Cutting Edge Talent Slated for NYU Skirball's 2017-18 Dance Season

NYU Skirball's 2017-18 dance season kicks off on September 15 with a FREE immersive dance party by the unconventional dance company AUNTS, and continues with the American premiere of Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula's In Search of Dinozord, a heart-wrenching look at the consequences of war, on September 22 and 23.

The season, the first curated by Skirball's new director, Jay Wegman, will showcase diverse and cutting-edge international talent from Brussels, Denmark, France, Germany, Republic of Congo, the U.K. and the United States.

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THE SCHEDULE:

AUNTS DANCE PARTY - FREE EVENT

September 15 at 7:30 pm

NYU Skirball's backstage, dressing rooms, hallways and lobby (everything but the theater itself!) will be transformed when AUNTS takes over the building for this special, one-time-only event. Audiences will be able to wander and experience as many or as few performances as they choose, creating their own experiences through chance encounters. AUNTS brings together contemporary dance artists and audiences for a special immersive party evening, directed by Laurie Berg and Liliana Dirks-Goodman.

AUNTS, founded by James Kidd and Rebecca Brooks in 2005, and currently organized by Laurie Berg and Liliana Dirks-Goodman. An underground platform for dance, AUNTS creates events in unconventional spaces with multiple performers, overlapping performances, open dance parties, multi-disciplinary, body/non-body based, time oriented, finished/experimental/unfinished/process art. Since 2005, AUNTS has organized approximately fifty events and hosted more than four hundred artists from all disciplines and at various points in their careers. auntsisdance.com

FAUSTIN LINYEKULA: IN SEARCH OF DINOZORD

September 22 - 23 at 7:30 pm

In Search of Dinozord, an American premiere, is an adaptation of a 2006 work that paid homage to the murdered Congolese political prisoner Antoine Vumilia Muhindo. It asks the same question that Faustin asked people in the streets and fields in 2006: what has become of your dreams in war-ravaged Congo? Set to Mozart's Requiem, performed live by rising opera star Serge Kakudji, dancers and actors move through a landscape of ruins, looking for remainders of their dreams.

Faustin Linyekula, an internationally renowned dancer, founded Studios Kabako, a space for contemporary dance serving his native Democratic Republic of Congo. Faustin lives and works in Kisangani, North-East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, former Zaire, former Belgian Congo, former independent state of Congo. Faustin teaches in Africa, across Europe, and in the United States. kabako.org

Co-presented with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)'s Crossing the Line Festival.

Part of BRIDGING, an initiative co-developed and supported by The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations.

METTE INGVARTSEN: 7 PLEASURES

September 29 - 30 at 7:30 pm

At the heart of Mette Ingvartsen's 7 Pleasures, 12 performers confront notions of nudity, body politics and sexual practice, questioning the borders between private and public space by literally placing the naked body in the middle of the theater public. In this American premiere, pleasure becomes a perceptual as much as a political question. How do we use pleasures joyful potential to disrupt cliché images attached to nudity and sexuality?

Mette Ingvartsen is a Danish choreographer and dancer. Questions of kinesthesia, perception, affect and sensation have been crucial to most of her work, which includes several site-specific propositions and have been seen around the world. Mette was artist-in-residence at the KAAITHEATER in Brussels from 2013 till 2016 and is currently part of the artistic team at Volksbühne in Berlin. metteingvartsen.net

BALLETCOLLECTIVE

October25- 27 at 7:30 pm

BalletCollective's 2017 program, Translation, consists of two new ballet-based works that are the result of experimental collaborations between boundary-pushing artists, composers and choreographers. The first work will feature contributions from choreographer and BalletCollective founder Troy Schumacher, artist Sergio Mora-Diaz, composer Julianna Barwick and speculative fiction writer and translator Ken Liu. The second will feature choreographer Gabrielle Lamb, composer Caleb Burhans, and artist Trevor Paglen. While each work is distinct, both are rooted in an exploration of the concept of translation in contemporary culture.

BalletCollective connects artists, composers, and choreographers to create new ballet-based works. Through a unique consideration of process, the Collective produces collaborative works that expand the boundaries of artistic disciplines and resonate with a wide audience. Founded in 2010 by choreographer Troy Schumacher, BalletCollective has collaborated with over 50 artistic partners and produced ten new works. www.balletcollective.com

JÉRÔME BEL: GALA

March 2 at 7:30 pm; March 3 at 3pm and 7:30 pm

Featuring amateurs, professionals and everything in between, the 20 dancers of Gala will be cast in NYC from all walks of life. Through their movement, the gentle humanity of each performer lights up this inspired production. Breaking the sanctity of the stage, this is a jumble of joys, failures, and stumbling insights into the uniting power of dance.

Jérôme Bel, the "mischievously entertaining" (The Guardian) Paris-based choreographer, explores the relationship between choreography and popular culture, dancer and audience, often using humor to break the formality of a theater apparatus. Bel's work has often been referred to as conceptual. He questions both art and contemporary dance by deconstructing modes of presentation and the notion of authorship while problematizing the historical prominence of technical virtuosity in dance. jeromebel.fr

Gala is part of the third annual Tilt Kids Festival, a cultural event for families presented by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF).

MAI: LIL BUCK AND Jon Boogz: LOVE HEALS ALL WOUNDS

April 13 at 7:30 pm; April 14 at 3 pm and 7:30 pm

Love Heals All Wounds, an evening-length work by MAI (Movement Art Is), addresses social issues such as police brutality and violence in America while seeking to promote diversity, inclusion, and empathy as a uniting force. MAI (Movement Art Is), co-founded by Jon Boogz and Lil Buck, uses movement artistry to inspire and change the world while elevating the artistic educational and social impact of dance. Through movement art films, workshops, performances and exhibitions, MAI is resetting the spectrum that defines dance. movementartis.com,

Jon Boogz is a movement artist, choreographer and director who seeks to push the evolution of what dance can be - sharing with audiences of all backgrounds an appreciation of the melding of art forms while inspiring and bringing awareness to social issues. He co-starred in the viral short film Color of Reality, which continues to screen at film festivals worldwide and has won numerous awards.

LIL BUCK is an International phenomenon. He began jookin' - a street dance that originated in Memphis - at age 13 and went on to train in hip-hop and ballet. Named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch," his collaboration with Spike Jonze and Yo-Yo Ma performing The Swan went viral in 2011. Since then he has collaborated with a broad spectrum of artists across the world, and is an avid arts education advocate and recipient of the WSJ Innovator Award.

MEG STUART/DAMAGED GOODS & MÜNCHNER KAMMERSPIELE: UNTIL OUR HEARTS STOP

May 4 - 5 at 7:30 pm

In Until Our Hearts Stop, an American premiere, six performers and three musicians find themselves in a place that is both a nightclub and an arena: an unreliable, high-octane refuge, a place of desire and illusion, experiencing extreme intimacy at each other's hands. To the sound of throbbing basses, piano and drums - a mix between improvisation and composition - they connect and explore each other, drawing the audience into their immersive world.

Meg Stuart is a New Orleans-born choreographer and dancer living and working in Berlin and Brussels. Stuart moved to New York in 1983 and was actively involved in the downtown New York dance scene. Together with her company, Damaged Goods, she has created over 30 stage works, ranging from solos to large-scale choreographies, site-specific creations and improvisation projects. Stuart strives to develop a new language for every piece in collaboration with artists from different creative disciplines and navigates the tension between dance and theater. Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods has an on-going collaboration with Kaaitheater (Brussels) and HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin). damagedgoods.be

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Tickets range from $15 (students) - $40, and will be on to NYU Skirball members on August 1; General public tickets go on sale on August 8. For more information visit www.nyuskirball.org. NYU Skirball is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, New York 10012. Subways: A,B,C,D,E,F,M to West 4th St.; N & R to 8th Street; 6 to Astor Place or Bleecker; 1 to Christopher St.

NYU Skirball, located in the heart of Greenwich Village, is one of New York City's major presenters of international work, and has been the premier venue for cultural and performing arts events in lower Manhattan since 2003. The 860-seat state-of-the art theater, led by Director Jay Wegman, provides a home for internationally renowned artists, innovators and thinkers. NYU Skirball hosts over 300 events annually, from re-inventions of the classics to cutting-edge premieres, in genres ranging from dance, theater and performance arts to comedy, music and film.

NYU Skirball's unique partnership with New York University enables it to draw on the University's intellectual riches and resources to enhance its programming with dialogues, public forums and conversations with artists, philosophers, scientists, Nobel Laureates and journalists.

Jay Wegman is responsible for the direction and leadership of the Center's artistic programming. He previously served as director of the Abrons Art Center at Henry Street Settlement from 2006-2016, where he curated a balance of local, international, emerging and established multi-disciplinary artists. During his tenure, Abrons was awarded a 2014 OBIE Award for Innovative Excellence and a 2015 Bessie Award for Best Production. He also served as Canon for Liturgy and the Arts at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine for over a decade and was a Fellow at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. from 2004-2005. Jay is a graduate of Yale University.

Designed by architect Kevin Roche with excellent sight lines and acoustics, NYU Skirball features state-of-the- art technology and broadcast capabilities, making it a sought-after venue for film and television screenings and premieres, theatrical events, live radio, and podcast presentations. www.nyuskirball.org.

Programs, artists and ticket prices are subject to change.