Flam Chen TUMBLR

Kokopee from Flam Chen on Vimeo.

Emergence of the Kokopee

Pon De Flor- from Flam Chen on Vimeo.

Eotchan- from Flam Chen on Vimeo.

Rites OV Spring: Arcosanti 2012 Excerpts from Flam Chen on Vimeo.

Excerpts from Rites Ov Spring 2012 at Arcosanti
taken form Leslie Epperson’s footage from her documentary reels.

Embracing Risk As Community Strategy from Flam Chen on Vimeo.

Introductory statement for APAP 2013 panel presentation
Embracing Risk as Community Strategy presented by Jay Ruby of The Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theater, Sarah East Johnson of LAVA Brooklyn, and Paul Weir of Flam Chen Pyrotechnic Theater Co. and the All Souls Procession.
Where there is risk, there is reward! What unites and differentiates spectators, presenters and artists? How does each one approach, define and understand risk in supporting the performative act – the risk of the physical body, the financial investment, and confronting our relationship to values. This session will track three different spectacle-based drama groups and how precarity helps define their relationship to community. We will investigate the stakeholder responsibilities shared between presenters, artists and spectators engaging in the presentation of spectacle-based drama by examining the parallel experiences of Lava Acrobatic Arts of Brooklyn, Flam Chen and the All Souls Procession of Tucson, Arizona and The Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theater’s International Acrobatic Stilt collaborations.

Jay Ruby directs The Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theater Company. Known for its innovative and pioneering use of acrobatic stilting outside of non-traditional venues The Carpetbag Brigade utilizes open air spectacle-based drama to cultivate cross-cultural collaboration and has been supported by UNICEF through the Universal Forum of Cultures and the State Department through the US Embassy in Bogota, Colombia.
Sarah East Johnson is the Obie and Bessie-award winning founder and artistic director of LAVA Brooklyn. Since 2000 LAVA has been presenting original performances that integrate acrobatics, dance, geology, feminism and humor for audiences in New York City, throughout the U.S. and internationally.
Paul Weir has been innovating performance art for the last 15 years as technical director of Flam Chen Pyrotechnic Theater company and the All Souls Procession. The All Souls Procession grew out of an intimate grassroots event in 1990 and has now grown to the largest and most inclusive “day of the dead” celebration in the U.S.