The final week of the festival features a new puppet opera that probes the mythic mind of Daedalus, a powerful solo from choreographer Michel Kouakou that connects the everyday to realms of the unknown, and a new work from Alpert Award-winning choreographer Victoria Marks indulging in the intimacy of the small gesture.

Tandem & Timur and the Dime Museum: Zoophilic Follies

Two adventurous ensembles combine forces to craft a new puppet opera that probes the mythic mind of Daedalus, the legendary inventor and craftsman who fashioned both the Labyrinth of the Minotaur and Icarus’ fated wings. Timur Bekbosunov and his band the Dime Museum recount the tale in twisted, Kurt Weill-inspired songs written by Daniel Corral, with witty lyrics by playwright Sibyl O'Malley. Puppet theater company Tandem animate objects and shadows to illuminate the complexities of a mind capable of true innovation, yet unable to foresee the flaws in his grand plans.

"A flamboyant performer ... Bekbosunov knows what his audience likes and he is a brilliant architect of tension." —LA Weekly

Michel Kouakou/Daara Dance: Sack

Gliding between movement derived from both traditional and contemporary African dance, Michel Kouakou performs a powerful solo that connects the everyday to realms of the unknown, the dark and the dead. Kouakou’s sharp and precise dancing shifts from segments of high-speed choreography to taut moments of suspension, as a swaying burlap sack looms, serving as a metaphoric vessel for what weighs in the balance between the seen and the unseen.

"A luscious dancer... playing with identity and displacement." —The New York Times

Victoria Marks: Medium Big Inefficient Considerably Imbalanced Dance

Alpert Award-winning choreographer Victoria Mark embraces effort and imperfection in her newest work, Medium Big Inefficient Considerably Imbalanced Dance. As six dancers move together and apart, they shift between tightly defined improvisation and set material that resists representations of the indefatigable, herculean dancing body to explore human actions and impulses marked by the effects of time. She reveals the complex accumulations that inform her dancers’ bodies, while DJ d. Sabela Grimes adds his own layer of aural context to the work.

"Marks is one of L.A.'s best-kept secrets ... Intelligent, complex and witty work." —The Village Voice