In JA!! a group of "laugh researchers" composed by Luis Lara Malvacías dancer Manuel Alfonso Pérez Torres, composer and performer Ivo Bol and advisor Jeremy Nelson, investigates the highly complex and ambiguous phenomenon of “Laughter”, its physical repercussions along with themes of irony and comedy. Their findings are translated into a movement vocabulary that positions the performers as physical conduits between source and audience within Malvacías' interactive installation.

 

Choreography by: Luis Lara Malvacías

Performed by: Ivo Bol, Luis Lara Malvacías, Manuel Alfonso Pérez Torres.

Project assistant: Jeremy Nelson

Music by: Ivo Bol

Costumes, Set Design and Props by: Luis Lara Malvacías

Lighting Design by: Kathy Kaufmann

Set Construction: Yanko Bakulic, Jeremy Nelson and Luis Lara Malvacías

Videos: Jeremy Nelson and Luis Lara Malvacías

 

JA!! was made possible, in part, by Danspace Project's Creation  Fund, also by a direct grant from the Jerome Foundation. The piece was co-produced  by Sasha Waltz & Guest and Radialsystem V, in the context of "Choreographen der Zukunft", a career development program supported by BASF SE as the main sponsor.

 

"Laughter is frequently employed in a forced manner to conceal or mask some other state of mind, even anger. We often see persons laughing in order to conceal their shame or shyness. When a person purses up his mouth, as if to prevent the possibility of smile, though there is nothing to excite one, or nothing to prevent is free indulgence, an affected, solemn, or pedantic expression is given; but of such hybrid expressions nothing more need here be said. In case of derision a real or pretended smile or laugh is often blended with the expression proper to contempt and this may pass into angry contempt or scorn. In such cases the meaning of the laugh or smile is to show the offending person that he excites only amusement."

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