Pam Tanowitz Dance Makes Joyce Theater Debut Tonight

Pam Tanowitz Dance makes its long awaited Joyce Theater debut from tonight, February 4 - 6. Presented by The Joyce Theater Foundation, this engagement will include a program of two new works by Tanowitz, a choreographer known for creating work that juxtaposes ballet with classic modern dance. The pieces, both world premieres, will feature live accompaniment.

Tickets are $10-$25, and can be purchased through JoyceCharge at www.Joyce.org or by calling 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, in Chelsea.

Pam Tanowitz Dance makes its Joyce debut with two inventive, witty world premieres that manifest the choreographer's fascination with dance steps as object, while also examining the intimate connection between choreographed movement and music. Passagen, a duet set to a score by John Zorn of the same name, represents a timeline of Tanowitz's choreography for the last six years, a mini retrospective, of sorts, in 15 minutes. The piecefeatures dancers Melissa Toogood and Maggie Cloud with live musical accompaniment by violinist Pauline Kim Harris, who is placed on stage amidst the dancers' movement. Also on the program is a lively untitled group work for 9 dancers set to Conlon Nancarrow's String Quartets 1 & 3, played live by The FLUX Quartet. In this piece, Tanowitz partners her movement with the various tones, styles and themes of Nancarrow's score, creating a timeless piece that honors both the history heard in the music and the contemporary movement seen on the stage.

Pam Tanowitz Dance will make its Joyce Theater debut February 4 - 6 with the following performance schedule: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm; Thursday at 8pm. Tickets are $10-$25 and can be purchased through JoyceCharge at www.Joyce.org or by calling 212-242-0800. Please note: Ticket prices are subject change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, in Chelsea.

Pam Tanowitz has been making dances since 1992. She founded Pam Tanowitz Dance in 2000, and has received commissions and residencies at The Kitchen, New York Live Arts, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, The Guggenheim Museum's Works & Process program and Baryshnikov Arts Center. Tanowitz received a 2009 Bessie Award for the dance, Be in the Gray With Me, at Dance Theater Workshop. She was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011 and a 2013-2014 Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. Additional awards include two Joyce Theater ResidenCy Grants with major support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists Award, New York Foundation for the Arts BUILD Grant and LMCC. Tanowitz holds a BFA in Dance from the Ohio State University and an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College, where she was mentored by former Merce Cunningham principal dancer Viola Farber-Slayton.

Pauline Kim Harris is a Grammy-nominated artist, hailed by The New York Times for her "lightning-fast reflexes" and "breathtaking" performances. She is a member of the S.E.M Ensemble, Ostravska Banda, OBSq, Ensemble LPR, the Wordless Music Orchestra and the "enterprising violin duo" String Noise with husband, Conrad Harris, of the FLUX Quartet. Also, currently Music Director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, she performed with the Orion String Quartet at The Joyce Theater in 2013. Harris recorded John Zorn's Passagen for Solo Violin, released on Tzadik (2013).

The FLUX Quartet is a string ensemble made up of Tom Chiu (violinist and composer), Felix Fan (cellist), Conrad Harris (violinist), and Max Mandel (violinist). Founded in the 90's by Chiu, FLUX is driven by a mission akin to the Fluxus movement in the 60's: to pursue a living art for all people with an "anything-goes, do-it-yourself" spirit. FLUX continually challenges and expands stylistic boundaries by pursuing collaborative relationships with genre-transcending artists such as Henry Threadgill, Oliver Lake, avant balloonist Judy Dunaway, and digital artists collective The OpenEnded Group. The quartet has a history of collaborating with dance artists, including choreographers Shen Wei, Christopher Wheeldon, and Tanowitz. FLUX captivates audiences worldwide with a vivid repertoire that combines seminal pioneers with visionaries of tomorrow. From late 20th-century masterworks by Gyorgy Ligeti, Conlon Nancarrow, Giacinto Scelsi, and Iannis Xenakis, to new works by David First, Roscoe Mitchell, Matthew Welch, and John Zorn, FLUX brings to all of its performances a "boundless, uninhibited energy." (The New York Times) As part of its mission to discover future musical groundbreakers, FLUX has secured commissioning grants from the American Composers Forum, USArtists International, Aaron Copland Fund, and Meet The Composer. FLUX has performed to rave reviews at numerous music centers around the world, including the Library of Congress, the Walker Art Center, the Kennedy Center, EMPAC at RPI, Roulette Intermedium, and Carnegie's Zankel Hall as part of the When Morty Met John Festival. FLUX's numerous radio credits include NPR's All Things Considered, WNYC's New Sounds and Soundcheck, and WFMU's Stochastic Hit Parade. Highlights of FLUX's 2012 season included a much-celebrated Feldman Festival at New York's Bargemusic, Untitled (The Blue Ballet) with Tanowitz at The Kitchen, and the BEYOND CAGE Festival with the New York-based S.E.M Ensemble at the Paula Cooper Gallery.

The Joyce Theater Foundation, a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences for three decades. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce Theater is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant home for more than 320 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 1996, The Joyce created Joyce SoHo, a dance center providing highly subsidized rehearsal and performance space to hundreds of dance artists, as well as special residency opportunities for selected choreographers to support the creation of new work. In 2009, The Joyce opened Dance Art New York (DANY) Studios to provide affordable studios for rehearsals, auditions, classes, and workshops for independent choreographers, non-profit dance companies, and the dance/theater communities. New York City public school students and teachers annually benefit from The Joyce's Dance Education Program, and adult audiences get closer to dance through pre-engagement Dance Talks and post-performance Dance Chats. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000.