Works by VIM VIGOR, 2nd Best Dance Company & More Set for Gibney 2023-24 Season

Gibney Center has revealed the 2023-24 presentation season, featuring Gibney Center debuts of VIM VIGOR, 2nd Best Dance Company, and Rosy Simas Danse as well as the return of YY Dance Company, Gibney Artist in Residence Sidra Bell, and Soles of Duende. Gibney also announced the return of DoublePlus, which will feature four world premieres from emerging choreographers. To close out the season, MOVE|NYC|’s acclaimed Young Professionals Ensemble will present six world premieres by exciting, emerging choreographers. The 2023-24 season is the first programmed by Campbell in his role as artistic director of Gibney Center.

“I am honored to continue Gibney’s ongoing commitment to supporting the work of dance artists with a season that showcases dance as a medium to viscerally experience the transformative power of art,” said Campbell in making the announcement. “These are creators who bring a singular color to their unique canvases. They push boundaries, take risks, and above all, challenge themselves and the world around us. They are able to transport audience through their art and connect us all to our shared humanity.”

Gina Gibney, Founder, Artistic Director, and CEO of Gibney, added, “Nigel’s thoughtful approach to programming and his deep understanding of today’s choreographic landscape have helped him create a season that engages audiences with a diverse range of performances. This is a season that beautifully weaves together all of the elements of Gibney through programming that supports dance artists in the creation of new work and engages audiences with all that dance can be.”

The 2023-24 season opens with the New York City premiere of VIM VIGOR’s PUNCHLINE, a physical dance theater work where audiences will be drawn into a cathartic experience of humor, angst, and the sublime, forced to wrestle with the inevitable while delighting in the transcendent awareness of limited time. 2nd Best Dance Company brings its physically rigorous, sometimes virtuosic, almost always slapstick signature style to the Gibney stage with the world premiere of Err (Working Title) to examine the sensation of being stuck. Yue Yin brings two signature works that have rarely been seen by New York City audiences to Gibney. Ripple endeavors to find moments of balance and harmony amid turbulence and chaos, and Through The Fracture of Light is a sleek showcase for Yue Yin’s unique movement vocabulary that fuses Chinese dance, folk and contemporary movement.

Next spring, Gibney Presents the New York City premiere of 2022 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient Rosy Simas Danse’s she who lives on the road to war, an immersive installation and dance performance created by Simas with her longtime collaborator, composer François Richomme. Sidra Bell Dance New York and acclaimed saxophonist, composer, and arranger Immanuel Wilkins debut a world premiere from Gibney’s Artist-in-Residence that examines the current trajectory of despair and dystopia that permeates the way that we connect with other bodies.

In June Soles of Duende will return to Gibney following sold-out performances in 2022. The self-described Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican from New Haven, Mexican Puerto-Rican Jew from the Lower East Side, and Bengali Indian from New Jersey will reprise Can We Dance Here?, an enticing evening of rhythmic exchange.

The DoublePlus program returns to support early career creators who are selected and mentored by prominent choreographers in the field, culminating in two fully produced performances at Gibney Center. For the 23-24 season, Kyle Abraham selected Roderick Georgeand Dual Rivet; and Camille A. Brown will work with Maleek Washington and Mayte Natalio.  

The season will conclude with MOVE|NYC|'s Young Professionals Ensemble presenting six world premieres by exciting, emerging choreographers.

2023-24 Gibney Center Season
Listed in chronological order

VIM VIGOR Dance Company

PUNCHLINE 
September 28 – 30, 2023
New York City Premiere
Gibney Center Debut

The 2023-2024 Performance Season opens with the debut of celebrated physical dance
theater company VIM VIGOR and the NYC premiere of PUNCHLINE.  VIM’s latest work translates comedic structure into physical form, drawing audiences into a cathartic experience of humor, angst and the sublime. Through movement and radical storytelling, audiences will find themselves embedded in a living landscape where three performers traverse the space between comedy and death; wrestling with the inevitable while delighting in the transcendent awareness of limited time.  PUNCHLINE features choreography and performance by Shannon Gillen and Jason Cianciulli and is set to an original electronica sound score by Marshall Chadbourne.

2nd Best Dance Company

Err (Working Title)
November 2 – 4, 2023
Gibney Commission / World Premiere
Gibney Center Debut

2nd Best Dance Company blends humor and tragedy while tackling big topics through “rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine). The company brings its signature style to the Gibney stage with the world premiere of Err (Working Title). Physically rigorous, sometimes virtuosic, almost always slapstick, Err walks the line between dance performance and nonlinear play, leaning into both text and movement to examine the sensation of being stuck – in a place, a memory, a thought pattern, or a life that’s headed in one particular direction. Performers–Courtney Barth, Hannah Garner, Hsiao-Jou Tang, Will Noling, and Ryan Yamauchi–use imagined and real obstacles alike to contemplate what gets in the way. With very serious play, the cast invites audiences to witness as they build something lasting out of ephemeral materials: vanishing ideas, cracked foundations, smithereens, and lots of cardboard.

