Park Avenue Armory Dance Commission 'FLEXN' to Begin 3/25

Park Avenue Armory has commissioned dance pioneer Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and visionary director Peter Sellars to create a performance piece that evolves the tradition of flex, the Brooklyn-born street dance. Characterized by sharp, rhythmic contortion, pausing, snapping, gliding, bone-breaking, and animated showmanship, the flex form evolved from the Jamaican bruk-up style popular in the dance halls and reggae clubs of Brooklyn in the 1990s. Opening March 25 and marking the first major presentation of the Armory's 2015 artistic season, FLEXN transforms the dance from its individual, combative style to create a collaborative work of social commentary inspired by both personal experience and current events. A series of public discussions and education initiatives complement the presentation.

The Armory commission brings together 21 dancers from the Brooklyn neighborhoods where the flex movement began. Assembled specially for this engagement and performing together for the first time, the dancers have been developing FLEXN on site at the Armory since August 2014. The resulting work, co-directed by Gray and Sellars, confronts topical issues of social justice and racial equality within our nation's law enforcement and judicial systems. FLEXN animates a 160-foot-long runway-style stage within the muscular Wade Thompson Drill Hall to choreography that draws from the flex movement vocabulary and the dancers' individual inspiration. Designer Ben Zamora has created a massive light sculpture to serve as a backdrop for the work, and music will be spun by Epic B.

"It has been inspirational to have the FLEXN artistic team here at the Armory over many months, and to support their creative process," said Rebecca Robertson, President and Executive Producer of Park Avenue Armory. "Reggie, Peter, and the dancers have created a deeply moving and personal work. We look forward to engaging our audiences and the thousands of public school students in our education programs with this important performance piece."

New York City public middle and high school students will be engaged in a series of education initiatives led by Park Avenue Armory education staff and members of the FLEXN artistic team-including a "student summit" in which hundreds of young people will gather at the Armory for discussions and art-making workshops designed by an advisory committee of students and focusing on utilizing the arts as a change agent for social justice. Two free performances will be given for students from under-served public schools participating in the Armory's broader education programs, framed by in-school pre- and post-visit workshops; and additional master classes for students will be led by Gray and members of the company.

Each FLEXN performance will begin with a public conversation, open to all ticket-holders. Young people, public figures, educators, and community leaders will gather on the Armory stage to discuss and debate some of the most pressing social issues explored in FLEXN, including law enforcement policies and reforming the juvenile justice system. Panel participants will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Armory's 2015 season encompasses site-specific installations, commissions, and cross-disciplinary collaborations across a range of art forms -- including Philippe Parreno's largest exhibition in the U.S. to-date, a multi-sensory journey within the monumental interior of the Armory's drill hall; Tree of Codes, a new contemporary ballet with direction and choreography by Wayne McGregor, visual concept by artist Olafur Eliasson, and music by Jamie xx; a commission of performance art by Laurie Anderson; and an immersive interpretation of J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations by pianist Igor Levit and performance artist Marina Abramovi?.

Previous dance presentations at Park Avenue Armory include the final performances of the Merce Dance Company, Trisha Brown Dance Company's iconic Astral Converted, the world premiere of Shen Wei Dance Arts' Undivided Divided, and Streb Extreme Action's Kiss the Air!.