Lelavision’s Heavy Metal DëVices

Over the past twenty years, Lelavision co-director, Ela Lamblin, has devised over twenty odd archetypal metal devices that can be used in all manner of surprising ways. This performance is a retrospective of these peculiar devices and their human collaborators, namely Lelavision and their friends. "We are planning to fill Open Space for the Arts with big objects as likely to flip a body 16’ in the air on a steel pyramid as they are to produce exotic melodies that would sooth the wildest child or the staunchest art critic." says Ela. Some spin, some rock, some fly, some are worn as costumes. Some are bowed, some honk, some sing, some are hit, some crash. All the contraptions are equally at home as apparatus for contemporary dance and physical theater as they are as devices for ambient musical transport. When these objects are brought to life with sound and action the results are like mind-boggling hallucinations that elicit awe and curiosity. Lelavision co-director and choreographer Leah Mann has spent the past 20 years working closely with Ela and his objects to create performances in which the playing of these contraptions is a fluidly formed collaboration of bodies becoming one with objects, generating patterns of movement and sound. Lelavision’s "Friends" happen to be a cast of stellar talent including theater maven Steffon Moody, dancers Abby Enson and Lynelle Sjoberg, and musicians Jason Staczek, Eric Chappelle, Arlette Moody, and Christopher Overstreet.
 
Lelavision tours to festivals, theaters, universities and conferences all over the world, schlepping many of these devices as they go. The Pandemonium (a 12’ rocking boat with a balloon organ motor) has toured to Italy, Scotland, Germany, Canada, and Singapore. The "Orbacles" (two steel balls that the performers literally play from the inside out) have appeared in Cirque Du Soleil events in Montreal and Toronto as has the Violcano (5’ diameter steel volcano-cello that spins). The oldest device is the Stamenphone- A 6’ stringed harmonic sculpture that Ela made while in college. He spent his early Seattle years busking with it at the Pike Place Public Market and at the Folklife Festival. He used it when he was accompanist to several classic UMO Ensemble theater pieces during the late 90’s. Working with UMO is what introduced Ela and Leah to Vashon Island where they lived in a 20 ft yurt for 4 years as they built their home and studio. Former UMO members David Godsey and Janet McAlpen’s ample Open Space for the Arts venue provides a special opportunity to set up all of these devices in the same room. The co-sponsorship by Open Space is facilitating a dream come true. "We’ve always wanted to set up all our toys at once! Now we can dust off some of the ones that have been shouting at us from the corners of the studio for so long!" We hope lots of folks will come out for this first ever, once in a quarter century happening.
 
Admission is $12 for adults & $7 for seniors, students, and kids for advanced purchases. $15 & $10 at the door. Open Space for the Arts is located at: 18870 103rd Ave SW Vashon, WA 98070
www.openspacevashon.com
Tickets can be purchased at Vashon Bookshop, 206.463.2616, and via Brown Paper Tickets www.brownpapertickets.com
For additional information, email us at lela@lelavision.com.