KDNY Presents 'Treading Puddles' World Premieres Series, 12/3 - 12/6

New York-based contemporary dance company KDNY presents their 2009 NYC Season, TREADING PUDDLES, an evening of World Premieres set to original live music by Cristina Spinei at The Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, The Joan Weill Center for Dance from December 3-6, 2009.  

At moments on the brink do we bend and bounce back? What does it take to reinvent oneself again from the ground up? KDNY's TREADING PUDDLES explores the obstacles that emerge unexpectedly in life and translates those experiences into an evening of dances by Kathleen Dyer that emphasize the importance of resiliency, patience, and the desire for reinvention. While waiting, dreaming and mourning, we grow with everyday storms. The evening features original music composed by Juilliard Alumna, Cristina Spinei that will be performed live by the Voxare String Quartet.

Evergreen, inspired by a painting of a violent storm brewing over a single blade of grass, examines moments on the brink: some bend at adversary and then bounce back. Kathleen Dyer analyzes this potent resiliency in nature and pursues this elusive quality, harnessing the power that this resiliency can bring to one's life. Music by Cristina Spinei, performed by Voxare String Quartet. Dancers: Katie Aggen, Meredith Clinton, Heather Kemp, Lisa Peluso, Alexandra Rose, Shayne Staley, Kaitlyn Waldo and Leslie Ziff.

In From, a quartet finds itself lost in a forest of heartbreak where the magic of connection inspires the realization that some breaking is building. Music by Cristina Spinei, performed by Voxare String Quartet. Dancers: Katie Aggen, Meredith Clinton, Heather Kemp, and Leslie Ziff.
Wide Asleep is acomedic exploration of the peculiar disjointed ideas that manifest within those half-awake wee morning hours during which you have suddenly been caught in a fleeting, inexplicable world of uncertainty, embarrassment, and mystery. There you discover you are half-dressed, running to nowhere, carrying oranges while your feet turn into water and it seems completely plausible. Music by Cristina Spinei. Dancers: Katie Aggen, Meredith Clinton, Heather Kemp, Lisa Peluso, Alexandra Rose, Shayne Staley, Caitlin Trainor, Kaitlyn Waldo and Leslie Ziff.

Inspired by the women depicted in Jan Vermeer's paintings, Flowers on the table by the Open Window (2002) is comprised of four passionate solos: The Hopeful; The Enduring; The Livid; and The Gutted, performed to beautiful arias sung by soprano Michelle Jennings. Like museum paintings, the choreography recalls an era in which women played a lesser role in society and were often found waiting and wanting. Leaping out of a life-sized frame, the dancers embody their untold emotions and stories, as they look out of the window into the unknown. Music by Massenet, Gounod, and Bellini. Set Construction by Owen Marshall. Dancers: Leslie Ziff, Heather Kemp, Meredith Clinton, Kim Gibilisco Voxare String Quartet: Emily Ondracek, violin; Galina Zhdanova, violin; Erik Peterson, viola; Adrian Daurov, cello.

Tickets are $20 ($15 students and seniors) and are available at www.kdnydance.com or by phone at 1-866-811-4111.  For a complete performance schedule, visit www.kdnydance.com.

Artistic Director Kathleen Dyer established KDNY in 1997 as an all-female modern dance company which focuses on the compelling experiences and intricate nature of the female spirit. Based in New York City, the five-woman company features Ms. Dyer's vibrant feminine choreography that is renowned for its athleticism and grace. KDNY is committed to uncovering the female spirit and transports diverse audiences through poignant dance, dynamic music and brilliant characters. The company has developed a vast repertory of group works that range from narrative to abstract and feature highly talented performers. The company currently tours with five dancers, but selected works include as many as thirteen. KDNY has extensive performance engagements at top New York City dance venues including Lincoln Center's Clark Studio Theater, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, The Duke Theater on 42nd Street, and has been featured in the New York International Fringe Festival and Joyce SoHo Presents. Touring highlights include Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Toronto's Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists and the Panoply Festival in Alabama where the company has been in engagements throughout the Artistic Director's home state.

Kathleen Dyer has choreographed extensively for the past fifteen years, creating twenty-two repertory works and four powerful evening-length pieces for her company, KDNY, and four pieces for university dance programs and other dance companies. Her energetic and technically specific work explores dance's capacity to communicate both literal and metaphorical meanings simultaneously and is therefore accessible to dance aficionados as well as mainstream audiences. Dyer begin her dance career in Alabama where she danced and choreographed for the Huntsville Community Ballet and the School for the Performing Arts. Later, she attended Florida State University in Tallahassee via scholarship, earning her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance. After graduation and while continuing to pursue her own choreography, Kathleen danced with several New York dance companies. Over the past decade, Dyer's work has received a number of accolades including critical notice by the press and selection for presentation by prestigious performing arts festivals. Her company, KDNY, in addition to its annual New York season, performed at Jacob's Pillow in Massachusetts, the New York International Fringe Festival, the Fringe Festival of Independent Artists in Canada, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Her creative accomplishments were acknowledged with an Artist Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission of the Arts and the Choreography Award from the Panoply Festival of the Arts in Alabama for her work Escape in Blue #32. Dyer's pursuit of dance is a distinctly communal act. Her works are primarily group works, and she has created several projects to develop female partnerships. Her goals are to inspire physical and emotional empowerment through movement, and to gain a greater understanding of the female psyche as it presents itself physically. While on tour she offers community-based workshops, which are developed around her movement vocabulary or KDNY repertory, and adapted to suit the specific participant population. She has given master classes, repertory workshops, and lecture demonstrations in a number of states including Texas, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Florida. She is also interested the bringing dance to younger audiences through school performances, open rehearsals, and new dance comedies choreographed specifically for youthful imaginations. Ms. Dyer's choreography has been restaged on regional companies around the country including the Huntsville Ballet of Alabama and Moving Current of Tampa, FL.

Cristina Spinei has been called "one of the most talented young composers in America" by Grammy award winning composer/conductor Jose Serebrier. At 25, Ms. Spinei is in demand from choreographers, film directors, and musicians. Her compositions have been commissioned by the Ebony Strings Quartet, the ETA3 Trio, Kathleen Dyer Dance NY, London Central School, Mary Seidman and Keystone Dancers, Metropolis Ensemble, the New York Choreographic Institute, Pacific Northwest Ballet, St. John's Church, Treetops Chamber Music Society, and by Jazz at Lincoln Center saxophonist Victor Goines. Ms. Spinei is the Wet Ink Fellow for Metropolis Ensemble this current season. She is the recipient of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism Grant for Composition, the Composition Award from the Arts Recognition and Talent Search, the Pia Gilbert Scholarship, and the Marvin Hamlisch Scholarship in Composition. Spinei has been a finalist for the Sackler Composition Prize and the Sundance Composers Lab. Ms. Spinei received her BM and MM in composition from the Juilliard School where she studied with Christopher Rouse. As a co-founder of Blind Ear Music, Ms. Spinei produces contemporary music concerts in New York. Blind Ear has been featured on YouTube in their weekly "Spotlight on Music" section and most recently performed at the World Technology Awards. Ms. Spinei's music will be performed by Blind Ear at The Brooklyn Lyceum and by the Metropolis Ensemble in the fall of 2009. For more information, visit www.cristinaspinei.com.

TREADING PUDDLES will also be performed from January 23-24, 2010 at The Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport, CT 06880. For more information, visit www.kdnydance.com.