Choreographed + Directed by Hilary Easton
Original Music by Thomas Cabaniss
Lighting Design by Carol Mullins
NY Premiere: Danspace Project, May 8-10, 2008

Praised by The New York Times for “its sly humor, abiding warmth, and choreographic gift for gutsy physicality”, Hilary Easton’s work is known for tackling timeless issues within a lush kinetic world. Her new Noise + Speed mines the manifestos of the Italian Futurists, mirroring and commenting upon the often vitriolic screeds of these early-20th Century ideologues, and examining the ways in which rigid dogma can steer our thinking and actions. The actor Steven Rattazzi is the work’s polemicist, citing and inciting with increasingly reprehensible Futurist texts. This evening-length piece has a dynamic original score by longtime collaborator Thomas Cabaniss for strings, percussion, piano and melodica. Lighting design is by Carol Mullins. Noise + Speed is performed by Obie-award winning actor Steven Rattazzi and dancers Alexandra Albrecht, Hilary Easton, Michael Ingle, Joshua Palmer, Emily Pope-Blackman, and Sarah Young.
Noise + Speed is one hour in length.

Performances of Noise + Speed

• May 8-10, 2008: Full premiere at The Danspace Project,
  St. Mark's Church, Thursday-Saturday at 8:30 pm.
  
  
• August 23, 2008: Mount Tremper Arts Center, Mount Tremper, New York
  
  
• March, 2009: Simon's Rock College, Great Barrington, Mass.

"The brainy downtown choreographer Hilary Easton created a new evening-length contemporary dance piece based on the ideas of the early 20th -century Italian Futurists. Presented at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church (May 8-10), the bitingly satiric work, Noise + Speed, is set to a stunning original score by Thomas Cabaniss and features hilarious acting by Steven Rattazzi (who recites the Futurists' manifestos with perfect pomposity) and illustrative dancing by Easton and her five member company. The piece entertainingly demonstrates the madness that would ensue should society follow the absurd dictates of the Fututists, with their reverence for noise, speed, mechanization, militarism, and lust."
Lisa Jo Sagolla, May, 2008, Backstage

The creation of Noise + Speed was made possible, in part, by the Danspace Project 2007-2008 Commissioning Initiative, with support from The Andrew S. Mellon Foundation. Noise + Speed also received generous funding from The Bossak-Heilbron Foundation, Lehman Brothers, HSBC Banks, JP Morgan, The American Music Center, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.