New York Live Arts to Present Andrea Kleine's 'MY DINNER WITH ANDREA'

New York Live Arts presents the world premiere of choreographer Andrea Kleine's latest dance project, My Dinner with Andrea: the piece formerly known as Torture Playlist, which takes its cue from the 1981 Wallace Shawn and André Gregory movie, My Dinner With André. Commissioned by New York Live Arts and presented through its Live Feed creative residency program, the performances will take place February 9-11, 2017, at 7:30PM at New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street, NYC. For tickets and information, call 212 924 0077 or visit newyorklivearts.

Andrea Kleine's new work began as a dance about the music deployed in the CIA's torture program. In despair, Kleine abandoned that idea and channeled theater shaman André Gregory from his performance in My Dinner with André, creating a new version of the famed dinner conversation as she seeks answers on how to make a dance about torture, or how to make anything at all. Performed by Alison Ingelstrom, Michael Kammers (musician), Neal Kirkwood (musician), Andrea Kleine, Anya Liftig, Luke Miller, Bobby Previte (composer/musician), with an original score by Bobby Previte and lighting design by Madeline Best, the piece emerges as an amalgam of fragments: fractures of complicity, futility, and desire.

Andrea Kleine's hybrid performance pieces have been presented at The Chocolate Factory Theater, PS122, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St Mark's Church, Walker Art Center, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, The Kitchen, and other venues.

For several years Kleine abandoned performance and then returned in 2014 with a commission from The Chocolate Factory Theater: SCREENING ROOM, OR, THE RETURN OF ANDREA KLEINE (AS REVEALED THROUGH A RE-ENACTMENT OF A 1977 TELEVISION PROGRAM ABOUT A 'LONG AND BAFFLING' FILM BY YVONNE RAINER).

Kleine has received numerous commissions, grants, and awards including support from the Jerome Foundation, the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, the Fox/Samuels Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Slamdance Film Festival, IFP Market, New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Music Fund, among others.

She has been a Movement Research artist-in-residence, a Mabou Mines artist-in-residence, a Montalvo Art Center literary fellow, and a Hermitage Artist fellow. She has received five MacDowell Colony fellowships and a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) fellowship award. Kleine's critical writing has been published in Bomb, Literary Hub, the Los Angeles Review of Books, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, and on her blog The Dancers Will Win. Her debut novel, CALF, was published by Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press and was named one of Publishers Weekly's Best Fiction Books of 2015.

This performance is supported by the Live Feed creative residency program with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Located in the heart of Chelsea in New York City, 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 its identity is Artistic Director Bill T. Jones, world-renowned choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer. New York Live Arts serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and is the company's sole producer, providing support and the environment to originate innovative and challenging new work. New York Live Arts produces and presents dance, music and theater performances in its 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 offers an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people and supports the continuing professional development of artists and commissions.

IF YOU GO:
My Dinner with Andrea: the piece formerly known as Torture Playlist
By Andrea Kleine
February 9-11, 2017 at 7:30PM
NEW YORK LIVE ARTS
219 West 19th Street, NYC (btw. 7th and 8th Avenue)
Tickets start at $15 and can be purchased at 212 924 0077 or online at newyorklivearts.