Lincoln Center Education Presents Performances by Kenan Fellows, Beg. Today

From today, January 24 - 26, 2014, the Kenan Fellows studying arts and education will present their work at the Clark Studio Theater at LINCOLN CENTER EDUCATION, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, Rose Building, 7th Floor. FREE ADMISSION.

Chez Nous Autres (Our Home)
music & visuals

Cain-Oscar Bergeron, flute
with various musicians: viola, piano, accordion, vocals
visual direction by Peryn Schmitt

In the 18th century, the French who had settled in Canada's Acadia sought freedom from the English and undertook a long and harsh journey to Louisiana. There, far from beaten, they started a new life and became famously known as Cajuns. The tale of this historic voyage has two themes: one explores the cultural legacy of three homelands through a combination of visuals and rousing classical and Cajun folk music; more subtly, the other looks at change as something universal and inevitable, which leads to the rebirth of the human spirit. No hardship can tarnish the "joie de vivre." Come, and, as the Cajuns say: "laissez le bon temps rouler"-let the good times roll.

Friday, January 24, 7 pm and Saturday, January 25, 1 pm
RSVP: ryancainkenanproject@gmail.com

Song and Dance
dance

Andrew Harper
with musical participation by Ryan Pater

In this New York debut, choreographer Andrew Harper explores the deception and illusion of theatrical performance, and its effects on the performer. A misfit band of 1920s vaudeville performers, a dysfunctional sister act, an aging child star, and a forgotten ventriloquist dummy fight to make a big impression in the big city.

Saturday, January 25, 8 pm and Sunday, January 26, 2 pm
RSVP: harperhaugtickets@gmail.com

((seeds))
dance

Lauren Haug

((seeds)) looks at the themes of isolation and attachment through the synthesis of dance, electronic music, and projection. It's a mesmerizing study of these relationships, and a meditation on cycles of transformation. How do we experience isolation and attachment? How do they affect us? Can one exist without the other? ((seeds)) plays with the idea that our bodies are vessels of visceral memory. As the body draws on it, we become aware of our experiences.

Saturday, January 25, 7 pm and Sunday, January 26, 1 pm
RSVP: harperhaugtickets@gmail.com

The Wonderful Wizard of Odd
theater

Ryan Pater
with actors ensemble

It's the 21st century. Nearly seventy years have passed since Dorothy and her friends traveled to Oz. What has happened in the meantime? What is the omnipotent wizard doing? WHO is he today? Musician, Scarecrow, and the others, decide to take a journey and let us see what's behind the curtain now. In this intriguing reinterpretation, Pater uses clowns to take us to the world of secrets, innocence, and possibilities. Who better to regale us with a fantasy that mirrors a possible reality? And if by throwing back the curtain they should reveal the truth, whose truth will it be? Theirs? Ours?

Friday, January 24, 8 pm and Saturday, January 25, 2 pm
RSVP: ryancainkenanproject@gmail.com

Informal Q and A sessions with the artists will take place after the evening performances on Friday and Saturday, January 24 and 25.

Cain-Oscar Bergeron is pursuing a vigorous performing career as flutist, vocalist, and educator in New York City. He has an MA in Music from University of North Carolina School of the Arts, as well as a Professional Artist Certificate concentrating in Orchestral Flute Performance, earned while studying with the renowned flute master Tadeu Coelho. Cain maintains a private studio in Winston-Salem, NC. He has performed as principal flutist in numerous ensembles and opera orchestras, and as a member of the UNCSA Symphony. As one fourth of the flute quartet The Metropolitan Four, Cain is currently spending many intense hours in the recording studio as the ensemble completes their debut CD album. He is also contemplating earning a doctoral degree and learning the art of flute making. Given his impressive workload, it is fair to say that the young man from the small Cajun French town of Cottonport in Louisiana is now a true New Yorker.

Dancer/choreographer Andrew Harper holds a BFA in ballet performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), where in 2013 he presented his first full evening of choreography. He has completed dance intensives with American Ballet Theatre, among others, and choreographic intensives with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Boston Ballet. Andrew has performed in televised productions of Oklahoma! and Ethan Stiefel's The Nutcracker, and in works by William Forsythe, George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Merce Cunningham, Larry Keigwin, James Kudelka, Susan Jaffe, and others. He has made work for the UNCSA School of Music, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, and the Cirkus Theatre Project (a UNCSA/Cirque du Soleil collaboration). This summer, he will perform excerpts from Twyla Tharp's Sweet Fields at the John F. Kennedy Center in honor of Sally Ride, and will return to UNCSA to collaborate on the generation of performance material for Cirque du Soleil.

