WORKS+MUSIC
LIAR LEAR KING
Mercy is gone missing but the cameras never stop rolling. Dramas cannot therefore stop unfolding. LIAR LEAR KING is a multi-stage, multi-form work directly facing the impact of narcissism and bullying on our society. It fuses dance, short film, visual art, live music, opera, and spoken word into a dynamic experience centered by dance and driven by story. LIAR LEAR KING is an adaptation of King Lear set in New York, 1972. The story is focused not on King Lear and his tragedy, but on Cordelia his daughter, and her epic journey as she becomes a force who can mount an invasion of her own country, only to die at the hands of her own sisters. In the social and political environment of the United States, this theme resonates. LIAR LEAR KING is an organizational work, producing a sum of intellectual property that functions outdoors, onstage, online, and via music and spoken word, with shared creator’s rights and control. This is a model which performing artists are perfecting in the post-COVID world. This multidisciplinary work is expressly designed to be experienced in alternate channels by those differently abled in sight or hearing, or ability to physically access the performance. The nature of the work, and how it impacts the audience, is dependent on the abilities through which it is experienced.
- DIRECTOR Kevin Draper
- CO-DIRECTOR Phillip Stoddard, James Sofranko
- WRITING TEAM Tamar Charney (Lead), Nikhil Melnechuk, Kevin Draper, Lora Robertson, Stelth Ulvang, Danielle Rowe
- CHOREOGRAPHER Danielle Rowe
- BALLET COMPOSER Ellis Ludwig-Leone
- MOVIE COMPOSER Baile and Ellis Ludwig-Leone
- FILMMAKER Lora Robertson
- STORYBOARD ARTIST Kevin Draper
- WEB ACCESS INNOVATION Daniel Talsky
- PREMIERED BY Grand Rapids Ballet
- Produced by Kevin Draper and Lora Robertson
SAD BLIMP
SAD BLIMP and SAD BLIMP ROCKET are up at ArtPrize 2022. SAD BLIMP ROCKET at AH-NAB-AWEN Park / Fri, Sept. 23 – SAD BLIMP TV will be projected on SAD BLIMP ROCKET by mobile projectors at 8pm / Sat, Sept. – SAD BLIMP ROCKET will fly from 11am-1pm SAD BLIMP at ROSA PARKS CIRCLE / Sat, Sept. 24 – SAD BLIMP will fly while the Grand Rapids Ballet premieres excerpts from the new collaborative ballet with Satellite Collective, “Liar Lear King” and 5pm and 7pm with night projection to follow Kevin Draper, with Satellite Collective, would like to propose the installation of a 40 foot long aerostat hovering thirty feet above the ground acting as a cinema screen during the night, and a silent observer during the day. We intend to premiere a series of film and visual work on this canvas. The aerostat is nicknamed SAD BLIMP. It is Satellite’s intention for this world premiere to be the first point on a long journey, as the aerostat has been engineered to be an aerospace grade installation, with the assistance of military engineers and input from Macy’s balloon makers. We intend this idea to grow, and maybe one day, be hanging out in space for tourists. Satellite Blimp will bring the silent witness of ancient observation blimps to the waterways of New York, bearing witness in ground projections and real time performances on these giant canvases.
- ARCHITECT Kevin Draper
- COMPOSER Stelth Ulvang
- FILM MAKER Lora Robertson
- PRODUCTION DESIGNER Kevin Draper
ECHO & NARCISSUS 2020
- DIRECTOR & LIBRETTIST Philip Stoddard
- WRITER Kevin Draper
- COMPOSER Aaron Severini
- CHOREOGRAPHER Norbert De La Cruz III
- FILM MAKER Lora Robertson
- PRODUCTION DESIGNER Kevin Draper
- PROJECTION DESIGNER Simon Harding
TWO
- CHOREOGRAPHY Marcus Willis
- SCORE Aaron Severini
- VISUAL DESIGN Kevin Draper
- LIGHTING Stirling Baker
- STORY Kevin Draper
GRAN JERICHO
- DIRECTOR Lora Robertson
- SCORE Stelth Ulvang
- VISUAL DESIGN Kevin Draper
- LIGHTING Stirling Baker
- STORY Kevin Draper
- ANIMATION Lora Robertson
PHONE MESSAGE
This collaboration will explore the posthuman condition of individuality and a new musical process of tone overlays that makes the string instrument sound like a human voice.
- CHOREOGRAPHER Devin Alberda
- SCORE Richie Greene
- VISUAL DESIGN Kevin Draper
- LIGHTING Stirling Baker
WORD
- PERFORMERS Yuval David and Nikhil
- WRITERS Kevin Draper, Nikhil
- VISUAL DESIGN Kevin Draper
- LIGHTING Stirling Baker
INTERVENTION
- VISUAL ARTIST Site : Lab
- LIGHTING Stirling Baker
A PAIR OF IDEAL LANDSCAPES
- SHORT FILM Lora Robertson
- SCORE Richie Green
- CHOREOGRAPHY Esme Boyce
- LIGHTING Brandon Stirling Baker
EDIE LEAVES TWICE
- STORY Kevin Draper
- STOP MOTION ANIMATION Lora Robertson
- SCORE Ellis Ludwig – Leone
WALLS
- CHOREOGRAPHY Manuel Vignoulle
- MULTIMEDIA Kevin Draper
- LIGHTING Brandon Stirling Baker
- SCORE Ellis Ludwig – Leone
INDIVIDUATE
A new ballet that explores the edge of post human gender – and playfully engages a little marxism.
