Reviews and Press
Another Language Performing Arts Company
"Beth and Jimmy Miklavcic (of Another Language) projected videos of abstract designs onto themselves, as they spun with increasing momentum around a bolt of fabric. The onomatopoeia of the phrase ‘baked-on-batter-bug-splatter-splat’ echoed throughout the piece, and prompted the audience to contribute spontaneously: the hallmark of a successful performance. "
Alexandra Karl - Catalyst Magazine (03/2016)
"Similar to galaxies colliding in the depths of the universe, Another Language Performing Arts Company presents XYZ, a cinematic experience created to highlight the personalities of four transcendental characters working to mesh the individual with the universal."
Frances Moody - Daily Utah Chronicle (02/22/2013)
"Another Language's annual performance-art pieces can be plotted on a constantly shifting continuum that innovatively merges science, technology, language and the arts, as one year's project often becomes the genesis for the next."
Jacob Stringer - City Weekly (02/21/2013)
"Another Language Performing Arts Company continues to push boundaries and redefine theatre. Think back to geometry class and mapping points on a grid. The x-axis runs horizontally and the y-axis runs vertically. It's a two-dimensional plane. But then there is the z-axis, a visual representation of our three-dimensional world. These coordinates inspired the name of Another Language's latest telematic cinema project, XYZ, which is a 3D digital-poem and explores the reasons people are here on Earth."
Dale Thompson - Artists of Utah 15 Bytes (02/20/13)
"The Miklavcics are more interested in the impact of computer technology, of perception and identity, as in their company's 2011 piece "DuelAlity 2.0." This year, the company turns its attention on the unexplored territory of space and dimension in "XYZ: a 3-D Telematic Cinema Performance about width, height and depth."
Ben Fulton - The Salt Lake Tribune (02/16/2013)
"Duel*Ality Version 2.0 is an update of last year's performance, Duel*Ality 1.0, in which Jimmy Miklavcic plays Duel and Elizabeth Miklavic plays Ality, as both try to communicate in a world of computers, email and social networks. The new version now includes 3-D video and animation projections. Audience members will wear the same kind of active-shutter 3-D glasses used with new 3-D television sets. The writing is the same as last year's production, which debuted in February (2011), with the addition of five new scenes."
Vince Horiuchi - The Salt Lake Tribune (02/26/12)
"The play represents two people who fire up their computers every day to live a typical life in our technological world. It progresses with interactions between man and technology and also between man and woman. The characters Duel and Ality represent flip sides of modern societal views of technology. Duel is a person who is all about technology. He thinks it is amazing and is completely immersed in it. Ality represents those more grounded in reality. She questions whether constant connection to technology is really such a good thing. Throughout the play, viewers watch as the characters interact via email, video conferencing and more, even though the characters are seated in the same room."
Javan Rivera - Daily Utah Chronicle (02/24/12)
"Like all of the telematic cinema performances created by Another Language, the production incorporates projected, as well as, live elements. This time, some of the projected images will be three-dimensional, and the audience will wear active stereoscopic glasses to view them. The play follows two characters who are in a relationship, Duel and Ality, and examines how they interact and communicate with one another through technology."
Lexie Levitt - City Weekly (02/23/12)
"Just walking into the performance space tells you you're in for something a little different...The first line of the production isn't spoken, it's displayed on screen, 'We have to figure it out.' These words appear with a jumble of images that are at first primitive drawings and become more sophisticated in their complexity. The introductory images are an illustration of the growth of technology, a prevalent theme throughout the production...Elizabeth (Ality) and Jimmy (Duel) sit in the same room but interact through email and video conferencing while their images appear as two separate projections on the screen. It is a visceral experience to watch the actors talk and see their delayed gestures appear moments later as digitized images. The live actors become disembodied, which seems appropriate as they weigh in on relationships and how technology shapes them. The images are side-by-side, close enough that there could be a virtual kiss. And that's the point: We interact through technology but no real intimate connections are made. Even their heads on screen turn to face each other but the projections cannot make any real eye contact...What we have to figure out is a way to incorporate technology into our lives while maintaining a balance that still allows for human interaction and time to simply be human."
