i’ll see you in the trees
Friday, December 6, 7pm

Responding to Jim Hodges’ works, choreographer Damien Jalet orchestrates an intimate ceremony of gravitation, attraction, and transformation guided by the visceral yet soothing music of saxophonist Bendik Giske. The dancers’ figures hold the memory of each other and seem pulled by each other’s gravity. Their bodies echo the shapes and asperities of the glazed boulders, claiming hopelessly the eternity of their stillness.

This performance marks the 13th anniversary of the first collaboration of a long and fruitful dialogue between Jim Hodges and Damien Jalet that occurred at the same Gladstone Gallery in December 2011.

Damien Jalet, choreographer
Aimilios Arapoglou, dancer
Vinson Fraley, dancer
Bendik Giske, saxophonist
Louis Gabriel Nouchi, costumes

Damien Jalet (b. 1976) is French Belgian choreographer and dancer whose work moves from major international collaborations to more personal projects. His works which are often collaborative testify to the power of dance to constantly reinvent itself in dialogue with other disciplines such as the visual arts, music, cinema and fashion. He worked as both a dancer and choreographer for such diverse companies as les ballet C de la B, Sasha Waltz and Guests, Chunky Move, Eastman, NYDC, Hessisches Staatsballetts, Paris Opera Ballet, Scottish Dance Theatre, Icelandic Dance Company, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and more. For stage, he has created: Babel(words) (2010) with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Boléro (2013) and Pelléas et Mélisande (2018) with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Marina Abramović; Inked (2013); Les Médusés (2013); YAMA (2014); Gravity Fatigue (2015); VESSEL (2015) with Kohei Nawa; Thr(o)ugh (2016); SKID (2017); and Omphalos (2018).

On screen, he collaborated with director Gilles Delmas to create The Ferryman in 2016, with the participation of Marina Abramović and Ryūichi Sakamoto, a film presented at the Venice Biennale in 2017. In 2018, he choreographed Luca Guadagnino’s remake Suspiria. He choreographed Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Anima in 2019 which was nominated for a Grammy Award as ‘Best Musical Film’ and won a UK Music Video Award for ‘Best Choreography’. More recently, he created Brise-lames (2020) in collaboration with artist Kohei Nawa for the Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris, Planet(Wanderer) at Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse (2021), and Kites (2022) for GöteborgsOperans Danskompani. He also collaborated on certain sequences for Madonna’s 2019-2020 theatrical tour, Madame X, and is choreographing several songs for her 2023-2024 show The Celebration Tour, for which he is also a creative advisor. In 2023, he choreographed Emilia Perez, Jacques Audiard’s first musical, which was presented and twice awarded (Jury Prize and Award for Best Actress) at the Cannes Festival 2024. Other recent credits include Chiroptera (2023) a performance on the façade scaffolding of Paris Opera, and Mirage(transitory) (2024) at Theater 010 in Fukuoka, Japan. Jalet was appointed Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2022 by the French government.

Aimilios Arapoglou is a Greek dancer and choreographer who currently lives and works in Brussels. Arapoglou began his professional career in 2012 and has since performed and created both in Greece and internationally. He holds degrees from the University of Piraeus in political science and the National Conservatory of Contemporary Dance in Athens (SSCD). Arapoglou has collaborated with renowned companies and artists including Marina Abramović, Damien Jalet, JR, John Parish, Jim Hodges, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Nawa Kohei, the Göteborg Dance Company, NDT1, the Paris Opera Garnier, David Zambrano, Mor Shani, and others.

Among his notable performances are Shell Shock at La Monnaie, Brussels (2014), Babel 7.16 at the Palais des Papes, Avignon Festival (2016), and Boléro at the Paris Opera Garnier, Pelléas et Mélisande, and Vessel. Arapoglou has contributed to films such as Ferryman and Suspiria with Damien Jalet, as well as Anima by Paul Thomas Anderson and Thom Yorke, choreographed by Damien Jalet. In 2018, he collaborated with the National Dance Company of Mexico to co-create “Omphalos, and was the assistant-choreographer on Madonna’s Madame X theatrical tour. He has also collaborated on Train-Train and Brise-Lames with visual artist JR and pianist Koki Nakano at the Paris Opera Garnier. Arapoglou worked with Damien Jalet on Mist for the Nederlands Dans Theater and Planet (Wanderer), which premiered at the Théâtre de Chaillot in Paris and is currently touring worldwide. Recently, he was part of the core group for the choreographic development of Jacques Audiard’s new film, Emilia Perez, under the direction of Damien Jalet. Arapoglou is currently engaged in dance projects and site-specific creations in Japan and France, with several premieres upcoming.

Bendik Giske (b. 1982, Oslo, Norway) is a musician and performance artist renowned for his avant-garde approach to the saxophone and his unique blending of music, movement, and conceptual art. Giske gained recognition for his saxophone work, pushing the boundaries of the instrument’s conventional capabilities through the use of circular breathing, a technique that creates an immersive auditory experience blurring the lines between music and meditation. Treating the saxophone as an extension of his body, Giske’s performances incorporate elements of dance, physical movement, and performance art.

Giske’s debut album, Surrender (2019), released on the Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound, gained critical acclaim for its minimalist, raw sound. Follow-up albums Cracks (2021) and Bendik Giske (2023) explored themes of vulnerability and transformation, further solidifying his innovative approach within his minimalist compositions. Notable collaborations include projects with composers and artists such as Beatrice Dillon, Caterina Barbieri, Sam Barker, and artist and filmmaker Wu Tsang. Giske has been nominated three times for Norwegian Grammys and was named Artist of the Year 2024 in the German Jazz Prize awards. In 2024, he embarked on a world tour spanning four continents, selling out shows in Japan, Australia, Europe, and the USA. His work has been featured in art galleries and museums, underlining his appeal not just as a musician but as a contemporary artist whose work transcends traditional categorizations, and challenges audiences to rethink their perceptions of music and art. Giske’s cross-disciplinary collaborations and boundary-pushing artistry continue to redefine contemporary music and performance.

Vinson Fraley (b. Statesville, North Carolina) is multimedia artist who was raised in Atlanta, George and currently lives and works in New York City. Fraley holds a BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and has also received formal training at DeKalb School of the Arts and DanceMakers of Atlanta. In 2015, he became a member of Kyle Abraham’s A.I.M (Abraham.In.Motion) and later joined the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in 2017. Fraley’s collaborators include Carrie Mae Weems, Sterling Ruby, Damien Jalet, Kohei Nawa, Bobbi Jene Smith, Holland Andrews, Sara Mearns, Terri Lynn Carrington, Catherine Kirk, Boysnoize, Mario Sorrenti, Janet Biggs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The American Modern Opera Company, Arts at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), and MIT. He has had the opportunity to present works in the US, Germany, and France, and recently his work has been seen at The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, The Water Mill Center, Harlem Stage, New York Live Arts, Danspace, and The Peter Brant Foundation. His movement direction has been seen in videos by Calvin Klein, Burberry, Serpentwithfeet, Madonna, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Nike, Theory, Pattern Beauty, and The Cut.