“I have long been inspired by nature, its beauty, forms, structures, and systems; how it reflects and inspires culture and human thought. edge effects references the concept of an “ecotone” – a zone were one ecosystem meets another as the when the meadow meets the forest, the water meets the land, or where one body meets another. This concept unfolded and manifested in many ways in the creation of the dance, provoking ideas and movement for how we relate to each other, for margins and marginality, and to deeper understanding of our own nature as human animals.“

- Tere Mathern (director and choreographer)

Edge Effects
Performed February 25 - 28, 2016
@ Studio 2 in Portland, OR

Duration: Variable

Choregraphy and direction:
Tere Mathern

Live electronic composition:
"Times Physique" by Alter Structure

Dancers:
Dar Vejon Jones
Lena Traenkenschuh
Lyra Butler-Denman
Sara Parker
Vanessa Vogel

Film:
Sophia Wright Emigh

Camera operators and video editing:
Karl Lind
Ian Lucero

Editing on Edge Effects excerpt video:
RVT vision

Lighting:
Robin Greenwood

Photographer:
Julie Keefe

A group of dancers are chosen to embark on a journey of self inquiry, transformation and creation. 

A workshop and performance intensive with choreographer Meshi Chavez.

Video link

Being Moved . 4 . All that I know is nothing
Performed January 30 - 31, 2016
@ Headwaters Theatre in Portland, OR

Being Moved . 3 . KINTSUGI
Performed January 16 - 17, 2015
@ Headwaters Theatre in Portland, OR

Being Moved . 2
Performed January 3,4,10,11, 2014
@ Headwaters Theatre in Portland, OR

Being Moved . 1
Performed January 4 - 5, 2013
@ Headwaters Theatre in Portland, OR

Duration: Variable

Choregraphy and direction:
Meshi Chavez

Live sound improvisation:
Lisa DeGrace (2013,2014)
Adrian Hutapea
Roland Ventura Toledo

Camera operator and video editing:
Ian Lucero

Editing on KINTSUGI excerpt video:
RVT vision

Lighting:
Dug Martell

REVIVIFY responds to the overwhelming history humans have cataloged in a web based world of collected stories, past events, current trends and hyper-information. Ultimately, humanity shines through, reliving the past events and leading us into an unfolding future world. This collaboration brings a pair of dancers into a sculptural landscape of sound, using the existing sound system while overlaying another speaker system designed within the performance space.  With sound leading the way and being the catalyst, the dancers’ movements are provided an immersive sound design that they are unfamiliar with, opening up to the integration of chance within their dancing. This concept is driven by an uber-cerebral idea of allowing history to unfold in a self organizing “Pandora Radio” style. Searching and appropriating the Internet's content, in the moment, with events linked to other events, the audio is produced, constructed, and manipulated in real-time with no structured sequence except by what is “suggested” next in an unpredictable and autonomous fashion.

The sound artist's role then becomes an interface between the audio and dancers.

Video link

Dance + Performance Festival
Premiered July 10 - 19, 2014
@ Conduit in Portland, OR

Duration: 19m 03s

Concept and audio console design:
Roland Ventura Toledo

Live sound:
"STEM" by Alter Structure

Choreographer and dancer:
Stephanie Lanckton

Dancer and collaborator:
Mizu Desierto

Camera operators:
Ian Lucero
Eric Nordstrom

Editing on full length video:
Ian Lucero

Editing on excerpt video:
RVT vision

Photographer:
Jim Lykins

"before the dawn" explores concepts linked to the origins of Butoh called Ankoku - the spiritual aspect of the dance. This piece is inspired by Ankoku, and by imagery of moths, moonlight, longing and desire. It seeks to create a sense of something that has no beginning or end.

"The music... was shattering, physically and emotionally."
- Dance critic Martha Ullman West

Video link

Dance + Performance Festival
Premiered July 10 - 19, 2014
@ Conduit in Portland, OR

Duration: 19m 57s

Choregraphy and direction:
Meshi Chavez

Live sound:
"Normal Light" by Alter Structure

Dancers:
Teresa Vanderkin
Joe McLaughlin

Camera operator:
Eric Nordstrom

Editing on excerpt video:
RVT vision

Photographer:
Jim Lykins

Wild is a multidisciplinary ensemble piece, created by members of (TCP) The Circus Project's 2013 Youth Summer Performance Intensive on a human-sized aerial birdcage. The piece, co-created by seven youth, ages 13- 21, under the direction of Jenn Cohen (Director, Circus Project), Mizu Desierto (Director, Water in the Desert), and Nicolo Kehrwood (Coach), with musical composition by Roland Ventura Toledo, utilizes the cage as a metaphor for the internal structures we create to both contain and/or inhibit our deeper selves.

“Wild” premiered at the Galaxy Festival in Director’s Park on Saturday, August 10th 2013 in Portland, Oregon and in Seattle, WA to perform at Broadway Performance Hall as part of the American Youth Circus Organization’s Festival.

Galaxy Festival
Premiered August 10, 2013
@ Director's Park in Portland, OR

American Youth Circus Organization’s Festival
August 14 – 18, 2013
@ Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle, WA

Electronic audio composition
2ch sound
2 speakers
Duration: 11m 00s

Concept, choreography and direction:
Jenn Cohen
Mizu Desierto
Nicolo Kehrwood

Electronic composition:
Roland Ventura Toledo

Costume and Styling:
The dance ensemble

Camera operator:
Adam Bailey

Photographer:
David Rose Photography

Epoch before birth,
Amaranthine Beginnings,
Eternity strung

Amaranthine Beginnings is a collaborative installation combining butoh and contemporary dance, sound, architecture and set design. The interest lies in transforming the perception of time, place and space. We awaken the imagination of an audience by expanding, contracting, augmenting speed, and freezing time through movement and sound.

The concept of this piece is born out of the Fibonacci sequence (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, ...) and the golden ratio, which is found throughout the universe, nature, bodies, mathematics, architecture, sound and art. We investigate how this ancient formula relates and translates into movement and sound by developing a relationship to it through our piece.

The visual nature of this piece lies within a set design comprised of suspended rocks coated in a hyper reflective material and a Fibonacci rock spiral on the ground.  The stones orbit, swing and settle into stillness, while the dancer travels through lifetimes within the sound frequencies and tones that add to the sonorous fabric of the piece.

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Amaranthine Beginnings was initially created as part of a 6 month artist residency in 2012-2013 at Studio2 @ Zoomtopia in Portland, OR.

Video link

Dance + Performance Festival
Premiered July 18 - 20, 2013
@ Conduit in Portland, OR

Live piano and electronic audio
2ch sound
2 speakers
Duration: 23m 24s

Concept, direction, and set design:
Stephanie Lanckton
Roland Ventura Toledo

Live sound:
Roland Ventura Toledo

Choreographer and dancer:
Stephanie Lanckton

Costume and Styling:
Alenka Loesch

Camera operators:
Ian Lucero
Eric Nordstrom

Editing on full length video:
Ian Lucero

Editing on excerpt video:
RVT vision

Underneath is an evening-length work made in collaboration with Wobbly (Yulia Arakelyan and Erik Ferguson), performers Mizu Desierto and Nathan H.G. and musician Roland Toledo. Using a blend of contemporary dance, butoh, theatre and song, Underneath tells a tale of the subconscious with the fluid timing of a dream. Peeling back preconceived notions of beauty and belonging, Underneath reveals an inner landscape of isolation, deformity and domination as four individuals seek the possibility of a love that, perhaps, heals all wounds. This sometimes confrontational, sometimes sweet new work, manages to crack open the mind without leaving the viewer shattered. This work has been made during a yearlong residency at The Headwaters as part of Water in the Desert's AIR program. Underneath is also generously supported by the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Multnomah County Cultural Coalition and Oregon Cultural Trust.

Video link

Wobbly Dance
Premiered November 30 - December 8, 2012
@ Headwaters Theatre in Portland, OR

Live electronic audio
2ch sound
2 speakers
Duration: 46m 15s

Concept, choreography and direction:
Wobbly (Yulia Arakelyan and Erik Ferguson)
Mizu Desierto
Nathan H.G.

Live sound:
Roland Ventura Toledo

Lighting:
Kaye Blankenship

Camera operator and video editing:
Ian Lucero

Editing on excerpt video:
RVT vision

Photographer:
Kamala Kingsley

Audio Description:
Alyson Osborn

ASL Interpreter:
Dana L Walls

There is a lonely speck floating in the enveloping darkness of the cosmos that contains all of human history, past, present and future. We, as a human race are physically bound to this "...mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam", as the late cosmologist Carl Sagan once wrote.

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2nd annual 1 Festival
A Festival of Many.  A Theme of 1
The Headwaters Theatre plays host to 23 shows over 11 days.

The 1 Festival
June 2, 2012
@ Headwaters Theatre in Portland, OR

Live electronic audio
2ch sound
2 speakers
Duration: 22m 55s

Concept, direction, and set design:
Stephanie Lanckton
Roland Ventura Toledo

Live sound arrangement:
Roland Ventura Toledo

Choreographer and dancer:
Stephanie Lanckton

Camera operator and video editing:
Ian Lucero

Editing on excerpt video:
RVT vision

Music and sound credits :
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto – Reverso
Marvin Gaye - The Star Spangled Banner - Live From the 1983 NBA All Star Game 2
Jimi Hendrix - The Star Spangled Banner (Live at Woodstock 1969)
Aphex Twin – Rhubarb
NASA – Jet Propulsion Laboratory

There is a lonely speck floating in the enveloping darkness of the cosmos that contains all of human history, past, present and future. We, as a human race are physically bound to this "...mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam", as the late cosmologist Carl Sagan once wrote.

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SOAK is a festival presenting a torrent of acts and workshops in theater, butoh, dance, and performance art every spring over four weeks in May and June.

SOAK broadens the perceptions of the artists and audiences with work that is experimental, rigorous, and thought-provoking. The festival showcases finished and in-progress work by international, local and resident artists and blends them together in a concoction that inspires audiences, fuels the artists, and stimulates the community surrounding LEIMAY’s activities.

SOAK Festival
Premiered May 4, 2012
@ CAVE in Brooklyn, NY

Live electronic audio
2ch sound
2 speakers
Duration: 33m 03s

Concept, direction, and set design:
Stephanie Lanckton
Roland Ventura Toledo

Live sound arrangement:
Roland Ventura Toledo

Choreographer and dancer:
Stephanie Lanckton

Camera operator:
Shige Moriya

Photographer:
Shige Moriya

Music and sound credits:
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto – Reverso
Marvin Gaye - The Star Spangled Banner - Live From the 1983 NBA All Star Game 2
Jimi Hendrix - The Star Spangled Banner (Live at Woodstock 1969)
Aphex Twin – Rhubarb
NASA – Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Leimay presents the world premiere of their collaborative dance-video project. Becoming meditates on the continuous cycles of life and death, the modern human search for identity and the struggle to become someone. Contrasting wild physicality with meditative stillness, Leimay’s performance works synthesize dance, live manipulated video and original live music. Collaborators include an international group of artists from the U.S., Colombia, Japan and the Czech republic, including composer Roland Ventura Toledo and dancers Denisa Musilova, Miyu Leilani and Masanori Asahara.

Ill Festival Danza in la Ciudad
Premiered November 25, 2010
@ Teatro Jorge Eliecer Gaitan in Bogota, Colombia, S. America

Live electronic audio
2ch sound
2 speakers
Duration: 00m 00s

Concept, direction, and set design:
LEIMAY (Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya)

Live sound:
Roland Ventura Toledo

Choreographer and dancer:
Ximena Garnica

Dancers:
Denisa Musilova
Miyu Leilani
Masanori Asahara

Video artist:
Shige Moriya

Camera operator:
Shige Moriya

Photographer:
Leimay

The Trace of Purple Sadness is a journey of one dancer in a constant state of becoming in an ever-changing world. The human body, like a flower, sprouts to maximum splendor, to then decay into serene melancholy, leaving a purple trace, the sky at dawn or the beginning of dusk. Countless flowers are born in our bodies, every moment another trace.

Festival de Mujeres en Escena por la Paz
Premiered March 30 - 31, 2008
@ Corporacion Colombianade Teatro in Colombia, S. America

Live electronic audio
2ch sound
2 speakers
Duration: 00m 00s

Concept, direction, and set design:
LEIMAY (Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya)

Live sound:
Roland Ventura Toledo

Choreographer and dancer:
Ximena Garnica

Video artist:
Shige Moriya

Camera operator:
Shige Moriya

Photographer:
Shige Moriya
Pavel Antonov

The Greek myth is rendered in LEIMAY’s performance to reflect upon the experience of absence, as with families and friends of los Desaparecidos, the ‘Disappeared Ones,’ of Colombia’s political upheavals. LEIMAY’s Antigones contribute to face the conflict between the law and conscience. Antigone takes a stand, sacrificing her life to be buried alive.

“Antigone is a wandering shadow: like the woman spirit who never received the stiff bodies of her dead. Antigone is without rest, tormented and overshadowed by the vacuum of absence, the presence of those who are no longer there; she is a reproach to society, inciting the State and its cruel laws, and to all those for whom passivity assumes the current arbitrary terror of the war.”

Antigones is an act of remembering, gathering force in silence: a body condition, which apprehends all that has perished, multifaceted and difficult to decipher.

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An initial version of this piece, lasting twenty minutes, was presented October 27, 2007 in "Kazuo Ohno 101," a three-week Butoh parade and marathon at Japan Society, NYC, which was part of the Third New York Butoh Festival.  Live sound for this version was created by SUIT (Nathan Howe and Roland Toledo).

World Premiere
Premiered September 18 - 21, 2008
@ Joyce SoHo in New York, NY

Live electronic audio
2ch sound
2 speakers
Duration: 50m 00s

Concept, direction, and set design:
LEIMAY (Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya)

Live sound:
Roland Ventura Toledo

Choreographer and dancer:
Ximena Garnica

Guest director:
Juan Merchan

Video artist:
Shige Moriya

Camera operator:
Shige Moriya

Photographer:
Yana Kraeva