Breakdance World Champion Anne Nguyen Makes US Debut in FIAF's 2016 Crossing the Line Festival

As part of the 2016 edition of Crossing the Line, the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)'s celebrated contemporary arts festival, FIAF is thrilled to join partners Dancing in the Streets, The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, Gibney Dance, Times Square Arts, and The Bronx Museum of the Arts to present the US debut of breakdance world champion Anne Nguyen in two distinct works: Graphic Cyphers, in the South Bronx and Times Square; and Autarcie (....): a search for self-sufficiency at Gibney Dance in Manhattan.

Anne Nguyen will also join a panel of performance-makers from Paris and New York for the Artists Talk Towards Cultural Equity: The Artist's Perspective, presented as part of BRIDGING: A French-American Dialogue on Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts, a new initiative from FIAF and the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations exploring issues of cultural equity in the US and France.

WORLD PREMIERE
Graphic Cyphers (a Dancing in the Streets and CTL 2016 Commission)
Friday, September 23 at 2pm
Roberto Clemente Plaza, 149th Street and Third Avenue, South Bronx, NYC
Friday, September 23 at 6:30pm
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse (between 165th and 166th Streets)
Sunday, September 25 at 2:30 & 4:30pm
Times Square, Broadway Plaza (between 46th and 47th Streets)
Free and open to the public

Created in collaboration with 20 New York City street dancers, the world premiere of Nguyen's Graphic Cyphers is a radical take on the original hip-hop cypher-the circle of dancers that surrounds an ever-changing soloist. In this revitalization of traditional format, the audience will move between constellations of dancers in dizzying sequences of movement and ever-changing levels and locations. Graphic Cyphers will maintain the intimacy and dynamism of close audience proximity to the dancers, while keeping perspective, perception, and participation in constant flux.

Commissioned by Dancing in the Streets and Crossing the Line Festival. Part of BRIDGING, an initiative supported by The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations. Co-presented with The Bronx Museum of the Arts and Times Square Arts in partnership with Gibney Dance.

US PREMIERE
Autarcie (....): a search for self-sufficiency (US Premiere)
Thursday, September 29 & Friday, September 30 at 8pm; Saturday, October 1 at 5pm & 8pm
Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, 280 Broadway (entrance at 53A Chambers Street)
Gibney & FIAF Members $15; General Admission: $20

In Nguyen's Autarcie (....): a search for self-sufficiency, four jumpsuit-clad female hip-hop dancers face off in a frantic, ritual warrior dance. Hypnotic beats underscore a game of strategy as each uses her specialty-break dance, popping, and waacking-in pursuit of territory, power, and possible points of harmony. The inner-workings of this restless tribe of fierce individuals unfold into an emotional narrative as the dancers work with and against each other, the space, and the audience.

Co-presented with Dancing in the Streets and Gibney Dance. Part of BRIDGING, an initiative supported by The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations.

About Anne Nguyen
Breakdance world champion Anne Nguyen has spent the past decade bringing hip-hop-and some of the genre's most accomplished dancers-to both French and international stages. Her highly stylized work celebrates the technical excellence and idiosyncratic moves of each dancer as she works to create a new theatrical language from hip-hop forms. Her choreography throws abstracted urban dance into collision with geometry, architecture, and human experience.

Currently in residence at Chaillot, Théâtre National de la Danse in Paris, Nguyen's background in science and martial arts brings innovative, technical excellence to her work. Taking a special interest in action-reaction principles, her choreographic pieces display a complex, precise architecture that alternates between control and improvisation resulting in high-performance dance with graphic, abstract, and de-structured compositions.

About The Bronx Museum of the Arts
The Bronx Museum of the Arts is a contemporary art museum that connects diverse audiences to the urban experience through its Permanent Collection, special exhibitions, and education programs. Reflecting the borough's dynamic communities, the Museum is the crossroad where artists, local residents, national and international visitors meet. www.bronxmuseum.org

About Dancing in the Streets
Dancing in the Streets, based in the South Bronx, develops movement-based projects through long term initiatives, integrating rigorous inquiry, artistic exploration, deep community engagement, and the nurturing of urban artists. www.dancinginthestreets.org

About The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations
The mission of the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations is to promote social empowerment and a collaborative society. It is rooted in a century-long tradition of giving founded on humanism, inclusion and the search for excellence. We continue to apply the same principles in the transformation of our philanthropic legacy by identifying innovative solutions and creative partnerships in education, the arts, health and social entrepreneurship. www.edrfoundations.org

About Gibney Dance
Gibney Dance is a powerhouse of cultural support for the performing arts community and the City itself. Its two remarkable spaces-Gibney Dance Choreographic Center at 890 Broadway and Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center at 280 Broadway-provide a roster of events supporting the creative process, encouraging dialogue, and providing professional development opportunities. www.gibneydance.org

About Times Square Arts
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times

Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation, and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain centrals to the district's unique identity. Generous support of Times Square Arts is provided by ArtPlace America and ArtWorks. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @TSqArts. www.TimesSquareNYC.org/Arts

About Crossing the Line 2016
Crossing the Line, now in its tenth year, is an annual citywide festival that engages International Artists and New York City audiences in discovery and dialogue to re-imagine the world around us. The festival is produced by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) in partnership with leading cultural institutions. This year's edition of the festival takes place from September 22-November 3, 2016.

France has a long history of supporting national and international cultural practices, welcoming and nurturing new ideas and influential perspectives from around the world. FIAF, as the leading French cultural institution in the US, critically maintains that tradition through theCrossing the Line Festival, presenting leading-edge artists from France and the US alongside their peers from around the world.

Since its inauguration in 2007, Crossing the Line has cultivated an increasingly large and diverse following, and received numerous accolades in the press. The festival has been voted "Best of 2009," "Best of 2010," "Best of 2012," "Best of 2013," and "Best of 2014" by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time Out New York, Artforum, and Frieze, with performances earning an Obie and several Bessie awards. The New York Times states, "For terrifically unusual, unpredictable, unnameable performance, we've come to expect a lot from ... the curators of the French Institute Alliance Française's interdisciplinary festival," and The New Yorker says, "This interdisciplinary festival...goes from strength to strength." www.crossingtheline.org

About FIAF
The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) is New York's premiere French cultural and language center. FIAF's mission is to create and offer New Yorkers innovative and unique programs in education and the arts that explore the evolving diversity and richness of French cultures. FIAF seeks to generate new ideas and promote cross cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of expression. www.fiaf.org