Emerging Choreographer Series Announced in Partnership with LaGuardia Performing Arts Center

EMERGING CHOREOGRAPHER SERIES
Presented by Mare Nostrum Elements, in partnership with LaGuardia Performing Arts Center
More about the Nine Young Choreographers selected to show works

Monday & Tuesday, February 26 & 27 at 7:30 PM
The Little Theater at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center
LaGuardia Community College, 31-10 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City
(by subway: #7 train to Rawson & 33rd Street, or E, M or R to Queens Plaza)
Tickets: $10
Reservations: 718.482.5151 or http://www.lpac.nyc

Mare Nostrum Elements, founded and directed by Kevin Albert and Nicola Iervasi, presents, in collaboration with LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, the fifth annual Emerging Choreographer Series (ECS), showing works by nine young dancemakers. The talented choreographers, selected from a group of 79 applicants this year, are indeed fortunate in the many benefits ECS offers. Each receives a stipend to pay their dancers and themselves, and up to 60 hours of free rehearsal space, usually one of a choreographer's major expenses. During the creating process, they receive support and mentoring from a group of established choreographers. The nurturing extends even past the studio to include advice about lighting, costuming, and sound as well as logistical support on grant writing, budget preparation, and other aspects of the business of operating a dance company. And, of course, the process culminates with public performances at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center.

ECS embraces all styles of dance, from classical to hip-hop, and the 2018 concert promises a variety of dance voices. More about the choreographers:

ECS 2018 Choreographers Bios:
Hannah Button: Hannah Button received her BFA from the Purchase Conservatory of Dance and since her graduation has worked with Opera Saratoga, The Kevin Wynn Collective, Ori Flomin, Michael James New York, Bill T. Jones, Loudhoundmovement, and Sagadance Co. She premiered several works in various festivals, including Westbeth Dance Top Floor, Nimbus Dance Works, Triskelion, and Wax Works. Hannah spends several months a year collaborating with artists in South Africa, and has taught sound & movement manipulation workshops in academies and conservatories around the world always searching for new ways to collaborate. In 2015, she founded Button.Universal.Movement.Project for artists in all fields to collaborate, connect & showcase new works. To date, B.U.M.P. has hosted galleries, performances and arts conferences to encourage collaborative works, and. is now using the artistic relationships generated through these events to create new interdisciplinary works.
Patrick O'Brien:Patrick O'Brien began his dance training in Bakersfield, CA before moving to New York in 2012 to attend The Joffrey Ballet School. After graduating as part of the Joffrey Concert Group in 2016, he took a more active approach to pursue his passion for choreographing. Patrick has presented works at The Brooklyn Museum, The Hudson Guild Theatre, Dixon Place, The Royal Theatre (Producer's Club), Socrates Sculpture Park, Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, Earl Mosley's Intensive of the Arts, DeBaun Performing Arts Center, and Green Space. His dances have also been seen in Honolulu, Hawaii, and his hometown in California. Patrick's body of work strives to reflect on the human condition with an aesthetically cognitive approach.
Quilan "Cue" Arnold:Quilan "Cue" Arnold is a dancer, performer, teacher, videographer, and scholar. He holds a MFA in dance from Ohio State U. His research on identity and representation of the black male in the U.S. is explored through the hip-hop culture, the choreographic process, dance film, and the lessons conjured from his teaching of hip-hop dance. Quilan has focused on pedagogically combining academic and vernacular dance structures in order to cultivate stronger relationships between studio and street environments. His choreographic work has been presented at home and abroad in Memphis, TN; NYC, Towson, MD; and Salvador, Brazil. He is a 2017 Artist in Residence at the University of Memphis (TN) and a 2017 Guest Lecturer at New York University (NY). Quilan serves as a faculty member at Mark Morris Dance Center (NY), Dalton Performing Arts School (NY), Gibney Dance Center (NY).

