Selected Press
"This weekend’s Cacophony for 8 Players demands to be described by contradictory terms. It was sight and sound, dance and text. It was heady and visceral. It was satisfying on its surface and challenging in its depth." - Anna Waller, Seattle Dances, 2014
"Rich and unabashedly esoteric, this wild moon dance is a shimmering God’s eye of portentous detail. Rich, dense and dramatic, Cacophony examines sweeping universal truths, nature’s sometimes chaotic tidal sway, the light of insight, our shared and collected wisdom and the ripple effect it has upon our human existence. Not an easy task—of reducing a deep reasoning, quotable texts from obscure sources and of squeezing the infinite into finite—but I’m swept away by this beautiful and potent success story. Here in dark and dusty Washington Performance Hall, I feel as if I’ve made a pilgrimage to the sacred, distant cave of an exalted Shaman. The luminescent, vibrating bubble created within this vaulted, creaky time capsule resonates and merges. The cacophony of many players distilled into a single, uplifting voice." - Eric Pitsenbarger, STANCE, 2014
"The seductive first sound of Cacophony for 8 Players flew around the house like spirits. A loud boom interrupts my new relationship, and I slowly begin to situate where the moving trumpet song and low thunder is coming from. Others in front of me turn to watch, but I don't dare disturb these precious moments. The power that is Baldoz as she travels into my sight line oozes from her limbs and torso as she bends and moves her trumpet like a lover. I could watch her all night. On stage Baldoz is surrounded by instruments and electronics. Three dancers, Beth Graczyk, Allie Hankins and Peggy Piacenza move with and around sculptures that suggest figures and space. Torben Ulrich makes a musical sorcery that floats over the stage. Piacenza in her green fluid dress is a master at subtlety, she teases the entire place with just a tiny shift in the hip or a flick of the tongue, and moves on. She looks at everyone at once, and I feel like she's looking only at me. Graczyk maintains a muscular consistency juxtaposed against Hankins dynamics." - Laura Curry, multi-media artist, blog, On The Boards, 2012,
"Cacophony for 8 Players erupts with a klaxon of shredding horn. Is a surrealist dreamscape of sound and chess piece figures. The direction of smoke as it wafts between currents. Dark and moody, effecting a reverence of eastern influence, Ulrich's long beard pointing to rattling boxes. The deteriorating grey web of sculpture turning, a splash of green on swaying hips, writhing muscled back, catapulting dynamo and fractured electronics effect an hallucinogenic mind melt. Dense uncertainties pushed by cacophony. Confusing something that is nothing. It's like watching your fevered feelings take form through broken glass." - Eric P, blog, On The Boards, NWNW, 2012
"unthread the earthquake
its body greenly grave
wiffle interruption not incidental
foregrounded evolution
those hands swaddling air
belief rotating
burred speech hammering
muff and then i watched
and only watched and danced
behind counting
the singing bowl of her green back
scattering blindness
white blindness"
- Melanie Noel, poet, audience member On The Boards, NWNW, 2012
"The program notes also proved to be a helpful legend for Cacophony for Eight Players wherein Director/Performers Beth Graczyk, Angelina Baldoz, and Torben Ulrich along with performers Allie Hankins and Peggy Piacenza and performative sculptures by Micki Skudiarczyk an Steven Beradelli generated a subtle kind of organized chaos with clearly investigated, highly individualized scores. The piece has a breathtaking start with Baldoz heralding the coming of their piece from the audience rear in darkness before a golden light illuminates her creeping down the stairwell creating, well, her own cacophony as she sounds her trumpet and kicks the wall sharply with her wooden heeled boots. The curtain unfolds on the meditative state of Ulrich, Graczyk and Piacenza. This scene is gradually broken with a crescendo and dissolve of solos that occasionally overlap, each one demanding intense performative clarity and specific physicality." - Shannon Stewart, dance artist, blog, On The Boards, NWNW, 2012
"Rich and unabashedly esoteric, this wild moon dance is a shimmering God’s eye of portentous detail. Rich, dense and dramatic, Cacophony examines sweeping universal truths, nature’s sometimes chaotic tidal sway, the light of insight, our shared and collected wisdom and the ripple effect it has upon our human existence. Not an easy task—of reducing a deep reasoning, quotable texts from obscure sources and of squeezing the infinite into finite—but I’m swept away by this beautiful and potent success story. Here in dark and dusty Washington Performance Hall, I feel as if I’ve made a pilgrimage to the sacred, distant cave of an exalted Shaman. The luminescent, vibrating bubble created within this vaulted, creaky time capsule resonates and merges. The cacophony of many players distilled into a single, uplifting voice." - Eric Pitsenbarger, STANCE, 2014
"The seductive first sound of Cacophony for 8 Players flew around the house like spirits. A loud boom interrupts my new relationship, and I slowly begin to situate where the moving trumpet song and low thunder is coming from. Others in front of me turn to watch, but I don't dare disturb these precious moments. The power that is Baldoz as she travels into my sight line oozes from her limbs and torso as she bends and moves her trumpet like a lover. I could watch her all night. On stage Baldoz is surrounded by instruments and electronics. Three dancers, Beth Graczyk, Allie Hankins and Peggy Piacenza move with and around sculptures that suggest figures and space. Torben Ulrich makes a musical sorcery that floats over the stage. Piacenza in her green fluid dress is a master at subtlety, she teases the entire place with just a tiny shift in the hip or a flick of the tongue, and moves on. She looks at everyone at once, and I feel like she's looking only at me. Graczyk maintains a muscular consistency juxtaposed against Hankins dynamics." - Laura Curry, multi-media artist, blog, On The Boards, 2012,
"Cacophony for 8 Players erupts with a klaxon of shredding horn. Is a surrealist dreamscape of sound and chess piece figures. The direction of smoke as it wafts between currents. Dark and moody, effecting a reverence of eastern influence, Ulrich's long beard pointing to rattling boxes. The deteriorating grey web of sculpture turning, a splash of green on swaying hips, writhing muscled back, catapulting dynamo and fractured electronics effect an hallucinogenic mind melt. Dense uncertainties pushed by cacophony. Confusing something that is nothing. It's like watching your fevered feelings take form through broken glass." - Eric P, blog, On The Boards, NWNW, 2012
"unthread the earthquake
its body greenly grave
wiffle interruption not incidental
foregrounded evolution
those hands swaddling air
belief rotating
burred speech hammering
muff and then i watched
and only watched and danced
behind counting
the singing bowl of her green back
scattering blindness
white blindness"
- Melanie Noel, poet, audience member On The Boards, NWNW, 2012
"The program notes also proved to be a helpful legend for Cacophony for Eight Players wherein Director/Performers Beth Graczyk, Angelina Baldoz, and Torben Ulrich along with performers Allie Hankins and Peggy Piacenza and performative sculptures by Micki Skudiarczyk an Steven Beradelli generated a subtle kind of organized chaos with clearly investigated, highly individualized scores. The piece has a breathtaking start with Baldoz heralding the coming of their piece from the audience rear in darkness before a golden light illuminates her creeping down the stairwell creating, well, her own cacophony as she sounds her trumpet and kicks the wall sharply with her wooden heeled boots. The curtain unfolds on the meditative state of Ulrich, Graczyk and Piacenza. This scene is gradually broken with a crescendo and dissolve of solos that occasionally overlap, each one demanding intense performative clarity and specific physicality." - Shannon Stewart, dance artist, blog, On The Boards, NWNW, 2012