Charles Dennis & Mitch Greenhill

Thursday, April 9
Admission: $5, $10 minimum
Showtime: 7:30pm
reservations are recommended

"The Wizard of Iz" (2008) is an innovative, dance/performance/video work by nationally recognized choreographer, performance and video artist Charles Dennis that explores the concept and magic of live filmmaking. In "The Wizard of Iz" Charles Dennis multi-tasks all the roles in film production - he is an actor, a dancer, a video cameraman/editor and a vj (video jockey). He uses a laptop computer, video cameras and quad screen projection to create an immersive, psychedelic video environment. A clip from the tornado sequence from the “The Wizard of Oz” serves as a dramatic point of departure as Dennis performs both for and with the screen. Joined by guitarist/sound designer Mitch Greenhill, who mixes live guitar and world music loops, Dennis controls and mixes kaleidoscopic video projections onstage from his laptop computer. He is a Wizard who transforms himself into archetypal characters such as Dinosaur, Cowboy, Spaceman and Disaster Man through the magic of costume changes and video mixing. As vj Dennis layers and mixes video from a collection of clips that includes both clips that Dennis shot as well as clips that he assembled and edited from feature films. "The Wizard of Iz" is a romp through a magical video universe where dynamic dance is joined with state of the art digital video wizardry.

Also on the program - 2 new videos by Charles Dennis including "Buoy" (2009) and a work in progress "After Rush Hour" featuring dancer/performer Argyro Kourliti with music by Spyro Karagiannis.

Charles Dennis website www.charlesdennis.net