Christian Burns of The Foundry

Project Title: The Fleshing Memory
Recipient Organization: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Lead Artists: Christian Burns and Alex Ketley, The Foundry
Genre and Date Awarded: Performing Arts, June 2002
Presented: January 3 and 4, 2003 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Christian Burns and Alex Ketley, the Foundry, created an original dance performance, The Fleshing Memory, based on explorations and improvisations in such “non-public” areas at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, such as the air intake room in the basement, underground studios, utility rooms, electrical rooms, interior passageways, and administrative offices. The piece sustained the Foundry’s exploration of the history and meaning of distinct locations. While developing The Fleshing Memory as a multi-media dance performance, the artists also created a video based on their explorations, which was presented in Yerba Buena Center’s lobby as part of its triennial “Bay Area Now” exhibition. The artists’ developed both works—dance and video—during a six-month Wattis residency at the Center.

Artists Christian Burns and Alex Ketley co-created The Foundry with a common desire to explore new ways of creating integrated, live multi-media dance/theater and choreography. Trained as ballet dancers, their professional experience includes dancing with such companies as the San Francisco Ballet, and the James Sewell Ballet in Minneapolis, and Alonzo King’s LINES Contemporary Ballet of San Francisco.

In 2001 The Foundry was in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts and used their residency to explore new ways of designing performance space and video installation—creating Capacity from Shallowness based on an outdoor, natural environment in Marin County. The institutional environment for creating The Fleshing Memory offered something very different: “Yerba Buena provides us with a background that most people in cities engage on a daily basis, one that is stark, fluorescent, and seemingly very blank. This is exciting because it brings the live characters more into the forefront of the visual idea….” For The Fleshing Memory the co-directors of the Foundry opened their collaborative, improvisational process to democratically collaborate with other designers and performers who filled the following roles: Andrea Flores, dancer; Nicholas Yagoda, dancer/video/text; Marina Hotchkiss, dancer; Torsten Z Burns, dancer; Summer Lee Rhatigan, dancer/spoken text; Mathew DeGumbia, lighting design; and Rita Dilorenzo, costume design.

They write, “in improvisation, you can’t control an outcome, but rather have to follow it.” Working with several, minimal props—including a large stack of pink paper—they discovered, “For some reason, the pink paper clicked in some type of logic and stuck. The pink paper eventually became the heart of the set and the visual metaphor for the piece. There were many other elements that developed in this way. It is this process we value most, where you are in the middle of knowing and not knowing. Trying to guide a series of unknown variables with the hope of creating interesting mistakes.” Their “mistakes” led San Francisco Chronicle dance critic Octavio Roca to write in his January 6, 2003 event review, “The Fleshing Memory is about memory, about loneliness. It’s narrative is no less powerful for being anything but linear.”

Since its inception in 1993, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has set out to present the highest quality contemporary visual arts, performing arts, film/video, and education programs which represent diverse Bay Area audiences. These multidisciplinary programs are organized around the concept of the Center as an “idea house,” where artists’ ideas are nurtured, supported and presented in myriad ways. The Artist-in-Residence program is an integral part of the Center’s programming, offering resources of time and space for artists to experiment freely, allowing for creative new direction in their work. Open rehearsals, interactive performances, and behind-the-scenes events with resident artists invite audiences to form a deeper relationship with the art.

Christian Burns

Christian Burns trained in ballet at the Pioneer Valley Ballet School, Pennsylvania Ballet School, and the School of American Ballet. For over a decade he has studied movement with a variety of modern and improvisational teachers. He also spent the past fifteen years producing work in the media of painting, film, and video. He has danced with James Sewell Ballet, Alonzo King’s LINES Contemporary Ballet, and has performed as a guest artist with several other companies. He co-founded The Foundry with Alex Ketley in 1998. Burns was a recipient of the 1997 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Dancers and the winner of the 2001 Paula Citron Award for Choreography for the Camera (Moving Pictures Festival for Dance on Film and Video, Toronto, Canada.) He was a 2001 Artist-in-Residence at the Headlands Center for the arts and a 2002-03 Wattis Artist-in-Residence at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Program – December 2002

Professional Performance Experience

• The Foundry, San Francisco, California (1998-2002)
• Alonzo King’s LINES Contemporary Ballet, San Francisco, California (1999-2002)
• Mark Feoringer Dance Project, San Francisco, California (2000)
• James Sewell Ballet, Minneapolis, Minnesota (1993-98)
• Minnesota Dance Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota (1994-97)
• New York City Ballet Education Department, New York, New York (1990-93)

