Dixon Place presents Antonio Ramos and The Gangbangers' ALMODOVAR DYSTOPIA

Dixon Place will present ALMODOVAR DYSTOPIA, the new commission by the boundary-pushing downtown movement artist Antonio Ramos.

This work, inspired by Pedro Almodovar's flamboyant cinema, will play a limited engagement for six performances only, opening on Friday, September 15th and running every Friday and Saturday through September 30th.

Tickets are $21 in advance, $24 at the door, $18 students / seniors / ID NYC and can be purchased by visiting dixonplace.org/performances/almodovar-dystopia or by calling (866)-811-4111.

ALMODOVAR DYSTOPIA by Antonio Ramos and his spunky company The Gangbangers is part Latinx-flavored "asstravaganza," part humorous celebration of queer culture, and part an outrageous political statement against the body-negative and repressed nature of the world we live in. Featuring video, movement, spoken word and gourmet cooking, the piece makes its case for the affirmation of all things corporeal through Ramos' trademark chaotic and joyful storytelling style. The work is performed in the nude.

Using his personal Queer-Puerto-Rican-Cha-Cha-Heels-Shaman identity as a point of departure, Ramos and his collaborators explore themes related to gender diversity and representation. The performers cull exaggerated personae from their personal backgrounds, exploring the challenges, anxieties, and neuroses entailed in the process of dance-making. Ramos creates a melodramatic world evocative of Pedro Almodóvar's most outrageous characters, on a collision course of glamour and decadence.

ALMODOVAR DYSTOPIA is conceived and choreographed by Antonio Ramos in collaboration with the consulting dramaturg David Drake and will be performed by Luke Miller, Darrin Wright, Alvaro Gonzalez Dupuy, Angie Pittman, Sarah White Ayon and Ramos himself. The production will feature sound design by Admanda Kobilka aka snoggybox, set design by Sam Gassman, video design by Alex Romania, and revealing costumes by Claire Fleury.

This Dixon Place commission is made possible, in part, with public funds from NY State Council on the Arts with the support of Gov Andrew Cuomo & the NY State Legislature, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and private funds from the Jerome Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation. and the Harkness Foundation for Dance.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Antonio Ramos is a dancer, choreographer, and licenced massage therapist / Feldenkreis practitioner from Puerto Rico whose recent work has been presented at American Realness, The Center for Performance Research, JACK, and Museo del Barrio. He is currently a resident artist at Gibney Dance and Danspace Project. Ramos is the artistic director and choreographer for Antonio Ramos & the Gangbangers. As a performer, Antonio has danced with choreographers Mark Dendy, Neil Greenberg, Jeremy Nelson, Stephen Petronio, Merian Soto, Kevin Wynn, Ori Flomin, Donna Uchizono and Larissa Velez-Jackson/YACKEZ, among others.

The Gangbangers find inspiration in pop music, queer identities, shiny objects, all forms of dance, and the fabulous way a wig can enhance how one presents themselves to others.

Alvaro Gonzalez Dupuy (Performer) is a dance artist based in Santiago de Chile and New York City. He holds a graduate degree in dance with a concentration in Performance and Pedagogy (based in Laban/Leeder Technique) from the Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano.

He is currently performing for Antonio Ramos, Not for Retail Collective Elizabeth Motley, and experiments independently in New York City as a dance artist through his own dance company EstadoFlotante.

Angie Pittman (Performer) is a dance artist, dance maker, and dance educator. She has had the pleasure of dancing in work by Ralph Lemon, Jennifer Lacey and Wally Cordona, Tere O'Connor, Jennifer Monson, Johanna S. Meyer, Kyli Kleven, Anna Sperber, Tess Dworman, and others. Angie has performed her own dances at BAAD!, Movement Research at Judson Church, Triskelion Arts, STooPS, The Domestic Performance Agency, The KnockDown Center, and Danspace Project. She holds a MFA in Dance and Choreography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a graduate minor in African American Studies. She was a 2015 DanceWEB scholar for Impulstanz Dance Festival in Vienna, Austria and is a 2016 Artist-in-Residence with Movement Research.

Luke Miller (Performer) studied dance at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He has a Bessie Award in 2009 for his collaboration and performance in Dark Horse/Black Forest with Yanira Castro / a canary torsi, one of many collaborations with this ensemble. He is also currently a member of Susan Marshall & Co. and has danced for Martha Clarke, David Dorfman, Molissa Fenley, Keely Garfield, Neil Greenberg, Stephen Petronio and Sally Silvers, among others. Luke collaborates often with Quinndustry Collective, infusing performance and dance within the world of David Quinn's fashion. He teaches Movement for Actors at Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU.

