A long, long time ago....
The Pearl Diver's Daughter. A tale of family. Tradition. The perils of the diver and the wonders of the sea.
A collaboration across cultures, created by Paul Gordon Emerson, Company | E's Executive and Co-Artistic Director, and co-writer Maitha Al Khayat and composer Eman Al Hashimi, two the the United Arab Emirates' leading storytellers and composers.
This 2024 edition of The Pearl Diver's Daughter enfolds new music by Qatari composer Dana Al Fardan and musicians of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and features four of Qatar's finest Khaleeji traditional drummers.
 Maitha Al Khayat - co-writer |
Eman Al Hashimi - composer |
Drawing on the history of Pearl Diving and the wonders of imagination, The Pearl Diver's Daughter blends cutting edge technology with choreography, music and narrative to take audiences of all ages beneath the waves of the Persian Gulf.
Following on from the all-AR Pearl Diver's Daughter experience around the UAE, Company | E premiered the full-length evening on the concert stage as a part of the Abu Dhabi Festival. Presented by the Embassy of the United States of America in the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival (ADMAF) and the Department of Culture and Tourism. The Pearl Diver's Daughter was made Company | E the only American dance company to be presented at the UAE's most prestigious festival. PDD in the UAE was the realization of a two-year program interrupted by COVID-19.
The program featured a partnership with not just Emirati composers and storytellers, but with musicians, dancers, designers and more, creating a full collaboration between artists from these two countries.
For The Pearl Diver's Daughter, dancers Stefanie Noll and Sarah Pippin and singer Cat Madden were captured in a state-of-the-art- rig of 140 cameras, creating an extraordinary level of detail in 360 degrees. The artists are then rendered into fully photo-realistic holograms which will be placed in a CGI created undersea environment.
Taken together they are part of a 10 minute AR experience which premieres in October/November throughout the UAE's seven Emirates. That program, the first of its kind in the UAE, introduces the story, and the quest, of the Pearl Diver and his family, a journey which continues in the live performances.
The Pearl Diver's Daughter is a part of Company | E's ongoing work with the U.S. Department of State and a core part of the organization's mission.
Working with U.S. Embassies overseas and Foreign Missions to the United States at home in DC, Company | E's core work is to bring people and cultures together through movement, music and cross-cultural dialogue and engagement.
INNOVATION
Expanding the possibiltiies for performance across the world. Company | E's deep dive into Augmented and Mixed Reality.
SCHOOL'S OPEN
"The MC builds and supports whole-child learning...instilling the values of self-discipline and team building."
- Roseanna B. MC Parent
The Company | E Movement Center for Dance Education teaches the next generation both the technique and the joy of movement.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Since 2007 Company E has been commissioning work from artists around the world speaking to the Climate Crisis.
"...exactly the kind of work we had imagined when creating the Performances for Young Audiences series, elegantly combining multiple art forms including modern dance, classical music, storytelling, visual arts, and theater."
-- David Kilpatrick, Director, Education Programs and Productions. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
@ The Dance Institute of Washington
3400 14th Street NW | Washington, DC 20010
Email: info@companye.org
Phone: 202.930.2207
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