ChEckiT!Dance Kicks Off ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival Today

ChEckiT!Dance presents the fourth annual ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival: A Celebration of Female Choreographers, an eco-friendly evening of dance celebrating female choreographers, tonight, July 19, 2014 at 5pm at Summit Rock in Central Park, 83rd Street and Central Park West, NYC. Admission is free. For more information visit www.checkitdance.com or email checkitdance@gmail.com.

The evening will include works from more than 10 female choreographers, at various stages in their careers, from across the United States and abroad. Featured artists include:

Cathy Allen/Red Desert Dance Ensemble, Allison Berger, Allison Brzezinski/ChEckiT!Dance, Meredith Cabaniss/Selah Dance Collective, Alyssa Derling/Derling Dance Arts, Melissa Jackson/Innovate Dance Company, Alia Kache, Lauren Lasorda and Tali Custer, AlexJo Natale/Gestalt Dance, Joya Powell/Movement of the People Dance Company, Jessie Sector, Sophie Sotsky/TYKE Dance, Jessica Taylor/DAMAGEDANCE, & Meredith Testa

The ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival is the culmination of all of ChEckiT!Dance's efforts to increase performance opportunities for female dance makers. This annual outdoor festival, now in its fourth year, is curated and produced by ChEckiT! Dance each July at Summit Rock in Central Park. The ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival is a platform designed specifically to provide female choreographers the opportunity to share their work with an eager audience. The work is enriching, lively, and thrilling, and the eclectic styles of dance presented by performers hailing from all corners of the globe, builds a truly global community of female dance artists. In addition, the ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival is entirely green and entirely free of admission, providing access for all.

ChEckiT!Dance is an all female modern dance company based in New York City founded by Artistic Director, Allison Brzezinski in 2010. Through the creation and production of new works that seek to empower women and explore what it means to be a woman, we seek to create a crack in the stereotypical infrastructure of female archetypes and standards most commonly portrayed on stage. It is our goal to both promote awareness and gender equality through our own work and provide a platform for emerging female choreographers and dancers to share their talents.

Under the leadership of Allison Brzezinski, ChEckiT!Dance utilizes improvisational and collaborative movement techniques. Company members are given phrase material or written material to work with, from which they create, adapt, and devise their own movement. Each dancer has their voice heard in the company, and their individuality and creativity is vital for the company as a whole. This collaboration forms a community of female artists, working together without competition or stress. We are women working together to make change happen, inside the studio and out. www.checkitdance.com.

ChEckiT!Dance's performance credits include: Body Blend, Dixon Place, NYC; JT Lotus First Choreographer's Showcase, The Ailey Studios, NYC; HATCH Presenting Series, The Works Studios, NYC; STEPS Performance Lab Series, STEPS, NYC; New York City Dance Parade, NYC; Dance Fest, The Bandshell at Tompkins Square Park, NYC; ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival, Summit Rock, NYC-- 2011, 2012, 2013; Waterside Plaza Dance Festival, Waterside Plaza, NYC; Moving Beauty Series Dance Lab, Church of All Nations, NYC; Secrets, Lies and Rumors: A Cabaret, Loft on Fifth, NYC; MishMash201, Sukha Arts Center, Harrington Park, NJ; FigmentNYC, Governor's Island, NY-- 2012, 2013; TEXT/CONTEXT, The Kraft Center at Columbia University/Barnard College, NYC *featured artist at talk back*; GHOST Series, The Gershwin Hotel, NYC; Astoria Dance Festival, Bohemian Beer Garden, Astoria, NY 2012, 2013; Dance Film Association's

Films That Move Series, Solar One, NYC; Home is Where The Art Is, Triskelion Arts, Brooklyn, NY; 20 Years Celebration of Dance, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA.