Canticle I: My Beloved

This film —to Benjamin Britten's Canticle I— is the first in the Other Canticles series and it reveals a reconciliation of one's past and present identities when returning home. Filmed in Collinwood, Tennessee.

An Orange Grove Dance Production
Direction, Choreography, and Cinematography: Matt Reeves and Colette Krogol
Performer: London Brison
Editor: Matt Reeves
Color Correction: Matt Reeves
Music Written by: Benjamin Britten
Music Performed by: IN Series Opera
Produced by: IN Series Opera
Filmed in 2021
Premiered in 2022

Canticle II delivers an emotional farewell/reflection of Britten’s Abraham & Isaac. Filmed in England, Britten’s home country, on the stunning terrains of Cornwall the film stirs heart-rending images of sacrifice, loss, and reconciliation.
Filmed in Cornwall, England

Still Falls the Rain is the third film in the Other Canticles series. Against the beautiful brutality of Britten's trio of piano, tenor, and solo horn—this film explores the relationship between modern spirituality and the natural world.
Filmed at Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Virginia

Canticle IV: Journey of the Magi

Canticle IV depicts a fractured moment in time, with its unique cinematic style giving a modern nod to triptych art. Britten’s rondo composition for countertenor, tenor, baritone, and piano parallels the filmic structure of pulling moments apart and bringing them back together. The fourth installment in the Other Canticles series, this dance film was created in the enchanting Satakunta region of Finland and explores the flexibility of Britten’s rhythm and harmonies.

Filmed in Satakunta, Finland 

 
Canticle V is the final work of the Other Canticles series. With the music written in the final years of Benjamin Britten’s life, this film is a minimalist interpretation of the music's enigmatic emotional landscape of solo tenor and harp. Nearly four thousand individual photos are used to construct the choreography–via stop motion animation– which casts surreal images of ascension and reverie across the mysterious and murky depths of Britten’s final hymn. 
Filmed in Baltimore, Maryland

Ninety miles of darkness, hope, waiting, and light.
In here, those ninety miles could be ninety thousand.
Distancia infinita.
(Poetry and opening text to the work by Colette Krogol)

12 Minute Video Work created by Matt Reeves, starring Colette Krogol. Presented to over 500 audience members in Eurajoki, Finland. 

About:
Cuban-American artist Colette Krogol, of Orange Grove Dance, shares her personal journey reconciling the recurring dreams she has for a country she’s never touched. More Than 90 Miles From Home weaves together movement, poetry, and video design within Krogol’s intimate chronicling of her family's exodus from Cuba during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift. More Than 90 Miles From Home takes the audience inside the bilingual thoughts, memories, and dreams of Krogol as she cascades over the Vuojoki Mansion.

Research and History available to audiences via social media prior to the video projection mapping presentation:
More than 90 Miles From Home is a personal journey through memory, dance, and dream that shines a light on the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 - a historic inflection point that changed the trajectory of more than 125,000 lives emigrating from Cuba to the United States. The Mariel Boatlift began in April of 1980, when Fidel Castro responded to the thousands of Cubans gathering at the Peruvian Embassy to seek asylum. He announced that anyone who wanted to leave Cuba could as long as someone came by boat to pick them up from the United States. 

The Cuban point of departure was the Port of Mariel. Even after relatives from the U.S. arrived, Cubans has to wait days in barren camps at the Mariel Bay and were stripped of all of their belongings. On April 14th, President Jimmy Carter agreed to accept 3,500 Cuban refugees. By the end of the Mariel Boatlift six months later, about 125,000 Cubans had arrived in the U.S.

This content highlights projects completed and derived during the pandemic and done across incredible spacial divides for the artists, collaborators, and audiences. Each project came with a unique set of challenges that have molded my artistry and awareness of space in ways unexpected. Each project has also served as a testament to the boundless nature of dance and the infinite 'stages' that might be possible if we are willing to embrace the unknown. 

Pierrot and the Reverie Site-Specific Concept Video
Premiere: March 2021

A new site-specific concept video by Delune, “Pierrot and the Reverie,” blends music with animation, theater, dance, multimedia, and AI. This piece will be created on-site, one year after so many performing arts spaces closed their doors. The composer-singer duo’s ethereal vocals and haunting electronic beats scaffold this amorous epic, underscored by excerpts from the sisters’ upcoming debut concept album Pierrot. Glamour says, “Delune will be your next music obsession.” 

