ArtBeat: C. Ryder Cooley’s “Animalia” @ MCLA Church Street Center, 11/18/09

You may have seen the initial presentation of “Animalia: Stories of Collapse, Calamity and Departure” when C. Ryder Cooley and Todd Chandler performed it at RPI in Troy back in March of last year.

Since then the haunting “Animalia” has been seen everywhere from Proctors in Schenectady to Skybox in Brooklyn to the Mission Creek Festival in San Francisco.

At 7:30pm on Wednesday (November 18), “Animalia” will be performed at the MCLA Church Street Center in North Adams, Mass. General admission tickets are $12, and reservations can be made by phoning 413.662.5204.

Cooley describes “Animalia” as “an inter-species fairytale that combines theatrical movement with live music on singing saw, accordion and strings.” The backdrop of the 50-minute multi-media performance is a hypnotic collage of mesmerizing video and archival film.

Created by Cooley, the performance in North Adams will also feature Anna Jacobs (of LAVA and Wise Fool Circus) and Todd Chandler (Cooley’s partner in the musical duo Fall Harbor).

Following the performance, there will be a reception at 9pm at Gallery 51 in North Adams, where Cooley’s drawing installation, “Reliquary,” is part of the four-woman exhibit “Nest.” The exhibit runs through Sunday (November 22).