The Joyce Kicks-Off Fall '20 Season of Online Programming

The Joyce Theater Foundationwill kick-off its Fall 2020 season of streaming performances today, September 22. The works, by four magnificent troupes - Contra-Tiempo (Los Angeles), Deeply Rooted Dance Theater (Chicago), Ate9 Dance Company (Los Angeles), and Far From the Norm (London) - will be simultaneously released at 5pm EST (2pm PST) today and available for streaming through 11:59pm EST on October 19. Additional programming for Fall/Winter 2020 will be announced soon. In accordance with New York State's Covid-19 safety guidelines, the performances will be available through The Joyce's online platform, JoyceStream. While access to The Joyce's collection of curated digital performances, interviews, podcasts, films, and classes is free, gifts of any size provide crucial support to The Joyce Theater Foundation's current operations and will help to ensure the future of New York City's diverse dance landscape. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

Upon last week's announcement of the Fall 2020 season, Joyce Theater Executive Director Linda Shelton said, "We embark on our 38th season six months after The Joyce and other NYC performing arts venues were shut down to control the spread of Covid-19. Although we are still unable to present live, in-person performances in our beloved Chelsea home, we are thrilled to connect and share with audiences around the world these powerful works by four companies who share our passion for rich and inspiring international dance."

The Joyce Theater Foundation presents the following programming during the first of its Fall 2020 season of streaming performances, launching today, September 22 at 5pm EST and available through October 19 at 11:59pm EST at JoyceStream:

Contra-Tiempo's provocative 2016 work, She Who: Frida, Mami & Me, choreographed by Marjani Forte-Saunders, explores the lives and mythology of Mexican Visual Artist Frida Kahlo and Nigerian Deity Mami Wata. Their stories, timeless and provocative, have spurred a nuanced and multicultural dialogue between African American choreographer Forte-Saunders and the Urban Latin Dance Theater Contra-Tiempo. Together, they traverse the turbulent waters of protest, feminism, resilience, and identity through these earthly and mystic beholders of culture. She-Who: Frida, Mami & Me runs approximately 25-minutes.

A work of stirring resilience and reconciliation, Indumba, by Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, was originally created by choreographer Fana Tshabalala to illuminate the perpetual impact of unresolved apartheid politics in his native South Africa. Tshabalala, Artistic Director of Broken Borders Arts Project, spent three weeks in residence with the Chicago-based Deeply Rooted Dance Theater in July 2017 to adapt Indumba, which means "African healing hut," for an American audience. The running time for Indumba is approximately 50-minutes.

Danielle Agami founded Los Angeles-based Ate-9 Dance Company following 8 years working under Ohad Naharin, Batsheva Dance Company's founder and house choreographer, perfecting his trademark Gaga style of movement. Her 2017 hour-long piece, Calling Glenn, a collaboration with Wilco percussionist Glenn Kotche, flows seamlessly through rich visual and audible atmospheres created by Agami's blend of brilliant strength & nuanced physicality, and Kotche's live sound as the dancers embody a rare presence filled with beautiful moments of honesty and insight. Calling Glenn is a true collaboration of sound and movement inspired by life's exhausting common rituals and desires.

The acclaimed Hip-Hop collective Far From The Norm offers four short films, including a documentary about the troupe's magnetic artistic director Botis Seva. Can't Kill Us All unravels one man's mental unrest as he navigates the turbulence of dealing with two global pandemics; Reach, by director Billy Boyd Cape, explores themes of love, abandonment, and fatherhood; and B.R.E.A.T.H.E. is a searing response to the countless deaths of Black people at the hands of the police. The documentary, Botis Seva: Air features an exclusive, rare solo dance performance by Seva.