Valerie Green's Solo Work SUCCESSION Comes to Green Space, 3/13-14

Valerie Green/Dance Entropy presents Succession, an evening-length solo work incorporating both new choreography and past work spanning the past decade. Danced by Valerie Green, who is the artistic director and choreographer for Dance Entropy, this one-women show channels Ms. Green's own personal life cycle. It also represents her final turn in a full-length solo, after nearly two decades in New York City.

Succession is rich in texture, intertwining extreme explorations of human behavior while exhibiting raw power mixed with delicate human vulnerability. To create the 45-minute show, Ms. Green has thread together segments from her body of solo works to create a life cycle journey. Succession starts with Ms. Green channeling the fluid movements of a fetus in the amniotic sac. Ms. Green explores interim life stages by exposing a window into the immediacy of emotions. The cyclical journey continues with a metaphor for transformation, aging, and the disruption of order amidst an installation of hundreds of flowers. Succession concludes in a rite of passion, with a spiritual burial of the past followed by a symbolic rebirth in the planting of oneself. This powerful solo work, executed through cunning sensuality, relies on exposing aspects of the archetypal female, all sourced from the deep recesses of the character's psyche.

Valerie Green/Dance Entropy presents Succession, a full evening length retrospective solo performance created from work spanning the past decade. Danced by Valerie Green, who is the artistic director and choreographer for Dance Entropy, this one-women show channels Ms. Green's own life cycle, and also represents what is likely to be her final turn on the stage, after nearly two decades in New York City.

Ms. Green started her career studying and working with the the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. In 1998, Ms. Green formed Dance Entropy and to date Ms. Green has created 28 dances plus 7 evening length works with the company.

Now, at age 42, Ms. Green looks towards the inevitable for a dancer -- retirement from the stage, and a renewed focus on running her business, which in Ms. Green's case is multi-faceted. Not only does she direct Dance Entropy, which she will continue to do, and which features a cast of eight talented dancers, and performs locally and around the US, but she also operates the company's home studio, Green Space.

Early in her career, Ms. Green managed at the Broome Corner Studio, a Soho based space that offered classes, rehearsal and performance space to the New York dance community. When the building was sold and the studio closed, Ms. Green began her quest, and in 2005, she landed at the Skalamandre Silks Building in Long Island City, Queens.

Born out of the shifting landscape that saw more and more low-cost rehearsal spaces in Manhattan being converted to luxury housing, as well as Ms. Green's wish to have a permanent home for Dance Entropy, Ms. Green created a home not just for her dances, but for choreographers and dancers all over Queens and New York City. Currently Green Space serves the dance community by providing an affordable and welcoming environment for rehearsals, classes, and performances. In 2014, Green Space served over 250 dance and theater companies, and other kinds of organizations through low-cost rentals and performance opportunities. Ms. Green hopes to keep the studio going for another decade if not longer.

For this, her 10th year as proprietor of Green Space, and nearly her last as a performer, Ms. Green says, "my life and career have been interdependent with the New York City dance and performance scene, and I am honored and blessed to give back. I hope that opportunity continues for a long time."

Succession premiered in August and September of 2014 completing a highly successful three-week tour of workshops and performances organized by the South Caucasus Contemporary Dance and Experimental Art Festival in the countries of Baku, Azerbaijan, Tbilisi, Georgia, and Yerevan, Armenia.

Choreography and performance by Valerie Green. Costumes by Deborah Erenberg. Music by Vladimir Antonov, Jasmin Levy, Decodex, Darko Rundek, Acoustek, Steen Raahauge, and Brooklyn Rider with Kojiro Umezaki. Lighting Design by Drew Florida.

Ms. Green's swan song will be performed at Green Space, located at 37-24 24th Street, Suite 301, Long Island City, NY 11101, on March 13 and 14 at 8 pm, and March 15 at 5pm. Advance tickets are $17 and are available online at www.GreenSpaceStudio.org or at the door for $20.

Dance Entropy is a professional not-for-profit modern dance company founded in 1998. The company performs in NYC, tours and teaches both domestically and abroad, while featuring a multi-ethnic cast of 8 talented dancers. Dance Entropy supports the vision of Artistic Director Valerie Green, who creates stage and site-specific work. A significant part of the company's mission is to use creation, performance, and education in locations and communities where the content of the work will have the greatest impact. The company created their home studio, Green Space in LIC, Queens in 2005. Green Space serves the dance community by providing an affordable and welcoming environment for rehearsals, classes, and performances. www.DanceEntropy.org

Artistic Director - Valerie Green has been an active dancer, choreographer and teacher in the New York City dance community for 19 years. She created her own company, Dance Entropy in 1998, adding a permanent company home in 2005 called Green Space. Green Space serves the dance community by providing an affordable and welcoming environment for rehearsals, classes, and performances. To date Ms. Green has created 28 dances and 7 evening length works. Her choreography has been seen throughout NYC and has also toured to various venues throughout the US. Internationally she has taught and performed in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Austria, France, Italy, Greece, Russia, India, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Albania, Guatamala and Canada. As a guest artist, Valerie has received commissions from Texas State University, BITEF Theater in Belgrade, Serbia, and Theater Alternativa in Tirana, Albania. She has also taught at the UNLV, Texas State, LaGuardia Community College, University of Nanterre, France, and at the Faculty of Drama & Art in Belgrade, Serbia and Sarajevo, Bosnia. Valerie's choreographic work and teaching style is influenced by her formative years working with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, her certification in Body/Mind Fitness and her undergraduate work at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Photo Credit: George Gio