- CHOREOGRAPHY Devin Alberda
- SCORE Nick Jaina
I CAN HELP YOU
WATER
- COMPOSITION David Moss
- IMAGERY Kevin Draper
EMERGENCE
TWIN STAR EVENT
RITUALS
POETRY + SOUNDSCAPE + MULTIMEDIA
SATELLITE BALLET & COLLECTIVE
WAREHOUSE UNDER THE HUDSON
EPISTASIS
PROGRESS
COSMONAUT
THIEF
- STORY Kevin Draper
- LYRICS Nick Jaina
- MULTIMEDIA Kevin Draper and Lora Robertson
- SCORE Nick Jaina
MUSIC
Every Satellite Collective production combines original music with other art forms, including dance, multimedia, film, and spoken word. And always, live music, lots of it. Our first notice in the New York Times, noted that the “abundance of live music” was unique in the world of small, interdisciplinary companies. In an unheard-of move, we actually gave as much stage time to the musical performers as we did to the dancers and visual artists.
listen
You can now listen to the entire history of Satellite Collective original music here on our archive page.
MUSIC FEATURE //STELTH ULVANG & TREVOR MENEAR
Satellite Collective commissioned original scores from some of our favorite collaborators in response to the visual works by Lora Robertson and Kevin Draper in Satellite Tribeca II
MUSIC FEATURE //ELLIS LUDWIG-LEONE & BAILE
Satellite Collective is in a new production cycle for Liar Lear King. The piece, set in the New York of the 1970’s, focuses on Lear’s daughter Cordelia, who must grow in strength to lead an invasion of her own country only to be violently killed by her two sisters. Ultimately, Liar Lear King will fuse ballet, music, spoken word, film, animation, and digital sound beds in both stage and outdoor performances that will trace the impact of bullying on society.
Shakespeare’s King Lear is a warning first, and a story second. When Satellite Collective engaged in an adaptation of the piece in the form of Liar Lear King, it was certain to reflect the peculiarity of our times, and to be set in New York City, where no story is too big to hide behind the truth. Satellite’s multi-form production includes original music that weaves the work through its complex and tragic story. Satellite is working with Brooklyn-based composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone, and Brooklyn producer BAILE to produce the film score, and has commissioned Ellis to compose an original ballet with Kevin Draper and Lora Robertson, to premiere at Grand Rapids Ballet October 14-16, 2022. Two new movements by Ellis, SPEECH II and SPEECH III, anchor the short film score.Producer BAILE, also known as Reed Kackley, brought these works together, developed a sound bed and counterpoints, and adapted the elements into a film score that moves quickly while also giving the listener a strong sen
The collaboration began with Ellis Ludwig-Leone composing and producing a piece titled “Speech after the Removal of the Larynx” inspired by Carey McHugh’s poem of the same name. Ludwig-Leone organized his piece into four short movements, each evoking the scrambled sounds of speech: chattering, screaming, breathing, silence. The work invokes Ludwig-Leone’s musical negotiation between aggressive, rhythmic “captors” and the glowing chords that bloom in the silences between. Ludwig-Leone said his composition, “adhere[s] to the same kind of scrambled logic as the poem, which is full of contradictions, elisions, and vibrating dissonances.” Kackley, a musical autodidact electronic dance music composer and producer, responded to Ludwig-Leone’s composition by listening to it in concert with film of the ballet. Kackley cut and reassembled Ludwig-Leone’s composition to score the 10-minute short film, weaving in Kackley’s sonic additions, “so that the two works flowed back and forth in a synerg
Ellis’s classical training at Yale University and extensive work with chamber ensembles inspires lush, naturalistic compositions marked with barbed complexity. Influenced by mythical storytelling in which wonder turns to terror with a trick of light, his music is distinguished by its cinematic narrative sweep and captures subtle shifts in emotional valence, swinging between euphoria and dread: lyrical melodies twist into gnarled roots; clear water swirls to murk. Kackley produces for himself and others, and has scored a memoir movement, Patient History (2017), a piece that incorporated experimental dance and spoken word, as well short documentaries and films. He tours the US, Canada, the UK and Amsterdam, DJing and playing live. Ludwig-Leone composes, is the bandleader and songwriter for San Fermin, and is a founding partner of the label Better Company Records. Working together on Liar Lear King, Ludwig-Leone and Kackley have so far created a fresh film score remarkable for it
BAILE
BAILE, also known as Reed Kackley, is a Brooklyn based electronic music producer. Baile composes using foley sound, analog synth, and captured ambient sound to create warm layered dance music. BAILE collaborated with Ellis Ludwig-Leone on the composition for the film score for Liar Lear. 2021 saw Kackley release his first full-length album, ‘After All This Time’, on Montreal-based label House of Youth.
MUSIC FEATURE // STELTH ULVANG
Satellite’s Rogue Film Unit has begun a long, beautiful work in collaboration with Stelth Ulvang, of the band The Lumineers. The subject is Luzia Woman, one of the oldest human remains ever found. Dated to over 11,000 years old, they are now lost to a tragic museum fire.
This new composition will be a work in three parts, coming this Autumn and Winter. See this first image from the composition, and watch it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IlHtUPIn3_36D1X-v6rhZt1KFGY6clI-/view?usp=sharing
Listen to Stelth’s music from Satellite Collective’s 2016 dance-centered short film, “Gran Jericho”. His music here evokes pastoral innocence, sensory richness, comfort, and rumination in the natural world.