Sarah White-Ayón (Performer) is an artist working across the disciplines of performance, dance, video, sculpture, sound and collage. Her work has been presented in the US at Roulette, Movement Research/Judson Church, School of Visual Arts' Visual Arts Gallery; The Philadelphia Fringe Festival; Dance on Camera, Kinetic Cinema; Triskelion Arts. In addition to her own work, she has performed and/or collaborated with Walter Dundervill, robbinschilds, Jennifer Monson, architect Angel Ayón and 3D photographer Gerald Marks, among others.

Darrin Wright (Performer) has worked with The Metropolitan Opera, Susan Marshall, Terry Creach, Jane Comfort, Bill Young/Colleen Thomas, Yanira Castro, Jack Ferver, Antonio Ramos, Leslie Cuyjet, Doug Varone, Amber Sloan and Nancy Bannon. He received a Bessie Award for his 2009 work with a canary torsi, Dark Horse/Black Forest.

David Drake (Consulting Dramaturge) is the Obie Award-winning playwright/performer of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, one of the longest-running solo shows in NY history. Published by Doubleday/Anchor Books, his play has received over 100 productions in ten countries, and was made into an award-winning feature film. As a stage director, David has twice been a Directing Fellow at the Sundance Theatre Lab. With Taylor Mac, he directed the Under-the-Radar debut of The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac at The Public, as well as being one of the directors of the NY premiere of Taylor's Obie-winning The Lily's Revenge at HERE. Other NY directing credits include Rattlestick, IRT, Theatre for the New City, Joe's Pub, Fringe Festival (Outstanding Solo Award), Frigid Festival (Audience Award), and last season's premiere of J.Stephen Brantley's The Jamb at the Kraine. He has taught performance and playwriting at Abrons Arts Center in NY and the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

Claire Fleury (Costume Design) Is a costume and fashion designer who believes the world is a stage and you cannot be overdressed. With a sense of glam, elegance, and humor, she makes gender overruling fashions and costumes for the adventurous, and invites anyone to happily and comfortably dress up and show off. Fleury has dressed Laurie Anderson, BETTY, Susanne Bartsch, Jay Daugherty (Patti Smith Group), John Spencer Blues Explosion and many NYC nightlife performers. She most recently started designing for dance, including Yackez, Antonio Ramos and Coco Karol.

Sam Gassman (Set Design) is a visual artist living in New York City. His sculptures and jewelry designs are held in many American and international collections. He has an extensive background in making, selling and advising on the history of jewelry, architecture and decorative arts.

Admanda Kobilka (Sound Design) is an artist from MN based in NYC. As snoggybox, Ad composes and performs music for Gameboy consoles, synths, samplers, and melodica. Ad was nominated in 2016 for a Bessie Award for Outstanding Music Composition for their work in Jen Rosenblit's Clap Hands. In 2013, snoggybox released a cassette tape called (0+0) on Canada Goose Tapes

Alex Romania (Video Design) creates dance, performance, and visual art. Recent work has been presented by Glasshouse ArtLifeLab, SOLOW Festival, Puppet Uprising, and Old Furnace Artist Residency (OFAR). Romania has performed in works by De Facto Dance, Eddie Peake, Jacob Slominski, Ishmael Houston Jones, Simone Forti, and Steve Paxton. He has studied with artists such as Headlong Dance Theater, Karen Finley, and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, among others. Romania has collaborated with performance group Future Death Toll, and currently dances for choreographer Kathy Westwater. He runs an online journal Invisible Artists, dedicated to issues of emergence and sustainable practices amongst artists, pro bono. http://cargocollective.com/alexromania

The Dixon Place Lounge is open before and after the show. Proceeds from the bar directly support Dixon Place's artists and mission.

Dixon Place is located at 161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey), in Manhattan's Lower East Side (By subway: B/D to Grand, F to 2nd Ave, J/Z to Bowery, 6 to Spring St, M to Essex St).

An artistic incubator since 1986, Dixon Place is a Bessie and Obie Award-winning non-profit institution committed to supporting the creative process by presenting original works of theater, dance, music, puppetry, circus arts, literature and visual art at all stages of development. Presenting over 1000 creators a year, this local haven inspires and encourages diverse artists of all stripes and callings to take risks, generate new ideas and consummate new practices. Many artists, such as Blue Man Group, John Leguizamo, Lisa Kron, David Cale, David Drake, Deb Margolin and Reno, began their careers at DP. In addition to emerging artists, Dixon Place has been privileged to present established artists such as Mac Wellman, Holly Hughes, Justin Bond, Karen Finley, Kate Clinton and Martha Wainwright. After spawning a salon in her Paris apartment in 1985, founding Artistic Director Ellie Covan pioneered the institution in her NYC living room for 23 years. Covan is a recipient of a Bessie, a New York Dance and Performance Award and a Bax10 Award for her service to the community. Dixon Place received two Obie Awards, and an Edwin Booth Award for Excellence in Theater. Dixon Place has organically developed and expanded into a leading professional, state-of-the-art facility for artistic expression.

Photo Credit: Peter Yesley