Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner

Dancers Katie Arrants, Kathleen Keogh, and Rikki Rothenberg have been conducting a kinesthetic experiment in nonsense all over the Pacific Northwest under the moniker Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner. Founded in October 2006, the group bases its work in conceptual absurdity, physical intensity, and emotional authenticity. Praised in reviews for its “quirky athleticism” and “fresh and smart” brand of humor and mania, Woolly creates idiosyncratic, audience-friendly work that invites community participation and includes frequent collaborations with local designers, photographers, visual artists, and musicians. Woolly has performed over 35 shows in venues ranging from burned-out buildings to grassy knolls, Mexican bars to fields of llamas, cowboy dance halls to downtown alleyways. In addition to its performances, the collective occasionally provides choreographic consultation for other artists and holds free dance-making workshops for the general public. Members of the Woolly collective have also taught at the Performatica dance festival in Cholula, Mexico, the Seattle Festival of Dance and Improvisation (SFDI) and the Conduit Summer Dance Intensive in Portland, along with founding and organizing the Food and Shelter Festival of Improvised Dance and Music. Woolly has been featured in curated showcases ranging from Mike Barber’s Ten Tiny Dances to Linda Austin’s Richard Foreman Mini-Festival and Hand2mouth Theater’s Risk or Reward show for up-and-coming artists to Mizu Desierto’s Water in the Desert festival. Members have also performed in Jennifer Monson’s BirdBrain, Linda K. Johnson’s Promenade, Emily Stone’s Orange (featured at Seattle’s Northwest New Works showcase), Daniel Addy’s Aviator, and Linda Austin’s Circus Me Around and The City Dance of Lawrence and Anna Halprin. Woolly also completed a dance film as part of composer Seth Nehil’s interdisciplinary arts project Flock and Tumble. Recent projects include Portland’s NoFest festival, a collaboration with the Oregon Painting Society for Portland’s Time-Based Art (TB:A) festival 2009, and a show at the Bumbershoot arts festival in Seattle, WA. Dancers Katie Arrants, Kathleen Keogh, and Rikki Rothenberg have been conducting a kinesthetic experiment in nonsense all over the Pacific Northwest under the moniker Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner. Founded in October 2006, the group bases its work in conceptual absurdity, physical intensity, and emotional authenticity. Praised in reviews for its “quirky athleticism” and “fresh and smart” brand of humor and mania, Woolly creates idiosyncratic, audience-friendly work that invites community participation and includes frequent collaborations with local designers, photographers, visual ... (read more)