Contemporary Dancer Lauren Haug holds a BFA from University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), where she studied with such luminaries as Helen Simoneau, Ming-Lung Yang, Abby Yager, and others. Her teacher and mentor Lynda Yourth became her greatest influence. She has performed in works by George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Agnes DeMille, Twyla Tharp, and Shen Wei, and created and performed works of her own. She was featured in UNCSA's revival of Oklahoma! and acted in student films aired on UNC TV and in festivals abroad. Lauren also participated in several outreach programs through the distinguished "Pluck Project." In 2012, Lauren received the Oklahoma Merit-based Scholarship and a Career Development Grant, which enabled her to study at the ImpulsTanz international summer dance festival in Vienna, Austria.

Clown, director, singer/songwriter Ryan Pater holds a BFA from UNCSA in Drama. Upon arrival to NYC, he has appeared in After Eternity at the Secret Theatre's Unfringed Festival and in Equus at the Gallery Players. This past summer, he was a recipient of a grant from the Semans Art Fund for his Pilgrimage of Silence. Ryan could not have survived as a creator the last five years without his mentors and friends that make up the Maxner family.

For many years, Lincoln Center has offered summer internships for aspiring arts administrators and emerging artists, giving them the benefit of experience with LCE programs, as well as with Lincoln Center's overall administration, performance series, and outreach activities. The William R. Kenan, Jr. Performing Arts Fellowship Program enables recent graduates of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts to work with leading artists and arts administrators for a continuous six-month period.

Each Kenan Fellow receives a stipend, and is paired with an individual mentor chosen from LCE's pool of teaching artists and staff. Mentors are chosen to match the specific interest of each Fellow. The Kenan Fellows are involved in all facets of LCE's work, including production, performance, and education. They participate in the planning and implementation of classroom sessions and workshops, and enjoy-along with teachers and their students-the various events and performances that take place daily on the Lincoln Center campus. The fellowship is also a valuable networking opportunity, enabling Fellows to meet with representatives of constituent organizations on campus and key staff at Lincoln Center. Throughout the program, Fellows meet with mentors and LCE staff to discuss the progress of the fellowship.

The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust supports education institutions and initiatives across the United States. The Kenan Trust has made a very generous endowment grant to Lincoln Center Education, the income from which will support the William R. Kenan, Jr. Performing Arts Fellowships at Lincoln Center in perpetuity.

Lincoln Center Education (LCE)
Lincoln Center Education is a global leader in arts education and advocacy and the education cornerstone of Lincoln Center, the world's largest performing arts complex. LCE is committed to enriching the lives of students, educators, and lifelong learners by providing opportunities for engagement with the highest-quality arts on the stage, in the classroom, digitally, and within the community. Founded in 1975 as the Lincoln Center Institute, LCE has nearly four decades of unparalleled school and community partnerships, professional development workshops, consulting services, and its very own repertory. LCE has reached more than 20 million students, teachers, school administrators, parents, community members, teaching artists, pre-service teachers, university professors, and artists in New York City, across the nation and around the world.

University of North Carolina School of the Arts
As America's first state-supported arts school, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts is a unique stand-alone public university of arts conservatories. With a high school component, UNCSA is a degree-granting institution that trains young people of talent in music, dance, drama, filmmaking, and design and production. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, the School of the Arts opened in Winston-Salem ("The City of Arts and Innovation") in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972.

The William R. Kenan, Jr. Fellowships at Lincoln Center provide opportunities for outstanding, recent graduates of The University of North Carolina School of the Arts to further develop as artists, leaders and teachers over the course of a one-year fellowship. Kenan Fellows work and learn in the context of top performing arts institutions, while also receiving support to develop their artistry and professional network in one of America's artistic capitols.

Pictured: 2013-14 Kenan Fellows at Lincoln Center Education - L to R: Ryan Pater, Andrew Harper, Lauren Haug, Cain-Oscar Bergeron.