winter ’24

BRET EASTERLING
JOSEPH HERNANDEZ

OLIVIER WEVERS

January 19 – 27, 2024
CORNISH PLAYHOUSE

January 25, 2024
VASHON CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Founder & Artistic Director: Olivier Wevers
Executive Manager: Melody O’Neill
Company Manager/Director of Education: Karl Watson
Production Stage Manager: Becca Blackwell
Lighting Designer: Michael Mazzola

contest/contest

Choreography: Joseph Hernandez in collaboration with the dancers
Original Composition: Barret Anspach
Additional Sound: Joseph Hernandez
Costumes: Joseph Hernandez
Text: Michael Arellano & Joseph Hernandez

ODDMENTS

Choreography: Bret Easterling in collaboration with the dancers
Associate Choreographer: Austin Tyson
Original Composition: Juniper XX
Additional Music: Clara Rockmore
Set Design: Bret Easterling & Michael Mazzola
Costumes: Bret Easterling

The Scorch of Our Tides

Choreography: Olivier Wevers
Original composition: Philip Daniel
Additional Music: Jacques Brel

Costumes: Olivier Wevers

RUNNING TIMES

(in minutes)

Program 95 min

contest/contest

23 min
INTERMISSION 15 min

ODDMENTS

23 min
INTERMISSION 15 min

The Scorch of Our Tides

19 min
Program 95

contest/contest

23
INTERMISSION 15

ODDMENTS

23
INTERMISSION 15

The Scorch of Our Tides

19

CHOREOGRAPHERS NOTES

contest/contest

“contest/contest” is a dance piece that was born out of a search for truth in a world that contradicts reality.  In 2024, Dance and performance, much like protest and social movements, are accessible in two ways.  The first way is the witnessing of the original events; audiences and journalists witness events that are then immediately integrated into their memories.  For the rest of us, the idea of the internet remains an ever-present meta-witness, floating like a specter over everything.  Joseph Hernandez and the dancers of Whim W’him, when beginning their research for this piece, decided to lean into this dynamic.  They asked themselves: “What are we doing today and how will this be perceived by the outside world? What has been done and what remains from those actions? What are actions that we can partake in that can change the course of history, in some tiny way, and bend these events toward the future that we would prefer?  What does it mean, as in the words of the poet Jennifer Michael Hecht to open the field of possibility and avoid rushing it closed”? The piece scrolls from idea to idea and invites the audience to make associations between their expectations and their present experience; joyously shifting between the absurd and the prescient, the rigorous and the maniacal.

ODDMENTS

8.6 light years away on the brightest star in our night sky, we find a magical synthesized light being named GAMUT.  This extraterrestrial has the power to bend starlight into an infinite amount of colors and is able to retroject themselves into an infinite amount of copies.  ODDMENTS gives us a peak into the traditions, relationships, and surprises of their world.

The Scorch of Our Tides

Inspired by eco-anxiety and environmental doom, The Scorch of our Tides explores connections between the forces of nature, the power of ritual, and the impact of hope within our community.

Climate change unleashes primordial elements. Fire burns our forests and ravishes flora and fauna, while water both increasingly is in short supply and causes devastation by flooding. Much of the human world strays bewildered and unhinged, as our actions thrust Earth daily further out of joint.

Pachamama is a goddess of the ancient Incas in Peru, whose name means “Mother Earth.” She is still revered by the Indigenous people of the Andes, who believe she brings forth the abundance of nature, including agricultural fertility and sustenance. She is also seen as a protector of life and a source of life force.

Despite the havoc humans wreak, nature will endure, even if our species vanishes from the planet. But creative as well as destructive currents flow throughout the universe. We are not separate from nature, and nature-centered rituals can bring increased awareness and help return us to our roots and origins.

With ancient spiritual practices as the guide on a journey of self-discoveries we may find a path towards enlightenment. Yet spiritual and emotional growth do not occur in isolation but will happen only when we can trust others and be vulnerable together. Our hope lies in community.

Program notes by Victoria Farr Brown

Jacques Brel “le Plat Pays” lyrics in English:

“The flat country”

With the North Sea as the last vacant land
And waves of dunes to stop the waves
And the waves of rocks that the swells overtakes
And who have ever had a heart at low tide
With endless mists to come
With the East wind listen to it hold on
The flat country that is mine

With cathedrals for only mountains
And black bell towers like masts of cocagne
Or stone Devils tearing through the clouds
With the thread of days for the only journey
And rain paths for only evening greeting
With the West Wind listen to it wanting
The flat country that is mine

With a sky so low that a channel got lost
With a sky so low that it begs for humility
With a sky so grey that a channel hung itself
With a sky so gray you have to forgive it
With the north wind that comes apart
With the north wind listen to him crack
The flat country that is mine

With Italy coming down the Escaut
With Frida the blonde when she becomes Margot
When the Sons of November return to us in May
When the plain is smoking and trembling under July
When the wind is to laugh when the wind is to wheat
When the wind is to the South hear it sing
The flat country that is mine.

VISION

Enriching lives by investing in imagination,
illuminating that art exists within each and everyone

JOIN WHIM W’HIM TODAY,
BECOME A REAL RENTER! 

Real Rent calls on people who live and work in Seattle to make rent payments to the Duwamish Tribe. Though the city named for the Duwamish leader Chief Seattle thrives, the Tribe has yet to be justly compensated for their land, resources, and livelihood.

You can do something today to stand in solidarity with
First Peoples of this land by paying Real Rent.

All funds go directly to Duwamish Tribal Services (DTS) to support the cultural, economic and political survival of the Duwamish Tribe. Visit the webiste to learn more about this grassroots movement to support Duwamish sovereignty

REALRENTDUWAMISH.ORG

SUPPORT NEW DANCE CREATIONS & THRIVING ARTISTS

Every gift makes an impact on our artists, programs and community.

Thank You for Your Generous Support!

Your support makes our work possible and we are deeply grateful for all the ways you continue to show up for Whim W’Him, our artists and each other – by donating, joining us in the theater, participate in our conversations, and sharing the work we do with your family, friends and neighbors.

Thank you for being part of the Whim W’Him family!