restless\’rest-las\ adj.(bef 12c) 1:lacking or denying rest 2:
continuously moving 3: CHANGEFUL, DISCONTENTED.
<Paradise is not rest, but restlessness. - Cixous>
Restless Productions is an interdisciplinary creation company committed to collective research, development, and presentation of new works of dance, music, theatre and installation art. The company is co-directed by choreographer Claire French and composer James Maxwell, whose collaborative relationship spans over a decade. Restless Productions supports the artistic directors’ pursuits independently and together and invites new and established collaborations. It also provides professional development support for new artists and ideas.
We share in a desire to invent and refine a collective practice driven by the question: What is to be gained, discovered, experimented with in the live format that is impossible elsewhere?
The purposes of the Society are:
- to create and present interdisciplinary artistic works with an emphasis on new music and contemporary dance performance
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-to provide opportunities for artistic research, professional development, and collaboration
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-to expand public awareness and interest in interdisciplinary art practice and performance
Restless Board: Kathleen Ritter, Heather Lindsay, John G Lee, Marci Rabe, Lee Su-Feh
Collaborative History
Restless Productions is the outgrowth of a set of collaborative relationships between choreographer Claire French, composer James Maxwell, and other long term collaborators: dramaturg /director Mallory Catlett and installation/visual artists Hadley Howes and Maxwell Stephens (Hadley+Maxwell). These artists have been working for several years on projects ranging from installation/video to dance, theatre, and opera. This group of talented and driven artists have pursued international careers, and over the years have continued to consult and support each others' work and to collaborate on smaller scale projects. Over the past few years their independent careers flourished. The collective spread out around the world—NY, Germany, the UK, and Canada. Claire and James continued smaller scale collaborations in music and dance as well as working on separate collaborations. The pull to fortify their profiles and commit to collaborative practice has prompted the incorporation of Restless Productions Society.
2011-2012 sees the creation of a dance and music collaboration featuring 5 dancers and 6 musicians (a co-presentation with Red Shift Music Society), a series of movement/dance workshops, and even a concert music work, with a dancer in the “band.”
Selected Works
Still Running to 2000 - Dance/Music (1999)
Dirty Rats - Installation/Video (1999)
Eurydice Plays Dead - Theatre/Music (1999)
Glass - Dance/Theatre (2000)
Desert Survivors -Site Specific/ Video (2001)
Lakeside Alien - Site Specific/ Video (2001)
Timeless Struggle - Site Specific/ Video (2001)
Sleepyhead: a one act chamber opera, after Chekhov - Music/ Theatre/Dance/Design (2001)
Loose Feathers - Dance/Music/Design/ Dramaturgy (2001)
Orange - Dance/Music (2002)
Where Fools Tread - Dance/Music (2003/2005) Trio X - Dance/Music (2006)
The Green Hour -Screaming Flea- Theatre/ Music (2008)
Inside Outside In and Outside Out - Pulse- Dance/ Music (2009)
Standing Wave Séance- Sound installation (2010)
Current
2011/12:
The Moment of Forgetting (Dance/Music/Video/Design)
2013
Little Apples: a chamber opera in one act, after Chekhov
Annual
Project CPR ( Choreographic Practice and Research)
