PRESS & REVIEWS
With Memories on Their Backs - Honoring the Plights of Refugees
“It is poetic yet chilling that the Japanese American National Museum is the venue for With Memories on Their Backs: Honoring the Plight of Refugees, the latest from the performance group Voices Carry. Inside the museum are exhibits capturing the sometimes harrowing incarceration of the Japanese-American population in internment/detention/concentration (pick your preferred label) camps during World War II.
At a time when refugees are drowning off North Africa as Europe closes its doors and refugees from Central America and Mexico trying to seek asylum in the U.S. are drowning in the Rio Grande or being incarcerated and children taken from their families, this performance could not be more timely.” LAWeekly Ann Haskins August 9, 2019
Strings Attached - The Ties That Make Us Human
"Through a series of vignettes, the dancers intertwine with the fragmented emotions represented by the puppets through the choreography. Puppetry allows for the serious subject matter, which explores life's most complex challenges, to be addressed in a nuanced space where light and shadow mingle, much like the simple yet poignant poetry of a child - uncensored and pure." - Broadway World
‘What’s going on here? This is “Entrapment,” the first vignette of Strings Attached–The Ties That Make Us Human, an hour-long interdisciplinary avant garde work presented by Voices Carry, Inc. Navigated by Artistic Director Madeline Leavitt, Strings Attached has at its core an examination of love. Disconnected love. Sad love. Joyful love. People are becoming more disconnected in our modern world and “this work,” Leavitt wrote, “is about finding the path back to true human interaction and real emotion. This world premiere cross-genre work is smothered with talent: Musicians, puppeteers, dancers, technicians and designers all get to show off their assets, as the dancers mesh with the puppets to explore love’s splintered emotions (the other five vignettes involve “Forgiveness,” “Grief,” “Devotion,” and “Joy”). '‘
Holding Up the Sky
Combining the timely with the timeless.. " ‘Responding to violence against women, the devastation of war and other issues of the day, “Holding Up the Sky” offers a strongly crafted hour of dance theater’…’Artistic Director Madeline Leavitt emphasizes bold contrasts, juxtaposing her south Indian bharata natyam choreography with artful modern dance sequences choreographed by Paula Present.’ ” By Lewis Segal, TIMES STAFF WRITER, Los Angeles Times. April 5, 2003