Gibney Center Announces Spring 2022 RISING UP! Season

Gibney, the New York City-based dance and social justice organization, has announced Gibney Center's spring 2022 season curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Senior Director of Curation and Editorial Director. Continuing the theme "Rising Up" from last fall, the season features performances by acclaimed and emerging artists; discussion and lecture series; and works-in-process programs. The in-person and online season spans five months beginning on January 13.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa said, "Dance-in all its exciting colors, textures, and range-blooms again at Gibney and through our digital space in spring 2022! We eagerly look forward to the return of performance. Look for all of this and more at Gibney, where art lives and thrives!"

Spring season highlights include nine commissioned premieres by devynn emory, Kayla Farrish, Samar Haddad King (Yaa Samar! Dance Theater), Wendy Jehlen, Dohee Lee, zavé martohardjono, MICHIYAYA Dance, Jennifer Nugent, and Soles of Duende; the Deeper Lecture Series with WNYC radio host John Schaefer; poet, playwright, and songwriter Cornelius Eady; and Team Sunshine choreographer and theater director Makoto Hirano; and the return of The Eva Yaa Asantewaa Solo for Solo Residency program with Kayla Farrish choreographing for Belinda McGuire and Javier Padilla choreographing for Davalois Fearon.

PERFORMANCES

Gibney's premier presentation series, Gibney Presents, will offer a rich blend of dance and performance in fully produced, evening-length commissions. The season will begin with Dohee Lee's (January 13-15) MU-Connector: Chilseong Saenamgut: Ritual for Sickness, a ritual for facing and naming challenges, for purging destructive and monstrous spirits (Heomaengyee-i-?e??i??) and white supremacy culture and inviting vital spirits (Chilseong-i??i??i??) back to humanity and land. zavé martohardjono (April 7-9) presents TERRITORY: The Island Remembers a work that explores division and reconciliation. Jennifer Nugent's (April 28-30) up against is a collective endeavor that asks: in what ways can the expectations of performance and space be altered? Samar Haddad King/Yaa Samar! Dance Theater (May 5-8 & May 10-12) blends dance and theater (in Arabic with English subtitles) in a highly visual performance titled Last Ward which follows one man's journey towards death in hospital room. Performances by Wendy Jehlen (June 23-25) titled The Women Gather close the season and will feature eight women from five countries who over the course of the performance create sound and movement in an environment that they build, deconstruct, and recreate.

The Spotlight series continues to support the work of early-career artists with generous support from the Jerome Foundation. Kayla Farrish/Decent Structures Arts (online, March 24-26) presents Martyr's Fiction a dance-theater narrative-film that witnesses five venturing Black American and Women characters allowing themselves to finally dream, eruptively questioning reality, to reclaim life. Featuring an original score created by Grammy-nominated Hip-hop recording artist and composer Billy Dean Thomas, MICHIYAYA Dance (April 14-16) presents a new work exploring the complexities of how we crave, sustain, and heal in relationship with one another as sensual beings. Continuing their #mymannykinfriends series devynn emory (online, June 9-11) presents Cindy Sessions, an intimate behind-the-scenes moment and conversation with Cindy, a medical mannequin, and her Nurse, devynn emory, during which Cindy shares grandmother wisdom around the themes of love, loss, and land. An enticing evening of rhythmic exchange including live music and rooted improvisation, Soles of Duende's (June 16-18) Can We Dance Here? explores the concept of permission and trust as three performers journey towards their individual and collective freedoms.

A new series Company Created (March 16-19) will feature new works created by Gibney Company Artistic Associates Alexander Anderson, Zui Gomez, Jesse Obremski, Kevin Pajarillaga, Marla Phelan, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, and Jake Tribus.

Originally scheduled for March 2020, the 2019-2020 Work Up artists Gabby Carmichael, Ramona Sekulovic, and Emma Rose Brown will share their work with the public two years later on March 4-5. Selected by a panel of artists, each artist is presented by Gibney and receives 30 hours of residency space and professional development opportunities.

For the Moment-evenings of short, theme-based solo improvisations-will feature Ayano Elson, Darrin Wright, and Thomas And Adrianne (April 20) as well as Rourou Ye, Marýa Wethers, and Paul Singh + Jack Blackmon (June 1).

Throughout the month of February, Connections celebrates the many ways rising dance and performance artists have been supported and influenced by other artists they respect as past or present teachers, mentors or exemplars of the best in their field. Each program features a look at new or developing work as well as conversation or storytelling about the human connections that drive the creative spirit. The 2022 Connections artists, selected by curatorial mentors Melanie George and Adrienne Truscott, are Du'Bois A'Keen (February 4-5), LaTasha Barnes (February 9-10), and Alex Tatarsky + River L. Ramirez (February 18-19).

Sorry I Missed Your Show will present online screenings of Ni'Ja Whitson's The Unarrival Experiments (March 9) and Rosy Simas yödoishëndahgwa' (a place for rest) (April 6). Each screening will be followed by a discussion with the artist.

DISCUSSION SERIES

The Deeper Lecture Series-a talk + Q&A program designed to acquaint audiences with the most provocative, influential, and inspiring minds at work in the arts, humanities, and activism-will welcome poet, playwright, and songwriter Cornelius Eady (online, April 5), Team Sunshine choreographer and theater director Makoto Hirano (April 19), and WNYC radio host John Schaefer (March 1). During their individual talks, Eady will talk on the white gaze, and the black body; Hirano will discuss creating new work about gun culture that uses real-world stories gathered through interviews and surveys combined with his choreography practices; and Schaefer will discuss the opportunities and challenges of music and radio.

Talk It Out!, a new digital talk show moderated by Gilbert T Small II, Gibney Curatorial Director of Training and Company Rehearsal Director, features conversations with artists curated throughout the season offering audiences multiple ways to engage with the artists' work. The spring 2022 talks will feature MICHIYAYA Dance (February 1) in a conversation about all things performance; Kayla Farrish, Yara Travieso and Marielis Garcia (February 8) will talk about the wildness, boldness, imagination, and heart it takes to create new ideas within interdisciplinary forms as BIPOC, minority, and women-identifying leaders and creatives; Soles of Duende brings together Brinda Guha, Amanda Castro, Arielle Rosales, Aida Rodriguez, Melanie George, and Sayantani DasGupta (February 16); and devynn emory, joins Joseph M. Pierce and Emily Johnson (February 17).

RESIDENCIES & WORKS IN PROCESS

Dance in Process (DiP) is designed to provide extensive, holistic support for mid-career New York-based dance artists who are in the middle stages of work on a new project. The four artists awarded the 2021-22 Dance in Process (DiP) residencies with generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation are: Parijat Desai, André Zachary, Paloma McGregor, and Jean Butler.

The Eva Yaa Asantewaa Solo for Solo Residency (February 2) commissions solos made by developing choreographers expressly for veteran performers who also mentor the choreographers through a one-on-one collaborative process that serves to broaden and deepen the art. For the 2022 spring season Kayla Farrish is creating a new work for Belinda McGuire, and Javier Padilla is choreographing for Davalois Fearon.

In partnership with Dance/NYC the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Residency Program responds directly to the need and opportunity to engage residency centers in the professional development and training of disabled artists and to provide critical training to presenters, driving mentorship and shared learning among artists and presenters. The 2021-2022 residency program will expand opportunities for dancers with disabilities, including spinal cord injury (SCI) and other impairments, and advance accessibility and equity for disabled dance artists within the larger dance, residency, and presenting communities. The 21-22 dance artists and/or integrated dance companies will be announced soon.

CHRONOLOGICAL EVENT LISTING

Gibney Presents: Dohee Lee Puri Arts

January 13-15, 8:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Theater (Studio H)
Livestream: January 14, 8:00 pm
$15-20

MU-Connector: Chilseong Saenamgut: Ritual for Sickness
I dedicate this ritual to the struggling earth where we all confront climate change, natural disasters and a global pandemic that has taken so many lives. I call out our destructive humanity and the white supremacy of our colonized land. I call upon this ritual "Chilseong Saenamgut," a ritual for sickness, illness, and destruction from Jeju Island, my hometown, because we need to confront and heal. This ritual is for facing and naming challenges, for purging destructive and monstrous spirits (Heomaengyee-i-?e??i??) and white supremacy culture, and inviting vital spirits (Chilseong-i??i??i??) back to humanity and land.

Talk it Out!: MICHIYAYA Dance

February 1, 7:00 - 8:30 pm
ONLINE
Artist-Curators: Anya & Mitsuko Clarke-Verdery
Panelists: Abdu Ali, Tsohil Bhatia, Jasmine Hearn, and Jason Rodriguez
Moderator: Gilbert T Small II

An artist-panel discusses all things performance, addressing questions such as: What have your experiences been being a performer and curating/creating performances? What do you feel is the magic in performance? What is the messiness? Where do success and failure tie into performance? Where does the future of performance/performance-making for you lie?

The Eva Yaa Asantewaa Solo For Solo Residency: Kayla Farrish + Belinda McGuire, Javier

Padilla + Davalois Fearon
February 2, 7:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
Studio U
$10-15

JAVIER PADILLA + DAVALOIS FEARON
In this technologically dense age, how are lineages tracked, kept, and maintained? Through a collaborative process involving voice, live looping, and movement, Javier assists Davalois in tracking and honoring her lineage as well as questioning what is there to come "from here on out.

Kayla Farrish + Belinda McGuire
New work by Kayla Farrish and Belinda McGuire with the whim, efforts, imagination, and exciting possibilities between the two. They both play with dance, scene, physicality, and film, and will dive into an immersive world together.

Talk It Out!: Kayla Farrish/Decent Structures Arts

February 8, 7:00 - 8:30 pm
ONLINE
Curated by Kayla Farrish
Panelists: Yara Travieso, Marielis Garcia
Moderator: Gilbert T Small II

Risk and Vision/New Radical Frontiers
Curator and panelist Kayla Farrish is joined by panelists Yara Travieso and Marielis Garcia, with moderator Gilbert T Small II. They will dive into the wildness, boldness, imagination, and heart it takes to create new ideas within interdisciplinary forms as BIPOC, minority, and women-identifying leaders and creatives. They will talk about disruptively questioning, breaking rules, expectations, support, creating the new blueprint, care, and the dare to radically imagine.

Connections: Du'Bois A'Keen

February 4-5, 8:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Theater (Studio H)

Livestream: February 4, 8:00 pm
$15-20

Bits & Pieces - A Love Story
This work is a socio political commentary and confrontation, an episodic series of performance vignettes. It is a recall and recover of Life, Love and Pleasure. It is Physical Poetry, Speaking Tongues and Shouts. The work invites, interrogates, and celebrates love and endurance: through the lens of the black male southern body and mind; a father, son and spirit. It's a reconciliation--A montage of memories and manifestos. A point of clarity and confluence.

It's Black
It's Code
It's Jazz
It's Warfare.
It's Gospel
It's Truth.

This is... simply an offering.

Connections: LaTasha Barnes

February 9-10, 8:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Theater (Studio H)
Livestream: February 9, 8:00 pm
$15-20

Talk it Out!: Soles of Duende

February 16, 7:00 - 8:30 pm
ONLINE
Curated by Soles of Duende
Panelists: Brinda Guha, Amanda Castro, Arielle Rosales, Aida Rodriguez, Melanie George, Sayantani DasGupta
Moderator: Gilbert T Small II

Talk it Out: devynn emory

February 17, 7:00 - 8:30 pm
ONLINE
Curated by devynn emory
Panelists: Joseph M. Pierce, Emily Johnson
Moderator: Gilbert T Small II

Connections: Alex Tatarsky + River L. Ramirez

February 18-19, 8:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Theater (Studio H)
Livestream: February 18, 8:00 pm
$15-20

Deeper Lecture: John Schaefer

March 1, 7:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Theater (Studio H)

Livestream Available
$10-15

Music on the Radio - A Missed Opportunity
On the surface, radio seems like the ultimate blind screen test: you hear music without seeing the musicians, so in theory, you respond just to the quality of the music, not the identity of the performers. And yet, radio has become a deeply segregated medium for music (although there are some surprising exceptions). The story of music and radio is a story of an opportunity that, so far, has largely been missed: music is a powerful example of our commonality, but it is too often tangled up with coded language and issues of access and representation-or the lack thereof.

Work Up: Gabby Carmichael, Ramona Sekulovic, Emma Rose Brown

March 4-5, 8:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Theater (Studio H)
$15-20

Gabby Carmichael: learning to see in the dark
learning to see in the dark is a solo study in undoing pain. It is inspired by the forest, vanity, the lessons we learn from lying, self-actualization, saying goodbye, and the process of moving on. This project is intertwined with personal and collective memories, naturalistic sound scores, voice recordings, and poetry. It honors femme power and the moments that make us feel brave.

Ramona Sekulovic: UNI
In UNI, Ramona Sekulovic investigates what it means to be present. What constitutes presence in both a performer and the audience? How is a performer's presence intimately related to technique? Sekulovic suggests that we can only connect and communicate while being fully present. Movement and short personal monologues reflect findings of Sekulovic's research and recall fleeting past moments in ongoing navigations.

Emma Rose Brown: Simul-cast
Simul-cast is a highly specific improvisational structure that languages physicality and tracks the multiple natures of perception. Performers act as sports commentators, describing what is happening in real-time in the body of another performer, preceding the power of the viewer to name what they see. Listening back to this audio, performers relive, remember, and reenact their immediate past. Moving from frantic speaking to silence, this work is simultaneously performance, game, and documentation. We offer an alternative way of taking in the world in real-time.

Sorry I Missed Your Show: Ni'Ja Whitson

March 9, 7:00 - 8:30 pm
ONLINE
FREE

Whitson will share about their ongoing art/work constellation, The Unarrival Experiments to discuss darkness, ritual, and trans futurity.

Company Created

New Works by Gibney Company Artistic Associates
March 16-19, 8:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
$15-20

An evening of new works created by Gibney Company Artistic Associates Alexander Anderson, Zui Gomez, Jesse Obremski, Kevin Pajarillaga, Marla Phelan, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, and Jake Tribus.

Spotlight: Kayla Farrish/ Decent Structures Arts

March 24-26, 8:00 pm
$15- 20
ONLINE

Martyr's Fiction
Martyr's Fiction witnesses five venturing Black American and Women characters allowing themselves to finally dream, eruptively questioning reality, to reclaim life in a dance-theater narrative-film. Stemming from "who can afford to dream?" with lives based in survival and reality immersed in overwhelming surreal violence, each character pushes up against their boundaries-imposed and personal. In varying forms of film, histories, fantasy, and embodiment, their personal quests move through both imagination and reckon with truth as they transform. Immersing in stories of martyrs and unsung heroes, the narrative confronts what we think isn't possible for ourselves-dismantling present conditions within American oppression.

Deeper Lecture: Cornelius Eady

April 5, 7:00 pm
ONLINE
$10-$15
Cornelius Eady offers a talk on the white gaze, and the black body.

Sorry I Missed Your Show: Rosy Simas

April 6, 7:00 pm
ONLINE
FREE

Simas will share yödoishëndahgwa' (a place for rest), an installation and performance work to heal seven generations of ancestors and seven generations yet to be born.

Gibney Presents: zavé martohardjono in collaboration with x, Ube Halaya, Raha Behnam, Marielys Burgos Meléndez, Jullia Santoli, and Proteo Media + Performance

April 7-9, 8:00 pm
THE BLACK BOX (Studio Y)
Livestream: April 8, 8:00 pm
$15-20

TERRITORY: The Island Remembers
TERRITORY: The Island Remembers will premiere as a weeklong multimedia installation that will take over Gibney's Studio Y. The installation will be activated with three nights of rituals, performance, and audience-interactive actions. Prior to activations, visitors are invited to the installation at no cost on April 5-9 from 12:00-3:00pm. With guided instruction, installation visitors can give offerings to altars within the space to acknowledge the land and prepare it for evening activations.

Spotlight: MICHIYAYA Dance

April 14-16, 8:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Theater (Studio H)

Livestream: April 15, 8:00 pm
$15-20

MICHIYAYA's new work is a reimagination of intimacy and reclamation of femme sensuality. MICHIYAYA Dance processes the complexities of how we crave, sustain, and heal in relationship with one another as sensual beings. Without stigma from heteronormative sources, MICHIYAYA takes control of their dialogues in raw yet fanciful ways. It is a rewrite of how we belong together as our most authentic selves.

This new work is created by Artistic Directors Anya & Mitsuko Clarke-Verdery in collaboration with and featuring their five dance artists Alex Bittner, Bree Breeden, Stephanie Carlos, Alex Schmidt, and Alexandra Wood. It features an original score created by Grammy-nominated Hip-hop recording artist and composer Billy Dean Thomas.

Deeper Lecture: Makoto Hirano

April 19, 7:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Theater (Studio H)
Livestream Available
$10-15

Makoto Hirano will discuss creating new work about gun culture, using real-world stories gathered through interviews and surveys combined with his choreography practices.

For the Moment

Ayano Elson, Darrin Wright, Thomas And Adrianne
April 20, 7:00 pm
STUDIO X
$10-15

Gibney Presents: Jennifer Nugent

April 28-30, 8:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Black Box (Studio Y)
Livestream: April 29, 8:00 pm
$15-20

up against
up against is a collective endeavor that asks: in what ways can the expectations of performance and space be altered? Might the dance become a dance between you and me and the space-performative space, space as the body, and the shared space between us?

Gibney Presents: Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre

May 5-8 & May 10-12, 8:00 pm
May 8, 3:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The White Box (Studio C)
Livestream: May 6, 8:00 pm
$15-20

Last Ward
Last Ward follows one man's journey towards death in a hospital room. Surrounded by the sterile mechanisms of modern medicine, the patient reflects on his life, relationships and connection to place, as the ritual of doctor visits and family calls transform into an increasingly bizarre landscape of tragedy and humor. Written/directed by Amir Nizar Zuabi with choreography/music by Samar Haddad King, Last Ward blends dance and theater (in Arabic with English subtitles) in a highly visual evening-length performance.

For the Moment

Rourou Ye, Marýa Wethers, and Paul Singh + Jack Blackmon
June 1, 7:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
Studio X
$10-15

Spotlight: devynn emory

June 9-11, 8:00 pm
June 9: LOVE
June 10: LOSS
June 11: LAND
ONLINE
$15-20

Cindy Sessions
Cindy Sessions is an intimate behind the scenes moment with Cindy, a medical mannequin of the #mymannykinfriends community--hosted by her Nurse, devynn emory. You are invited to keep Cindy company while she receives medical/medicinal care and join her for a conversation series sharing grandmother wisdom around the themes of love, loss, and land. Feel free to join for one evening or enjoy the whole series.

Performance by devynn emory, Elisa Harkins and Joseph M. Pierce.
Cinematography, sound, and video editing by Jorge Cousineau.
Sound coaching by M. Rodriguez.

Spotlight: Soles of Duende

June 16-18, 8:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Theater (Studio H)
Livestream: June 17, 8:00 pm
$15-20

Can We Dance Here?
With Can We Dance Here?, the three storytellers explore the concept of permission and trust as they journey towards their individual and collective freedoms. An enticing evening of rhythmic exchange including live music (by prominent NYC live musicians) and rooted improvisation, this trio brings the audience on a journey to the revelation of pure freedom as three strong women take the floor...and make NOISE.

Gibney Presents: Wendy Jehlen

June 23-25, 8:00 pm
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
The Theater (Studio H)
Livestream: June 24, 8:00 pm
$15-20

The Women Gather
The Women Gather is by and for women. It is a centering of women's experience, with a conscious awareness of the glorious diversity of gender presentation within women. The Women Gather will be a performance by eight women from five countries, who create sound and movement together live, in an environment that they build, deconstruct, and recreate over the course of the performance. All sound is generated live by the ensemble. The Women Gather is a ritual of healing. A gathering of women. A safe space and a space for the conjuring of magic.