Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre

Mission and artistic direction

The company's founder and artistic director is choreographer Heidi Duckler. Duckler has a B.S. in Dance from the University of Oregon (from which she received the Distinguished Alumnae Award in June 2012) and an M.A. in Choreography from UCLA. Her work has been commissioned by companies including Miami Light, Grand Performances, REDCAT, Aben Dans in Denmark, Brookfield Properties, and the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation. She has participated in the Los Angeles County Arts Commission's Arts Leadership Initiative and served on the City of Los Angeles Mayor's Cultural Master Plan Advisory Committee. Heidi Duckler was named "the reigning queen of site-specific performance" by the Los Angeles Times.

Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre takes as its mission to create performance events in nontraditional spaces, commercial buildings, and diverse neighborhoods in order to redefine the relationship between audience and art. Individual pieces have been performed in laundromats (Laundromatinee, 1980s-2010), a church (Church of Food, 1990), a reflecting pool (Foundations, 1990), commercial buildings (Cover Story, 2002), a government building (Governing Bodies, 2010), a baseball diamond (Stealing Home, 1993), an empty swimming pool (Life in the Lap Lane, 1994), and the concreted-over Los Angeles River (Mother Ditch, 1995). Heidi Duckler's choreography focuses on expressing the psychological relationship between people and their environment through organic movement phrases. In both large-scale works such as Sleeping with the Ambassador (Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, 2003) and more intimate works like Laundromatinee (various laundromats), Duckler creates choreography that both responds to a space and undermines assumptions regarding its original function. In some pieces, the audiences moves around rather than occupying fixed seating.

Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre has codified the company’s community engagement into five sectors:

Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre has a sister company based in Portland, Oregon: the Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre/Northwest. This company pursues a similar mission and initiates collaborations with artists and communities of the Pacific Northwest.

Performance history

The Groundskeepers | 2013 A traveling multimedia performance, The Groundskeepers created a series of moving murals inspired by the architecture and history of Linda Vista Hospital. Offering audience members a chance to experience this iconic hospital as it was built in 1924 and explore areas of the site not typically open to the public, the work animated a fire escape staircase, entryway, chapel, boiler room, and outdoor wall. Written by George Moreno, The Groundskeepers featured original music by composer Lu Kunene, dynamic projections by international multimedia artist Refik Anadol, lighting design by Grant Dunn, and typographic artwork by Andrew Byrom.

Cleopatra, CEO. | 2012 This multimedia dance performance took place on the 51st floor of Paul Hastings Tower in Los Angeles, which Duckler transformed into an Egyptian executive suite into order to retell the story of Cleopatra. Celebrating the Egyptian Queen’s return to power, it evoked new a reinterpretations of leadership and ambition.

Expulsion | 2011 Taking as its theme the often temporary nature of home, Expulsion was performed in a vacant lot in Glendale, CA. On scaffolding three stories above the audience, four male dancers from Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre collaborated with five female dancers from the Iranian-Armenian Glendale Arts, Djanbazian Dance Company to initiate a dialogue about the impact of expulsion from home on individuals, families, and neighborhoods. The dancers were accompanied by Alex Noice’s original score. This collaborative project was part of the World Festival of Sacred Music.

A Gallerina’s Guide | 2011 A multimedia dance theatre work, A Gallerina's Guide, explored the relationship between artist, audience, and the walls of a gallery space. With the audience listening on infrared headsets, live performers in oversized frames exposed the mysteries of the nude, the action of the still life, and the kaleidoscope of the color field. Something between a living art show and an interactive exhibit, it received a National Endowment for the Arts' Artistic Excellence award. Venues where it was performed included the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Phoenix (AZ) Art Museum, and Laurel Hardware Space in West Hollywood, CA.

Governing Bodies | 2010 This piece celebrated the democratic process by involving the audience in a work that focused on both the Los Angeles arts community as a whole, and the strength and power of the artist’s individual voice. It took place at Los Angeles City Hall.

Oh Cosmonaut, She Looks for Where She was Born | 2010 Commissioned by the Link Vostok International East-West Arts Exchange to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of Yaroslavl, Oh Cosmonaut was inspired by the life of Yaroslavl resident Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut who traveled in space in 1963. It was part of the 9th International Festival on the Volga, Yaroslavl & Kotroma, Russia.

Longing in Hong Kong | 2007 This site-specific work in a commercial district of Hong Kong was commissioned and presented during Swire Island East’s Urban Dance Festival. Five Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre dancers performed inside the glass-enclosed Lincoln Bridge as well as throughout the surrounding architecture, and on Tong Chong Street below.

Laundromatinee | 1980s–2010 As Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre’s signature site-specific work, Laundromatinee was originally performed at the Thriftywash in Santa Monica in the company’s early days. Its 2010 reprise at the Spin Cycle Laundr-o-mat, Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles, won it recognition by the National Endowment for the Arts as an American Masterpiece. It was also reprised in New York in 2006, as part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Sitelines Festival.

Cattle Calls | 1991 This western-themed work was choreographed by Heidi Duckler and performed by Collage Dance Company members. It premiered at The Powerhouse, Santa Monica.

Foundations | 1990 This site-specific work by Collage Dance Theatre was performed in and around an outdoor reflecting pool at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. Set elements included floating fluorescent letters, reconfigured fishing equipment, and a rusty bicycle.

Church of Food | 1990 Choreographed by Heidi Duckler and performed by Collage Dance Theatre, this ensemble work had its premiere at Unitarian Community Church of Santa Monica, CA.