Stone Depot’s Eleanor Goudie-Averill, in her post as artist-in-residence at the Lawrence Arts Center, has choreographed the musical extravaganza Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (and makes a cameo in each performance). Get tickets for the final weekend HERE.
The performance of Chitty follows an extremely successful remount of Peter and the Wolf, seen by every second grade student in Lawrence, KS, at the end of January.
Featuring new choreography by Eleanor Goudie-Averill with Juliet Remmers &
Dance Films by Tori Lawrence + Co.
Cider Gallery, Lawrence, KS + January 16th, 2016
Scenarios is a new duet by Eleanor Goudie-Averill that is comprised of simultaneous solos. The two dancers, Goudie-Averill and Lawrence native Juliet Remmers, move between the Cider’s two gallery spaces and their characters are reminiscent of Harlequin from commedia dell’arte. Music will be played live by Adrian Rees. The audience, free to wander about the space to watch one or both performers, can watch the duet at 7 pm, 8 pm, or twice in one evening.
The evening will also feature four dance films by Tori Lawrence + Co.: Man and Woman with Plants, Toughting, Driving Figure, & Husk. All four works were filmed in the rural landscapes of the Midwest and will be screened throughout the evening. Husk and Driving Figure will be showcased at 6:45 and 7:45 pm.
An Evening of Dance Performance and Film, presented by Stone Depot, will appear at the Cider Gallery (810 Pennsylvania St, 66044) on Saturday, January 16th. Doors and bar open at 6:30 pm and the live performances are at 7 and 8 pm with film screenings throughout the evening. Suggested donation of $5 at the door and drinks for sale at the Cider’s bar.
Stone Depot’s collaboration with filmmaker Tori Lawrence and artist 
Marguerite Perret resulted in two new film projects this summer. One film was shot in urban Vienna near the Danube, during the week that Tori and Ellie were attending ImPulsTanz, and the second (pictured here) was made in further collaboration with dancer Judit Szamosi in rural Hungary.
In other news, Ellie will be an artist-in-residence and Dance Education Specialist at the Lawrence Arts Center for the next nine months. LAC was awarded a grant to conduct dance outreach throughout the year and Peter and the Wolf will be back by popular demand on January 28-31, 2016.
SDDL’s “Ladies of the Lake” collaboration with visual artist Marguerite Perret will continue this summer with a series of vignettes by filmmaker Tori Lawrence. The first film was shot in rural Iowa and, according to Lawrence, “serves as an entrance and foundation to that which is beautiful and sublime …
Seen is a woman in white against the backdrop of her green source. Her cap also white. A landscape of plenty (perhaps a flashback to what was and what is no longer). Solitary, journeying somewhere unknown. She, a pure spirit.”
We will create the next vignettes while traveling across Europe this summer. Our travels also include studying improvisation at Ponderosa in Germany and at Impulstanz in Vienna, Austria.
University of Iowa Students will perform Ellie Goudie-Averill’s new piece “Baroquean Selfie” (finally, a baroque ballet about cell phone documentation and social media) on June 7th as a part of the Summer of the Arts Festival.
The performance is FREE and open to the public, see you there (in front of the Sheraton Hotel downtown)!
The co-directors of Stone Depot will be reunited in Byblos, Lebanon to teach and perform at IDDFL this Spring. Ellie Goudie-Averill will create a new Ballet for the final performance and perform her Ladies of the Lakes solo
& Beau Hancock will create a Modern work and perform in a duet by Meredith Rainey with Rain Ross.
Stone Depot has teamed up with visual artist Marguerite Perret and dance film artist Tori Lawrence to create a new installation at the Mulvane Art Museum in Topeka, KS. The exhibit, Drift & Drag: Reflections on Water, opens on January 16th and will be up until March 14th, 2015. 
The dance, with music by Natasha Taylor and Luke Anderson, premiered on February 6th as a part of the First Friday Artwalk reception. Washburn University’s Dancing Blues led the procession into this immersive solo exploring water conservation, female water deities and the spirits of Annette Kellerman and Esther Williams. On February 20th, Ellie Goudie-Averill will present an encore performance at 3:30 pm as a part of Washburn’s Water Symposium.
“Goudie-Averill’s grace and power, expressive range and physical control, is on display, and although she can’t reproduce the spectacle of mountain/river backdrop from her video version, she compensates with collaboration, choreographing parts for the Dancing Bods at the outset and close of the program (and they pull it off wonderfully).” -Tom Prasch, audience member