Dale Thompson - Artists of Utah 15 Bytes (02/27/11)
"Another Language Performing Arts Company has been working on refining the relatively new art of online performances for the better part of a decade. Their most recent foray into the field has them in a new working environment that adds its own constraints, but they're also reaching inward in several senses and offering a more intimate performance than before...The Miklavcics are still breaking new ground: They've never taken on a subject as close to home as this year's Duel*Ality Version 1.0. It's a meditation on their working relationship as a married couple as well as their work at the University of Utah's Intermountain Networking and Scientific Computation Center, home of some of the most high-performance computers in the world. It's very personal, while at the same time very 'meta,' using the medium of the computer to look at itself. The characters Duel (Jimmy) and Ality (Elizabeth) aren't strictly autobiographical, but the work they do at their workstations, and the banter that ensues, has an element of the real...As usual, their dialogue is brilliant, but without the summoning of their entire existence...The dualities they explore aren't just those between co-workers and male and female, but also human and computer, software to hardware, the live creativity and projected elements that have long existed in their works, and the relationship between performers and audience...Another Language celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2010, and since the beginning, the group has pioneered transmutations of various performance forms. The words 'The Search Is The Journey' flash across the screen at the end of the show's intro; it's just one more step on Another Language's performance journey."
Brian Staker - City Weekly (02/24/11)
"Duel*Ality is self-directed by the couple (Elizabeth and Jimmy Miklavcic), who also act its two roles. It's self-staged and designed too, with all audio and video cues created by the couple. Fittingly, it will be performed at the University of Utah's Intermountain Networking and Scientific Computation Center. And this being an Another Language Production, it spins off tangential and accompanying themes like a lathe working overtime...Through various turns in dialogue and scene, what becomes a wrestling match with technology becomes a wrestling match with interpersonal relationships. Fingers are pointed. Resolution between the characters - Duel and Ality, as played by Elizabeth and Jimmy - comes, but only after struggles to untether themselves from the real world, then to the computer world, and back again... It provides a rich context in which to explore how people define themselves in terms of body and soul, matter and spirit. It also considers the mathematical duality of interchangeable theorems, as well as the location in planes of projective geometry.The couple says they have no dread of technology or computers. Where the performance of Duel*Ality gathers dramatic steam is when the technological presence reaches saturation points, and human consciousness begins to react under pressure."
Ben Fulton - The Salt Lake Tribune (02/22/11)
"There are several ways one might tell the story of the Another Language Performing Arts Company. It's a story about the ever-evolving art scene of Salt Lake City, and the 25 years the group has spent performing in the alleys, playgrounds and theater spaces of Utah's capital. It's a story about rapid-fire advances in computer technology, and Another Language's efforts to create 'live, real-time, distributed, surrealistic cinema' that is unlike anything most of us have seen before. It's a story about dance and poetry, music and theater, collaboration and a singular artistic vision forged by two people."
Dan Nailen - Salt Lake Magazine (04/2010)
"This unique production makes no excuses for bringing together art forms that, on first glance, have no business sharing the same room. It's bold. It's dense...With a 25-year company history and years of performance experience using the latest technology available, the Miklavcics are expert hands."
Ben Fulton - The Salt Lake Tribune (03/28/10)
"Another Language has continually and exponentially expanded on the use of technology to explore artistic themes. Eight years ago, the whole venture took off to new heights with a series of projects called InterPlays. This year, for its silver anniversary, Another Language continues that exploration with a new work titled Event Horizon. It's a bit tricky to pin down what an InterPlay is. It involves multiple combinations and juxtapositions; different mediums and varying geographical locales: live and recorded elements: people with technology; information with art; music with spoken word. In Event Horizon, this translates into a multilayered digital mix of several live video streams set against several prerecorded video streams featuring music, movement and poetry."...As heady as all that may come across on paper, in person, the 'audio-visual tapestry' that Another Language creates is both vivid and intriguing. It helps that the entire performance-including the technical crew magically making it all happen like wizards behind a curtain-intentionally and dramatically exhibits a kinetic grace similar to modern choreography.
Jacob Stringer - Salt Lake City Weekly (03/25/10)
"For the past 25 years, Jimmy and Elizabeth Miklavcic, co-artisitc directors of Another Language Performing Arts Company have combined performance with technology. The two founded the InterPlay series that uses technology to present two or more performances from different places (usually cities) to one or more audiences... the infrastructure of the networking and connection at the Intermountain Network and Scientific Computation Center on the University of Utah campus has made it possible for the Miklavcics to realize their projects.
Scott Iwasaki - Deseret News (03/21/10)
"Ever heard of 'live, real-time, distributed, surrealistic cinema?' (We hadn't either.) We have, however, seen the omission in our lives and are doing our best to rectify it via Another Language, a performing arts company at the University of Utah...InterPlay: AnARTomy features two dancers, poetry, a host of sketch artists, and digital animators, and requires nearly a dozen computer systems to compile live video feeds from four other universities...all to create a dynamic, collaborative performance."
Kersten Swinyard - The Leonardo Blog (04/15/09)
"Carnivale is Another Language's sixth yearly 'InterPlay' (its term for multimedia online performance occuring in different sites simultaneously), fusing the artistic and technological aspects of the performance more seamlessly than ever before."
Brian Staker - City Weekly (03/27/08)
"Though Another Language has been around for nearly two decades utilizing just about every artistic medium in its performances, its work enters completely new and exciting territory, one that requires constant technological upgrades, collaboration with other artists in different parts of the world and nearly a year's worth of work from conception to execution."
Kelly Keiter - Salt Lake City Magazine (04/2007)
"The group (Another Language), founded in 1985 has always tried to present experimental works that pushed the frontiers of artistic expression, but these recent performances (InterPlays) have showcased the cutting edge of technology as well.
Brian Staker - City Weekly (03/25/07)
"Beth Miklavcic built a Zen garden (for InterPlay: Dancing on the Banks of Packet Creek) with, among other materials, powdered drink mix, while a little girl unrolled white string around her. The string symbolized technology and the Internet, which started simply like a Zen garden, but was now overflowing with material."
Christy Karras - The Salt Lake Tribune (04/03/06)
"The motion and emotion come together for fresh, new experience that is on the cutting edge."
Sander Sharp - The Daily Utah Chronicle (8/11/94)
"Their (Another Language) concerts take the viewer into unchartered territory."
Nancy Melich - The Salt Lake Tribune (3/3/93)
"....among the finest artists in Utah."
Anne Poore - The Salt Lake Tribune (3/29/92)
"Eglantine, a new work created and performed by Beth Miklavcic, is a remarkable multimedia piece with videography by Jimmy Miklavcic. The symbolism is of a rose, but the imagery of the dancing figure in black with tangled braids moves into mysterious, decadent and even threatening realms, suggesting the decay that lurks just below the surface of all blooming, radiant things in their prime. Beth's dancing was vivid, strong, bold and original, and loaded with memorable images."
Dorothy Stowe - Deseret News (3/17/92)
"Another Language Studio on West Pierpont Avenue has housed many of the great Salt Lake performances in recent times. The latest is "Eglantine," a solo dance and video performance by Beth Miklavcic with videography by Jimmy Miklavcic...The Miklavcic's are committed not only to performance but to revealing process, learning and teaching. They are unassuming people who dare to push the edges of dance and performance."
Susan Levin - The Daily Utah Chronicle (11/8/91)
"Dancing inside and around a picture frame made 'Photographic Memory' a stunning and sensitive portrayal of a couples life together. The frame seemed to freeze moments in the performance, giving the number an ethereal quality."
Carolyn Wardle - The Daily Spectrum (05/31/91)
"Another Language's performance was stimulating and entertaining, a combination not always achieved by many performing groups."
Carolyn Wardle - The Daily Spectrum (05/31/91)
"Another Language (is) one of the more interesting performing arts companies in Salt Lake."
Steve Miller - The Daily Utah Chronicle (03/01/91)
"An utterly baffling component of the concert is the piece 'Goober in Your Galoshes,' including movement, dance, music, distorted sound and familiar snippets ingrained in Americans' cultural consciousness from the products of mass media. The piece can be seen as being made up of 'non-connected motifs,' as if a number of old home movies had been spliced together. Whatever one may try to classify it as, it is fascinating and not easily dismissed."
Cuman David Cropper - The Daily Utah Chronicle (06/01/90)
"Another Language repertoire has grown as broad as everyone's imagination...They have broadened the definition of performing arts."
Joyce Marder - The Event (11/01/89)
Another Language Performing Arts Company
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| InterPlay: Carnivale | Pictured: Maia Taylor |
"Beth and Jimmy Miklavcic (of Another Language) projected videos of abstract designs onto themselves, as they spun with increasing momentum around a bolt of fabric. The onomatopoeia of the phrase ‘baked-on-batter-bug-splatter-splat’ echoed throughout the piece, and prompted the audience to contribute spontaneously: the hallmark of a successful performance. "
Alexandra Karl - Catalyst Magazine (03/2016)
"Similar to galaxies colliding in the depths of the universe, Another Language Performing Arts Company presents XYZ, a cinematic experience created to highlight the personalities of four transcendental characters working to mesh the individual with the universal."
Frances Moody - Daily Utah Chronicle (02/22/2013)
"Another Language's annual performance-art pieces can be plotted on a constantly shifting continuum that innovatively merges science, technology, language and the arts, as one year's project often becomes the genesis for the next."
Jacob Stringer - City Weekly (02/21/2013)
"Another Language Performing Arts Company continues to push boundaries and redefine theatre. Think back to geometry class and mapping points on a grid. The x-axis runs horizontally and the y-axis runs vertically. It's a two-dimensional plane. But then there is the z-axis, a visual representation of our three-dimensional world. These coordinates inspired the name of Another Language's latest telematic cinema project, XYZ, which is a 3D digital-poem and explores the reasons people are here on Earth."
Dale Thompson - Artists of Utah 15 Bytes (02/20/13)
"The Miklavcics are more interested in the impact of computer technology, of perception and identity, as in their company's 2011 piece "DuelAlity 2.0." This year, the company turns its attention on the unexplored territory of space and dimension in "XYZ: a 3-D Telematic Cinema Performance about width, height and depth."
Ben Fulton - The Salt Lake Tribune (02/16/2013)
"Duel*Ality Version 2.0 is an update of last year's performance, Duel*Ality 1.0, in which Jimmy Miklavcic plays Duel and Elizabeth Miklavic plays Ality, as both try to communicate in a world of computers, email and social networks. The new version now includes 3-D video and animation projections. Audience members will wear the same kind of active-shutter 3-D glasses used with new 3-D television sets. The writing is the same as last year's production, which debuted in February (2011), with the addition of five new scenes."
Vince Horiuchi - The Salt Lake Tribune (02/26/12)
"The play represents two people who fire up their computers every day to live a typical life in our technological world. It progresses with interactions between man and technology and also between man and woman. The characters Duel and Ality represent flip sides of modern societal views of technology. Duel is a person who is all about technology. He thinks it is amazing and is completely immersed in it. Ality represents those more grounded in reality. She questions whether constant connection to technology is really such a good thing. Throughout the play, viewers watch as the characters interact via email, video conferencing and more, even though the characters are seated in the same room."
Javan Rivera - Daily Utah Chronicle (02/24/12)
"Like all of the telematic cinema performances created by Another Language, the production incorporates projected, as well as, live elements. This time, some of the projected images will be three-dimensional, and the audience will wear active stereoscopic glasses to view them. The play follows two characters who are in a relationship, Duel and Ality, and examines how they interact and communicate with one another through technology."
Lexie Levitt - City Weekly (02/23/12)
"Just walking into the performance space tells you you're in for something a little different...The first line of the production isn't spoken, it's displayed on screen, 'We have to figure it out.' These words appear with a jumble of images that are at first primitive drawings and become more sophisticated in their complexity. The introductory images are an illustration of the growth of technology, a prevalent theme throughout the production...Elizabeth (Ality) and Jimmy (Duel) sit in the same room but interact through email and video conferencing while their images appear as two separate projections on the screen. It is a visceral experience to watch the actors talk and see their delayed gestures appear moments later as digitized images. The live actors become disembodied, which seems appropriate as they weigh in on relationships and how technology shapes them. The images are side-by-side, close enough that there could be a virtual kiss. And that's the point: We interact through technology but no real intimate connections are made. Even their heads on screen turn to face each other but the projections cannot make any real eye contact...What we have to figure out is a way to incorporate technology into our lives while maintaining a balance that still allows for human interaction and time to simply be human."
