranieri (Umbria, IT), Visby International Centre for Composers (Visby, SE), Avaloch Farm (Boscawen, NH), Ucross (Ucross, WY), and Djerassi Resident Artists Program (La Honda, CA).
Post:ballet
Post:ballet is a contemporary dance company based in Berkeley, CA founded by Artistic Director Robin Dekkers, named “25 to Watch” by DANCE Magazine. Dedicated to creating interdisciplinary works that push artistic boundaries and challenge social norms, Dekkers and Resident Choreographer Vanessa Thiessen’s collaborative approach to dance making integrates the company’s dynamic dancers with exceptional artists to create works that are “decidedly daring and always beautifully performed” (SF Arts Monthly).
Post:ballet has been presented at Jacob’s Pillow’s Inside/Out Festival, SF International Arts Festival, Seattle’s Against the Grain Festival, SF Frameline Film Festival, and SF Dance Film Festival. Now in its 12th Season, Post:ballet has proven its ability to successfully innovate through an ever-changing landscape for arts organizations, using constraints as a catalyst for creativity. For its 2020-21 Season, Post:ballet produced several films, including: Playing Changes, co-presented with SF Symphony; La Folia, presented by Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; A Natural History of Vacant Lots, presented by SF Trolley Dances in collaboration with The Living Earth Show; and Waltz of the Snowflakes, which has been viewed over 300,000 times on YouTube since its November 2020 premiere.
In 2019, Post:ballet became the official company of Berkeley Ballet Theater, where Dekkers serves as Artistic Director. Together, the company and school are in a unique position to meaningfully ask “what’s next” for ballet, training tomorrow’s dancers and bringing together some of today’s most groundbreaking artists.
ROBIN DEKKERS, DIRECTOR
Robin Dekkers is dedicated to inspiring artists and audiences with their passion for movement, curiosity, imagination, and commitment to the craft of ballet. Named “25 To Watch” by DANCE Magazine and celebrated for their direction of multi-disciplinary collaborations that are “inventive, focused, sophisticated, and anything but risk averse” by SF Chronicle, Robin is also Artistic Director of Berkeley Ballet Theater, the official school of Post:Ballet.
Robin danced professionally with Ballet Arizona, ODC/Dance, Company C Contemporary Ballet, and Diablo Ballet, where they was nominated for an Isadora Duncan award for “Outstanding Performance- Individual” in 2013. They danced leading roles in works by George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, José Límon, KT Nelson, Val Caniparoli, Lar Lubovitch, Jodie Gates, Trey McIntyre, Dominic Walsh, Septime Webre, and Paul Taylor before transitioning fully into teaching, choreographing, and directing.
Robin’s choreography has been presented at Jacob’s Pillow, San Francisco International Arts Festival, Tanzsommer Festival, Ballet Builders Showcase, Against the Grain Festival, and WestWave Dance Festival. Commissions include Kansas City Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, sjDANCEco, Smuin Ballet, Grand Rapids Ballet (with co-choreographer Vanessa Thiessen), and Diablo Ballet, where they were resident choreographer from 2013-2018 and created critically-acclaimed works including Carnival of the Imagination, AnOther, and Red Shoes.
Robin regularly teaches company class for LINES Ballet, Smuin Ballet, and ODC/Dance. He also holds a degree in business from Rio Salado College.
VANESSA THIESSEN, CHOREOGRAPHER
Vanessa Thiessen is a choreographer, artistic collaborator and educator. Resident Choreographer for Post:ballet since 2017, her works include La Folia, Hades and Persephone, Junction, Lavender Country (nominated for Best Dance Performance 2019 by SF Classical Voice), and co-choreographed works with Robert Dekkers include Incandescent Body, From Now On (Dance Theater of San Francisco), and Dear Light Along the Path to Nothingness (Grand Rapids Ballet).
From 2013-2015, Vanessa worked alongside ODC/Dance Co-Director KT Nelson, generating choreography for Sacramento Ballet, Owen/Cox Dance, RAWdance, and for Chris Mason Johnson’s dance film From The Beginning. In 2018, she created From the Well of Echoes for Berkeley Ballet Theater in collaboration with the Berkeley Symphony, and in 2019, she created Left for BodyVox JAG in collaboration with the Portland Youth Symphony.
Vanessa teaches at Reed College, BodyVox, Open Space and Berkeley Ballet Theater. She danced professionally with Post:ballet, Skinner/Kirk, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Project B., ODC/Dance (where she was nominated for an Isadora Duncan award for her performance in They’ve Lost Their Footing), Smuin Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre.