Live Arts Plus

Ariel Rivka Dance, an all-female dance company helmed by choreographer Ariel Grossman, collaborates with Amy Marshall Dance Company and guest choreographer Chanel DaSilva for a season dedicated to empowering women creatives. ARD presents two new works— She, a dance that delves into the emotional waves of motherhood, and a solo work that reflects on the sacrifices one makes for passion—as well as the acclaimed No Words. Amy Marshall Dance Company joins the program to showcase eighteen years of inspiring, dramatic dance. After a successful debut at the 2017 ARD season, Chanel DaSilva returns to set a premiere piece on four ARD dancers with her signature energetic style.

Runtime: 80 minutes with intermission

“The uses of adversity” are indeed sweet in this beloved play that explores the warmth of friendship, the pain of exile, man’s inhumanity to man, and how we can be healed by engaging with our community and the natural world. This performance marks the culmination of a year of study and rehearsal by the fifty fourth, fifth, and sixth graders participating of the Hunts Point Children’s Shakespeare Ensemble, which is offered by the Public Shakespeare Initiative in collaboration with its vital community partner, the Hunts Point Alliance for Children, which co-founded the Ensemble with The Shakespeare Society in 2007.

A multidisciplinary dance concert to benefit the Steps Beyond Foundation.  The program features  Buglisi Dance Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Heidi Latsky Dance, and Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY, with works by Fredrick Earl Mosley, Debbie Roshe, Verdon Fosse Legacy, and the debut of Dorrance Dance’s Second Company.

Benefit tickets include reception at Elmo’s following the performance.

Click here if you cannot attend the benefit performance but would like to make a donation to the Steps Beyond Foundation.

Runtime: 90 min

The Steps Beyond Foundation is dedicated to developing and sustaining dance artists and to the cultivation of the dance community.  Specifically, the Foundation supports excellence in the field by (1) providing collaborative opportunities among established and emerging artists through new work presentations, (2) encouraging dialogue on specific issues that educate, impact, and interest our community, (3) granting dance scholarships, and (4) funding community engagement programs at the Hudson Guild for pre-schoolers and for seniors at the Henry Street Settlement.

Students will perform work by Al Blackstone, Gabrielle Lamb, Fredrick Earl Mosley, American Dance Machine 21 (“America” from West Side Story & “Our Favorite Son/Willamania” from Will Rogers Follies), vocal presentations from class with Jan Horvath, a Horton class demonstration, plus original works by graduating students Virginia Ercolani, Astreé Périchon, and Serena Wolman.

Runtime: 90-110 minutes

Click here if you cannot attend the benefit performance but would like to make a donation to the Steps Beyond Foundation.

The Steps Conservatory Program, a 2-year multidisciplinary program, provides intermediate and advanced dancers ages 17-24 intensive training with Steps world renowned faculty and guest artists, performance opportunities, and mentoring and career guidance. The program creates polished, versatile dancers brimming with the confidence and enthusiasm to enter the competitive world of concert and commercial dance.

An artistic collaboration blending painting, poetry, music and dance. When painter Maria Popovits’ collaborated with poet James O’Dea the result was a best-selling art book titled “Enter the Luminous”. It is from this marriage of poetry and painting in which Ms. Barbosa drew her inspiration for this evening’s work premiere. Ms. Barbosa considers it a poetic meditation reflected visually in Marika’s paintings and brought to life through multi-dimensional dance capturing the audience’s heart through their eyes. The choreography by Miriam Barbosa, in collaboration with former Taylor dancer Francisco Graciano and music by John Stone, is designed to transport the audience away from the war and devastation of the world we live in and into a state of light and peaceful consciousness. The evening will open with Miriam Barbosa’s most recent work “Resilience’ to music by Stepan Grytsay, setting the full evening journey for the reflection by Rumi: “The wound is the place where the light enters you…” Marika Popovits and Miriam Barbosa will close the evening with Q&A on stage sharing the full experience of this work of art and its development process and impact with the audience. This artistic collaboration is being filmed by Monticello Park Productions keeping the work alive for prosperity.

VIP tickets include premium seats, admission to the opening night reception, and a signed photo from the companies.

Armitage Gone! Dance, Buglisi Dance Theatre, Carolyn Dorfman Dance, and Jennifer Muller/The Works join forces to present a series of five Shared Program Performances featuring 4 Pieces –  2 Premieres – and 27 Dancers.

Four distinguished and innovative choreographers, at the height of their careers, each with a powerful original voice, present a vibrant evening of dance with an expressive edge that moves minds and hearts with a shared humanity. The 27 extraordinary performers stand out as individuals, yet work in cohesive ensembles.

WOMEN / CREATE! – A Festival of Dance offers an amazing opportunity to experience four acclaimed choreographers and their exceptional dancers together on one stage!

The Program includes… (in order of appearance)

DONKEY JAW BONE (Excerpt/Preview)
Armitage Gone! Dance
Choreographer: Karole Armitage /Composer: Traditional pre-Columbian Mexican music played live on Teponatzli and Quijada

Donkey Jaw Bone, an excerpt from a new work commissioned by National Sawdust and the Mexico Now Festival, is loosely based on Mexico’s theatrical sport, Lucha Libre. It sits at the border of sport, dance and ritual, invoking connections between sometimes contradictory domains: rural and urban, tradition and modernity, ritual and parody, machismo and feminism, politics and spectacle. Performed on pre-Columbian instruments, the teponaztli (a pitched slit-log drum) and the quijada, (a donkey jawbone), the dance draws on Balanchine’s Agon, ancient and contemporary minimalism, drag queen style and re-enacts documentary Lucha wrestling matches. The full production premieres on October 20, 2018 at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust.

PAUSE

SHOCK WAVE (World Premiere)
Jennifer Muller/The Works
Choreographer: Jennifer Muller / Composer: Gordon Withers
Shock Wave was made possible, in part, by a live music grant from The O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation

In physics, a shock wave is a cataclysmic disturbance, characterized by destructive interference and abrupt, discontinuous change. The piece Shock Wave treats this explosive impact as a symbolic event, interpreting it as a widespread, deeply felt feeling of shock caused by unexpected events. From sudden, inconceivable changes that destroy normality, the sequence of the piece proposes that “the life we expect”, when disrupted by tumultuous events can lead to emotional devastation, followed by an urgent attempt at healing and finally arrive at the need to “battle back” in order to create a regained sense of community.

INTERMISSION

THRESHOLD (1991)
Buglisi Dance Theatre
Choreographer: Jacqulyn Buglisi / Composer: Composer: Arvo Pärt / Lighting Design: Clifton Taylor

Performed by renowned dancers Virginie Mécène and Kevin Predmore, the “bewildering beautiful” Threshold is a primal, expressionistic work about life and death set to a haunting score by Arvo Pärt. “Who if I cried out would hear me among the Angels’ hierarchies? And even if one of them pressed me suddenly against his heart, I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.” – Rainier Maria Rilke

PAUSE

WAVES (2015)
Carolyn Dorfman Dance
Choreographer: Carolyn Dorfman /Composers: Pete List, Jessie Reagen Mann and Daphna Mor
Waves was made possible, in part, by grants from New Music USA, The O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation with generous support from the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.

In Waves, Dorfman uses an eclectic and unusual grouping of instruments, sounds, vocals, and artists to create new and visceral movement connections between her dancers, the musicians, their sounds, and the dance. The extraordinary composer/musicians of the work include cellist Jessie Reagen Mann, beat boxer, Pete List, and recorder player, Daphna Mor. In exploring the multi-faceted meanings and metaphors of ‘waves’; Dorfman and the dancers created reactions to the sound waves and vibrations and the musicians responded to the movement in tone and sound. This creates a rich dialogue; a sensation based exploration of sound and motion.

Run time: 110 minutes (including intermission and pauses)

Sidra Bell Dance New York presents a new work, F R I C T I O N (prequel) with longtime collaborator and composer Juilliard trained Alexey Gorokholinsky who will perform live with the company. F R I C T I O N is paired with the critically acclaimed work garment (Director’s Choice) which premiered at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh, PA in 2014 and was named #1 in Contemporary Dance by the Pittsburgh Examiner.

F R I C T I O N (prequel) makes its debut alongside garment with new live music by Juilliard trained dynamo Alexey Gorokholinsky.

“bizarre, audacious, voyeuristic” – Dance Magazine 2018

garment (Director’s Choice) is a playful, slightly offensive jaunt that attempts to rescue the individual by constructing a world that navigates popular zeitgeists, cultural rituals and social containers. Conceived through materials the work exercises small performance ceremonies and allows the performers to speak and mask through filters to observe identity, appropriation, political incorrectness, subliminal language, transfiguration, nonsense, influence, authorship, and reformation. you’ll be remembered…###

World Premiere- 2014, Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh, PA)

 “Named #1 in Contemporary Dance in 2014″ – Pittsburgh Examiner

“The New York choreographer wowed the audience in a thought-provoking piece focused on identity. Her company members were some of the most unique and talented artists I had ever seen, and her choreography exploded with creativity.” – Pittsburgh Examiner

SIDRA BELL DANCE NEW YORK is rapidly gaining an international profile for work that reveals aspects of the human condition through a distinctly female lens. Bell’s creations have been described as, “brainy, exuberant, and audacious.” (San Francisco Chronicle). The work demands both physical power and tender expressiveness from her crack ensemble of “fearless and technically honed dancers” (Vancouver’s Georgia Straight). The Company has performed extensively throughout the USA, Europe, Canada, and South America. It was named “#1 in Contemporary Dance in 2014” by the Pittsburgh Examiner, as one of ArtsATL’s “Notable Dance Performances of 2012”, and in the “Top 10 for Best in Dance in 2010” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Bell’s process is intuitive, collaborative, and emphasizes the integration of multiple design elements. Her work combines design, media, and fashion creating a singular vision in contemporary dance. SIDRA BELL is a sought after educator and has won several awards. Bell has received many commissions from institutions internationally and has produced over 100 new works. Her work has been seen throughout the United States and in Sweden, Denmark, France, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, Germany, Slovenia, China, Canada, Aruba, Korea, Brazil, and Greece. She was the choreographer on the critically acclaimed and internationally showcased film feature movie TEST. SBDNY has a extensive educational and mentorship program built on MODULE philosophy and works with institutions for dance and theater internationally with a particular emphasis on young artist development. SBDNY was awarded a 2015 National Dance Project Award from New England Foundation for the Arts and was one of 25 inaugural companies to receive a the Dance Advancement Fund Award from Dance/NYC in 2017. Recent features include a spread in Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine (2017), a mini book collaboration with fashion photographer Lloyd Stevie, the Best of New Orleans, and the January 2018 cover of Dance Magazine featuring SBDNY artist Leal Zielińska as one of 25 to Watch in 2018 “Breakout Stars of 2018”. The company was featured in director Jovan Todorovic’s latest film as part of MOTIONPOEMS’ 8th Season at Anthology Film Archives.

Approximate runtime: 120 min