Michael F Bergmann, Lucas Carravetta, Matt Endahl, and Aimée Dawn Robinson comprise Almost Alchemy and come together in Guelph, Ontario, from different backgrounds, mediums, and geographies.The group utilizes diverse mediums such as dance, music, acting, video and live AI to create improvisational performances centered around specific themes.
rocketmanperson
"rocketmanperson" was performed at the KEEP HOPE ALIVE Festival on October 1, 2023. It explored hope through the lens of space travel optimism during times of struggle.
Who's There?
Who’s there? is many things. A question from the very first moment of Hamlet. A question about presence and absence. A question we ask of our instruments, our bodies, inside the woods, machines, robots, entities, and into the dark. Who is inside the supposed Monsters? Who are the real monsters? Who is behind things, who is the magician and who is the thief? Who pulls the strings and who pulls the heart. Who moves you?“Who’s there?” is also a question which activates identities; we need to think before we answer – who am I, what do I represent, and how do I choose to be seen and identified?
Watch short excerpts of the shows in 360 degree video on Vimeo (headphones recommended):
Almost Alchemy is a performance collective formed through a meeting of diverse artistic and academic paths during doctoral study in Critical Studies in Improvisation at the University of Guelph. We are four interdisciplinary artist-researchers: Michael F Bergmann, Lucas Carravetta, Matthew Endahl, and Aimée Dawn Robinson, who collaborate across improvised dance and embodied performance, theatre and acting-based improvisation, musical improvisation, and performance technologies.Aimée Dawn Robinson (she/her) brings decades of Canadian and international experience in improvised dance and embodied practice, shaped by long-term lived and artistic work in the Yukon. Her approach integrates visual art, writing, research, and performance-making, with current research centred on northern embodied arts education and improvisation. Lucas Carravetta (he/him) is an actor and improvisational performer whose practice spans theatre, comedy, and teaching; he has worked in bilingual and Latin American contexts and continues to explore improvisation as a sustainable practice for mental health and artistic expression in underfunded communities. He also develops and modifies open-source and virtual tools to support creative practitioners and remote performers. Michael F Bergmann (he/they) is a projection/video designer and performance researcher whose work applies improvisational methods and critical discourse to human–AI interaction, aiming to foster empathy through post-anthropocentric performance modes; he teaches and conducts research through the Technological Research in Performance Lab and is a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. Matthew Endahl (he/her) is a genderfluid pianist, composer, and educator with an extensive background in jazz performance and collaboration across the US and Canada, bringing a rigorous, responsive musical improvisation practice to the ensemble.Together, Almost Alchemy operates as a laboratory for improvisation in contemporary conditions: we interrogate how collaboration shifts when it includes technology, distance, and nonhuman agencies, including our ongoing improvisational collaboration with an AI presence (ARIA). Our collective process also reflects a shared commitment to democratizing learning and education, questioning inherited productivity logics, and expanding our individual and shared creative practices through conversation, experimentation, and live performance research.
Want to connect with us? Email at:
hello@almostalchemy.com
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