Ann DraigchAnn has been tap dancing in New York since 2008 after studying at the Eddie Brown Studio for the Arts (THE BEAT) with Gregg Geoffroy, Babs Yohai and Mark Mendonca. She has presented her own work at Dance Astoria, Stam-pede (Symphony Space), Director's Choice Showcase, Local Produce and Winter Follies (produced by Spoke the Hub), Denise Caston's "Choreographer's Canvas", Kat Wildish's "Performing in New York" and Sol Dance Center's "Dancesanity" (Frank Sinatra School of the Arts). She is a member of Nicole Ohr's Cole Collective, and a founding member of Guilty Pleasures. She also dances with the step company "Momentum" and was featured in Rick Owens Spring 2014 Women's show (Paris Fashion Week). Ann's image from this show was recently on display at the MOMA as part of the "Is Fashion Modern?" exhibit. Ann is on faculty at NJPAC, ATDF, Ballet Hispanico and The DreamYard Project

Garret Parker Garrett Parker was born in North Carolina and spent much of his childhood in New Delhi, India. He graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a BFA in Dance and Choreography and has performed works by Trisha Brown, Wayne McGregor, Bill T. Jones and Louis Gaspard. In 2015, Garrett founded Detox Movement, a dance collective now based in NYC. As director of Detox Movement, Garrett has produced three 90 minute performances, featuring eleven original works with over 50 performers and collaborators from all five schools at UNCSA (Dance, Drama, Film, Music, and Design & Production). Garrett also choreographed two site-specific works commissioned by the Winston-Salem Arts Council and produced numerous dance films for Detox Movement, including 'Vagabond,' which was screened at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC.

Dougie RobbinsDougie Robbins studied dance as a Musical Theater major at SUNY Cortland, where his love for Theater Dance flourished. Dougie furthered his training by performing works by Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins, as well as the technique and repertoire of Jack Cole. Dougie's choreographic career began by creating work for musicals, including Peter Pan, the Addams Family, and Footloose, among others. Recently, he formed DPR Dance, with the intention of allowing himself to continue to create, explore, and expand his perspective of Theater Dance outside of a musical. Dougie strives to pass on his love for theater dance, and continues a relationship with Cortland Performing Arts Studio as a guest instructor and choreographer. He enjoys teaching master classes, where he collaborates with local schools and studios.
Zoe WaldersZoe Walders is a dancer, choreographer, and dance videographer. She holds a BA in Dance from SUNY Potsdam. Originally from Rochester, NY, Zoe moved to New York City to pursue her dance career, and has studied ballet, pointe, modern, contemporary, tap, musical theater, and jazz. After falling in love with improvisation and movement theory in college, Zoe loves to use a combination of impulse and analysis to choreograph. In 2016, her work was presented at the New England Regional American College Dance Festival at Springfield College in Massachusetts. She most recently performed a solo work in progress at Mark Morris Dance Center's Shared Space event in 2017.

Nicoletta SerioOriginally from Naples, Italy, she is attending the Choreography Course of the Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome and will receive her BFA in Dance and Choreography this April. In 2016 Nicoletta was the assistant choreographer for Ballet Mecanique presented at the 42nd Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte of Montepulciano (Tuscany) under the artistic direction of Roland Boer. Last summer, she had the pleasure of working with Jim May on repertoire by Anna Sokolow, and performed in Palestinian Karma by Bassam Abou Diab at the renowned Ravello Festival. In Rome her teachers included Joseph Fontano, Gabriella Borni and Fara Grieco, among others; and performed in works by Joseph Fontano, Richard Haisma, Susan Miller and Maria Campos|Guy Nader. Recently Nicoletta attended the 'Tecniche di Danza Moderna' program by Caterina Rago, her mentor for the ECS, and studied Graham, Limón and Horton techniques with Maurizio Nardi, Ryoko Kudo and Karen Gayle.

Christopher NunezChristopher Unpezverde Núñez is a Brooklyn based interdisciplinary artist. He holds a BFA in Dance Performance from The National University of Costa Rica, and has performed the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Peru, Costa Rica and USA. Christopher has worked for choreographers Christophe Haleb, Mark Sieczkarek and Darryl Thomas. As a choreographer, his work explores the Latin American diaspora, hyper-masculinity, technological artifacts and gender identity to develop pieces with a curious taste for irreverence. Christopher is a Battery Dance Space Grant Recipient (NYC) in 2018, a Moving Borders Scholarship recipient (México) in 2014 and was awarded Best Performer by the National Theater (Costa Rica) in 2012. Most recently, his works have been presented at Panoply Performance Laboratory, Hunter's Point South Park (InSitu Dance Festival) and Movement Research at The Judson Memorial Church.

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