Wendell Gray II, Christine Bonansea Saulut, Doug LeCours. Photo: Maria Baranova.
A hallucination, a dream, a life, a performance: conjectures and reflections on temporal efforts and their significance. What holds? What resists the bite of time? An interdisciplinary performance examining human ambition, embodied presence, and existential meaning.
The Mystic Shimmer (2023), Slovakia/US. Presented by: Pavel Zustiak, Palissimo Company.
Concept, direction, choreography, costume design: Pavel Zustiak. Performed by: Christine Bonansea, Wendell Gray II, Emma Judkins, Doug LeCours. Original music, sound design: Christian Frederickson. Lighting design: Masha Tsimring. Dramaturgical advice: Keith Skretch.
Running time: 60 min.
The performance is followed by a talkback.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. Seats are limited, on first-come, first-served basis. Online registration through Eventbrite is required.
Dedicated to Ján Zuštiak (1933-2021) and Durdica Glumac (1934-2023).
The performance is produced by Palissimo Company, New York, with support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Movement Research, NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Bogliasco Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Council for the Arts at MIT.
About
PAVEL ZUSTIAK is a Slovak-American choreographer, director, and designer. Described by critics as humane and searing, his interdisciplinary works are visually evocative, emotionally piercing, and immersive for audiences and performers alike. He is fascinated by the landscape emerging at the intersection of perception and presence, physical and unseen, as well as highly crafted and spontaneous. Zustiak’s work aims to destabilize audiences’ assumptions, stir a discourse and prompt to transformation.
The Bessie Juried Award winner, Zustiak also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Princeton Arts Fellowship, a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council President's Award, MANCC and Bogliasco Fellowships, a NEFA/NDP Production Grant, and multiple Princess Grace Awards.
Zustiak’s works were commissioned and presented in the US and Europe by NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, La MaMa, Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, Walker Art Center, Wexner Center for the Arts, Abrons Arts Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center, PS122, New York Live Arts, Archa and Slovak National Theatre among others. Zustiak is the director and founder of PALISSIMO Company and resides in NYC.
ABOUT THE 2023 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2023 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Anew is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, GOH Productions, Trap Door Theatre, Centre of Jewish Culture ŠTETL, Jan Mocek, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Palissimo Company, and Romanian Cultural Institute.
The program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague, and Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.