NEW YORK LIVE ARTS Welcomes Donna Uchizono Company, Now thru 12/7

New York Live Arts will present an evening of dance with Donna Uchizono Company (DUC), featuring the world premiere of Fire Underground and the Replay Series of State of Heads, today, December 4 - 7 at 7:30pm. Celebrating 20 years of art-making, Uchizono, a choreographer with a knack for "making something out of nothing" (Philadelphia City Paper) and known to create works with a "strangeness...[that] can enlarge our sense of humanity, [and] expand our frame" (The New York Times), will present both new and restaged works created from a wide range of inspiration.

Fire Underground, DUC's newest work, delves into the uncertainty and unknowingness of recent times, centering on and drawing from her own harrowing experience of a complex international adoption. A collaboration with dancer Rebecca Serrell-Cyr, lighting designer Joe Levasseur, composer David Shively and photographer Michael Grimaldi, Fire Underground explores the idea of truth within the frame of the international adoption process, examining the human consequences of uncertain endings. Designed as an intimate setting that challenges perceptions of "performance," the provocative, multi-layered work illuminates the complex crises of our times and the interconnections that bind us.

Preceding Fire Underground will be DUC's celebrated State of Heads, which originally premiered at Dance Theater Workshop in 1999 and was revived for last season's inaugural Live Ideas festival, The Worlds of Oliver Sacks. State of Heads features lighting design by Stan Pressner and original music by New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award winner James Lo. A work that explores the concept of disjointedness and the passage of time, it is performed by dancers Rebecca Serrell Cyr, Levi Gonzalez and Hristoula Harakas, who Brian Seibert of The New York Times deemed "all excellent" after seeing the work at Live Ideas.

Fire Underground is commissioned by New York Live Arts and made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is given by contributors to the Dance Theater Workshop Commissioning Fund at New York Live Arts.

Performances will take place in New York Live Arts' Theater. Come Early Conversations and Stay Late Discussions will also be featured with two shows. Tickets are $30. Tickets may be purchased online at newyorklivearts.secure.force.com/ticket/, by phone at 212-924-0077 and in person at the box office. Box Office hours are Monday to Friday from 1 to 9pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 8pm.

Donna Uchizono Company

Fire Underground and State of Heads

Dec 4 - 7 at 7:30pm

New York Live Arts Theater, New York Live Arts

Tickets: $30

T: 212-924-0077 | www.newyorklivearts.org

219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011

Box Office hours:

Monday-Friday 1 - 9pm | Saturday-Sunday 12 - 8pm

Schedule of Related Events:

Dec 4 Stay Late Discussion: Behind Fire Underground with Donna Uchizono Company moderated by Jaamil Kosoko (Producing Associate - Humanities and Engagement, New York Live Arts)

Dec 5 at 5:30pm Come Early Panel Conversation: Making Dances in the '90s Though Today's Lens moderated by Carla Peterson (Artistic Director, New York Live Arts) in dialogue with Tere O'Connor, John Jasperse, RoseAnne Spradlin and Donna Uchizono

Shared Practice Workshop: Silent Virtuosity

Nov 30, 1:00-4:00pm, $20

Fire Underground, Donna Uchizono's newest work, reflects Uchizono's personal experience with the international adoption process. In her Shared Practice session, Uchizono will share her dance making process by exploring the frameworks that arose from the concept of Fire Underground; the dialogue that ensued with the dance itself; and her uninvited but natural tendency for "silent virtuosity" which surfaced in this work in the form of duration and repetition, which encompassed miniscule changes. Uchizono will invite participants to discover structures derived from their own concepts or thought process, encouraging them to develop an awareness of the concerns that drives their work and the rigor required to pursue their poetic truth. The session will examine the possibility of universal moments of truth by using dance as the question and answer.

About Donna Uchizono Company: Hailed by Ms. Magazine's end of the century issue as "a choreographer making great leaps forward into the 21st century," Donna Uchizono, Artistic Director of Donna Uchizono Company, is known for work spiced with wit, rich invention and unexpected beauty. Donna Uchizono Company has been presented throughout the United States, Europe and South America. A Guggenheim Fellow, Uchizono's work has been recognized by many grants and awards including the Alpert Award in Dance, New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award, Rockefeller MAP, the National Dance Project, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Creative Capital Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, Arts International, the National Performance Network, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and the Greenwall Foundation and Meet the Composer, among others. Uchizono's work is characterized by its numerous collaborative projects including collaborations with Visual Artist David Hammons and Composers "Butch" Morris, James Lo and Guy Yarden. Uchizono's interest in original and live music for performance is evidenced by her collaborations with composers and her former role as co-director and -curator of "Bread to the Bone", a live music/dance series at The Knitting Factory in New York. In 2004, Uchizono was the choreographer for The Long Christmas Ride Home, a play by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel for the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, CT. She has also created a work for Mikhail Baryshnikov, commissioned by Baryshnikov Dance Foundation. An active member of the dance community, Uchizono is a member of the Artist Advisory Board at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, where she was the founding member and served as the first Chair.

New York Live Arts is an internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry offering audiences access to art and artists notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation and active engagement with the social, political and cultural currents of our times. At the center of this identity is Bill T. Jones, Executive Artistic Director, a world-renowned choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer.

We commission, produce and present performances in our 20,000 square foot home, which includes a 184-seat theater and two 1,200 square foot studios that can be combined into one large studio. New York Live Arts serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, provides an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people and supports the continuing professional development of artists. Our influence extends beyond NYC through our international cultural exchange program that currently places artists in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Photo Credit: Ian Douglas