Dale Thompson - Artists of Utah 15 Bytes (02/27/11)
"Another Language Performing Arts Company has been working on refining the relatively new art of online performances for the better part of a decade. Their most recent foray into the field has them in a new working environment that adds its own constraints, but they're also reaching inward in several senses and offering a more intimate performance than before...The Miklavcics are still breaking new ground: They've never taken on a subject as close to home as this year's Duel*Ality Version 1.0. It's a meditation on their working relationship as a married couple as well as their work at the University of Utah's Intermountain Networking and Scientific Computation Center, home of some of the most high-performance computers in the world. It's very personal, while at the same time very 'meta,' using the medium of the computer to look at itself. The characters Duel (Jimmy) and Ality (Elizabeth) aren't strictly autobiographical, but the work they do at their workstations, and the banter that ensues, has an element of the real...As usual, their dialogue is brilliant, but without the summoning of their entire existence...The dualities they explore aren't just those between co-workers and male and female, but also human and computer, software to hardware, the live creativity and projected elements that have long existed in their works, and the relationship between performers and audience...Another Language celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2010, and since the beginning, the group has pioneered transmutations of various performance forms. The words 'The Search Is The Journey' flash across the screen at the end of the show's intro; it's just one more step on Another Language's performance journey."
Brian Staker - City Weekly (02/24/11)
"Duel*Ality is self-directed by the couple (Elizabeth and Jimmy Miklavcic), who also act its two roles. It's self-staged and designed too, with all audio and video cues created by the couple. Fittingly, it will be performed at the University of Utah's Intermountain Networking and Scientific Computation Center. And this being an Another Language Production, it spins off tangential and accompanying themes like a lathe working overtime...Through various turns in dialogue and scene, what becomes a wrestling match with technology becomes a wrestling match with interpersonal relationships. Fingers are pointed. Resolution between the characters - Duel and Ality, as played by Elizabeth and Jimmy - comes, but only after struggles to untether themselves from the real world, then to the computer world, and back again... It provides a rich context in which to explore how people define themselves in terms of body and soul, matter and spirit. It also considers the mathematical duality of interchangeable theorems, as well as the location in planes of projective geometry.The couple says they have no dread of technology or computers. Where the performance of Duel*Ality gathers dramatic steam is when the technological presence reaches saturation points, and human consciousness begins to react under pressure."
Ben Fulton - The Salt Lake Tribune (02/22/11)
"There are several ways one might tell the story of the Another Language Performing Arts Company. It's a story about the ever-evolving art scene of Salt Lake City, and the 25 years the group has spent performing in the alleys, playgrounds and theater spaces of Utah's capital. It's a story about rapid-fire advances in computer technology, and Another Language's efforts to create 'live, real-time, distributed, surrealistic cinema' that is unlike anything most of us have seen before. It's a story about dance and poetry, music and theater, collaboration and a singular artistic vision forged by two people."
Dan Nailen - Salt Lake Magazine (04/2010)
"This unique production makes no excuses for bringing together art forms that, on first glance, have no business sharing the same room. It's bold. It's dense...With a 25-year company history and years of performance experience using the latest technology available, the Miklavcics are expert hands."
Ben Fulton - The Salt Lake Tribune (03/28/10)
"Another Language has continually and exponentially expanded on the use of technology to explore artistic themes. Eight years ago, the whole venture took off to new heights with a series of projects called InterPlays. This year, for its silver anniversary, Another Language continues that exploration with a new work titled Event Horizon. It's a bit tricky to pin down what an InterPlay is. It involves multiple combinations and juxtapositions; different mediums and varying geographical locales: live and recorded elements: people with technology; information with art; music with spoken word. In Event Horizon, this translates into a multilayered digital mix of several live video streams set against several prerecorded video streams featuring music, movement and poetry."...As heady as all that may come across on paper, in person, the 'audio-visual tapestry' that Another Language creates is both vivid and intriguing. It helps that the entire performance-including the technical crew magically making it all happen like wizards behind a curtain-intentionally and dramatically exhibits a kinetic grace similar to modern choreography.
Jacob Stringer - Salt Lake City Weekly (03/25/10)
"For the past 25 years, Jimmy and Elizabeth Miklavcic, co-artisitc directors of Another Language Performing Arts Company have combined performance with technology. The two founded the InterPlay series that uses technology to present two or more performances from different places (usually cities) to one or more audiences... the infrastructure of the networking and connection at the Intermountain Network and Scientific Computation Center on the University of Utah campus has made it possible for the Miklavcics to realize their projects.
