Collective performance projects are currently on hiatus.

Maia Ramnath continues to develop solo work as Constellation Moving.

Conference of the Birds

Constellation Moving Company was getting ready to open The Conference of the Birds at Theater for the New City in March 2020, just as the pandemic shut down performances all over the city.
The long journey of the birds is underway but it isn't finished. Will the stars align again for it to manifest live some day? Meanwhile here are some postcards from the road.  

This video preview streamed as part of TNC’s on-line 2020 Lower East Side Arts Festival, May 22-24.

March 21, 2020

Dear friends,


in what now feels like an alternate universe, we would now be well into the run of Conference of the Birds 2020.


As is now obvious, we cancelled the show.  This was very disappointing, but of course it’s so much bigger than that.  Aside from basic health concerns, all around us is such a massive scale of economic devastation, creative suspension, and life upheaval for so many artists, freelancers and workers of all kinds.  Everyone is dealing with so much uncertainty, anxiety, worry and disruption.


On the hopeful side, I feel strongly that the life of this project isn't finished yet.  This and other projects haven't died forever, just been delayed.   The remarkable cast and crew of Conference of the Birds still hope to bring it further into the world, when the time is right, in both live and filmed forms.  When that happens I will be beyond overjoyed to share them with you.  But since we can’t yet know when this will be, I’m going to give you a spoiler.


In the story, all the birds of the world set out to find their king: the legendary Simurgh, who lives far beyond the mountains in the Tree of Life.  Only a few—thirty, say—make it through a gamut of trials and challenges to the end of the grueling journey.  When they gather around a pond at the foot of the fabled tree, the see…their reflections.  Si-murgh means thirty birds.  What they sought lies within themselves.


In the original poem by 12th century Persian Sufi mystic Farid ud-Din Attar, the culmination of the story is purely spiritual.  The journey is that of the individual toward mergence with the divine.  After this deep structure made its way into the merged DNA of so much South Asian literature, music and art over the last thousand years, some 20th century progressive cultural movements (whom i’ve been studying, and inspired by, for years) added another political dimension to the pattern: as they might have interpreted this, it’s not just that the divine is within all of us but that political power is. We don’t need a king to lead us; together we lead ourselves.  It’s radically democratic.  it’s revolutionary.  it’s social empowerment and collective liberation.


So in that spirit, I wanted to also share some resources that have been shared with me in these strange, scary times.  Let’s help each other through!


Till later, Maia

RECENT

Constellation at the DZUL INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL in Campeche, Mexico
November 25-20, 2019
Collapsing to Expand—Unfolding Sky—Bird Studies—Fidelio

Choreographed and performed by
Scott Combs, Medea, Summer Lacy, Maia Ramnath

CROSS-POLLINATIONS— a two-week double bill at Theater for the New City:

A multi-course banquet of circus theater cooked up by the artists of

Constellation Moving Company (THE UNFOLDING SKY)

Hybrid Movement Company (KROMATIK)

Eckszooberante (NEWSPAPER NINJA AND FRIENDS)

plus new work by Kelsey Strauch and Medea

[photo gallery coming soon]

Performed by Marcus Anthony, Scott Combs, Kira Fath, Zoob Fernandez, Cameron Finley, Summer Lacey, Wendy Louie, Medea, Benn Mendoza, Maia Ramnath, Kelsey Strauch, Françoise Voranger; Made Possible by the lighting talents of Brendan Burke and the sounding talents of Daisy Press

VESPERS

A journey through a shadowed landscape. A ritual for finding light in the darkness.  A walking meditation as night comes on.  A collective refusal to give up or give in.  An exploration in aerial, dance and film.  

Presented through the Artist in Residency program at The Muse, October 6-7, 2018

Choreography, text and video by Maia Ramnath with additional movement by the cast

Performed by Scott Combs, Wendy Louie, Medea, Leah Newcomb, Krista Perks, Mariana Plick, Maia Ramnath, Sarah Wollschlager

Photos: You Bin

CHROMOLUMINARISM

in collaboration
with poet Susan Brennan and designer / video artist Crystal Thompson

October 19-22, 2017 
presented by

Theater for the New City, Artistic Director Crystal Field

.

PAST SHOWS

We produce every play on the assumption that it will still be unfinished when it appears on the stage. We do this consciously because we realize that the crucial revision of a production is that which is made by the spectator.
—Vsevolod Meyerhold