New York Live ARts Presents Cynthia Oliver's BOOM! This Weekend

New York Live Arts presents the world premiere of Cynthia Oliver's BOOM!, this weekend, October 23 - 25 at 7:30pm in the New York Live Arts Theater. Known for creating work that is "Uneasy, unsettling, and...[with] a narrative cohesion that makes for effective dance theater" (Dance Magazine) Oliver returns to the Live Arts stage to present her newest evening-length work.'

A duet based on the celebrated short work by the same name, BOOM! features Oliver and Leslie Cuyjet as individuals, friends, strangers, family and younger/older versions of themselves, negotiating relations that are persistently in flux. Building upon a non-linear sequence of narratives around a life and a relationship-of a woman to herself, her history, her present and her future -- BOOM! is a choreography of shifting realities. It is a looping, fractured unfolding, examining notions of destiny, when life happens and when "fairness" and cause and effect do not necessarily align.

The presentation of BOOM! is made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional support from contributors to the Dance Theater Workshop Commissioning fund of New York Live Arts.

BOOM! is a national Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by New York Live Arts in partnership with the Painted Bride Art Center of Philadelphia PA, and the Dance Place of Washington DC. The creation fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National endowment for the Arts (a federal agency).

BOOM! has been generously supported, in part, by the following organizations/entities: The Edwards Foundation Arts Fund, The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, College of Applied Arts Creative Research Award, University Scholar Award, and the Dance Department at the University of Illinois. A Choreography Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council Agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the 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 (see complete schedule below). Tickets start at $25 with select $15 seats available. Tickets may be purchased online at newyorklivearts/season, 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 10am to 9pm.

DETAILS:

Cynthia Oliver

BOOM!

Oct 23 - 25 at 7:30pm

New York Live Arts Theater

Tickets: $15, $25

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

219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011

Box Office hours: Monday-Friday 1 - 9pm | Saturday-Sunday 10am to 9pm

Schedule of Related Events:

Oct 23 at 6:30pm Come Early Conversation: Sequencing Non-Linear Narratives, Choreographer and Educator Nia Love Discusses the Creative Practice of Cynthia Oliver

Oct 24 Stay Late Discussion: Her History - Her Present - Her Future: Cynthia Oliver and Leslie Cuyjet in Conversation with Jaamil Olawale Kosoko (Assistant Curator, Humanities and Engagement at New York Live Arts)

About Cynthia Oliver: Cynthia Oliver's work is the visceral evidence of an incongruous mixture of aesthetics. Oliver was steeped in the everyday sounds of black voices and bodies moving in time and space in the Caribbean of her youth. She was encouraged to explore site specific improvisational experiments led by Atti van den Berg - a former Kurt Jooss dance drama company member/performer. All the while she absorbed both the informal and formal dances of the Afro-Caribbean dance canons in the US Virgin Islands. These vastly differing experiences defined her childhood coming into art. Moving in this way led her to an eclectic career in NYC and abroad in the world of performance art and experimental dancing with folks as diverse as David Gordon/Pick Up Company, Ronald Kevin Brown/EVIDENCE and Bebe Miller. She is currently performing in Tere O'Connor's Sister and BLEED dance works. Oliver has studied and been a part of the black avant garde theatre world, performing in the works of numerous playwrights, most notably, Laurie Carlos' White Chocolate for my Father, and Vanquished by Voodoo and Ntozake Shange's A Photograph Lover's In Motion, also directed by Ms. Carlos. Oliver's work, a mélange of dance, theatre and the spoken word, incorporates the textures of Caribbean performance with African and American sensibilities. Named "Outstanding Young Choreographer" by reviewer Frank Werner in German Magazine Ballet Tanz early in her career, Oliver has since received numerous grants and awards including a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award, two Illinois Arts Council Choreography Fellowships, a Creative Capital award, a Rockefeller Multi-Arts Production grant, NEFA Touring support, NPN Creation Funds, a CalArts Alpert Award nomination and a prestigious University Scholar Award from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she is a Professor of dance. In addition to her performance credits, Oliver holds a PhD in performance studies from New York University, has published widely and is the author of Queen of the Virgins: Pageantry and Black Womanhood in the Caribbean (University Press of Mississippi. 2009).

About NEW YORK LIVE ARTS: 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, 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.

Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes