Heidi Duckler Dance Presents Herald In, Examine Throughout

Heidi Duckler Dance (HDD), the premier site-specific dance company in Los Angeles, is delighted to announce its upcoming interactive performance against the stunning backdrop of the Herald Examiner Building and inside the Downtown LA Proper Hotel on Saturday, May 18, 2024.

Titled “Herald In, Examine Throughout,” this transformative experience will unfold along DTLA’s Broadway Street. With an original score by Jessie Cox and Heidi Duckler’s innovative choreography, these collaborative performances will traverse diverse narratives and foster connections among the vibrant communities that coexist downtown. Presented by Heidi Duckler Dance, this transdisciplinary performance will engage 200 attendees in a fusion of dance, music, and multimedia enveloping the iconic Herald Examiner Building on May 18, 2024. Collaborating with Keith Thompson of Arizona State University’s School of Music, Dance, and Theatre, this project seeks to illuminate the socioeconomic disparities in Downtown Los Angeles while chronicling the city’s ongoing evolution.

From witnessing elegant roller-skating dancers adorned in exquisite ball gowns, and intricate cut-out installations by the talented visual artist, Jazmín Urrea, to experiencing live music featuring indigenous instruments, unique drum beats, and old school boomboxes, attendees will be treated to breathtaking multimedia performances.

The Herald Examiner Building, a historic landmark erected in 1913, serves as a poignant symbol of Downtown Los Angeles’ rich history, encompassing its rise, fall, and ongoing redevelopment. Drawing inspiration from this storied past, “Herald In, Examine Throughout” aims to spark civic engagement across generations by reinvigorating tales of Downtown Los Angeles in captivating and thought-provoking ways, while also celebrating the city’s thriving artistic community.

About the DTLA Proper Hotel

With city lights and vintage brick as backdrop, Proper re-imagines and updates a landmark in the heart of South Park District into a 147-room destination hotel. Here, the creative vision of Kelly Wearstler seamlessly blends past and present with compelling design, vintage influence and local art.

This program is supported, in part, by the Downtown Los Angeles Proper Hotel, the National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.

Special thanks to Heather’s Angels B&B, and Hal Bastian.

Where: Broadway Street & Downtown LA Proper Hotel

Cost: $80

Tickets: https://heididuckler.org/event/herald-in-examine-throughout/

About Heidi Duckler Dance:

Initially founded in 1985, Heidi Duckler Dance is a pioneer in producing interdisciplinary performances. The company develops and rehearses each multi-sensory experience in the site where the work is performed. Heidi Duckler Dance advances social equity in under-resourced communities by providing opportunities for audience members and students to interact with meaningful spaces, both public and private, that they may not otherwise have access to.

These innovative experiences allow participants to view these places, and their communities, in new and interesting ways. For 38 years, HDD’s Artistic Director, Heidi Duckler, has created over 500 original works locally, nationally and internationally, including in many LA neighborhoods such as: Downtown LA (the Historic Core, Arts District, Produce District and Fashion District), Boyle Heights, Koreatown, Studio City, Van Nuys, Hollywood, Venice, San Pedro and South LA just to name a few. Duckler’s work has been internationally recognized in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Urban Arts Festival 2007), Russia (Link Vostok International East-West Arts Exchange 2010), Montreal (Transatlantique Quartier 2013), Germany (Tanzmesse, 2014 and 2018), Australia (Brisbane Festival 2014), Cuba (Ciudad en Movimiento 2016) and Chile (Puerto de Ideas 2018). Visit http://www.heididuckler.org for more information.

Heidi Duckler | Founder/Artistic Director

Heidi Duckler is the Founder and Artistic Director of Heidi Duckler Dance in Los Angeles, California and Heidi Duckler Dance/Northwest in Portland, Oregon. Titled the “reigning queen of site-specific performance” by the LA Times, Duckler is a pioneer of site-specific place based contemporary practice. Through the use of expanded techniques and a methodology that encourages us to understand how dance, born from our experience, can be a tool for awareness, Duckler has contributed to redefining the field and has created more than 400 dance pieces all over the world.

Duckler was the recipient of the 2021 Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship and most recently, her film “Where We’re Going” has been selected for first prize by the Cinedanza Festival jury amongst 28 films from around the world. “Where We’re Going” was also selected for the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) Digital Media Wall in their new building in downtown Sacramento, scheduled to premiere in 2022. Currently, Duckler is on faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Film and Media Studies Department.

Duckler earned a BS in Dance from the University of Oregon and an MA in Choreography from UCLA, and served as a Board Member of the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance Advancement Council. Awards include the Distinguished Dance Alumna award from the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, the Dance/USA and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Engaging Dance Audiences award, and the National Endowment of the Arts American Masterpiece award. Duckler was a recipient of the 2019 Oregon Dance Film Commission and her work received the award for Best Choreography for the Lens at Verve Dance Film Festival.

Jessie Cox | Composer

Described by VAN Magazine as “a multifaceted Black Swiss composer, performer, and scholar,” Jessie Cox makes music about the universe and our future in it. Through avant-garde classical, experimental jazz, and sound art, he has devised his own strand of musical science fiction, one that asks where we go next. Cox’s music goes forward. When he describes it, he compares it to time travel and space exploration, likening the role of a composer to that of a rocket ship traversing undiscovered galaxies.

A dedicated collaborator Cox has worked as a composer and drummer with ensembles and musicians such as the Sun Ra Arkestra, LA Phil, Ensemble Modern, and the JACK Quartet; at Festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, MaerzMusik, and Opera Omaha. For his work as a composer, he has been recognized with a Fromm Foundation commission, and his commissions have been funded by the Ernst von Siemens Foundation, Pro Helvetia, New Music USA, and others.

Currently completing his doctorate at Columbia University, Cox is also an accomplished scholar writing about music and the world. He has published in and co-translated the book Composing While Black, published as a bilingual edition in German and English by Wolke Verlag in 2023. Further texts appear in liquid blackness, Critical Studies in Improvisation, Positionen Texte zur Aktuellen Musik, Sound American, the American Music Review, and others.