Los Angeles Choreographers
Carmela Hermann Dietrich and Ally Voye
Premiere New Collaborative Work

In Plain Sight
Four Choreographic Portraits of Real-life
People with Adaptive Behaviors
May 12 – 14, 2016
Bootleg Theater, Los Angeles, CA

In Plain Sight is a full evening movement theater piece, where 4 performers divulge their real life obsessive tendencies and the compulsive actions they’ve created to cope with overwhelming life events.

Created by choreographers Ally Voye and Carmela Hermann Dietrich, the group uses movement and true-life storytelling to create serio-comedic autobiographical portraits that expose their invisible selves, even when it’s in plain sight.
May 12 – 14, 2016
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30pm
Bootleg Theater
2220 Beverly Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90057
213-389-3856
http://www.bootlegtheater.com
Tickets are $25; $20 for Students/DRC Members and will be available online soon on the Bootleg website

ARTIST STATEMENT:
“In Plain Sight, a new deeply personal work that choreographer Ally Voye and I are developing, finds us choreographing the details of people’s real lives in poignant and humorous ways,” shares Co-creator Carmela Hermann Dietrich. “The project stars four real-life people, all of whom have volunteered to bare themselves for this project, who divulge their secret obsessive tendencies along with their psychological roots – compulsive actions developed to cope with overwhelming life events. We look at the underlying causes, and question why someone can, can’t, or doesn’t want to stop the behavior. The ‘dances’ expose what isn’t visible even when they are in plain sight.”

SYNOPSIS:
In Plain Sight is a series of comedic choreographic portraits, featuring four people, who each grapple with a compulsive behavior. The four – Carmela, Ally, Bill and Leah – have volunteered to bare themselves for this project and divulge quirky compulsions and their psychological roots. These people, who would never have met without this project, find connection with each other through performing together. The work offers a window into wrestling with humanness, while exposing what is invisible, even when people are “in plain sight.” In Plain Sight was developed through in-depth videotaped interviews with each performer. The transcripts and videos of these interviews provided material for the choreography and text.

THE FOUR PORTRAITS:
• Carmela
The piece begins with the complexities of food obsession and body consciousness, which became magnified for Carmela when her son was born with developmental delays. In her terror and confusion, she could find comfort only in ice cream, donuts, and other sugary items. Thus, the dance film, “Orange Thursday,” a duet between a herself and 5 dozen donuts.
• Ally
Sharing the food theme, Ally hurls herself repeatedly against the floor in the ongoing losing battling choosing Kale Salad over Gooey Cheese Pizza.

• Leah
Then Leah, an attorney-turned-stay-at-home-Brentwood mom of 3, responds to her special needs children, with various diagnoses, by making sure that every element of her outfit matches – from her underwear, nails and handbag, to the water bottle and chewing gum for that day.

• Bill
Bill, one of America’s premier voiceover performers, experienced the deaths of three family members by the time he was 13 years old. In an attempt to stave off any future tragedy, he developed superstitious systems of counting during daily tasks.