You Are Happy (premiering at the PortFringe, 6/26 & 6/28) is not only a "sensorial solo performance", it is a new collaboration between Choreographer Eliza Larson and Composer Benjamin Chakoian. Read all about them here!
Benjamin Chakoian Jones is a composer, bassist, and violist currently living in Nashville, TN. Born in Des Moines, IA, Benjamin was raised on American Folk music such as Simon and Garfunkel and Mamas and the Papas, as well as a wide range of Classical music. Following high school in Ohio, Benjamin moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University. There, he continued his education in a variety of styles and began his career as a composer, arranger, and player. Still rooted in Nashville, Benjamin has spent recent years touring with the Americana band, Humming House, of which he is a founding member. When home, he makes a living as a bassist and arranger for recording sessions as well as continuing his work in original composition.
Deriving inspiration from many styles of music, Benjamin writes first from an American Classical perspective. Setting his roots in the music of Aaron Copland, Alan Hovhaness, and Bill Evans, Benjamin enjoys pushing his palette by taking elements of music ranging from Early Modern Russian composers and French Romanticism to indie rock bands, traditional Irish music, and abstract sound. Writing music that is sonically, harmonically, and rhythmically experimental, Jones also writes music that can be enjoyed by a broad general audience.
Eliza Larson is an independent artist based in Northampton, MA (USA). In addition to performing as a soloist, Eliza currently dances with the Mountain Empire Performance Collective. She holds an MFA in Dance from Smith College where she was a Gretchen Moran Teaching Fellow in the Five College Dance Department. As a choreographer, Eliza strives to create work that is both entertaining and thought provoking, quirky and beautiful, and accessible to the general public and dance enthusiasts alike.
Her choreography has been presented around the country, including at PortFringe in Portland, Maine, the Capital Fringe Festival and the H Street Theater in Washington, DC, Conduit Dance Center and the Pacific NW College of Art in Portland, OR, and the OK Hotel Gallery and Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, WA. Earthdance in Plainfield, MA; and the Southern VT Dance Festival in Brattleboro, VT. Eliza has performed in works by Ohad Naharin, Colleen Thomas, Angie Hauser, Paul Matteson, Chris Aiken, Cathy Nicoli, Ming Yang, Mark Haim, Deb Wolf, KT Niehoff, Jan Erkert, Adele Myers, and Kristin Hapke among others, and was an original member of the Weaving Dance Company from 2006-2008.
Eliza is also the author and illustrator of Terpsichore’s Deck, a set of choreographic cards to use in dance making and choreography, published in 2013. Her writing has appeared in Contact Quarterly and Kinebago, and her research on gender in dance was recently presented at the Congress on Research in Dance/Society of Dance History Scholars joint conference in November 2013.
Show Information:
Mountain Empire presents
You Are Happy
At the
Port Fringe
Thursday, June 26, 2014 at 10:00pm
Saturday, June 28, 2014 at 4:30pm
538 Congress St
Portland, ME, 04101
United States
Don't be shy! Check out all the PortFringe shows RIGHT HERE
