Eliot Feld's KIDS DANCE Opens 6/8-11 at The Joyce

Eliot Feld remains committed to creating a repertory of dances created especially for young dancers. For the June 8-11 season of Kids Dance, Feld will premiere one new ballet. There will also be one new dance by Laura Careless, and a second new work by a trio of young choreographers who are graduates of or seniors at Juilliard: Conner Bormann, Riley O'Flynn, Stephanie Terasaki.

Season also features classics by Eliot Feld: Meshugana Dance, The Jig Is Up, and Upside Dance
Eliot Feld's KIDS DANCE, called "a New York City treasure" by The New York Times, makes its annual visit to The Joyce for six performances, June 8-11. The remarkably poised, scrupulously schooled, and impeccably rehearsed whiz-kids, numbering 60, ages 11-17, will delight audiences young and old with Feld classics Meshugana Dance and The Jig is Up, along with two Feld works created especially for Kids Dance: Upside Dance and the new Pointing, a premiere for four young ladies en pointe. And, continuing his commitment to expanding the repertory with works created expressly for youngsters, Feld will present two new dances, one by Laura Careless set to a collage of music that ranges from Debussy to the Native Jazz Quartet, and the second a collaboration by Conner Bormann, Riley O'Flynn, and Stephanie Terasaki, in which the rhythms are provided by a metronome.

Program A (Thursday at 7 PM, and Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM)

UPSIDE DANCE (Feld/Scandinavian Folk Music)
Pointing (premiere) (Feld/Julia Wolfe)
The Jig is Up (Feld/traditional Irish Music, including The Bothy Band)

Program B (Friday and Saturday at 7 PM)

The Wild Current (premiere) (Careless/various)
Pointing (premiere)
It's the Effort that Counts (company premiere) (Bormann,O'Flynn,Terasaki)
Meshugana Dance (Feld/Klezmer)

Program C (Sunday at 7 PM)

The Wild Current (premiere)
Pointing (premiere)
It's the Effort That Counts (company premiere)
The Jig is Up

More About the Guest Choreographers:

The Wild Current by Laura Careless

Laura Careless is a UK-born, New York-based performing artist specializing in storytelling through dance and movement. After graduating from The Royal Ballet School; the Ecole-Atelier of Maurice Bejart; and The Juilliard School Dance Division, she became a founding performer of Company XIV, a NY-based, Drama Desk-nominated dance theater company. Her decade of performance with XIV has established her as "A marvelously sensual dramatic dancer" (New York Times) who is "Consistently one of the most interesting and dramatically detailed dancers on New York's stages" (Broadway World). In February 2017, she will perform the choreography of XIV Artistic Director Austin Mccormick for Rusalka at The Metropolitan Opera.

Laura is the founder of Alchemy For Nomads, a company that advocates for re-connection with our original physical instincts through performances, workshops and online resources. Her solo works, dedicated to telling ancient, unfamiliar stories in atmospheric and often rural spaces, tour nomadically and can be viewed on her website, lauracareless.com. This coming year, her work will be supported by residency and performance grants from the Turkey Land Cove Foundation and The Church, Cooperstown. Her physical storytelling workshop, PRIMA MATERIA, launched in New York City in 2016 and will repeat this winter accompanied by a related series of downloadable movement meditations.

A passionate educator, Laura has been on faculty at Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech, the New York Public School for Dance, since 2008, and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp (recipient of the NEA Creative Placemaking Grant) since 2012. Her commissioned choreography for the students of Ballet Tech will premiere at The Joyce Theatre, NYC in June 2017. She has coached professional and pre-professional performers at such prestigious institutions as Canadian Opera Company, The Park Avenue Armory, The Donmar Warehouse (UK), Theater For A New Audience, The Juilliard School and Circus Juventas. In July 2017 she will lead the dance faculty at Juilliard's Summer Performing Arts in Geneva, Switzerland.

When Laura is not indulging her nomadic tendencies, she lives in the woods outside Rhinebeck, NY with her husband, conductor Ryan McAdams, and Sophie the cat.

It's The Effort That Counts by Conner Bormann, Riley O'Flynn, and Stephanie Terasaki

Conner Bormann was born and raised in New Jersey, where he trained at the New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble and received the New Jersey Governor's Award in the Arts. Conner is in his final year at The Juilliard School, where he has performed works by José Limón, Paul Taylor, Loni Landon, Matthew Neenan, Zvi Gotheiner, and Takehiro Ueyama. Conner has had the opportunity to perform at the Guggenheim Museum presenting new work by Loni Landon, Zvi Gotheiner, and Matthew Neenan. Conner joined GroundWorks DanceTheatre in Cleveland, Ohio, as a guest artist for their summer 2016 performances.

Riley O'Flynn is a native of San Francisco. He is a 2013 Dance Winner of the Beach Blanket Babylon Scholarship for the Arts and a 2014 National YoungArts Winner in Dance. Riley is currently in his fourth year in Juilliard's Dance Division. While at Juilliard, he has had the privilege of performing works by Loni Landon, Zvi Gotheiner, Matthew Neenan, Martha Graham and Ji?í Kylián. He is a recipient of the 2016 Princess Grace Award.

Stephanie Terasaki was born and raised in southern California. She attended the Orange County School of the Arts and received her BFA in 2016 from The Juilliard School. During her time at Juilliard she had the opportunity to perform works by Kyle Abraham, Martha Graham, Eliot Feld, Camille Grown, Brian Brooks, Kate Weare, Paul Taylor, Loni Landon, and Bobbi Jene Smith. She has also worked with GroundWorks Dance Theater for their summer and fall season and performed works by Robyn Mineko Williams, Adam Barruch, Beth Corning, and David Shimotakahara.

Eliot Feld, a Brooklyn native, studied dance at the School of American Ballet, New Dance Group, H.S. of Performing Arts, and with Richard Thomas. At age 11 he appeared with New York City Ballet as the "Child Prince" in Balanchine's original production of The Nutcracker, and also danced in the companies of Donald McKayle, Pearl Lang, Sophie Maslow and Mary Anthony. At 16 he joined the Broadway cast of West Side Story and also appeared as Baby John in the movie version. Other Broadway appearances were in I Can Get It For You Wholesale and Fiddler on the Roof. Mr. Feld danced with American Ballet Theatre, American Ballet Company and Feld Ballets/NY. He has choreographed 148 ballets since 1967, creating dances for American Ballet Theatre, American Ballet Company, Royal Danish Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, John Curry Skating Company, The Juilliard School, The National Ballet of Canada, Royal Swedish Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, London Festival Ballet, Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Richmond Ballet, New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, Ballet Tech, and more.

www.ballettech.org