laura shapiro/quicksilverdance

Laura Shapiro, photo by Jane Schreibman

With mordant humor, Laura Shapiro’s Last Gasp! considers personal end-of-life preparations within a perspective of possible planetary apocalypse and/or exhaustion. Her solo shifts in form and style as she combines movement, talking, video projections, and colorful costumes with music ranging from Hollywood noir to electronic sci-fi to two bassoons.

Choreographer/performer Laura Shapiro’s independent artistic journey has taken her from New York to the Northwest, Asia, Europe and back to New York.  She has created over fifty solo, group, site specific and site-adaptable works and, in recent years, her choreography has been presented in New York City by BAAD!, DraftWork at Danspace Project, Dixon Place, Lower East Side Festival of the Arts at Theater for the New City, Making Moves Dance Festival at Jamaica Performing Arts Center, Movement Research at the Judson Church, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, The Construction Company and the West End Theater. Her movement style is informed by extensive study of traditional and new, Eastern and Western approaches to alignment, energy and awareness, which she now also teaches in professional, academic, clinical and community settings. www.quicksilverdance.wordpress.com

Andrew Gurian (video projections) began making films at age 12. He joined the TP Videospace Troupe, founded by Shirley Clarke, in 1972, directing video workshops at The Kitchen, Flaherty Film Seminar, Anthology Film Archives, Young Filmmakers/Video Arts, and SUNY. In addition to three collaborations with Shapiro, he has created video projections for several other choreographers. Since 2008 Gurian has been creating video for the Roy Nathanson and Jazz Passengers/Sotto Voce ongoing concert project “Subway Moon,” which has been presented at MassMOCA, Joe’s Pub, The Cooper Union, Lincoln Center’s Rubenstein Atrium, Snug Harbor and Symphony Space in New York City; Paris’s BanlieuesBleues Festival; and the SageGateshead in Newcastle, England, as well as at Kampnagel in Hamburg, Germany.