DD Dorvillier's DANZA PERMANENTE Comes to The Kitchen, Now thru 9/30

The Kitchen and the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, present the U.S. premiere of Danza Permanente, from DD Dorvillier and her human future dance corps, as part of the 2012 Crossing the Line festival. Danza Permanente transposes the score of a Beethoven string quartet into movement for four dancers, each of whom takes the part of a single instrument. The work is performed in near silence with bursts of recorded sound by Zeena Parkins, who also serves as music director.

Performances of Danza Permanente will take place tonight through Sunday, September 26–30 at 8:00 P.M. at The Kitchen, which is located at 512 West 19th Street, NYC. Tickets, which are $15, are available online at www.thekitchen.org and by phone at 212.255.5793 x11.

In Danza Permanente, the performers embody the musical structure and dynamics of the string quartet, behaving as sound, in silence. The transposition of the score is by choreographer DD Dorvillier and composer/music director Zeena Parkins, with dancers Fabian Barba, Nuno Bizarro, Walter Dundervill, Naiara Mendioroz, and rehearsal assistant Heather Kravas. The lighting design by Thomas Dunn and the acoustic environment by Parkins follow the score, framing the silence and the dance.

Of creating Danza Permanente, Dorvillier has said, "I chose to work with the score of Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet #15, in A Minor, Op. 132, not so much for the man Beethoven himself, but for the music, which is at once moving, demanding, rigorous, and extreme in contrasts, colors, and mood changes. This infamous and beloved music has an intellectual and affective power that is akin to literature. It is thinking music. Danza Permanente originates from a curiosity about how, without words, music, through its unique properties, induces thought and feeling."

DD Dorvillier (choreographer) Puerto Rico, 1967. Choreographer, dancer, and teacher in New York City since 1989. Bessie Awards for choreography (Dressed for Floating, 2003) and performance (Parades & Changes, replays, 2010). In 1991, Dorvillier and dancer/choreographer Jennifer Monson created the Matzoh Factory. For over a decade, the studio was a grassroots site for wild experimentation where choreographers and artists congregated for low-tech/low-cost shows, rehearsals, parties, and readings. Dorvillier has worked with and been deeply influenced by Jennifer Monson, Zeena Parkins, Jennifer Lacey, Yvonne Meier, Sarah Michelson, and Karen Finley, among others. She has been an MR Artist in Residence, curator of the Mr Festival, and co-editor the MR Performance Journals "Release" and her awards include NYFA Choreography Fellowship (2000), Foundation for Contemporary Arts Fellowship (2007), and Guggenheim Fellowship (2011). Her work has been presented in NYC at The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, and PS 122, and others. Internationally she has presented her work at ImPulsTanz, Vienna; DeSingel, Antwerp, STUK, Leuven; Hau/Hebel am Ufer, Berlin; Frascati, Amsterdam; Zagreb Dance Weeks, Zagreb; Springdance Dialogues/TSEH Festival, Moscow; and many others.

Zeena Parkins (composer, musical director) multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, sound artist, well-known as a pioneer of the electric harp, has also extended the language of the acoustic harp with the inventive use of unusual playing techniques, preparations, and layers of digital and analog processing. Parkins has received commissions to provide scores for film, video, chamber orchestras, theater and dance. She has long-term creative relationships with Neil Greenberg, John Jasperse, Jennifer Monson, Jennifer Lacey, DD Dorvillier, and Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh, and has also appeared with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, who commissioned a new work for Experiments in the Studio. She has appeared in festivals worldwide and on countless recordings. Some collaborators include: Kim Gordon, John Zorn, Bjork, Yoko Ono, Christian Marclay, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, Thurston Moore and filmmakers Cynthia Madansky, Mandy McIntosh and Daria Martin. Zeena has received three Bessies for her extraordinary work in music within the dance and performance field in the United States and abroad for over two decades.

Crossing the Line is the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)'s annual fall festival presenting interdisciplinary works and performances created by artists from around the world in New York. The festival provides opportunities for New Yorkers to explore the dialogue between artist and participant, examine how artists help re-imagine the world, and engage in the vital role artists play as critical thinkers and catalysts for social evolution. Curated by Lili Chopra, Artistic Director of FIAF, Simon Dove, Director of the Herberger Institute School of Dance at Arizona State University, and Gideon Lester, Director of Theater Programs at Bard College, Crossing the Line is initiated and produced by FIAF in partnership with leading cultural institutions and takes place this year from September 14–October 14, 2012.

Inaugurated in 2007, Crossing the Line has enjoyed increasingly strong audience response from diverse segments of the New York City area, as well as critical acclaim. The festival was voted "Best of 2009" and "Best of 2010" by Time Out New York, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times has said, "The French Institute Alliance Française's annual Crossing the Line has carved out a particular identity as an invigorating, unpredictable, occasionally provocative mix of genres and disciplines…It's the artistic equivalent of a splash of water on the face." www.fiaf.org/ctl

FIAF's mission is to create and offer New Yorkers innovative and unique programs in education and the arts that explore the evolving diversity and richness of French cultures. FIAF seeks to generate new ideas and promote cross cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of expression. www.fiaf.org

The Kitchen is one of New York City's oldest nonprofit performance and exhibition spaces, showing experimental work by innovative artists, both emerging and established. Programs range from dance, music, and theatrical performances to video and media arts exhibitions to literary events, film screenings, and artists' talks. Since its inception in 1971, The Kitchen has been a powerful force in shaping the cultural landscape of this country and has helped launch the careers of many artists who have gone on to worldwide prominence.