PAST
in and for performance, Alana Frey: practices an eternal study of tuning inwards.
she: dance improvisation and choreographies, sounding of voice, and written forms.
she: is invested in a non-invested rigorous research practice of performance-making (or, letting performance make). Alana: more about
NOW
NOW
Eephus
Spring/Summer 2022 Artist-in-Residence, Automata, Los Angeles
End of Residency Performances: March 12 & 13, 7:30pm
Eephus* is a performance of dance, words, sounds, being, and objects which inhabits the space of a baseball field. Since first developed and performed at PAM Residencies in 2019, Eephus has resided in me as a vast notion and reality: an epistemology to be embodied, a ubiquitous ontology to feel through.
In its second iteration of performance, Eephus (previously Eephus Pitch) takes the Eephusian Parable as its score. This is a gesticulation of the eephusian body at play in a game I call null-point baseball. Trapped forever in the cavity of game that the Eephus Pitch so readily carves out, I make null the intents, directives, and objectives otherwise inherent to the game we call “baseball.”
With destiny & devotion, genius & myth, theater & drama, grass & sky, I: run from first base to second, never leaving or arriving. I: wait on the bench endlessly. I: hit a homerun forever… As I grow near and far to the positions of the game, its passing, and to time itself, I become…
Sound artist Jamie Green plays the drawbar organ and bells.
*In “real” baseball, an Eephus Pitch is an extremely slow and high arc-ing pitch thrown strategically to “trick” the batter. Disoriented by its lack of speed and direction, the batter either swings at the ball too soon or doesn’t swing at all, believing the pitch to be a big mistake or “blooper.” The lore goes Maurice Van Robays, Pirates Outfielder, coined the term, remarking “Eephus ain’t nuthin’, and that’s a nuthin’ pitch.” “Eephus” from the Hebrew אֶפֶס (efes): “zero” or “nothing.”
PAST
PAST
Flouring
the basic premise, Ojai, CA
September 24, 2021, 7:30pm
Flouring, an elaboration on Flour (2019), is practices of pelvis and that which dangles below and above it. These exercises address modes of internal-eternal sensing and prosaic-immediate dancing, moving through visible and invisible, grass and sky, and the danced secret and the real. The dance tumbles through the sound of a singular drone reed, hand-made by Jamie Green. The balloon-drone tells time, breath equaling minutes of body performing. The dance-drone is punctuated with bouts of percussion.
this performance is part of a series curated by Jmy James Kidd and Tara Jane O'Neil
Music/Movement Projects in collaboration with Jamie Green
de cherubim
de cherubim is an often loud, improvisatory dimension, a particular stream of gnosia over which Alana and Jamie arch. it is: Jamie on high-droning fretless guitar, analogue electronics and a rhythm machine, furnishing an elemental ground; and Alana in movement which delivers patiently through the pelvis, eyes, tips of fingers... from all of this, voice spills: spinning tall stories and high screams. the body and its movement are the sine qua non for the sound and its singing.
past:
March 13, 2020 at Hart Bar, NYC
March 18, 2020 at Trans-Pecos, NYC
October 18, 2019. Oakland. see here
Frey + Green
Alana: harp & movement & vocals
Jamie: guitar
past:
November 10, 2019 at Pro Arts, Oakland
Flour
presented at Hi, Solo #9 at Pieter Performance Space, Los Angeles
November 9, 8:30pm & 10pm
3-minute practices of pelvis and that which dangles below and above it. movement comes through the sound of a singular drone, hand-made by Jamie Green. the balloon-drone is filled with 4 and 1/2 breaths of air, which is equal to three minutes of body performing.
Hi, Solo is a bi-annual performance, currently curated by Alexsa Durrans and Miles Brenninkmeijer. #9 is an evening of 9, three-minute solos.
Dance Writings
writing on Simone Forti's Window / Simone Forti writing on Flour: https://www.riting.org/post/190108944364/hi-solo-9
writing with Jennie Liu around Ligia Lewis: https://www.riting.org/post/188389177699/jennie-liu-and-alana-frey-reibstein-questions
writing on REDCAT's NOW Festival, 2018: https://www.riting.org/post/176533516634/alana-reibstein-on-the-now-festival-at-redcat
Eephus Pitch
in-Residency at PAM, May 2019
Performances: May 31 & June 1. 8pm at PAM, Los Angeles
In the finite and infinite cavities of performance, in the dualities engendered there, Alana plays baseball. With destiny & devotion, genius & myth, theater & drama, grass & sky, she travels infield to outfield and all across the bases. As she grows near and far to the positions of the game, its passing, and to time itself, she becomes the proximal site of birth...
In past time, Alana plays our green-est pastime. Doing Forever in the outfield, we must wait for the game to end.
this is a performance of dance, words, sounds, being, and objects in and of the space. this performance is being developed over a month-long residency at PAM. this performance is also of Jamie Green with organ and bells
Human Resources, Los Angeles
May 2019
Nemeton is a durational choreography which makes a thicket of words, positions, and breath. Nine bodies listen and voice words spoken by other bodies- Kathy Acker, Laura Aguilar, Maryanne Amacher, Trisha Brown, Octavia Butler, Katherine Dunham, Helen Frankenthaler, Ruth G. Waddy, Susan Hiller, Shigeko Kubota, Carolee Schneemann, Agnes Varda- feeling out what language can possibly make present, and what it shrouds.
by Jennie MaryTai Liu, organized with Alana Reibstein. performed by Stacy Dawson Stearns, Jessica Emmanuel, Cristina Fernandez, Maria Maea, Coral Lobera, Jasmine Orpilla, Alana Reibstein, Gabriella Rhodeen, and Laura Stinger
photos by Joanne Kim
Time Spent
Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin County, CA
June 2018
Accidental studio work: I accompanied artist Jennie Liu at her residency at Headlands to care for her 1-year-old & worked in the studio in my time
practice-ing & time outside. stills from short performances for video... on listening & being in this space.
Obstacle Course for Backyard
Weekend at Berenice, Los Angeles, April 2018
Audience members play the course. I, as performer, helm a small crew of co-performers/staff. Closing the space of performance with the closed-space of game/using performance to open game.
Small Debut
Dalton Warehouse, Los Angeles
September 2017
Persona Project...the “collective selve-ing” of a “communal persona” named Lou Angeles Klein. to understand Self is understanding a collection of Selves and You’s...
photos by Olivia Schwartzman
Personal Unity
Electric Lodge & Pieter Performance Space, Los Angeles
February & May 2017
Group & One-on-One Performances: what is to be in partnership with a Performer?
ideas with Paolo Yumol, sound by Jasper McMahon, photos by Madeleine Stearns
Blow Series
Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
2012-2016
Early Performance/Dance/Dance Theater over 4 Years...on motherhood, the feminine self & collective, tripping & falling.
ABOUT
ABOUT
Alana Frey (Reibstein)
she received her b.a. from Oberlin College in Dance & Creative Writing.
she lives and works in Los Angeles.
she is a co-founder and emeritus editor of Riting.org, a platform for writing on
performance happening now in Los Angeles.
to get into what's above and what's else...
contact at alanafreyalanafrey@gmail.com