Known as LA’s quintessential dance company, beginning on October 1, 2020 Heidi Duckler Dance (HDD) will celebrate its 35th Anniversary with ten days of “safely-distanced events, animated by original performances, distinguished honorees, and spectacular views of Los Angeles”. Titled THE QUEST this will be an invitation for the audience to participate in the truth about our environment, our memory and the many challenges currently facing this world. THE QUEST represents our enduring dedication to inclusiveness and justice in dance, arts education, and our community.” 9/9/20 Heidi Duckler Dance press release.
Heidi Duckler
Heidi Duckler is the Artistic Director and founder of Heidi Duckler Dance in Los Angeles and Heidi Duckler Dance/Northwest in Portland, Oregon. She has created well over 300 original site-specific works around the world including Australia, Germany, Russia, Hong Kong, Cuba, Chile, Canada, San Francisco, New York, Miami, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle, and throughout Southern California. Duckler received a BS in Dance from the University of Oregon and an MA in Choreography from UCLA. She is the recipient of numerous awards. Among them are the Distinguished Dance Alumna award from the University of Oregon School in Music and Dance, the Dance/USA and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundations’ Engaging Dance Audience award, and the National Endowment of the Arts American Masterpiece award for her touring works Laundromatinee. She is currently artist in residence with her company at the Martin Luther King Community Hospital Campus funded through NEA Art Works and the California Arts Council and she is in production on several dance films including a commission from the Portland Dance Film Festival.
On the company’s website, Duckler explains her working process as using site-specific performances to aid audiences in understanding how “dance, born from our experience, can be a tool of awareness. Having been one of the leaders in site-specific performances, Duckler has certainly raised everyone’s awareness of the environment around them and how it affects us all. Duckler always encourages her audiences to be an active participant of her events and to look more closely at not only the landscape and community that we live and work in, but also those outside of our everyday existence.
If you have traveled around Los Angeles, you have most likely stood in one of HDD’s site-specific arenas. The company has performed in an abandoned Chinese movie theater, on tall ships in the Port of Los Angeles, on and around sculptures, buildings, parks, golf courses, and plazas. You name it and HDD has performed, or eventually will perform there. Duckler is also a filmmaker and in the time of COVID-19, she has also produced two films, one on Zoom, Illuminating The Chandelier, a re-imagining of her work The Chandelier that was originally scheduled to be performed at The Wallis, and a video version of Underway which had to be cancelled due to the city and state shutdown. Prior to that, one of her films ESCAPE, was filmed while HDD was performing as part of the international programming at the Centro de Experimentación Escénica in Valdivia and at the LOFT International Dance Festival in Concepción, Chile.
Scene from Underway – Choreography by Heidi Duckler – Heidi Duckler Dance – Photo by Rush Varela
If you have not yet experienced a performance of Heidi Duckler Dance, now is your chance. Performances of THE QUEST will have limited capacity at each site, and each will either be a drive-in or a walk-up experience. Click on time slots below to reserve your spot. You may reserve individual tickets to as many dates as you wish! Remember to wear a mask and to practice physical distancing.
Performance Map
Here is the ten day performance schedule:
10/1 – West Hollywood – Drive-up
Congregation Kol Ami
1200 N La Brea Ave, West Hollywood, CA 90038
Get tickets: 6 pm | 7 pm | 7:45 pm
*****
10/2 – Baldwin Hills – Drive-up
Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook
6300 Hetzler Rd, Culver City, CA 90232
Get tickets: 7:30 pm | 8:30 pm
*****
10/3 – Mt. Washington – Drive-up
Southwest Museum of the American Indian
234 Museum Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90065
Get tickets: 6:30 pm | 7:15 pm | 8 pm
*****
10/4 – DTLA Fashion District – Drive-up
Rooftop Parking Lot
401 E. 12th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015
Get tickets: 7:30 pm
*****
10/5 – Koreatown – Walk-up
Founder’s Church
3281 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020
Get tickets: 7 pm | 7:45 pm | 8:30 pm
*****
10/6 – Boyle Heights – Walk-up
Neighborhood Music School
358 S Boyle Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Get tickets: 6:45 pm | 7:30 pm
*****
10/7 – Culver City – Walk-up
Wende Museum
10808 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90230
Get tickets: 6 pm | 6:15 pm | 6:30 pm | 6:45 pm | 7 pm | 7:15 pm
*****
10/8 – Inglewood – Drive-up
St. Mary’s Academy
701 Grace Ave, Inglewood, CA 90301
Get tickets: 7 pm | 7:45 pm
*****
10/9 – Willowbrook – Walk-up
Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital
1680 E 120th St, Los Angeles, CA 90059
Get tickets: 6:30 pm | 7:30 pm
*****
10/10 – Mystery Surprise Finale
6 pm
Tickets available with package purchase!
A LA CARTE TICKETS – $35
For more information on tickets, Packages and Sponsorship Opportunities, click HERE.
Read our Covid-19 health compliance measures here!
Written and compiled by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre in LOADED – Photo: LA Dance Chronicle.
