FALLING OUT

A New Work by Phantom Limb Company

Endlessly inventive theater artists Jessica Grindstaff and Erik Sanko offer an emotional call to climate action. Inspired by the catastrophic 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster, this rippling meditation on water, heartbreak, and toxic fallout fuses contemporary krump dance and Japanese butoh tradition with Phantom Limb’s singular style of puppet theater. Created in collaboration with Dai Matsuoka of the transportive dance troupe Sankai Juku, Falling Out weaves music, movement, and design into a haunting tapestry of collective collapse and renewal.

Falling Out serves as the final installment in Phantom Limb’s Environmental Trilogy (69°S, Memory Rings). Taken together, these works demonstrate the company’s longstanding commitment to the principled intersection of art and environmental awareness.

World Premiere   October 12-13, 2018, Oz Arts Nashville, TN

New York Premiere  November 7-10, 2018 BAM Next Wave Festival, NY

April 4-5, 2019 Kennedy Center Direct Current Festival, with Georgetown's Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, Washington, DC

Additional performances to be announced. Available for touring.

Creative Team

Director and Scenic Design: Jessica Grindstaff

Composer and Puppet Maker: Erik Sanko

Butoh Master: Dai Matsuoka

Featuring performances by Nobuyoshi Asai, Kevin Boateng, Emeri Fetzer, Takemi Kitamura, Klassic, Dai Matsuoka, Carlton Ward

Video Design: Keith Skretch

Lighting Design: Brian H Scott

Sound Design:  Darron L West

Dramaturg: Janice Paran

Creative Producers:  Mara Isaacs and Ronee Penoi/Octopus Theatricals

Production Manager: Meg Kelley

Falling Out is commissioned by BAM for the Next Wave Festival and is made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Falling Out was developed through residencies at John Michael Kohler Center for the Arts in Sheboygan, WI; CalArts Center for New Performance; Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden; the Hermitage Artist Retreat; and as part of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Process Space program.

Falling Out is supported by the Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN program; the Asian Cultural Council; the Jim Henson Foundation, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation; New Music USA; and with the assistance of New York Live Arts. To follow the project as it unfolds, visit: https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/falling-out/