Octopus Heart -March 2019 photo: Karel Moonen 
Octopus Heart -March 2019 photo: Karel Moonen 
Octopus Heart -March 2019 photo: Karel Moonen 
Octopus Octopus Heart -March 2019 photo: Karel Moonen-March 2018 photo: Karel Moonen 
Octopus Heart -March 2019 photo: Karel Moonen 
A Tale of the E.R.
A Broken Heart
&
A Mollusk…
Flam Chen presents, OCTOPUS HEART.
Directed by Monica Silva featuring the live music of Golden Boots and stunning visuals of Tra Bouscaren.
Flam Chen Aerial Director, Monica Silva shares a deeply personally & inspiring multi-media, physical theater, dance performance inspired by her occupation as an E. R. nurse.
Octopus Heart an evening-length performance exploring the human heart through the rituals of the Emergency Room (ER).
Through dance, aerial arts, live music, and video, Octopus Heart bridges the worlds of art and medicine, revealing connections between apparent opposites: patient and clinician, health and sickness, poetry and everyday life.
The performance follows a patient who enters the ER with chest pain and is diagnosed with Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy, in which the heart muscle is damaged after a serious emotional shock, or “broken heart syndrome.” The syndrome was first diagnosed in Japan and named after the octopus pot (takotsubo), whose shape the heart mimics during this malady.
About the Artists
Golden Boots deconstruct American roots music by borrowing elements from rock, punk and country to create a new-wave absurdist collage. The project was started in Tucson, AZ in 2002 by songwriters Ryen Eggleston and Dimitri Manos. An ever shifting line-up of musical contributors over the years has created a diversity in sounds on the the albums and at live shows. The current incarnation of the band includes long time collaborators tidypaws on keyboard and saxophone. Golden Boots specializes in mutant pop songs and sprawling minimal instrumentals for toe-tapping weirdos and humorous freaks.
Tra Bouscaren’s work has been featured nationally and internationally at venues including the Museum für Naturkunde of Berlin, Victor I Fils Gallery in Madrid, Centre Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Fort Mason Center for Art and Culture in San Francisco, Hallwalls in Buffalo, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, and New York’s Lincoln Center. Bouscaren has been represented by N2 Gallery in Barcelona since 2008.
Choreographer
- Mirela Roza, choreographer and former dancer with Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey
Dancers
- Marisa Campa, Emma Lee Larriva, Erika Marquez and Mike Larriva, experienced in circus arts and dance
- Lorena Carrion, former principal dancer with Codanza in Cuba, and professor of contemporary dance in Cuba, Mexico, and the United States
- Gregory Colburn, modern dancer, dance and yoga instructor
- Shawn Connelly, breakdancer and modern dancer
- Aerialist Devin Bayly