Dixon Place Announces December Commission and Events

Dixon Place, a non-profit organization, was founded in 1986 to provide a space for literary and performing artists to create and develop new works in front of a live audience.

Dixon Place and Lava present ATLAS
Thursday - Sunday, December 1- 4 at 7:30pm
Tuesday - Sunday, December 6 - 11 at 7:30pm
Saturday matinees, December 3 &10 at 3pm

December 1 & 6: $10 Previews
All Other Performances: $15 / $12 (stu/sen/under 12) advance online purchase
$18 / $15 (stu/sen/under 12) at door

ATLAS
Directed by Sarah East Johnson

Music: DJ TIKKA MASALA

LAVA investigates relationships between women, amongst trees, along ropes and through hoops. They explore uncharted territory with collaborative dialogues that allow them to use their acrobatic strength, agility, feminist street-smarts, and their intimate relationships with visual artists and musicians to create choreography and performances that liberate and elevate the spirit.

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Musical Comedy Theater
Saturdays, December 3 and 10 at 9:30pm
Vickie & Nickie’s Holiday Sleigh Ride!
Created, written & performed by Lisa Brigantino & Lori Brigantino
$10 in advance, $15 at the door

The multi-instrumental, singing housewife sister duo take time out of their busy prison circuit tour to celebrate the holidays Minnesota-style with wacky original tunes, hilarious pop songs, family stories and audience participation.

Celebrate the holiday season Minnesota-style with the multi-instrumental, singing housewife real-life sister duo Vickie and Nickie…coming to you straight from their prison circuit tour to take you on a zany ride as they share their rise to “fame,” family stories and their own special take on the holidays. The fast talking, tacky and slightly twisted Minnesota Moms entertain with humorous banter, wacky original tunes, hilarious pop song interpretations and audience participation. www.vickieandnickie.com

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Lounge, Literature
Tuesday, December 6 - 7:30pm (lounge)
Experiments and Disorders
Curated by Tom Cole and Christen Clifford
Readings by Karen Lillis and George Gilmore
$6

Karen Lillis is a novelist, a freelance writer, and a small press advocate. She is the author of the novels i, scorpion (Words Like Kudzu Press, 2000) and The Second Elizabeth (Six Gallery Press, 2009) and has written for Art Papers, The Austin Chronicle, Big News, Keyhole Magazine, New Art Examiner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pop City, Pulse/Berlin, Southern Quarterly, and Verdure Magazine, among others. Her article on the indie presses of Pittsburgh was nominated for a Golden Quill Press Award in 2007, and in 2008, she created the site Small Press Pittsburgh.

George Gilmore has played the Smelliest of Gin Mills to the Most Holy Pristine Venues that NYC has to offer. Co-compositions with Cripsin Cioe include the music for the films Burnzy's Last Call (for which he also served as screenwriter), Five Wives, Three Secretaries and Me and The Pink House. He appeared Off-Broadway as Dennis Leary's on-stage accompanist in No Cure for Cancer and continues to appear with Leary in his comedy revues at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Boston's Orpheum theater. George was a founding member of the 80's cowpunk legends The Tall Lonesome Pines and currently plays about town with his own band George Gilmore and the Giblets.

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Lounge, Music
Thursday, December 8 at 9:30pm (lounge)
Catahoula Cajun Band
$5 cash only at the door

Come on out for a taste of “Northern fried” Cajun music with members of the Catahoula Cajun Band and guest fiddler, Tim Kness! Our trio will be rockin’ the lounge at Dixon Place with music of Southwest Louisiana, upbeat, danceable roots music that includes spirited two-steps and beautifully heartwarming, bittersweet waltzes that express the unique culture of the Cajun people. This is a rare opportunity to hear this style of music which is gaining popularity around the country, around the world and here in the New York area!

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Theater, Music
Friday and Saturday, December 8 and 9 at 9:30pm
By the Time Kurt Cobain Was Your Age, He Was Dead
Written by Devin Burnam
Music and Performances by Lillie Jayne & Devin Burnam

Faulkner said it best when he said, 'The past is never dead; it's not even past.'

By the Time Kurt Cobain Was Your Age, He Was Dead is a meditation on the relationship between art, genius, time, and infinity. What if everything that has ever happened is still happening somewhere in the universe? And what if that somewhere is right here in the theatre? Then theatre might not be a theatre at all, but a place where you are so young that you haven't even made your big mistakes yet.

Lillie Jayne is a performer, composer and musician. Devin Burnam is a performer and likes music. They can both talk at length about what places used to be awesome but are now gone and what places used to be pretty good and are now great.

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Lounge, Comedy
Saturday, December 10 at 7:30pm (Lounge)
The Turner Effect
Written and performed by Jim Turner
Directed by Paul Linke

THE TURNER EFFECT is horror stories and silly tales from the outskirts of show business.

Jim Turner has chased the dream of supporting himself doing completely whacked theatrical shows like, Clowntown City Limits, Girly Magazine Party, Walk A Mile In My Head, 2 Headed Dog for over 30 years. Occasionally he has to turn to the motion pictures: Bewitched, Golf In The Kingdom, Meet Dave and television: Arliss, Boston Legal, Dlife, Party Down to pay the rent.

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Monday, December 12 at 7:30pm
Little Theatre
OBIE-winning cutting-edge series (theater, dance, music, performance art, media, robotics, animals -- serious fun)
curated by Scott Adkins, Rob Erickson, Jeff Jones, Tina Satter & Normandy Sherwood
$10 in advance, $15 at the door

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Dance
Tuesday, December 13 at 7:30pm
Crossing Boundaries
Curated by Marcia Monroe
Featuring Raquel Cavalcanti, Pat Hoffbauer, Sonia Lopes Soares, Jill Sigman & Smruti Patel Jani
$10 in advance online, $15 at the door

Curator Marcia Monroe mixes different forms of expression and promotes encourages artists to take risks and overcome limitations within their own art form. The boundaries crossed may be cultural, with artists coming from South America, Denmark, Germany, India, Israel, Japan and the U.S.; or within disciplines, with 'legitimate' local artists traveling 'downtown' for the first time.

Raquel Cavalcanti is a Brazilian-born dancer, choreographer and dance educator based in NYC since 1995. She started her professional career at *Primeiro Ato Grupo de Danca* in Brazil, in 1987. From ‘88 to ‘94, she performed and taught workshops with the company throughout Brazil, South America, and Europe.

Hoffbauer is a Brazilian-born choreographer, director, performer and educator. In 2002-03 Hoffbauer and Georege Emilio Sanchez were the Viola Farber Artists-in-Residence at Sarah Lawrence. Their collaborations and her individual work have been supported by the NEA, NYFA, NYSCA & The Rockefeller Fdn MAP Fund. Hoffbauer has taught at Wesleyan, Virginia Commonwealth University, Miami Dade Community College, Sarah Lawrence, Pratt Institute, Marymount Manhattan College and Yale.. She is currently on the faculty of Hunter College’s Dance Program and has a one-year appointment at Princeton University.

Sônia Lopes Soares is a choreographer, interpreter, and artistic director of a cultural center in São Paulo, Brazil, Viga Espaço Cênico. In 2007, her dance company, Cia Viga, was awarded best dance creation and production by the British Cultural Council Festival. For the passed three years, Soares has been coordinating various social projects related to dance. Currently, she is coordinating a social project for 80 children from low income families around in São Paulo. The project offers free lessons in the area of education through movement and dance.

Jill Sigman has been making dances and performance installations since the early 90s. In ‘98, she founded her company jill sigman/thinkdance and received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton. She has been a member of the dance faculty at Princeton, a movement tutor at the Imaginary Academy in Groznjan, Croatia, and a professor of aesthetics and performance theory at Brooklyn College and The New School. She has recently been teaching in Norway, and is currently at work on a multi-site project about huts and sustainable living. See: www.thinkdance.org <http://www.thinkdance.org>

Smruti Patel Jani blends classical Indian dance, American contemporary dance and voice in her distinct personal style. Her influences encompass both authentic Indian traditions and American lifestyle. Her areas of speciality are classical Indian dance of the Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi and Mohini Attam styles; Gujarati style Indian folk dance; contemporary and post-modern dance. Smruti is known among her contemporary dance colleagues as a strong improviser and will often do an entire performance completely improvised.

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Music
Tuesday, December 13 at 7:30pm (Lounge)
A Scream Along With Billy Christmas Special: Gift of the Fagi
With Billy Hough and Susan Goldberg
Free

Punk Cabaret Cult Act debuts an all new, filthy drug-addled Christmas Fucktacular for the black sheep of any family.

Provincetown’s famously irrepressible duo, Billy Hough and Susan Goldberg, bring music, ranting, special guests, underground films, puppets, nudity and humor to Dixon Place. The all new show will feature Christmas favorites by Lou Reed, the Pretenders, John Cage, the Muppets, and pretty much anything else they feel like doing (including a reenactment of the Nativity.) Come see the show the New Yorker called “Mesmerizing,” and the John Waters called “the bravest thing I’ve seen in 20 years.” Not suitable for children.

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Dance
Friday, December 16 at 7:30pm
American Metamorphoses
Choreographed by Jimmy Burgio and Sarita Lou
$10 in advance, $15 at the door

Jimmy Burgio was hired as a faculty member of Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, VA and was responsible for choreographing and staging such musicals as West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, and Oklahoma! He has also choreographed for The Encore Players of Virginia Beach and has danced with such companies as Virginia Ballet Theatre, Second Wind Dance Company and Floor Play (formerly the Philip Deal Dance Project). Stage Credits include 42nd Street, A Chorus Line (Paul), Into the Woods (Jack), and The Boyfriend (Bobby). Jimmy also teaches yoga throughout NYC and is a proud faculty member of the Stella Adler Studio. He is the founder and Artistic Director of MitraDance Collective, an up and coming dance collective based on collaboration with artists from all artistic genres to create and present innovative dance-theatre.

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Dance
Wednesday, December 14 at 7:30pm
Under Exposed
Curated by Doug Post
Featuring Rachel Korenstein, Gwen Rakotovao, Allison Jones, Eunhee Lee and Barbara Mahler
$10 in advance, $15 at the door

Under Exposed presents work by choreographers who are not often given the opportunity to show work in larger venues which demand more "finished" visions. As Dixon Place is an incubator, work shown may be at any stage of development.

Rachel Korenstein graduated from Emory University in May 2009 with a BA in Dance and Movement Studies and Sociology. KOREresponse, formed organically by Rachel and the current dancers, the company has performed at Triskelion Arts, The World Financial Center, The Performance Project @ University Settlement, The Rover Soho, The FAB Festival, Green Space and The Flea Theater. Current company projects include producing their first evening length show and teaching a dance intensive at The Door, a non-profit teen center in downtown Manhattan.

Gwen Rakotovao began her career in Normandy and then moved to Paris to study at the Rick Odums school, becoming a prominent member of the Rick Odums Ensemble. In 2007 she moved to NYC to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. After graduation she joined BodyStories/Teresa Fellion Dance and soon became a soloist and Associate Artistic Director. Gwen has wored with H.T. Chen Dance Company, Regina Nejman, Whitney V. Hunter and Brian Carey Chung. In 2011 Gwen founded The Gwen Rakotovao Company, which has performed in both France and New York.

Allison Jones, an L.A. native, is a contemporary dancer and choreographer based in NYC. Allison received her B.F.A. in Dance Cum Laude from SUNY Purchase College in 2008. She has worked with many notable cutting-edge contemporary choreographers including Andrea Miller, Barak Marshall and Lauri Stallings, and has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, BODYTRAFFIC Dance Company and Yin Yue Dance Company.

Eunhee Lee taught in Universities in South Korea before moving to the US in 2006. In 2003, she was chosen by Korean dance critics to present her work at one of the most prestigious theaters in Seoul, South Korea. She was also chosen to choreograph the Seoul International Dance Festival in 2002. In NYC Lee has performed with Lori Belilove, Bernier Dance, and Artichoke Dance Company. Her work has been seen at Bergen Community College, DUMBO Festival,Dixon Place, Movement Research at the Judson Church, The Flea, Movement Research, Dance New Amsterdam and La Mama Moves.

Barbara Mahler’s choreography draws upon the intricate textures of time and space and the (her) body to create spare, articulate and evocative dances, rigorous in form, which subtly reveal emotions and stories. They are consistent with her teaching vision and hands on work; exploring the endless possibilities that the body holds. Barbara tours extensively, has been teaching daily classes for 27 plus years, dances, creates dances, is a Master Teacher of Klein Technique and a certified practitioner and teacher of Zero Balancing, a hands on healing modality.

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Lounge, Music
Wednesday, December 14 at 7:30pm
Thursday & Friday December 15 and 16 at 9:30pm (Lounge)
Gilding the Lonely
Written and performed by Raquel Cion
$5 cash at door

Performer/Chanteuse Raquel Cion brings all the glitter-ball performance, wry humor, pathos, passion and song she’s known for..
Hailed by The New York Times as “half witch and half cabaret performer,” Performer/Chanteuse Raquel Cion returns to Dixon Place's Lounge for three nights of the glitter-ball performance, wry humor, open-hearted pathos, passion and singing she’s known for. Join her as she uses song to face a wall of loneliness with the help and artistry of Matthew Leonard on piano and the driving drums and percussion of Bill Gerstel. They’ll kick down that wall and kick out the jams!

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Open Mic
Wednesday, December 14 at 9:00pm
7 Minutes to Shine
Hosted by Jimmy Burgio
Free

Everyone is looking for their 15 minutes of fame, and in NY you're lucky to get even half that! Dixon Place gives you just that, 7 minutes to shine! Join us during this monthly performance series that showcases singers, dancers, actors, and artists of all genres. To sign up e-mail Jimmy Burgio at jimmy.burgio@gmail.com with a brief description of your act and footage of a previous performance.