White Wave Dance Presents The 2024 DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL

On Thursday, June 27, WHITE WAVE Dance celebrates the 23 Anniversary season of the DUMBO Dance Festival (DDF) with a GALA Opening that heralds the most anticipated four-day festival of contemporary dance in the greater New York City region.

Committed to developing dance as an important art form, WHITE WAVE scours the globe in search of the most innovative of today's dance makers, both emerging and established, and brings them to Brooklyn for one extended weekend. For four nights and three days, dance lovers will experience a veritable cornucopia of the best of contemporary dance. DDF is committed to advancing the best of dance by providing on-stage and behind-the-scenes opportunities for 50 dance troupes from across America and around the globe, allowing audiences to experience, first-hand, the incomparable vitality of the New York dance scene.

"This is a festival about opportunities," says Young Soon Kim, Artistic Director of White Wave Dance. "The DUMBO Dance Festival provides an opportunity for over 400 performing artists to showcase their work. Further, it offers New York audiences the chance to participate in one of the most diverse displays of leading-edge choreography and excellence at an affordable price."

The 2024 DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL will kick off with WHITE WAVE's Opening Night GALA Celebration on Thursday, June 27th at 6:30 pm. WHITE WAVE Dance will honor Joan Finkelstein and John Ryan!

Joan Finkelstein, with deep appreciation for her tireless support of the Art of Dance in all of its many dazzling forms, especially through her work at the amazing Harkness Foundation for Dance, we salute Joan's tireless dedication to the creative future and development of Dance.

John Ryan, by championing Ms. Kim's artistic vision through his vital philanthropic support, enables WHITE WAVE Dance to continuously find, nurture and present thousands of emerging and eminent artists.

Opening remarks will be followed by five stunning contemporary dance troupes: Buglisi Dance Theatre, Yoshiko Chuma & The School Of Hard Knocks, ZviDance, Company | E, and WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company.

After the performances, the audience can enjoy an open bar, food, and music to feed the soul, as well as a fabulous raffle including gourmet wine baskets, "Dinner for Two" at local DUMBO eateries, and much more!

Tickets are $100 and $250 (VIP seating) per person; all proceeds raised will directly offset WHITE WAVE's production costs for our 2024/25 Season. GALA & Festival Tickets can be purchased at https://whitewavedance.networkforgood.com/events/69546-2024-dumbo-dance-festival. More information at www.whitewavedance.org.

Questions? Please contact WHITE WAVE at wwyskdc@gmail.com or call at 718-855-8822!

2024 DDF features 50 contemporary dance troupes combining over 400 artists who will present solo, chamber, and full-scale works. Dancers from across the United States, and internationally from Switzerland, Colombia, Mexico, Taiwan, Japan and Korea will join the New York's active dance community to offer the full range of new directions in dance in the 21st century.

Special Performance Opportunities:

This year at the 2024 DUMBO Dance Festival, White Wave Dance is pleased to announce we will be selecting TWO outstanding companies to have the opportunity to perform at the 2025 New Dance Festival in South Korea, and the 2025 Detroit City Dance Festival. Both of these highly regarded festivals will provide companies with another fantastic opportunity for further exposure, promotion and performances. All companies participating in this year's festival will be carefully considered and will be notified after the festival.

In this anniversary year, the roster of companies includes: E-Danza, Alison Cook Beatty Dance, Seabird Dance Collective, Lopez & Dancers, Freespace Dance, Tsiambwom M. Akuchu, Ali Pfleger and Artists, Company | E, Pau Aran Gimeno, Columbia Repertory Dance Company, Cori Marquis + the Nines [IX], Michiko Kiyofuji, X&Y Quadrant Dance Company, Alexander Hille, Tina Croll + Company, O'Toole & Dance, TheCo, Amos Pinhasi, Gianna Burright, McKoy Dance Project || MDP, Elizabeth Shea Dance, Natya Anubhava, Mending Dance Theater, Mark Bankin Dance Theater, OR Dance, Emilio Castellón Dance Company, BAIRA MVMNT PHLOSPHY, David P. France Dance Company, Synergy Dance Collective NY, American Swiss Ballet Co, Natalia Sanchez, East by North Dance Theatre, Ramona Sekulovic, Hoon Dance Company, Mei Yamanaka Works, Buglisi Dance Theatre, Yoshiko Chuma & The School Of Hard Knocks, ZviDance, and WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company.

For the Festival Grand Finale on Sunday, June 30th 6PM, eight companies will present works, including: Ali Pfleger and Artists, Cori Marquis + the Nines [IX], Lopez & Dancers, Hoon Dance Company, Freespace Dance, Ara Dance Project, and WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company.

