In “February” the company present two works.
“Little island” a 30 min play and “One day” a 30 min dance piece.
In Little Island, a cold winter day in New York City sets the stage as a woman touches on the meaning of loneliness in a surrealistic world. The original play, written by and starring Lee Sher, uses theatrical language based on the physical image method, stimulating latent senses and instincts.
One Day is a dramatic and compelling visual and cerebral dance performed by Jye-Hwei Lin (who performed in Geisha) and Hsin-Yi Hsiang. One Day uses explosive power and carefully crafted movements to develop awareness of body and space.
With major funding from:
- The Greenwall Foundation
- The Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in NY.
- The Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, a partnership of Avoda Arts, JDub Records, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and made possible with major funding from UJA-Federation of New York.”
Credits
“Little Island”
An original play, written by: Lee Sher
Translated from Hebrew by: Noa Shabti, Neil Wacks
Directors, stage, costumes and sound design: Lee Sher & Saar Harari
Actors: Lee Sher, Walker Lewis
Original music: Itamar Rotschild
Light design: Joe Levasseur
Stage Manager: Kristin Carlson
Speech: Darlene Monda
Hair stylist: Jessica Nash
“One day”
A dance piece
Choreographers, customs and sound design: Lee Sher & Saar Harari
Creating dancers: Jye-Hwei Lin, Hsin-Yi Hsiang
Light design: Joe Levasseur
Stage Manager: Kristin Carlson
Music from: Mozart Piano No.4, K 282, played by Mitsuko Uchida, AGF, Perez Prado & His Orchestra, Alva Noto
Reviews
FEBRUARY (Fall 2008)The Israeli duo Lee Sher and Saar Harari bring “February,” a new two-part evening, to La Mama. The first part is a one-sided conversation written and performed by Sher, a chilling evocation of needy isolation, while the second takes Sher’s and Harari’s exploration of violence-tinged sensuality from last year’s “Geisha” a step further, with the aid of two powerful Taiwanese dancers, Jye-Hwei Lin and Hsin-Yi Hsiang. – The New Yorker
One Day is performed by two extraordinary women: Jye-Hwei Lin and Hsin-Yi Hsiang. The Choreographer presents these two fascinating performers in a state of almost constant flux—now poised and dancerly, extending straight legs into space; now clumsy and spraddle-legged, their heads jutting out at odd angles as if they’re craning to find something. Modes of behavior and reactions wash over them like water coming out of a showerhead. There are moments in which both women seem to be trying to fit their mobile bodies and limbs into oddly shaped crannies of space (the effect is curiously sensual). Tough or tender, they’re amazing. And mysterious. – The Village Voice
The double bill “February,” by LeeSaar the Company.
The first part, “Little Island,” is a play written and performed by Ms. Sher, who trained as an actress. Seen on Saturday night at La MaMa E.T.C., it’s a mysterious portrait of an isolated woman.
The subsequent dance section, “One Day,” an explosive martial-arts kicks and undulating bodies… compelling.
The repetitiveness of the movement vocabulary and even pacing of “One Day,” set to Mozart as well as jazz and electronic music, mean it palls toward the end. But Mr. Levasseur’s lighting gives the work a fascinating theatricality and rhythm, and the focused interiority shown by Ms. Lin and Ms. Hsiang is never less than remarkable to watch. – The New York Times
LeeSaar the Company presents two separate works that are rich with meaning. Sher’s short, one-woman play, Little Island, portrays a lonely woman in a New York apartment, while the arresting One Dayoscillates between narrative and abstraction in an intense duet performed by the mesmerizing Jye-Hwei Lin and Hsin-Yi Hsiang. – Flavorpill
One of the most powerful aspects of past works by LeeSaar has been its intimacy. “One Day” is volatility and frenetic dynamics soften into a solid vocabulary less linked to personal emotion. The deep plies remain, as do the darting kicks and bouts of stillness.
Sher’s short play, Little island, offered a good, if odd, counterweight to the dance. She portrayed an old world, but young, woman named Martha Who, with an unidentifiable European-like accent.
Anomie, absurdity, and abject loneliness all fall around her as thick and soft as the snow blanketing the play’s exterior. – SUNDAYARTS
A duet with Taiwan-born Jye-Hwei Lin and Hsin-Yi Hsiang–intense, exacting channels of an intense, exacting vision, two performers who clearly have inspired Lee Sher and Saar Harari to sharpen all their tools.The evening includes Little Island, a brief play by and featuring Sher as a woman whose isolation–amid the pleasantness of an all-too-quiet house–compels her to reach out in odd and sometimes amusing ways.
If you don’t go, you’re missing. – Eva Yaa Asantewaa