DANCE NOW to Present LMnO3's B.A.N.G.S.: MADE IN AMERICA Premiere at Joe's Pub, 2/12-13

DANCE NOW presents the premiere of LMnO3's (Deborah Lohse, Cori Marquis, and Donnell Oakley) B.A.N.G.S.: made in america, February 12 and 13 at 7pm, at Joe's Pub at The Public, 425 Lafayette Street, between East 4th Street and Astor Place. Tickets are $15 in advance/$20 at the door and can be purchased by calling 212-967-7555, online at www.joespub.com, and in person at The Public Theater box office from 1pm to 6pm.

B.A.N.G.S.: made in america is a kaleidoscopic pageant of status, attention, categorization, and femininity. In its first evening-­length work, LMnO3 shape­-shift in style and identity­­ donning everything from velvet evening­ wear, to ripstop jumpsuits, to snack­-filled purses, to sensible bathing suits ­­as the dancers explore what they are -- and aren't -- qualified to do. Serious play and creative instincts rule as the trio obsesses over the ideas behind B.A.N.G.S., a mnemonic device frequently used by French-language learners to remember which adjectives go in front of a noun: Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, and Size. Utilizing hard rap, body percussion, headlamps, a game show, and the power of female relationships, this comedic trio sets aside its own fear and doubt, beginning to repurpose how we can unapologetically wear our own B.A.N.G.S.

Deborah Lohse, Cori Marquis, and Donnell Oakley met in 2010 when working with Doug Elkins in Fräulein Maria. They continued following their choreographic distractions in the corners of the rehearsal studio until they fell into a choreographic relationship. Lohse, Marquis, and Oakley began to gain momentum, accumulating movement material and character ideas until their first piece, Ink Stink, unfolded. In 2014 DANCE NOW invited LMnO3 to bring this debut to the stage of Joe's Pub. Ink Stink was selected as one of DANCE NOW's festival challenge winners. This past year, the group has gone on to grace the stages of Triskelion Arts, Judson Church, Built On Stilts, New Haven's Elm City Dance Collective, and as part of The Yard's Follies: Women Dance the Comic Series in summer 2015. LMnO3 was presented as part of DANCE NOW's 20th Anniversary Festival this past September.

About the Artists:

Born and raised in California, Deborah Lohse is a choreographer/performer living and working in New York City. Her work has been presented in theaters, public spaces, and festivals across the U.S. and Mexico including DANCENOW at Joe's Pub, American Dance Festival, Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival, La MaMa Moves, Joyce SoHo, and the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place. She has received commissions from New Chamber Ballet, Women In Motion, Mantra Percussion, DANCE NOW, and Island Moving Company as well as artist residencies from The Yard, Marble House Project, Acadia Summer Arts Program, and Silo. As a performer, Lohse has worked with Joe Goode, Kevin Wynn, Michael Preston, Barbara Karger, Anne Kauffman, Susanne Bocanegra, Monica Bill Barnes; she currently works with Doug Elkins, David Parker, Katy Pyle/Ballez, and her collaborative crew LMnO3. Lohse has a BA in dance as well as a BA in theater from the University of California. www.deborahlohse.com

Cori Marquis is a New York City-­based choreographer, dancer, and teacher. Under the name Cori Marquis + the Nines [IX], her work has been presented at numerous venues in California, Massachusetts, Arizona, Oregon, Connecticut, Michigan, and New York. Marquis was an artist-­in-residence at Duo Multicultural Arts Center (2012), Chen Dance Center (2011), and the Bessie Schönberg Choreographic Mentorship Residency at The Yard, Martha's Vineyard (2014). Marquis currently dances with Doug Elkins (since 2010) and Jane Comfort & Company (2015), and is thrilled to be a part of the fierce playtime of LMnO3 with collaborators Deborah Lohse and Donnell Oakley. Marquis has a BA degree from Stanford University. www.corimarquis.com

Donnell Oakley is an independent choreographer, dancer, and teacher based in Brooklyn, NY. She has had her work produced through Movement Research, the 92nd Street Y, the West End Theatre, Triskelion Arts, Joyce SoHo, DANCE NOW, Dance New Amsterdam, Dixon Place, Gibney Dance Center, and The Yard, among others. She received a Bessie Schönberg Choreographic Mentorship Residency from The Yard in 2013. In addition to her independent work Donnell currently collaborates with Doug Elkins Choreography, Chavasse Dance & Performance, Cori Marquis + The Nines [IX], The Median Movement: Alex Springer & Xan Burley, SteeleDance, and the incredible ladies of LMnO3. She has a BFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. www.DonnellOakley.com

DANCE NOW is produced by directors Robin Staff, Sydney Skybetter, and Tamara Greenfield.

For twenty years, DANCE NOW has bent the rules to offer all-inclusive destination events that reveal the bustling energy and innovation of NYC dance makers. Created in 1995 as a program of the Downtown Arts Festival, DANCE NOW launched in 1996 as an independent festival. Without a performance venue, DANCE NOW learned to embrace limitation as a powerful source for creativity. Seeking creative ways to bring dance and community together, DANCE NOW developed partnerships to connect new audiences to innovative dance makers. Presenting dance in venues both traditional and not, DANCE NOW designed all-inclusive destination events for drained swimming pools, firehouses, galleries and Joe's Pub, where, in 2003 DANCE NOW introduced the Dancemopolitan series. In 2005, DANCE NOW furthered its "less is more" mantra, creating a "challenge initiative" to encourage work marked by brevity, clarity and effect. This inspired the commissioning of full-evening works specifically for the Pub, and the merging of all DANCE NOW programs to the Pub in 2011.

DANCE NOW's programming at Joe's Pub has defied the standard and encouraged artists to think outside the box and utilize the unique space, creating an inspiring new platform for dance. In the last decade, DANCE NOW has produced numerous critically acclaimed works at Joe's Pub including Doug Elkins' Fräulein Maria, David Parker's ShowDown, Misters and Sisters, and Head Over Heels, Nicholas Leichter's The Whiz and 20/20, Kyle Abraham's Heartbreaks and Homies, Nicole Wolcott and Vanessa Walters' Alley of the Dolls, Camille Brown's One Second Past the Future, Monica Bill Barnes' Snow Globes, Takehiro Ueyama's Somewhere Familiar Melodies, Claire Porter's Sent-ence, and, most recently, Mark Dendy's NEWYORKnewyork@Astor Place.

From a small festival series to four distinct programs, from NYC to Pennsylvania, DANCE NOW presents young innovators and emerging and maturing artists side by side, building relationships at varying stages of development and providing comprehensive assistance to advance creativity and new career paths. DANCE NOW Joe's Pub challenges artists to investigate new directions. DANCE NOW Raw funnels new artists into its programs. DANCE NOW Silo and DANCE NOW SteelStacks provide paid teaching, residencies, and commissioning and performing opportunities through partnerships with DeSales University, Muhlenberg College, Lehigh Valley Charter School, and ArtsQuest at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, PA.

DANCE NOW is supported, in part, with funds from the Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and The National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information, visit dancenownyc.org.