BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance & Bryn Cohn + Artists to Present HOME at Gibney Dance Center, 6/16-18

BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance and Bryn Cohn + Artists (BC+A) present HOME in a collaborative evening at Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, 280 Broadway, Gibney Dance Center NYC, from June 16-18, 2016 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $15 advanced sales online and $20 at the door. They will be available in late April at www.gibneydance.org/calendar/ or by calling the Gibney Dance Center box office at 646.837.6809.

HOME draws uponritualistic and traditional processes to elucidate the concept of home through interpersonal encounters, environments and the pursuit of self and collective understanding. In these two NYC premieres, BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance and BC+A incorporate interactive set pieces in a pre-show exhibition and mid-show interlude as well as in two distinct works, enabling our image of home to become amorphous while also serving as a thematic thread upon which we establish community. Scenic design elements, such as commonly seen furniture, supported frames, and micro-sanctuaries, are interwoven into kinetic movement languages to portray the loss, challenge and celebration that occur within individuals and family. Through continuously evolving structures that transform the space and the complex relationships developed amongst the performers, we come to understand that our concept of homeis constantly shifting as we move through life. By examining utopian models of the "picture perfect" family in contrast to human realities, the work provides a lens into a universal concept that we can all access to reimagine and define our own notion of what it means to find home.

"An apartment, an island, a hospital, a subway station, a prison, a freshly mowed lawn with a stack of bricks, and anything and everything in between. Home is not solely a place to call your own, it is universally binding regardless of its form - it is the intimate place where life, in all its beauty, pain and messiness, happens. In crafting this world with my BC + A family, we have mirrored, reimagined and morphed our personal narratives to build an experience that encapsulates the avid desire of belonging that binds us all together." -Bryn Cohn

"I have found home in people, places, and chosen families in a one-stoplight, rural Massachusetts town, Cameroon, New York City, and several points along the way. My longest journey, however, has been a quest towards self-actualization. I am continually searching for home within myself: asking questions, navigating boundaries, finding freedom, hoping to feel at peace. Realizing home, freedom, and peace is found by BodyStories dancers in this work, and deserved by all individuals." -Teresa Fellion

HOME will feature dancers Iman Barnes, Zachary Bergfelt, Mia DeWeese, Alex Jenkins, and Audrey Rachelle of BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance, and Rachel Abrahams, Nicholas Grubbs, Jessica Malat, Yuliya Romanskaya and Will Tomaskovic of BC + A; lighting design by Timothy Cryan; original compositions by John Yannelli and Kevin Keller, with live music by John Yannelli and Trilogy: featuring Dominic Boyle and Emily Cardwell. Costuming by Nina Katan and Sebastian Arango.

"The "W" in the title stands for 'world,' and Ms. Fellion and her colleagues do succeed in creating one... John Yannelli and members of the SLC Experimental Music Ensemble contribute a richly textured, partly live score of drones, strings plucked and strummed, swelling distortion, and high hums. The choreography is action-packed with a strong flow, a current that is sometimes tidal, washing the dancers back and forth across St. Mark's Church, turning the terrarium into an aquarium," said Brian Seibert of The New York Times of The Mantises Are Flipping W.3.

"Cohn's choreography possessed immaculate shifts of texture and mood that were enthralling to watch...The smallest movement seemed to garner the greatest impact... What made the work so powerful was Cohn's choreography paired with her performers' highly responsive bodies, susceptible to these new twists and turns at any second," said Tara Sheena of DIY Dancer of Into the Dark.

ABOUT BODYSTORIES: TERESA FELLION DANCE

BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance is a contemporary dance company that captures and communicates universal human encounters through dynamic, purposeful movement. We are a multifaceted, highly physical company laced with provocative, emotional, political and humorous edges. Our mission is to examine depths of society in their darkest and brightest moments and to inspire audiences to physically sense emotional and psychological aspects of the human condition on stage. Our work is intellectual and highly choreographed in every moment. It is intricately technical and controlled in every nuance, with a look that is not controlled. Live music is an important factor in many of our works. We also consistently work via in-depth collaborations in lighting, costume, video and set design. In addition to creating and performing innovative works, our company is committed to reaching diverse populations through outreach and education and maintaining a stable business model to sustain our work. Valuing international exchange, we collectively speak nine languages and research, perform, and collaborate with artists from five continents.

BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance has shown work at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jacob's Pillow, The Public Theater, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, University of Florida, ENTPE University (Lyon, France), NYU, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Bryant Park Summer Stage, BDF Edinburgh at EICC, Dixon Place, UME, ICA Boston, 92nd St. Y, Naropa University, Franco-American Cultural Center, CPR-Center for Performance Research, 14th St. Y, Merce Cunningham Theatre, MMAC, Ashawagh Hall, Triskelion Arts, GAP, and in concerts with Phish, among others. Collaborations on original music under the direction of our Musical Director, John Yannelli, are vitally integrated into our productions. Music collaborators include Yannelli, Trey Anastasio, Phish, Ryan Lott, Ryan Edwards, Kevin Keller, and Carver Audain. We have also enjoyed in-depth collaborations with costume designers Nina Katan, Ljupka Arsovska, and Elena Comendador, set designer, Robert Gould, and video artists Nel Shelby, Jacob Hiss, and Charles Dennis.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Teresa Fellion founded BodyStories in late 2011, after working as an independent choreographer since 2004. Fellion's work has been positively reviewed by The New York Times, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Scotsman, Oberon's Grove, NYTheatre.com, The Skinny Magazine, World Dance Reviews, Edinburgh Festivals Magazine, Edinburgh Spotlight, Southampton Press, Stage Buddy, East Hampton Press, Maine Sun Journal, and Earth Press, among others. She has received the Choreographic Fellowship from SummerStages Dance Festival and ICA Boston and the American Dance Guild Fellowship for Jacob's Pillow's Choreographers' Lab. Teresa has received grants for her work from The National Endowment for the Arts Window Award, Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Fund Grant, and space grants from ITE-Inception to Exhibition, MANA Arts/Armitage Gone! Dance, Mount Tremper Arts, Field FAR Space, and at Triskelion Arts and Mark Morris Dance Center through the Mellon Foundation. Teresa's choreography has been commissioned by NYC Department of Transportation's Summer Streets, chashama at 4 Times Square, Anita's Way, and The Hudson River Museum via the Jordan Matter Dancers Among Us exhibit. She has led workshops and master classes, and been commissioned to set work at University of Florida, Gainesville, NYU, Pace University, Castleton State College, University of Maine, Farmington, Jacob's Pillow, Moving Target Series in Cambridge, MA, and at several NYC and national performing arts schools. She has taught regularly at The Ailey School, Sarah Lawrence College, DreamYard Project, and Marquis Studios, and she is a faculty member and director of the Summer Dance Program at The Ross School.

Teresa was named Artistic Liaison between Cameroon & U.S. by president Paul Biya, while performing with National Ballet du Cameroun and at the National Soccer Cup Finals. She has performed for Lucinda Childs, Sarah Skaggs, Kimberly Young, M'Bewe Escobar, Skip Costa, and Martha Bowers, and she has performed works by Twyla Tharp, Deganit Shemy, Liz Lerman, and Megan Boyd, among others. Teresa completed a Dance MFA from Sarah Lawrence under Bessie Schonberg Scholarship, Certificate from the Ailey School under scholarship, and BA in French & English Literature, with a minor in dance from NYU as a merit scholar. More information at www.bodystoriesfellion.org.

Photo by Jaqlin Medlock