ISSUE MAGAZINE: ARIANA DELAWARI X NICOLE DISSON
“WE EXIST IN A CROSS-GENRE HYBRID REALITY. IT'S VERY EXCITING TO CREATE NEW METHODS OF STORYTELLING.” — NICOLE DISSON
ACE HOTEL: fIVE THINGS: NICOLE DISSON
"Nicole Disson is a sparkling polymath — performer, producer, curator, project manager for LA Dance Project and a heart-forward human to boot. Nicole starred in a performance at LACMA based on the original texts of Catalan poet Joan Brossa, and she’s founder / string-puller for multi-disciplinary LA social experiment The Series, which took place at our DTLA lean-to last summer.
In hopes that Nicole’s creative spirit and entrepreneurial prowess can be ours too with a just rub of rabbit paw or a call to the stars, we asked Nicole what her talismans looked like, and she sent along some snaps."
LADY CLEVER: Nicole Disson: Leading the Los Angeles Art Scene
"NICOLE DISSON takes the term “multihyphenate” to the extreme: she’s a performer-producer-curator-director-actor-dancer-singer who works cross-discipline in film, theatre and music, subverting and cross-pollinating along the way. She is known for producing some seriously interesting events around LA, like The Series — a rooftop performance art show featuring belly dancers and acrobats (amongst other things) — which recently moved from The Standard Hotel in Downtown LA to The Ace Hotel."
LA I'M YOURS: A look Into the series
"If you were to think of the perfect Los Angeles art experience, what would it be? ...You would think since the city is so big and full of so many different ecosystems that the most representative LA art experience would in fact be a mashing of every artistic discipline possible.
That’s what THE SERIES attempts to do. The performance based events are curated by local performer Nicole Disson who brings in a mixture of music and dance and spoken word and more into one space, for one night. It is an incredible local happening and, to kick off the sprawling dance and performance festival LAX, THE SERIES is kicking things off tonight."
CITIZENS OF CULTURE: NICOLE DISSON PRESENTS: THE SERIES
“If there is one thing that really tickles our fancy here at Citizens Of Culture is the elegant execution of multi-disciplinary art in a disruptive mixed environment.
It was not simply the dynamic nature of the staging that made the experience unique. The talent presented was not only delivering compelling material but were impressive performers and artists that surpassed expectation. So often we see performance art that strikes us with its intent but falls short upon execution. THE SERIES performers were of an exceptional caliber, bar none.”
INSTALLATION MAGAZINE FEATURE: THE NOT-SO STANDARD THEATER
"Multi-disciplinary artist Nicole Disson has revitalized theatre and created new opportunities to present performances in Los Angeles." - Installation Magazine
"A dancer, performer and producer Disson’s theatre background brought her to Los Angeles in 2008. She has worked with artist Lita Albuquerque to recreate her seminal work SPINE OF THE EARTH for the Getty Museum’s Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival in 2012. In 2010 she partnered with The Standard, Downtown LA as the official corporate sponsor for a rock opera called New. The hotel helped fund the production and hosted the opening night party in their front lobby in April of the same year. The partnership continued and inspired THE SERIES, thirteen original productions set on the rooftop. A multi-disciplinary social and arts event, the production used the pool for a dance piece and the fireplace as a stage." - Installation Magazine
LA CONFIDENTIAL: 'Sleepover LA' Premieres at SXSW
"Among the list of must-see films is the world premiere of Sleepover LA—a wild, dark, and engaging short film set at Downtown LA’s The Standard hotel."
"The film’s unique storytelling aesthetic ... really sets it apart. Straying from a traditional dialogue-focused narrative, director/editor Lily Baldwin and producer Nicole Disson—who also co-star in the film— ... use contemporary dance to tell the story of Taylor, a lonely tourist who travels to LA to put the ashes of her sister, Jessica, to rest."
LA WEEKLY Feature: Nicole Disson's THE SERIES: Rooftop Performance Art Parties at The Standard Hotel Downtown
"Performance artists making out in the lobby, belly-dancers popping out of the ether, acrobats flexing pool-side, Mia Doi Todd serenading the audience from atop of the fireplace -- Nicole Disson's performance art extravaganza THE SERIES descends upon the rooftop of the Standard Hotel in Downtown L.A. to inject a bit of wildness and wonder into a breathtaking location attempting to get its groove back. ... The result was an overwhelming onslaught of beauty that sucked in the audience before they realized what was happening."
LA RECORD Feature: NICOLE DISSON: MAKE A GOOD MOMENT
"Producer Nicole Disson takes theater out of the ‘theater’ and drops it out of the sky into places like the rooftop of the Standard Downtown, where confused and bemused businesspeople wonder at the dancers in the pool and the actors in the fire pits. Her March performance of her one-night-only THE SERIES put L.A. RECORD alumni like Julia Holter in strange new performing environments—even for them!" - LA RECORD
FRENCH ELLE ARTICLE
WHOLE LIVING MAGAZINE Feature: Joy, Friendship, and song: Meet the LA Ladies Choir
"When Nicole Disson, a producer and actress, got the invite, she was exhausted after completing a 12-week run of Frank Zappa's rock opera "Joe's Garage" and coming out of a breakup. "I needed a burst of energy," she says. "The choir changed my view of my existence in L.A. It was a huge confidence boost."
The first practices were held around model Frankie Rayder's piano. In a shy hush, 10 or so members sang covers of Yoko Ono and the Velvet Underground. "We barely let sound out," Disson says. "But eventually we stopped trying so hard. We just sang from the heart."
The women meet every Sunday for a lunchtime vegetarian potluck and practice at member Jenny Park's Trails Cafe, Stark's house, or Matsumiya's Hollywood bungalow. Sometimes new women show up, and Disson often greets them with a hug."
LA TIMES POP & HISS
Pop & Hiss video premiere: Dublab captures L.A. Ladies Choir http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/08/pop-hiss-premiere-dublab-visionversion-la-ladies-choir.html#sthash.EEBdY4kg.dpuf
LA Weekly: THE ILLUSION
The LA WEEKLY gave the show a "GO!"
'Disson...delivers the goods."
"The lofty, formal, rhetorical tragedies of Pierre Corneille (1606–84) have never gained much of a foothold outside of France, but this philosophical comedy-fantasy has earned a welcome place in the English-speaking theater.
[As] the beautiful Isabelle (Nicole Disson),... Wills and Disson skillfully capture the romantic ardor of the young lovers..."
"Levity in the chorus: Nicole Disson" - LA Weekly
Rolling Stone Feature: Frank Zappa's Raunchy Rock Opera "Joe's Garage" Debuts in L.A.
CITIZEN LA FEATURE: More Than Rabbits In Nicole Disson's Hat
"Nicole isn’t the shy type; rather strong and forth right. It’s attractive, attractive in the sense that you want to hang out with her, you want to get to know her; she is so passionate about life in general, that it makes you want to be that passionate as well."
"Her performance dance piece at All Together Now created an energy in the air that was heavy with anticipation and satisfaction. She was questioning the audience; the audience returned responses, you could see it on their faces and feel it in the air. It was a very personal experience, a very honest experience."
"Whatever Disson pulls out of her hat next, in Hollywood or not, I’m there. You should be, too."