The piece opens in a dream-like trance: a performer wakes up alone in National Sawdust, to find the venue abandoned and in disarray. Reality and fantasy blur as he attempts to find connection in the void. He moves through winding back corridors in search of the Main Hall. Suddenly, he finds himself alone on stage: what will he do? A love story to performance in space, “Pierrot and the Reverie” provides an intimate insight into our performer’s interaction with the empty venue. A truly collaborative ode to performance, the piece incorporates many artistic disciplines that explore not only the stage, but all of the architectural flourishes that make the building unique. Direction and multimedia design by Obie-award winner Jared Mezzocchi. Starring Robert Rubama. Choreography by Helen Hayes award winners Colette Krogol and Matt Reeves. Script supervision by writer & playwright Taylor Steele. Cinematography and editing by Stephanie Gaweda. Production design by Sadah Espii Proctor. Hand-drawn animations by Russian Hungarian Alexandra Hohner. AI sound design by Icelandic composer David Brynjar Franzson. Lighting by Dan Kent. Michael Hojkanski grip.  Performer ensemble: Orange Grove Dance dancers and collaborators - London Brison, Robin Brown, Tiffanie Carson, Alexus Crooms, Greg David, Laurie Dodge, Atlas Hill, Jonathan Hsu, Abby Farina, Angad Kalsi, Colette Krogol, Chris Law, Mariama Law, Shanice Mason, Brandon Washington, and Mei Yamanaka

A film at the intersections of dance, dream, and mythology.

A UNIQUE DANCE FILM 
“Dance on film is always an affirmation of the moving storyteller we have inside our bodies. It reminds us to listen to the body. The body speaks deeply to who we are as people and often times it speaks with more honesty and clarity than the mouth. For this reason alone we need more dance on film. It is one of the few ways we can keep our ancestral truths relevant in a modern society.”

Matt Reeves- Orange Grove Dance
Screenplay Writer & Co-Choreographer for THE ARCHETYPES 

BEST DANCE FILM*** ET CULTURA FILM FESTIVAL
FLORIDA FILMMAKERS AWARD*** ET CULTURA FILM FESTIVAL

OFFICIAL SELECTION*
DAM SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
UNDERGROUND FILM FEST
STOCKHOLM INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
SKYLINE INDIE FILM FEST
ET CULTURA FILM FESTIVAL
TAMPA BAY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
FESTIVAL ANGAELICA
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL


FILMMAKERS

DIRECTOR: WILLIAM J. STRIBLING
CHOREOGRAPHERS: COLETTE KROGOL & MATT REEVES
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ALEX GALLITANO
COMPOSER: DYLAN GLATTHORN
EDITOR BY: RAYMOND FRASER & THOMAS NUDI
COSTUME DESIGNER: JESSICA RAY HARRISON
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: ALEX WHITTENBERG
LG LIGHTING DESIGNER: SHAUN SUCHAN
SOUND BY: HAYLEY WAGNER
SCREENPLAY BY: MATT REEVES

​​PRODUCED BY: COLETTE KROGOL & MATT REEVES
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: JASON LUDMAN
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: RJ LEWIS

'La Tierra De Mi Madre' is sprung from Orange Grove Dance's performance Tetralogy '4 Recurring Dreams'. The four part series of works stand as mythopoetic research into personal memories and stories of one family’s migration from Cuba in 1980.

"Evening was quickly turning to night as the boat pulled off the dock. The captain handed each person a glow stick. He broke his and told everyone aboard, 'If we capsize on this journey to the US make sure to illuminate your glow stick so that you have a better chance of being found in the ocean.' And with that my family watched the lights of Cuba fade away in the distance, the only land they had ever known. Only left with each other, the darkness of the night, and a few distant stars reflecting off the water. My mother tells of a darkness she had never experienced before. "

-Colette Krogol- Choreographer

Choreography & Direction: Colette Krogol & Matt Reeves
Performers: Robin Neveu Brown & Juliana Ponguta
Original Score: Dylan Glatthorn
Scenic & Prop Design: Matt Reeves
Lighting Design: Peter Leibold
Costume Design: Robert Croghan

Cinematography: Jonathan Hsu
Editor: Matt Reeves