D.C. Performance Art

Blowout! DC Performance Art Festival at Hillyer Art Space, June 16, 2012

Emma Jaster and Neelam Patel: To Know a Veil

 A performance piece peeling back the layers of our cultural femininity. From burkas to bikinis, balancing east and west, veiling and revealing, expectations and defiance. This is an ongoing exploration of women covering or uncovering their bodies.  It began with a walk in the Sahara and continues to evolve today.  Emma is responsible for the original concept and driving force behind the piece but has welcomed the creative input of artistic collaborators along the way and is happy to be working with Neelam for this performance.  Watch for the next iteration in DC this fall as a fully fledged fashion show. Info at www.emmajaster.com under ‘current projects’

 Emma Jaster works in theater as a performer, designer and movement specialist.  She trained from childhood with her father, acclaimed mime Mark Jaster, then at the Lecoq school in Paris and has worked with such institutions as Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, the Natanakairali Institute for Sanskrit Theater in India, LaMama’s International Director’s Symposium and U-Theatre, a Grotowski-based Zen-drumming troupe in Taiwan.  She builds a variety of solo and ensemble work drawing on dance, theatre, puppetry, clown, and design.  You can see her again in July performing her solo show The Suitcase Story at Round House Theater’s Over the Line Festival.