DNA Presents VOICES, WHAC-A-MOLE, OUT OF AND INTO et al. 10/7-10/8

As part of its pledge to foster emerging artists, Dance New Amsterdam (DNA) presents RAW Material; a juried performance series that encourages burgeoning artists to bring new work to a live audience. Mentored by Artistic Advisor Gus Solomons jr, this season's artists will experiment with innovative ways to construct dynamic frames, discover breakthrough transitions and articulate emotional connections. Fall 2010 RAW Material artists include: Randy Burd; Sumi Clements/Summation Dance; Moriah Evans and Sarah Beth Percival; Gorgas/PoMoMojo; Joanna Kotze; and Dawn Robinson. The six up and coming choreographers will present their new 10-minute works in DNA's 130-seat state-of-the-art theater, October 7 & 8, 2010 at 8:00pm.

"These six promising choreographers embody individuality in their artistic objectives and creative imaginations. I find it important that I approach their works on the artist's terms, rather than suggest they create based on my taste and ideas," said Solomons. "RAW Material is an innovative program that enhances the approach taken by young choreographers as they learn how to improve their artistic processes in order to create and invent unique works of dance. Their approaches are very individual, which is why DNA picked these particular artists."

Since 2000 DNA's RAW Material series has supported more than 100 new and emerging artists. Annually, DNA selects a roster of artists and pairs them with a skilled artistic advisor to assist and mentor the choreographers, enabling them to create strong, thought provoking works. DNA also provides marketing and production support, an artist fee, three informal showings, discounted and free rehearsal space, a marketing workshop and panel feedback on application materials.

"RAW Material, a core DNA program providing funding, studio space and a performance season for budding choreographers, demonstrates our 26-year commitment to artist development, open expression and experimentation," said Catherine Peila, Executive Director. "These blossoming choreographers have provocative ideas and DNA is committed to providing a cultural home and nurturing environment for them to share and grow as artists."

 

Randy Burd
Voices
World Premiere
Choreographed by Randy Burd
Performed by Becky Brown, Randy Burd, Eve Chalom
Music by NASA
Costumes by Randy Burd

Artist's Description
Voices takes a look at the beginnings of contact and how we respond to it. I explore the physical and emotional energies between the dancers; trying to maintain a connection throughout the process.

Randy Burd was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He went on to graduate from New World School of the Arts where he received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance Performance under the direction of Daniel Lewis. There, he studied and performed the works of Peter London, Jose Limon and Robert Battle. Mr. Burd has performed with White Wave Dance Company, Sokolow Dance Ensemble and currently dances for Beth Soll. Randy is a recipient of the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center Subsidized Space Grant. Since 2002, Randy has created numerous choreographic works and has received accolades for his ballets including a finalist conferment for the Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival in Palm Springs, California.

Sumi Clements/Summation Dance
Whac-A-Mole
World Premiere
Choreographed by Sumi Clements
Performed by Sumi Clements, Angela Curotto, Julie McMillan, Kristin Schwab, Taryn Vander Hoop
Music by Moby, Hilary Gardner, Blockhead
Costume Design by Sumi Clements and Taryn Vander Hoop

Artist's Description
Whac-A-Mole features five female dancers caught in a world where nothing is as it seems. Startling moments obliterate serene images, as the work explores how one event can continue to impact someone time and time again.

Sumi Clements is an imaginative Aquarius who comes from California. A Japanese-American, Sumi received her BFA in Dance from the University of California at Santa Barbara where she was the recipient of the Patricia Sparrow Scholarship and the Corwin Award for Choreography. Graduating with honors, she moved to New York where she was a member of Peter Kyle Dance from 2006-2008, as well as being involved in various projects around the city. She has performed at Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, the 92nd St Y, the Joyce Soho, City Center and the Abrons Arts Center. Her work has been shown at Danspace Project, La Mama Etc., DanceNOW's RAW Festival, Triskelion Arts and the Cunningham Studios. Sumi recently graduated with her Masters in Fine Arts from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she spent the past year dancing in the works of Doug Varone and Alwin Nikolais. She most recently worked with Gerald Casel Dance Company and Kyle Abraham.

Moriah Evans and Sarah Beth Percival
Out of and Into
Choreographed and Performed by Moriah Evans and Sarah Beth Percival
Music Composed by Zeljko McMullen

Artists' Description
We need a dance that searches; a dance that is in the process of finding itself. Out of and Into is a research project exposing bodies that struggle. Embodying various states, two women morph into crippled, twisted and fractured body parts. They shift their organizing frames towards the sheer materiality of bodies negotiating with each other, themselves and those watching their attempts to find a means to dance.

Moriah Evans has worked with choreographers Boris Charmatz, Elie Hay, and Trajal Harrell and the artist Tino Sehgal. Her work has been presented at CALit2 and Sushi Performance and Visual Art in California and in New York through Movement Research, AUNTS, Danspace Project Food for Thought and Dixon Place. She engages in various writing projects as part of her own creative practices and through the Movement Research Performance Journal as a managing editor. She was a danceWEBber (2009) at ImPulsTanz in Vienna, and a Mary Elvira Stevens fellow (2007-2008), during which time she traveled to Brazil, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Germany and Belgium to do embodied research. Her original dance training was obtained at the BalletMet Dance Academy in Columbus, Ohio where she graduated from the Professional Division She has rigorously trained under the physical and choreographic modalities of Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown and William Forsythe and has been heavily influence by traditional African dance.

Sarah Beth Percival is originally from Ellicott City, Maryland. She graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts high school program as a ballet major, and in 2006 received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in contemporary dance from NCSA. Sarah was awarded a Semans Art Fund grant to study in France and Austria and was a 2008 DanceWEB Europe scholar. She attended P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels and graduated from the first cycle. Sarah has performed the work of Milka Djordjevich and was the rehearsal assistant for D.D.Dorvillier during the process of CPAU:get ready! Her solo work, Its Only Rock n' Roll has been shown in New York, Oaxaca (PRISMA Forum), and Berlin. Currently, Sarah works in collaboration with fellow choreographer Moriah Evans in their humble town of Brooklyn.

Gorgas/PoMoMojo
Physics and Phantasmagoria: Together at last
World Premiere
Choreographed by Gorgas
Performed by Laurel Atwell, Andrea Marks, Kay Ottinger, Jeremy Pheiffer, Elaine Ruscetta

Artist's Description
As Jack Sarfatti wrote about quantum physics, "particles no longer move stiffly and formally, if not majestically, in premeditated paths...rather, it is Marx Brothers hyperkinetic pandemonium, Charlie Chaplin slapstick, Helter Skelter now you see it now you don't. It's psychedelic confusion - until one sees the subtle order." The same can be said for PoMoMojo's newest dance.

Gorgas is a native of Miami, FL and holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied under Sara Rudner, Dan Hurlin, Vicky Shick, Emily Devine, Keith Sabado, Kathy Westwater and Merceditas Manago-Alexander. She currently helms the dance company PoMoMojo: a POstMOdernMOvementJOint which is thrilled to be spending its nascent year participating in DNA's RAW Material Series. You can learn everything you'll ever want to know about the company and choreographer (including Gorgas' astrological sign) at the site PoMoMojo.org

Joanna Kotze
Between You and Me
World Premiere
Choreographed by Joanna Kotze
Performed by Joanna Kotze and Francis A. Stansky

Artist's Description
Two dancers, a contained space, a stationary audience. In Between You and Me, simultaneous episodes present solos or a duet depending on what is revealed during the conversation.

This work was created in part through a fellowship at Summer Stages Dance, founded and directed by Amy Spencer and Richard Colton.

Joanna Kotze began creating work in 2004 at her alma mater Miami University, Oxford OH. She has since choreographed four pieces for Miami's Dance Theatre. In New York, she has shown work through Movement Research at the Judson Church, WAXworks and the 92nd Street Y Fridays at Noon Series. She is a 2010 Choreographers' Project Fellow at Summer Stages in Concord, MA. Joanna has danced with Wally Cardona since 2000 performing throughout NYC (including BAM's Next Wave Festival, DTW, Danspace, The Joyce and others) the United States, Canada, Europe and Mexico. She also currently dances for Kimberly Bartosik/daela, Netta Yerushalmy and Daniel Charon. Since moving to NYC in 1998 she has also danced for Nina Winthrop, Mimi Garrard Dance Theater, Company Appels and the Metropolitan Opera in works by Doug Varone. She has studied Klein technique with Barbara Mahler since 2003. Joanna is originally from South Africa, has a BA in Architecture from Miami University and is a freelance architectural model builder.

Dawn Robinson
Gratitude: Reverence Resound
World Premiere
Choreographed by Dawn Robinson
Performed by Juliette Jones and Dawn Robinson
Original Composition and Live Performance by Violinist Juliette Jones
Original Composition and Re-Mastering by Wendell Cooper
Additional Recorded Music by Gorecki, Symphony no. 3
Costume Design by Yozmit
Video Installation by Wendell Cooper

Artist's Description
Gratitude: Reverence Resound is a collaborative, multimedia performance work that examines the variance of transformation in both the individual and the collective acknowledgments of gratitude. Gratitude: Reverence Resound explores our understanding of personal growth in ritualistic honor while moving in strength, vulnerability, healing and transformation.

Dawn Robinson is originally from Dallas, Texas where she studied at the Greiner Exploratory Arts Academy and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She holds a BFA from the University of Utah in Modern Dance. In 1996 she moved to San Francisco and had the pleasure of performing with Della Davidson Dance, Dance Repertory San Francisco, Liss Fain Dance, Company Chaddick and many others. Since moving to NYC in 2003 she has performed with Nia Love/Blacksmith's Daughter. Currently in her 5th year with Nicholas Leichter Dance, she has performed to sold-out New York audiences at The Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Dance New Amsterdam, Joe's Pub, Abrons Arts Center and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Dawn has taught and choreographed for dance groups in Texas, California, Utah, North Carolina, Virginia and many universities and schools. Over the last several years she has been developing solo work and has been presented in New York at Dance New Amsterdam, WOW Café Theatre and New York City Center. This year her work has been presented at the Studio A.I.R., Dumbo Dance Festival and the InHale Performance Series in Philadelphia.

For more information, press tickets and inquires please contact Amanda Szeglowski, at 212.227.9856 ext. 226 or visit www.dnadance.org.

Performance Times: Thursday and Friday, October 7 & 8 at 8:00pm

Ticket Prices: $17 general, $12 DNA members, $14 students/seniors

Tickets may be purchased in person at DNA's box office during regular business hours or by visiting www.dnadance.org ($1.50 service fee applies for online sales). For information about discounted tickets for groups of 6 or more please contact smiracle@dnadance.org. Box office: 212.227.9856x 225.

$12 Advance Sales now available online and at the box office. Offer expires at midnight on Monday, September 27. Visit www.dnadance.org for more information. All sales final.

Gus Solomons jr is an accomplished dancer, choreographer, dance critic, and actor. He is a leading figure in postmodern and experimental dance. He created the title role in Donald Byrd's The Harlem Nutcracker (1996-99); directs PARADIGM, a repertory dance company for veteran performers; is an Arts Professor at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts; writes about dance for Dance Magazine, Gay City News, DanceInsider.com; has an Architecture degree from M.I.T.; danced in companies of Pearl Lang, Donald McKayle, Martha Graham, and Merce Cunningham, et al. In 2000, Solomons won a Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) for Sustained Achievement in Choreography; in 2001, he was awarded the first annual Robert A. Muh Award from M.I.T. as a distinguished artist alumnus; in 2004, he was awarded the Balasaraswati/Joy Anne Dewey Beineke Chair for Distinguished Teaching at the American Dance Festival, and in 2006-7, he was a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, lecturing at several U.S. universities.

Founded in 1984, Dance New Amsterdam (DNA) celebrates 26 years of cultural leadership in contemporary dance. DNA supports the life, career, and longevity of dance artists through ongoing high quality contemporary dance education, opportunities for choreographic exploration and innovative performance, and service to the field and the Lower Manhattan community. DNA fosters the development of new and experimental works through commissions, residencies and subsidized space. We are committed to training healthy dancers, developing new audiences and bridging diverse communities by exploring the role of dance across a spectrum of contemporary dance styles and cultures.

Program revenue alone does not cover the costs of DNA's annual activities. We would like to thank the generous supporters who have helped DNA achieve its mission and make the 2010/2011 season possible, including: public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), in partnership with the City Council and Former City Council Member Alan J. Gerson; New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State's 62 counties, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); New York State Assembly-Member Deborah J. Glick and New York State Senator Daniel Squadron through the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; as well as from American Express; Mertz Gilmore Foundation; Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund; TenduTV, a media sponsor; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Jerome Robbins Foundation; Consulate General of Israel in New York; in-kind support from Arts & Business Council and Materials for the Arts; our Individual Program Sponsors, Co-Presenting Partners, Community Business Partners, and DNA's community of individual donors.