IN DEVELOPMENT:
DREAM EATERS
When myth turns into healing, and trauma turns into beauty.
Thank you for attending our Dream Eaters – Screening & Conversation on April 7th.
Event recording coming soon.
EVENT DETAILS
Thank you for joining us for The Dream Eaters – Screening & Community Conversation with UCLA Professor in Departments of Physics & Astronomy; Neurology; Neurobiology at UCLA, Mayank R. Mehta.
Want to learn more about the dream world and Professor Mayank R. Mehta’s work? See his reading list below.
Dance Film Performing Artists & Contributors
Carol Gomez
Hyosun Choi
Corina Linear
Meena Malik
Haylee Nichele
Maki Kitahara
Carl Garcia, DP
Laura Karlin, Artistic Director
Aristides Rivas, Musical Score
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Funded by the California Arts Council’s Artists in Communities Grant. Funded by the Japan Foundation.
For more information email Rosa Navarrete at [email protected].
GUEST SPEAKER PROFESSOR MAYANK R. MEHTA
Bio: Mayank Mehta grew up in Mumbai slum. He was extremely fortunate to be the only student from his class to go to college. For his PhD he researched quantum physics and the beginning of space-time. His recent research focuses on how neurons learn, remember, create abstract ideas and imagination.
To address this, his laboratory has built a virtual reality for rats that is far superior to any commercial VR for humans. Using this VR they have deciphered the dialog between many neurons and brain areas during learning and during sleep at an unprecedented resolution. Mayank is a professor in the department of Physics, department of Neurology, & department of Electrical & computer Engineering at UCLA.
Reading List
Virtual reality reveals how neurons make memories and create abstract ideas.
https://rdcu.be/czSLz
Augmented reality for driving the memory making parts of the brain.
https://rdcu.be/cGGNl
Dialog within a neuron revealed for the first time: Different parts within a neuron talk to each other. A lot!
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaj1497
Brain is ten times more powerful than we thought!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2017/03/31/your-brain-is-moving-10-times-faster-than-we-thought/
Dialog between different parts of the brain during sleep improves memory.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3236
Spotlight on Mayank R. Mehta’s TEDx UCLA Talk
“The brain is a world consisting of a number of unexplored continents and great stretches of unknown territory.”
― SANTIAGO RAMÓN Y CAJAL, THE FATHER NEUROSCIENCE
THE DREAM EATERS
The Dream Eaters is an intergenerational dance theatre piece and cultural project that explores trauma, imagination, healing and hope. The Dream Eaters theme explores dreams and nightmares and the transformation of the mind, body and spirit. Weaving a bold and compassionate tale, The Dream Eaters examines the roots of fear, brain function, and the community powers of healing. The mind is a powerful landscape. Research into neurobiology uncovers the resemblance of neural pathways to tree roots. Santiago Ramón Cajal (1852-1934) was the Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist who mapped neural pathways for the first time. In the show, his tree-like illustrations create a powerful and provocative landscapes upon which a group of people travel as we explore the expanses of the mind. Together they move through life cycles of trauma, imagination, and hope.
PROPOSED PRODUCTION
70 Minutes in length (work in progress)
Artistic Director: Laura Karlin
Dramaturg: Leslie Tamaribuchi
7 Dancers (youth, elders & Invertigo dance company members)
Invertigo Dance Theatre presents The Dream Eaters. The Dream Eaters draws on themes of trauma, transformation and hope, weaving together the mythology of the baku (a Japanese creature that eats nightmares) and the beautiful, strange illustrations of neurobiologist Santiago Ramon y Cajal. Our neural pathways look like tree roots and branches. Our dreams travel these paths. How do we become Dream Eaters for one another? How do we allow for transformation and hope and laughter and lightness in these moments?
Photos by Ginger Sole Photography
THE DREAM EATERS DANCE FILM EXCERPTS
See The Dream Eaters’ dance film excerpts in our drop down menu below.
Reclaiming Our Stories
Lion Cage
Hotaru Koi Trio
COLLABORATION & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
The development of Dream Eaters involves working with thought- partners and artistic collaborators, including experts in Japanese folklore, scholars in neuroscience fields, and most importantly: youth, elders and people of all backgrounds in LA’s Japanese-American and diverse community.
VISION BOARD
SUMMER 2021
Engagement: 2 Community Storytelling Workshops with youth and teens at Mi Casa in Little Tokyo in partnership with Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) and Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC). The gatherings took place in their new space, Terasaki Budokan. We worked with 50 participants.
Artistic: Research and casting workshops completed.
Winter 2022
January intensive and film performance on Thursday, January 13th.
Spring 2022
April a neuroscience conversation & dance film screening, April 7th.
- Screening of The Dream Eaters dance films.
- Conversation with UCLA Professor Mayank R. Mehta.
- Community poetry through engagement of science and dance conversation for the evening.
Notes on this unique intercultural project:
Invertigo aims to create deep connections among the project’s artists, practitioners, collaborators, and community groups including elders and youth, everyone will be heard, valued and respected throughout the artistic process.
Activities are developed through consensus in conversation with social service agencies and artistic partnerships.
The community partnership will incorporate the needs, wants and aesthetics of Japanese American stories to create a discourse of equity, inclusion and diversity with the larger Los Angeles and international communities.
The Collaborative Team
The Dream Eaters is an immersive dance theatre piece and intergenerational cultural project that blends neurological landscapes with the Japanese folktale of the Baku, a mythological creature who eats nightmares and transforms them into something beautiful. A bold and compassionate tale, The Dream Eaters examines the roots of fear, brain function, and the cultural powers of healing. Tree-like illustrations of the brain’s neural pathways by Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) create a powerful and provocative landscape upon which a group of people travel. Together they move through trauma, imagination, healing, and hope.
By creating deep connections among the project’s artists, practitioners, collaborators, and community groups including elders and youth, everyone will be heard, valued, and respected throughout this inclusive co-residency process.
INVERTIGO Artistic director Laura Karlin will serve as the lead artist-in-residence for The Dream Eaters and partner with Invertigo’s Executive & Programs Director, K. Bradford, members of community, and local cultural leaders as co-artists-in-residence to develop the project through community conversations and workshops.
Other collaborators will include:
Visual & multimedia artists (creation of set pieces, costumes & overall aesthetic)
Dramaturgy (storytelling process, cultural dialogue, research integration, theatrical elements)
Casting & Community Directors (call for intergenerational performers)
Want to Partner?
Be a part of the creation. Join the dreaming & scheming.
THIS PROJECT IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY AN AWARD FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS.
FUNDED BY THE CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL’S ARTISTS IN COMMUNITIES GRANT.
