The Soaking Wet Dance Series Welcomes Back Vicky Shick and Dancers

The Soaking Wet dance series welcomes back Vicky Shick and Dancers for Program A (May 10-12 at 7 PM), and artists of Women in Motion for Program B (May 10-12 at 8:30 PM & May 13 at 2 PM) at the West End Theater, 263 West 86th Street, 2nd floor of the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew.

Soaking Wet, curated by David Parker and Jeff Kazin, can be looked to for presentations that are surprising, inclusive, and that celebrate all styles and descriptions of dance. Hundreds of choreographers and dancers have performed in the intimate West End Theater (= W.E.T.) over the past fifteen years.

VICKY SHICK AND DANCERS
Thursday/Friday/Saturday at 7 PM

Shick will premiere her new "Wash/A Variety Show." For years, the choreographer has been enthralled by both the making of and by the mini-portraits inherent in solos and duets. On her return to the Soaking WET series, she will unabashedly present an evening of just these "little secret dances," in which she will be joined by Donna Costello, Meg Harper, Jennifer Lafferty, Jon Kinzel, Omagbitse Omagbemi, and Marilyn Maywald Yahel. Set piece is by Swiss artist Seline Baumgartner; the film is by photographer Anjola Toro.

In her very personal style, called "poetic and quirky" by The New Yorker, and "a scrupulous architect of movement for its own sake" by The New York Times, Vicky Shick's passion continues to hover around a thicket of nuanced physicality revealing both the fragility and grit of the performer.

WOMEN IN MOTION presents a program of works by Rebecca Lazier, Garnet Henderson, Joya Powell and Zo? Aqua, Thursday/Friday/Saturday at 8:30 PM; Sunday at 2 PM

Rebecca Lazier returns to solo form for the first time in 15 years to create Conditions, asking how to confront, interpret and accept bodily limitations. The dance resulted from the choreographer's recent life-threatening boating accident which revealed what happens when the body fails.

Rebecca Lazier's most recent work, There Might be Others, was commissioned by NYLA and received a Bessie for Outstanding Score. Her previous work, Coming Together/Attica, was named one of New York's 2013 most memorable experiences by Eva Yaa Asantewaa and subsequently toured to Canada, Turkey and Greece, and was featured in the 2014 Venice Biennale.

The Brooklyn-based choreographer and dance educator has been an artist-in-residence at The Joyce Theater Foundation, Movement Research, The Yard, and others.

GARNET HENDERSON will dance her new Address, a solo that embodies and challenges assumptions about women, their bodies, and what they should do with their bodies. She explores the consequences of living and performing under these expectations, and the difference between being looked at and being seen.

A native of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Garnet's work has been presented in NY at the West End Theater, 92nd Street Y, Triskelion Arts, and Gibney Dance. As a performer, she has appeared in dances by Ori Flomin, Kyle Abraham, David Parker, Larry Keigwin, Mark Dendy, and others. Garnet holds a BA cum laude in Dance and English Literature from Columbia University. Also known as a dance writer, she is a regular contributor to Dance Magazine, and her articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, Dance Enthusiast, and other publications.

JOYA POWELL, choreographer, and ZO? AQUA, violinist, have collaborated on A Life of Many Seasons. Aqua will accompany live for this autobiographical dance/theater work that peers into stories of tradition, ritual and fortitude of a typical New York Jewish family.

Joya Powell's work reflects her passion for community, activism, and dances of the African Diaspora. The native Harlemite has been recognized with a 2016 Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Bessie Award, a 2016-17 Dancing White Black Fellow, and a 2017 SDC Observership Program. As a dancer, she has been hailed as a "radiant performer" in The New York Times, and her dance company, Movement of the People, has performed at Lincoln Center, BAM, SummerStage, Bronx Museum of Arts, and other major venues.

Brooklyn native Zo? Aqua recently performed with The Klezmatics' in the Broadway production of Indecent, and is a co-founder of Tsibele, an all-woman Klezmer quintet. The versatile violinist also performs music that ranges from French-infused reggae with the Blue Dahlia to Mexican folkloric music with the Calpulli Mexican Dance Company. She previously collaborated with Joya Powell in the 2016 ?Song and Dance You, ?a dance piece about Black Lives matter and minstrelsy.

WOMEN IN MOTION is a volunteer-run organization whose mission is to foster female choreographers through commissioning, producing and mentoring. Founded in 2000, WIM has produced a diverse group of over 90 dance artists, and the list of once-emerging, now-established choreographers goes on. Women in Motion is directed by Melissa Riker, Erin Cella, and Amber Sloan. www.thebanggroup.com

Thursday-Sunday, May 10-13, Thursday/Friday/Saturday at 7 PM: VICKY SHICK AND DANCERS in a World Premiere, Thursday/Friday/Saturday at 8:30 PM, Sun. at 2 PM: West End Theater, 263 West 86th Street (2nd floor of the Church) Tickets: $20 Reservations: 800.838.3006 - https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3391959.