Professional Choreography Experience

• Capacity from Shallowness, with The Foundry, interdisciplinary dance piece, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California (2001)
• Sea Green and Blue Also Rising, with The Foundry, interdisciplinary dance piece commissioned by Alonzo King’s LINES Contemporary Ballet, San Francisco, California (2000)
• Park, with The Foundry, interdisciplinary dance piece, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Site Specific Series, San Francisco, California (1999)
• Saltwater, with the Foundry, interdisciplinary dance piece, Jenn Joy Gallery, San Francisco, California (1999)
• Current Form, with the Foundry, interdisciplinary dance piece, Brady Street Theater, San Francisco, California (1999)
• Salt Flat Pieces, interdisciplinary dance solo, Shotwell Studios, San Francisco, California (1998)
• Sense, interdisciplinary dance solo, Patrick’s Cabaret, Minneapolis, Minnesota (1998)
• The Gold Children, duet with live music and soundscape, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (1997)
• A Bass Night Out, improvisational dance performer with Chris Aiken, Sally Rousse and members of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Ted Mann Music Hall, Minneapolis, Minnesota (1997)
• Elvis X-Mas, Christmas ballet commissioned by James Sewell Ballet, premiered College of St. Thomas, St. Cloud, Minnesota (1997)
• Chinese Cannon, ballet created for James Sewell Ballet choreographers workshop, Minnesota Opera Center, Minneapolis (1995)

Video Screenings

• Moving Pictures Festival Tour 2001/2002 screened Jealous Guy in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States (2002)
• Moving Pictures Festival for dance on film, screened Jealous Guy as part of Instabilities Program, Toronto, Canada (2001)
• Impakt Festival, Screened Jealous Guy as part of the POP program, Utrecht, The Netherlands (1999)

Awards and Residencies

• Wattis Artist-in-Residence, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2002)
• Paula Citron Choreography for Camera Award (2001)
• Affiliate Artist in Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts (2002)
• Artist in Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts (2001)
• McKnight Artists Fellowship for Dancers (1997)

Alex Ketley

Alex Ketley began dancing at age eight in Columbia, Maryland. He trained at a number of schools including the Washington Ballet, the School of American Ballet, the New School for Social Research as well as the Royal Danish Ballet in Denmark. In 1994 he joined the San Francisco Ballet where he danced both classical and contemporary repertory in San Francisco and on tour throughout the world. In 1998 he left the ballet to co-found The Foundry to explore his interests in choreography, mixed media work, and collaborative process. In 2001 he was an Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts and winner of the Hubbard Street 2 Nation Choreography Competition. He has been a guest artist with several companies and worked with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet from 1999-2002. During 2002-03 he was a Wattis Artist in Residence at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Professional Performance Experience

• The Foundry (1998-Present)
• Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet (1999-2002)
• San Francisco Ballet (1994-1998)
• New York City Ballet Education Dept. (1991-1994)

Professional Choreographic Experience

The Foundry, Co-Artistic Director (1998- Present)

-Directed and created works in collaboration with other artists in the company.
-Handled concept, choreography, improvisation, video, text, lighting, scenic and sound design.

• 2003 _ Joygame
• 2003 _ The Fleshing Memory
• 2002 _ Kid Thunder
• 2001 _ Capacity from Shallowness
• 2000 _ Yosemite (video)
• 2000 _ Sea Green and Blue Already Rising
• 1999 _ Park
• 1999 _ Current Form
• 1998 _ Salt Flat Pieces

Independent Projects

• 2003 _ Fragments (Repeat Forever)
• 2002 _ Shop (video)
• 2001 _ Trace Fulfillment
• 2001 _ Rodeo Room (video)
• 2000 _ Tar©JMB
• 1999 _ Garage (video)
• 1997 _ T. Rosa

Installation Pieces

• 2003 _ Joygame
• 2002 _ The Fleshing Memory
• 2001 _ Open House
• 1998 _ Saltwater

Accomplishments

• 2003 _ Company in Residence at The Yard, Martha’s Vineyard, MA
• 2003 _ “25 to Watch,” The Foundry, Dance Magazine, January Issue
• 2002 _ Wattis Artist in Residence, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
• 2002 _ San Francisco Chronicle Top Ten Dance Events of the Year: Kid Thunder
• 2001 _ Winner of the Hubbard Street 2 National Choreography Competition, Chicago, IL
• 2001 _ San Francisco Chronicle Top Ten Dance Events of the Year: Capacity from Shallowness
• 2001 _ Artist in Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
• 1998 _ Co-Founded, The Foundry, Berkeley, CA