(Stuff from The Qube Chix' promo package:)

The Qube Chix is an eclectic trio (choreographer/ movement artist Leigh Evans, composer/performance artist Pamela Z and vocalist/performance artist Julie Queen) working in a variety of media spanning from interdisciplinary experimental theater to avant-cabaret music. Their performances are an explosion of aural and visual textures combining classically trained voices, Asian influenced movement forms, new music composition and electronic processing with a theater of imagery.

Their works are a reflection of the human spirit, often haunting snapshots of a wide array of emotions and conditions we face everyday. Slow motion movement compliments 16mm black and white film in an entrancing integration of live and cinematic motion. They also perform as a new music vocal ensemble and a 5-6 piece club ensemble with percussionist J Y? and bassist/clarinetist Medusa Twist.

The Qube Chix have performed in theaters, performance spaces and night clubs in San Francisco since 1991 including appearances at Life on the Water, Club DNA and have been featured on KQED's "West Coast Weekend" and KPFA's Morning Concert.

They have received grants from the LEF foundation, The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and Dance Bay Area.

In 1993 they appeared at The Knitting Factory and CBGB's Gallery in New York City and at theaters and galleries in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska.

The Qube Chix developed their first multi-disciplinary performance work Stich-tche-na-ko in collaboration with filmmaker Paul Lundahl and Harpist Barbara Imhoff, which premiered at Theater Artaud in San Francisco in December of 1991.

They have since developed segments of an interdisciplinary work Circle of Bone during residencies at Yellow Springs Institute in Pennsylvania and at the University of Nebraska's Experimental Black Box Theater in Omaha.

They recently completed a music video of Bald Boyfriend, a song which has just been released on a CD compilation of women composers called DICE on the Ishtar label.

THE QUBE CHIX BIOS

Julie Queen, a soprano who sings both with feet firmly on the ground and hanging upside down from various aerial apparati, was featured in the 1991 Mozart Festival singing the "Queen of the Night's" arias on trapeze. She has performed in Soon 3's Ace Taboo, "Jenny" in Kurt Weill's Mahagonny and as a soloist in Weill's Berlin to Broadway with San Francisco City Summer Opera. For the past ten years she has performed extensively throughout the Bay Area including solo recitals of classical repertoire, opera, and cabaret. She is continuing to develop her solo cabaret performance, Combustible Cabaret which ran for seven weeks at "The Marsh" in July and August of '92. In addition to her collaboration with the Qube Chix, she is working on an interactive silent film performance piece with filmmaker Paul Lundahl. By combining her classical vocal training with acrobatic abilities and a burlesque performance flair, she has developed a unique performance style. She has a vocal performance degree and continues to study and teach voice in the Bay Area.

Pamela Z, a performance artist, composer, and vocalist has been performing in the Bay area since 1984 and has also toured to such cities New York, Denver, and Houston. She uses a wide range of vocal styles from "Bel Canto" to modern, extended techniques and processes her voice with digital delays to create thick, lush textures in live performance. She combines this with gestural movement and uses found objects such as a Slinky and enormous drumsticks as percussion instruments to create a visually stimulating performance. She has an album "Echolocation" and a solo CD soon to be released on the Starkland label. and is featured on CD compilations such as Komotion International and Elliott Sharp's "State of the Union".

In addition to her solo work, she has worked with Organizations such as New Music Theatre, George Coates Performance Works, and Soon 3. She also produces the multi-media series Z Programs. Pamela holds a degree in Music/Education, has studied electronic music, and continues to study with a vocal coach in San Francisco. She has taught experimental music workshops in community centers and schools ranging from elementary to the university level.

Leigh Evans, a movement artist and singer whose eclectic studies include Balinese Topeng, Japanese Butoh, Yoga and Tai Chi. Her choreography combines these forms into theatrical movement rituals. She has worked with Harupin Ha Butoh Dance Theatre, The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Terry Sendgraff, and Soon 3. She holds a degree in Theater from the University of Michigan and is currently studying with Japanese Theater Director, Tadashi Suzuki. She has performed extensively in the Bay Area as well as in Japan and New York. She currently teaches yoga as well as dance drawing from an array of Eastern and Western movement disciplines.

(From a press release for Circle of Bone:)

CIRCLE OF BONE

Written by The Qube Chix (Julie Queen, Leigh Evans, and Pamela Z). Choreographer: Leigh Evans Composer/Sound Designer: Pamela Z

Circle of Bone is about the ruins of war-wars between countries, wars within the self that keep one trapped in a perpetual destructive cycle, wars that continue to haunt one through memories. The piece examines women who continually must pick up the pieces left behind in the aftermath of the wars, bury the dead, and continue on. Through the process of calling forth strength and guidance from within and from their ancestry, the women undergo a transformation which offers inner peace. Circle of Bone challenges the audience to look at their own destructive struggles and through this confrontation find the possibility of change. The music is performed live and incorporates influences from contemporary opera, electronic music, European cabaret, and forms of vocalization from varied ancient traditions. The movement draws from Japanese Butoh, Tadashi Suzuki Method, Balinese Topeng, Yoga, and contemporary visual theater. It is a theater of images in which slow motion movement compliments 16mm black and white film in an entrancing integration of live and cinematic motion. In addition to the core members of the ensemble, Circle of Bone will include a small (1-4 member) instrumental ensemble, a filmmaker, and a technical crew. Depending on the venue and budget, there are also parts for an additional 2-5 performers.

"Pulsing, haunting harmonies fill the hollow spots and resonate us like a cello This is important work." -Doug Paterson Nat'l Theater Association/ University of Nebraska Theater Dept.

The Qube Chix will be performing "Circle of Bone" at Laney College in Oakland March 18-20, 1994 as part of the Bay Area Dance Series, and at Theater Artaud in Fall of 1994.

The Qube Chix will also be doing a concert of their music at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in February of '94.

(A review written by the theater department head at a University where we performed Circle of Bone:)

REVIEW

THE QUBE CHIX CIRCLE OF BONE BY DOUG PATERSON, DEPT. HEAD-THEATER ARTS at THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA Performed Sat. March 13, 1993 at The Experimental Black Box Theater, UNO, Omaha, Nebraska

There are moments, often connected with a particularly percussive moment in one of the post-modern or other stampeding arts, when I become aware of what must be a massive silent ache sitting in the center of contemporary life. What reminded me of it tonight was a performance by The Qube Chix of their post-modern, pre-historic ritual dance necklace called "Circle of Bone." The at once patient and relentless sounds and images stirred something near my R-factor, the reptilian stuff that lies just outside my furthest boundary and just occasionally breathes so I can almost hear it.

The Qube Chix call this so-ancient DNA back to life. We are incanted to remember that there is much more in common in us than difference. Throats release what are certainly high-trained operatic voices that with The Qubes have been put at the service of waking the dead in us. Pulsing, haunting harmonies fill the hollow spots and resonate us like a cello. Desperate movements, clacking bones, a flour-white body's resurrection, metal hammers metal and chanting that chills and illuminates the darkest places of our cellular memories as if by lightning.

The evening's ritual gives us three women who have journeyed to find the most elemental parts of themselves, who remind us of ours and who forge temporary marriages in jaw-dropping moments. First we are allowed to recognize, say the woman with the trunk of bones and begin searching for referents in our own lives. Then suddenly a song from perhaps a million years ago sails overhead, and the moment runs away from us, leaving us wondering in the passing mystery.

This is important work. Without question the world, and for certain the U.S. culture, needs to re-communalize. But this will not happen without the rediscovery of what song, image, movement, dance and primal theater have to offer us uncommunalized humans. The Qube Chix hint that some and probably others are about the task, that despair has not yet been laminated to the walls of our imaginations, and that hope is as close as the song and dance of the nearest living cell, if only we trust its promise.