2024 DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL Performance Schedule:

GALA OPENING NIGHT

Thursday, June 27 @ 6:30 PM

· Buglisi Dance Theatre, NY

· Yoshiko Chuma & The School Of Hard Knocks, NY

· ZviDance, NY

· Company | E, DC

· WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company, NY

Friday, June 28 @ 7 PM

· Alexander Hille, MN

· David P. France Dance Company, Switzerland

· X&Y Quadrant Dance Company, NY

· Company | E, DC

· Michiko Kiyofuji, Japan

· O'Toole & Dance, NC

· Tsiambwom M. Akuchu, CA

· Mending Dance Theater, Taiwan

Saturday, June 29 @ 4 PM

· Columbia Repertory Dance Company, SC

· McKoy Dance Project || MDP, NY

· E-Danza, IA

· Tina Croll + Company, NY

· Gianna Burright, CA

· David P. France Dance Company, Switzerland

· Hoon Dance Company, Korea

· TheCo, Mexico

Saturday, June 29 @ 6 PM

· Alison Cook Beatty Dance, NY

· Elizabeth Shea Dance, IN

· Amos Pinhasi, NY

· Natya Anubhava, NY

· Mei Yamanaka Works, Japan

· Mark Bankin Dance Theater, NY

· OR Dance, NJ

· WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company, NY

Sunday, June 30 @ 4 PM

· Emilio Castellón Dance Company, CA

· BAIRA MVMNT PHLOSPHY, TX

· Synergy Dance Collective, NY

· ArtLab J, MI

· Ramona Sekulovic, Germany

· American Swiss Ballet Co, NY

· East by North Dance Theatre, NY

· Natalia Sanchez, NY

GRAND FINALE

Sunday, June 30 @ 6 PM

· Ali Pfleger and Artists, NY

· Cori Marquis + the Nines [IX], NY

· Lopez & Dancers, NY

· Hoon Dance Company, Korea

· Freespace Dance, NJ

· Ara Dance Project, NY

· WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company, NY

ABOUT WHITE WAVE

Formed in 1988, WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company (WHITE WAVE) strives to inspire audiences through multi-dimensional dance productions reflecting themes and philosophies both modern and timeless. Our mission is to be a potent stimulus for change and expansion of the dance/arts world through the production of dance concerts, classes, residencies, and education. Artistic Director Young Soon Kim's vision is expansive, challenging the threshold of dance, music, theater and visual art, surging forward to create new possibilities. Ms. Kim creates works of vision and movement language in reverence and awe of novelty that challenge and broaden the boundaries of dance. We provide both emerging and established choreographers/companies with a NYC venue where they can congregate, create, rehearse and present new dance works through our festivals.

WHITE WAVE created DDF in 2001 in response to the dance community's need for performance opportunities that would not only present, but also produce, the work of rising choreographers at minimal expense for the artist. The festival is now recognized as New York's most prestigious gathering of pioneering choreography, encouraging experimentation, creativity, and originality.

To date, WHITE WAVE Dance has presented over 3,200 choreographers/dance companies and over 25,500 performers to a total of more than 90K audience members.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Young Soon Kim, Artistic Director of WHITE WAVE Dance, is a recipient of the 2023 Bessies Angel Honoree Award, and is a nationally and internationally acclaimed choreographer, whose work has been hailed for its exhilarating, visually stunning, and emotionally rich phrases and textures.

In addition to her role as a performer and Artistic Director, Ms. Kim created a series of dance festivals soon after inaugurating the WHITE WAVE John Ryan Theater in DUMBO, Brooklyn, in 2001.

She has since become one of the most recognized producers/curators in New York City. Ms. Kim has also served as a juror for New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in 2006 and for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2014.

After the World première at the 2017 La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, WHITE WAVE Dance's Canadian première of "iyouuswe" (read as I-You-Us-We-two) at the 2018 Vancouver International Dance Festival was a resounding success! WHITE WAVE presented "Eternal NOW" at our enormously successful 2019 tour to Korea and China. In Gwangju, Korea, we performed at a special event at the Asian Cultural Center, one of the most prestigious arts complexes in all of Asia. There we participated at the Opening Celebration of the 2019 FINA World Championship Masters' Games, a sporting event that rivals the Olympics. Following that, we flew to China to perform at the Ningbo Cultural Plaza, as part of a China-US Cultural Exchange program. Dazzled sold-out audiences greeted us at every performance!

During the Summer/Fall 2021, Young Soon Kim continually created "iyouuswe II, A Dance Film" and a stage version of the production.

In October 2021, WHITE WAVE Dance presented three free performances of their newest production, iyouuswe II (I-You-Us-We-Two), on October 9 and 30, 2021 at DUMBO Archway, and two shows at the Home of WHITE WAVE Dance at 5pm as part of the City Artist Corps Grant Initiative.

"iyouuswe II, A Dance Film" was selected as finalist for the 2022 Cannes International Film Festival, Paris International Short Festival, Vancouver Independent Film Festival and an OFFICIAL SELECTION at the 2021 London International Short Film Festival, Espoo Digi-Dance International Film Festival (Finland) and Experimental, Dance, Music Film Festival (Canada).

Please visit www.whitewavedance.org for more information about the OPENING NIGHT GALA and DUMBO Dance Festival.