Satellite Collective Moves NARCISSUS to Production

Satellite retreated to its summer home this holiday and to kick off production of Narcissus, an immersive experience inspired by Ballet Russes.

Artistic Director Kevin Draper and Resident Film Maker Lora Robertson recently finished video and photo shoots on the Atlantic Ocean in the Rockaways - and created the first images of the story's central characters Echo and Nemesis with Lauren King and Marika Anderson of the NYCB. Director Daniel Applebaum and Choreographer Devin Alberda also of NYCB, worked with the team in the seaside location. The images are the first visual realization of the group's sharpening vision.

This season, Satellite will take on a slow burn of showings, events and surprises, leading to the Spring 2018 premiere of this large-scale collaborative work under Artistic Director Kevin Draper.

Satellite has also rounded out their creative team with the addition of a theatrical director and a new writing team. Newest team members Philip Stoddard and Krista Knight have joined the production team from Juilliard theater and vocal performance programs and are crafting outlines, arcs and character.

Theatrical Director Philip Stoddard has focused on the challenge of building emotional arcs for an audience wheany art forms are in play. "Satellite now has an adaptation of an ancient story of Narcissus, whose relevance is entirely obvious in this current political climate - we won't have to name names or imitate real life characters for the parallels to be clear. There's commercial potential for the production but more importantly I think we have formed a core team that has the ability to to manage a lot of art forms into a cohesive whole and to control how the audience experiences it."

Satellite's recent film shoots and video work is the beginning of a long process. Rockaway Park was the setting for the first visual realization of Director Daniel Applebaum and Choreographer Devin Alberda.

More Location scouting is underway, as Satellite begins design with Resident Lighting Designer Brandon Stirling Baker. Aaron Severini, an NYCB alum and recent Juilliard Graduate Composition program graduate has begun thematic work - composing music and Signature Sound that illuminates characters.

Artistic Director Kevin Draper spoke at Satellite's recent film festival: "Young organizations are so busy projecting their image to their audience and their supporters that there's often no room for the conversation about how competitive the arts community can be internally, says Artistic Director Kevin Draper, "but this is one of the primary forces shaping our young arts organizations in the city today."

"For instance, Satellite is a collective - we give to our artists and they give to us. But practically speaking what does that really mean? Is it possible for artists to collaborate financially in ways as sophisticated as our digital, international, collaborative methods have become for creative production? We aim to prove that. This will be Satellite's fifth full season in New York and our DNA has carried us since the beginning but we are not at all the organization we were then."

"That's unique in an environment where the individual is almost always the hero."

"They are the emerging artists, the millennial, contemporary, twenty-something generation of up-and-coming thinkers, movers, shakers, dreamers, drifters and lovers....While the young, recently launched presence above and throughout the arts world may be faint amid so many countless fixtures of essentially eternal stars, it is so bright and close to home." - Broadway World

ABOUT SATELLITE COLLECTIVE

In a few short years Satellite Collective has fearlessly styled multiple seasons of dance, music, film and word to their vision. Under the leadership of Kevin Draper Satellite has launched young choreographers, composers, film makers, poets and artists with a an uncanny sense of timing - they've tapped into an intense scene of NYC artists from New York City Ballet, Juilliard, Alvin Ailey, and Bowery Poetry Club; bridged a global network of artists working in every medium from video games to installation, and fused pop music from members of The Lumineers, San Fermin and the song writing scenes in the Pacific Northwest into arresting short film and stage work. Always, with a stylish and confident manner, always with a vision.

Satellite is proud to have received support from the Brooklyn Academy of Arts, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Frey Foundation, Nestle, SAP, 92Y, DeVos Institute of Arts Management, Brooklyn Arts Council and many others government, public and private supporters.

Satellite is a graduate of the BAM Professional Development Program in collaboration with the DeVos Institute of Arts Management.

To learn more about Satellite, read our literature, listen to our music, and wrestle with our ideas, visit satellitecollective.org.

To learn more about Artistic Director Kevin Draper, visit kevindraper.org.

Photo credit: Lora Robertson