Scott Iwasaki - Deseret News (03/21/10)
"Ever heard of 'live, real-time, distributed, surrealistic cinema?' (We hadn't either.) We have, however, seen the omission in our lives and are doing our best to rectify it via Another Language, a performing arts company at the University of Utah...InterPlay: AnARTomy features two dancers, poetry, a host of sketch artists, and digital animators, and requires nearly a dozen computer systems to compile live video feeds from four other universities...all to create a dynamic, collaborative performance."
Kersten Swinyard - The Leonardo Blog (04/15/09)
"Carnivale is Another Language's sixth yearly 'InterPlay' (its term for multimedia online performance occuring in different sites simultaneously), fusing the artistic and technological aspects of the performance more seamlessly than ever before."
Brian Staker - City Weekly (03/27/08)
"Though Another Language has been around for nearly two decades utilizing just about every artistic medium in its performances, its work enters completely new and exciting territory, one that requires constant technological upgrades, collaboration with other artists in different parts of the world and nearly a year's worth of work from conception to execution."
Kelly Keiter - Salt Lake City Magazine (04/2007)
"The group (Another Language), founded in 1985 has always tried to present experimental works that pushed the frontiers of artistic expression, but these recent performances (InterPlays) have showcased the cutting edge of technology as well.
Brian Staker - City Weekly (03/25/07)
"Beth Miklavcic built a Zen garden (for InterPlay: Dancing on the Banks of Packet Creek) with, among other materials, powdered drink mix, while a little girl unrolled white string around her. The string symbolized technology and the Internet, which started simply like a Zen garden, but was now overflowing with material."
Christy Karras - The Salt Lake Tribune (04/03/06)
"The motion and emotion come together for fresh, new experience that is on the cutting edge."
Sander Sharp - The Daily Utah Chronicle (8/11/94)
"Their (Another Language) concerts take the viewer into unchartered territory."
Nancy Melich - The Salt Lake Tribune (3/3/93)
"....among the finest artists in Utah."
Anne Poore - The Salt Lake Tribune (3/29/92)
"Eglantine, a new work created and performed by Beth Miklavcic, is a remarkable multimedia piece with videography by Jimmy Miklavcic. The symbolism is of a rose, but the imagery of the dancing figure in black with tangled braids moves into mysterious, decadent and even threatening realms, suggesting the decay that lurks just below the surface of all blooming, radiant things in their prime. Beth's dancing was vivid, strong, bold and original, and loaded with memorable images."
Dorothy Stowe - Deseret News (3/17/92)
"Another Language Studio on West Pierpont Avenue has housed many of the great Salt Lake performances in recent times. The latest is "Eglantine," a solo dance and video performance by Beth Miklavcic with videography by Jimmy Miklavcic...The Miklavcic's are committed not only to performance but to revealing process, learning and teaching. They are unassuming people who dare to push the edges of dance and performance."
Susan Levin - The Daily Utah Chronicle (11/8/91)
"Dancing inside and around a picture frame made 'Photographic Memory' a stunning and sensitive portrayal of a couples life together. The frame seemed to freeze moments in the performance, giving the number an ethereal quality."
Carolyn Wardle - The Daily Spectrum (05/31/91)
"Another Language's performance was stimulating and entertaining, a combination not always achieved by many performing groups."
Carolyn Wardle - The Daily Spectrum (05/31/91)
"Another Language (is) one of the more interesting performing arts companies in Salt Lake."
Steve Miller - The Daily Utah Chronicle (03/01/91)
"An utterly baffling component of the concert is the piece 'Goober in Your Galoshes,' including movement, dance, music, distorted sound and familiar snippets ingrained in Americans' cultural consciousness from the products of mass media. The piece can be seen as being made up of 'non-connected motifs,' as if a number of old home movies had been spliced together. Whatever one may try to classify it as, it is fascinating and not easily dismissed."
Cuman David Cropper - The Daily Utah Chronicle (06/01/90)
"Another Language repertoire has grown as broad as everyone's imagination...They have broadened the definition of performing arts."
Joyce Marder - The Event (11/01/89)