ADI to Perform Jack Ferver's I WANT YOU TO WANT ME at The Kitchen, 6/30-7/2

American Dance Institute (ADI), continuing to find new ways to support contemporary dance artists, is presenting performances in New York City for the first time this summer, offering five premieres over the course of five weeks at The Kitchen. The fifth of ADI's New York premieres at The Kitchen will be celebrated choreographer Jack Ferver's I Want You To Want Me, June 30 - July 02.

ADI's NYC engagement marks an expansion of ADI's acclaimed Incubator program, which is changing how dance is presented in NYC by giving choreographers the space and time to more fully develop new works in advance of premieres. At The Kitchen, ADI will present bold new works by five leading American artists: Yvonne Rainer, Jane Comfort, Brian Brooks, Jack Ferver and Susan Marshall.

ADI Executive Director Adrienne Willis said that the new New York component of the Incubator presenting program "will allow ADI to invest in artists, not just projects. By making long-term commitments early in the creation process and assuring ample support in the critical final stages, ADI hopes to free artists to create without limitations, realizing what would otherwise be just possibilities."

I Want You To Want Me, Ferver's bitingly queer Goth ballet, follows Ann Erica Rose (Talcott-Steenstra) as she leaves her boyfriend (Ferver) and America to join Madame M's (also played by Ferver) dance company in France. Ann Erica thinks her dreams have come true. Little does she realize this leap of faith is a jeté into hell.

In this hybrid dance-play Ferver's idiosyncratic violent and hysterical writing toys with, inhabits, and comments on thematic tropes found in more traditional plays and "rom com" television series and films including ballet horror movies. Ballet dancers Reid Bartelme (a frequent collaborator of Ferver's), Barton Cowperthwaite (Bad Boys of Ballet, Center Stage 3), and Carling Talcott-Steenstra (The Royal Danish, Flesh and Bone) join Ferver in a performance that deploys rigorous choreography that Ferver terms "post Balanchine Witch."

Performances of I Want You To Want Me run June 30 - July 2 at 8pm at The Kitchen. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at americandance.org or by calling 1-855-263-2623. Critics are welcome as of July 02. The Kitchen is located at 512 West 19th Street in Manhattan.

About I Want You To Want MeJack Ferver says, "I thought I would try to make something for everyone. You know, like ballet or a good subscription audience kind of play. I consider myself a populist, but some people really hate my work. They even hate me they hate my work so much. So I thought: 'Well, why don't I make a really pretty ballet or a play about a straight couple and their issues?' So that's what I'm going to do. Oh, I also just wanted to say, not everyone is going to make it. I don't mean make it to the show. I mean make it out of the show alive."

Jack Ferver is a New York based writer, director, and choreographer. I Want You To Want Me marks Ferver's 13th full-length work. Ferver's works have been presented in New York City at the New Museum; The Kitchen; The French Institute Alliance Française, as part of Crossing the Line; Abrons Arts Center; Gibney Dance; Performance Space 122; the Museum of Arts and Design, as part of Performa 11; Danspace Project; and Dixon Place. Domestically and internationally, Ferver has been presented by the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College (NY); American Dance Institute (MD); Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (IL); Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (OR); the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA (ME); the Institute of Contemporary Art (MA); Diverse Works in collaboration with the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston (TX); and Théâtre de Vanves (France). Ferver is part time faculty at Bard College. He has also taught at NYU, SUNY Purchase, and has set choreography at The Juilliard School. As an actor he has appeared in numerous film, television, and theater projects. www.jackferver.org

Reid Bartelme began his professional life as a dancer. He worked for ballet companies throughout North America and Canada, and later in his career worked for modern dance companies in New York including Shen Wei Dance Arts and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. He has also performed in works by Jack Ferver, Liz Santoro, Burr Johnson, Douglas Dunn, Ryan Mcnamara, Christopher Williams, and Kyle Abraham. He went on to graduate from the fashion design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology and began working as a freelance costume designer. Bartelme has designed costumes for many choreographers and dance companies and is one of the creative directors at Reid & Harriet Design.

Barton Cowperthwaite is a native of Denver, Colorado. Barton works as a dancer, actor, and model in New York City and abroad. He recently starred in the upcoming Lifetime original film 'Center Stage: On Pointe'. He has appeared in feature rolls with The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Pontus Lidberg Dance, and Bad Boys of Ballet, among others. He holds a BFA in Dance from The University of Arizona. He is overjoyed to be performing for the dangerously talented Jack Ferver in this diabolical new work. www.bartonc.com

Carling Talcott-Steenstra is a graduate from the School of American Ballet. She continued her training at the San Francisco Ballet School and Miami City Ballet (apprentice). She joined the Royal Danish Ballet in 2009 and is a recipient of the C. W. Strande Grant. She has also worked with the company SIGNA in collaboration with Corpus. For film and television, Talcott-Steenstra has appeared in De Standhaftige (Asta Film); The Danish Girl (Working Title); and the Golden Globe-nominated American mini-series, Flesh and Bone (Starz). She was also featured in the documentary 1, 2, 3, Dance (December Films).