10 Hairy Legs, Elisa Monte Dance, Joseph Mills and More Set for New York Live Arts' 2013 Theater Access Program

New York Live Arts announces the 2013 Theater Access Program - a comprehensive rental program that provides performance space and resources to a diverse group of self-Producing Artists of all disciplines. This year's artists include (in order of appearance) 10 Hairy Legs, Ellen Robbins, NuMoRune Collaborative, Makeda Thomas, Elisa Monte Dance and Jennifer Muller/The Works, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre and Joseph Mills for Modern American Dance Company.

Performances take place at New York Live Arts' Theater. Tickets are available online at tickets.newyorklivearts.org, by phone at 212-924-0077 and in person at the box office. Box office hours are Monday to Friday from 1 to 9pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 8pm.

2013 Theater Access Program Schedule:

10 Hairy Legs (New York debut)
Bang; Interview; Together We Stand; Pillar of Salt; Rook

May 30-Jun 1 at 7:30pm; Jun 2 at 2:00pm

$20/$15 Live Arts members, Associate Artists, students, seniors

10 Hairy Legs is a repertory company-comprised entirely of men-of Randy James' work as well as existing and new works by today's most significant modern dance choreographers. Their New York debut will feature work by Founding Artistic Director Randy James, as well as David Parker (founder of The Bang Group), Claire Parker and Manuel Vignoulle.

Leadership funding for 10 Hairy Legs has been provided by The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission, with assistance provided by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Dept. of State. New Music USA's 2013 Live Music for Dance Program, with generous support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

Ellen Robbins
Annual Student Concerts

Jun 7 & 8 at 7:30pm; Jun 8 at 3:00pm; Jun 9 at 12pm and 4pm

$15/$10 Students

Culminating a year's work with world-renowned dance educator and choreographer Ellen Robbins, each student creates his or her own dance solo, steeped in the unmistakable individualism that resides in every child. Their works span a variety of theater experiences: humorous, dramatic, lyrical, minimal, abstract. Music selections also cover a broad range from Bach to Stravinsky to Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Each of the five unique concerts consist of solos by the students, ages 8 - 18, and the following group pieces: Walkaround Vermeer - 6/7 at 7:30, Carnival of the Animals - 6/8 at 3pm, GArden Party & The Unanswered Question (by Anna Sokolow) - 6/8 at 7:30pm, Waterstudy & Extra Genre - 6/9 at noon, Rainforest & Space Fantasy - 6/9 at 4pm.

Ellen Robbins' Annual Student Concerts are funded by Jody and John Arnhold, the W Trust and the Ellen Robbins Parents Committee Fund.

NuMoRune Collaborative
A YARD ABROAD - An Immigration Narrative

Jun 12 & 13 at 7:30pm

$27/$20 for Live Arts members, students and seniors

The NuMoRune Collaborative will present A YARD ABROAD - An Immigration Narrative, a collection of contemporary dance works. It is a story of becoming American while remaining traditionally Caribbean. "It's about how enculturation affects the formation of new identity and new cultural practices as a part of the immigration narrative," said Chris Walker, Artistic Director and choreographer.

The content integrates diverse Caribbean folk and traditional art forms and North American Urban dance expressions through contemporary choreography and experimental theatre. "The devising process includes live music, spoken word text and action study," said Walker.

The works raise questions about the passing down of intolerance, the negative impact of brain drain and self-exile, social and religious tensions and homophobia from the West Indian community.

The title work, A Yard Abroad, Dubwise, performed by FuturPointe Dance, affirms a Caribbean identity of self-reliance through physical investigations of the "island cool" as both a survival mechanism and a way of being in the north.

The evening will also feature South Facing Window, Walker's solo for Bessie-award winner Germaul Barnes and performances by Jermaine Rowe, Jerome Stigler and the First Wave Hip Hop Theatre Ensemble.

Makeda Thomas
10th Anniversary Season

Jun 14 & 15 at 7:30pm

$32/$26 for Live Arts members, students and seniors

Makeda Thomas celebrates her 10th Anniversary Season with two performances at New York Live Arts. Noted scholar, Thomas DeFrantz (author of Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance and Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture) leads audiences through discussions on Thomas' "richly honed" work and process. Her dancers deliver "gestures you can feel in your gut and heavenly dancing you want to watch forever" (Eva Yaa Asantewaa) in highlights from older works FreshWater, A Sense of Place, Los Colores and Subtle Changes/The Talented.

The program also features a preview excerpt of the highly anticipated, make. believe., a new work in collaboration with poet Queen GodIs. An evening-length, multimedia movement; a dream state of dance, poetry, visual art, music and food, make. believe. uses science fiction as a storytelling tool to retrace and recreate moments from the space/time lapse between the collaborators' first and present encounters. The project also engages Grisha Coleman (Music Composition), Tamilla Woodard (Dramaturgy), Stephen Arnold (Lighting Design), Sean Naftel (Set Construction) and David Tinapple (Visual Media). Premiere planned in 2014.

Elisa Monte Dance and Jennifer Muller/The Works
Monte / Muller MOVE!

Jun 19 The Works Gala, 7:00pm

(For tickets call 212.691.3803.)

Jun 20 - 22 at 7:30pm

$40/$32 with discount code/$20 Seniors & Students

Elisa Monte Dance and Jennifer Muller/The Works Join Forces to present three shared program performances of Monte / Muller MOVE! featuring five pieces-two world premieres, 18 dancers, five noted designers and live performances by composer/cellist Julia Kent. These two experienced and distinguished choreographers create work with powerful and highly original voices. Now at the height of their creative careers, they are presenting a diverse selection of work, including recent premieres and brand-new works.

As choreographers, they are distinctly different but share the sensibility of creating work that combines virtuosic movement with an expressive edge that touches the heart - work that dances full out yet speaks of both individual experiences and shared humanity.

The 18 extraordinary performers push physical capability, standing out as individuals yet working in cohesive ensembles. Monte/Muller MOVE! offers the opportunity to experience two acclaimed dance companies together on one stage.

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre
It's a Game (world premiere)

Jun 27 - 29 at 7:30pm

$30/$20 for Live Arts members, students and seniors

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre celebrates its thirteenth annual performance season with the world premiere of It's a Game, an evening-length dance theatre work that brings a chess game to life through character, movement, line, pattern, relationship and human drama. Inspired by the work of Alexander McQueen and the magic of Harry Potter, the piece creates a moving fantasy of power dynamics, competition, and strategy. It's a Game sparks a rich palette of emotions and meaning via Selwyn's vibrant movement language of extended limbs, physical risk, athleticism, gesture, energy, release, touch and balance.

Joseph Mills for Modern American Dance Company (MADCO)
MADCO performs MILLS/works

Jul 11 - 13 at 7:30pm

$22/$18 Live Arts members and students

The St. Louis-based Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) performs an evening of works by former company member, Joseph Mills. Mills performed with MADCO from 1981-1987, was a member of MOMIX and The ERick Hawkins Dance Company, and has been performing and choreographing independently since 1990. Since 2000, Mills has frequently returned to St. Louis to create works for the company, and in this program MADCO will perform three of his works. The first, Reflections in the Well of Solace, is a meditation on grief and transformation and is in part, a response to the tragedies of 9-11. Scheduled to create a new work for the company in late 2001, the entire country was riveted by the horrifying events. This work emerged as a healing act with the dancers, reconstructing movements of unspeakable grief, and transforming them into movements of healing, even joy. The second work, Getting Lucky: Secret Moments in the Natural World, is a musing on the world of animal documentaries, and imagines a zany menagerie of exotic creatures and their sexual proclivities. The third piece is a world premiere, showcasing MADCO's versatility as both theatrical storytellers and dancer/athletes of the highest level. Working from selkie myths of Celtic lore, dancers play with gravity and create illusions of weightlessness and weave a narrative, ranging from self-indulgence, to melancholic longing, to playful and joyful celebration. Mills will also dance on the program, reprising his performance of Alan Boeding's audience favorite, Circle Walker.

About the artists:

10 Hairy Legs is a repertory company - comprised entirely of men - of Randy James' work as well as existing and new works by today's most significant modern dance choreographers, not meant to reflect a specific point of view about the male experience, but rather to celebrate and exploit the tremendous technical and emotional range of today's male dancer. Randy James, among the foremost modern dance choreographers, educators and arts advocates, is the driving force of 10 Hairy Legs and serves as its Founding Artistic Director. In their initial season, their artistic collaborators are Manuel Vignoulle, David Parker, Claire Porter, John Lasiter, Robert Maggio and Cindy Capraro.

In addition to their work with 10 Hairy Legs, company members are currently featured artists with Stephen Petronio, Doug Elkins and Zvi Dance, among others. Following their New York City Debut, 10 Hairy Legs will tour to Germany, The Cayman Islands and Singapore.

Ellen Robbins has been teaching dance since 1966. She was the resident dance educator at Dance Theater Workshop in NYC for 34 years. Robbins is a recipient of the 1993 Arts in Education Roundtable Award and the 1986 "Bessie" (New York Dance and Performance Award) for her work with children. She has taught Dance Education at Sarah Lawrence College and has guest-lectured around the country and abroad. She has been on the faculties of the 92nd St. Y, Bennington College July Program, and with ArtsConnection, a performance arts project for public school children. She has directed the Young Dancers School at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. In the summer of 2001, Dances by Very Young Choreographers was produced at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the Doris Duke Theater. Robbins is known for her extensive repertoire of group dances choreographed in collaboration with children.

Christopher Walker is a dancer and choreographer with the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica. He is also Assistant Professor of Dance, is the Artistic Director of the First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble at UW-Madison and the co-founder and artistic director of NuMoRune Collaborative - an ensemble of dancers, choreographers, storytellers and musicians, who come together under a united artistic vision to create collaborative works. Walker has taken First Wave, which received the Governor's Arts Award in 2010, on local, national and international tours, performing in New York, Mexico, Panama, Jamaica and the U.K. First Wave represented North America in the prestigious Contacting the World Theatre Festival 2010, in Manchester, U.K., an international theater project partnering youth theater groups from around the world to create theater across the boundaries of geography and culture. Walker has received numerous international scholarships and awards including the New York Thayer Fellowship, Certificate for Merit from the American Theatre Festival Association, gala performance of his work at American College Dance Festival, representation in the World Dance Alliance International Young Choreographer's Project in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and more recently the Hefty Faculty Support Award in recognition of his teaching and choreographic work, which has been presented nationally and internationally in the Caribbean, North and South America, South East Asia and Europe.

New York/Trinidad based Makeda Thomas has emerged as a dancer, choreographer, educator and curator on three continents. Graça Machel, Former First Lady of South Africa and Mozambique is the Honorary Patron of her internationally acclaimed 2005 work, "A Sense of Place", which was commissioned by 651 ARTS Black Dance: Tradition & Transformation. Her 2008 solo "FreshWater" was embedded into MIT's "Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies" and toured the U.S., Mexico, Zimbabwe, and Trinidad. She has served as a Cultural Envoy for the U.S. Dept. of State and is the Director of the Dance & Performance Institute. Makeda's choreography has been presented at Harlem Stage/Aaron Davis Hall, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Caribbean Contemporary Arts, the Chicago Women's Performance Arts Festival, Harare's 7 Arts Centre, Teatro de la Ciudad, among others. Her films have been shown at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, T&T Moves Film Festival, MadLab's 1st International Film Festival, the Congress on Research in Dance and BRIC Arts|Media|Brooklyn. As Artistic Advisor, Thomas remounted FIN (2008) by late contemporary African dance choreographer Augusto Cuvilas which saw performances from the Centre Culturel Franco Mozambicain in Maputo to the Baltoppen in Copenhagen. Thomas' 2012 site-specific work "Sighting Freedom," premiered at the Buffalo Canalside Harbor. She has received international commissions and awards, most recently earning a Creative Capital award (US), a Young Maverick Award from COCO (Trinidad) and induction in the Caribbean Hall of Fame (Jamaica). As a dancer, Thomas performed internationally with Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Urban Bush Women, and Rennie Harris/ Puremovement.

Founded in 1981, Elisa Monte Dance is hailed around the world for its visceral and sensual style and embodiment of diverse cultural influences. Based in New York City, the non-profit dance company actively tours nationally and internationally showcasing its distinctive cross-discipline style and bridging cultural barriers through dance. The company's eight dancers rise to the creative challenge in an ecstatic display of physical prowess that gives life to an intense array of emotions. At once true to its own distinctive style and eager to encompass diverse cultural influences, Monte's choreography takes a global view of movement that puts the world of dance within her audience's grasp. The company has toured throughout the United States and in more than 40 countries. EMD has been a featured performer at such prestigious festivals as Jacob's Pillow, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, BAM, Next Wave Festival and the Spoleto Festival (US and Italy).

Jennifer Muller/The Works celebrates 38 years of presenting Muller's visionary approach to dance theater, creating dances that illuminate the human spirit. The Works has electrified world audiences in 39 countries on four continents (recently: Brazil and Beijing), 30 states in the US, and at 22 NYC Seasons. Venues include Jacob's Pillow, Lincoln and Kennedy Centers, The Joyce, David H. Koch and City Center Theaters and the United Nations. The Works' outreach programs reach 5,000 youth and mentor 50 choreographers annually.

Muller has created over 100 pieces, working with 30 international dance, theater and opera companies and collaborating with such artists as Keith Haring, Keith Jarrett and Yoko Ono. Her prolific career has led to recent honors: Forteleza's Trophy of Cultural Responsibility, an American Masterpieces: Artistic Genius Grant and the publications: Tanz-Plan Berlin's Tanztechcik 2010 and Transformation & Continuance: Jennifer Muller and the Reshaping of American Modern Dance, 1959 to Present.

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre creates original and dynamic dance theatre that raises questions, challenges social norms and values, and magnifies humanity through dance. Productions pivot around core themes and through an interplay between athletic and pedestrian motion, activate emotional expression, character, and narrative in a rich and abstract collage. Presenting dance in an immediate, mature, and inclusive way, we engage audiences from start to finish and beckon a response of thought, feeling, and soul.

Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) currently under the Executive and Artistic Directorship of Stacy West, was founded in 1976 by Alcine Wiltz and Ross Winter as a vehicle to provide an opportunity for professional dancers to live and work in the Midwest while also providing dance performances by local artists and educational programs for the community. Over the years the company's mission has evolved to encompass a wider scope choreographically, attracting dancers and choreographers from around the country to create innovative and memorable dance performances combining passion and technical excellence to provide its audiences with a world-class arts experience. The company is known for its versatile and athletic style, presenting dance that is exciting for audiences to watch and demanding for dancers to perform. Since 2007, MADCO has been the professional company in residence is at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the campus of University of Missouri St. Louis. The company presents a concert season at TPAC, extensive education and residency programs and community outreach that reaches over 30,000 people annually. Dance International Magazine described MADCO as "a company with flat-out physicality and exacting discipline while never forgetting the entertainment value..." MADCO continues to collaborate with former company member, choreographer Joseph Mills.

Located in the heart of Chelsea in New York City, New York Live Arts is an internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry offering audiences access to art and artists notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation and active engagement with the social, political and cultural currents of our times. At the center of this identity is Bill T. Jones, Executive Artistic Director, a world-renowned choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer.

We commission, produce and present performances in our 20,000 square foot home, which includes a 184-seat theater and two 1,200 square foot studios that can be combined into one large studio. New York Live Arts serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, provides an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people and supports the continuing professional development of artists. Our influence extends beyond NYC through our international cultural exchange program that currently places artists in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.