YY Dance Company 

Ripple and Through The Fracture of Light
November 30 – December 2, 2023

Internationally recognized choreographer/performer Yue Yin brings two signature works that have rarely been seen by New York City audiences. Born from a lingering sense of isolation that followed the Covid-19 lock-down, Ripple endeavors to find moments of balance and harmony amid turbulence and chaos. Dancers flow together, connecting, trusting, sharing weight, mirroring the desire for connection felt by so many in the wake of the pandemic. Through The Fracture of Light, which premiered in 2016 at Aachen, Germany’s esteemed Schrittmacher Festival, is a sleek showcase for Yue Yin’s unique movement vocabulary that fuses Chinese dance, folk and contemporary movement. The elegantly designed full ensemble work is set to Tibetan throat singing and features precise, dynamic, energic movement that will bring audiences to their emotional edge. 

DoublePlus: Roderick George and Dual Rivet (Chelsea Ainsworth and Jessica Smith)

Mentor/Curator: Kyle Abraham
January 11 – 13, 2024
World Premiere

DoublePlus: Maleek Washington and Mayte Natalio

Mentor/Curator: Camille A. Brown
February 8 – 10, 2024
World Premiere

Gibney’s DoublePlus residency and commissioning program returns with two distinct programs in which established artists select and mentor up-and-coming choreographers, culminating in fully produced split-bill performances of new works. This winter, Gibney Presents: DoublePlus offers audiences the opportunity to see works by Dual Rivet (Chelsea Ainsworth and Jessica Smith) and Roderick George under the mentorship of Kyle Abraham and, under Camille Brown’s guidance, works by Mayte Natalio and Maleek Washington.

Women-led dance company Dual Rivet creates highly physical contemporary dance works for stage and film that draw from cinematic and visceral languages to influence both platforms. The company will bring the world premiere of From The Outside, a live expansion of its short film Rabbithole, to Gibney’s stage with choreography by Chelsea Ainsworth and Jessica Smith. 2021-2022 YoungArts Fellow Awardee Roderick George presents the world premiere of Venom, a work inspired by the lasting impact of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic of the 1980s and beyond on the LGBTQIA + community. Along with George, Mark Caserta, Alex Haskins, Nouhoum Koita, and Elihaj Labay perform.

A highly accomplished choreographer and performer with several impressive film, television, regional, off-Broadway, and Broadway production credits, Mayte Natalio will present a world premiere for DoublePlus. Maleek Washington’s multi-disciplinary experimental performance works investigate the people, practices, and spaces shaping his Black identity. This winter, Washington will bring the world premiere of the convO (Working Title) to Gibney. It features performance by celebrated singer/songwriter Kamauu, multi-disciplinary spoken work artist Daniel Watts and pianist Kwinton Gray.

Rosy Simas Danse

she who lives on the road to war
April 2024
New York City Premiere

Gibney presents the NYC premiere of 2022 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient Rosy Simas Danse’s she who lives on the road to war, an immersive installation and dance performance created by Simas with her longtime collaborator, composer François Richomme. A response to global loss and the collective need to come together in peace and reconciliation, she who lives on the road to war is a place for visitors to rest, grieve, console with one another, and meditate. The project takes its title from the name of a Haudenosaunee historical figure, Jigonhsasee, whose wisdom and vision helped Hiawatha and the Peacemaker bring the Nations together as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. 

Concerned more with creating a supportive process in which audiences, community, other artists, and scholars weave in and out of the creative process and performances than with what the production produces, Simas invites performers to participate in the process and the evolution of the project as long as the practice supports their own artistic endeavors. she who lives on the road to war features choreography and set design by Rosy Simas, original music by François Richomme, lighting design by Heidi Eckwall, and set construction by Louis Kaufman and Jeffrey Wells. Collaborators include Jessika Apaka, Lelis Brito, Erin Drummond, Sam Johnson, Sam Aros Mitchell, Valerie Oliveiro, Lela Pierce, Pedra Pepa, Sharon Picasso, Judith Shui Xian, Jeffrey Wells, and Taja Will.

Sidra Bell Dance New York

waiting
May 16 – 18, 2024
Gibney Commission / World Premiere

Sidra Bell Dance New York and acclaimed saxophonist, composer, and arranger Immanuel Wilkins began work on waiting in November 2020 at the height of the pandemic as a work-in-progress during a residency at the 92nd Street Y.  Now receiving its world premiere on the Gibney stage, this work from Gibney’s Artist-in-Residence is a pure dance display of joy and ecstatic spontaneity. With a poetic structure that’s based in imagery and sensation, and set to Wilkin’s contemplative and rich composition, the work examines the current trajectory of despair and dystopia that permeates the way that we connect with other bodies. Audiences will be challenged to consider hierarchical notions of performance while experiencing hybrid forms of movement set against a wild mixture of textures and sound.  The work features lighting design by Amith Chandrashaker.

Soles of Duende

Can We Dance Here?
June 13 – 15 and June 20 – 22, 2024

In 2022, Soles of Duende–the self-described Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican from New Haven, Mexican Puerto-Rican Jew from the Lower East Side, and Bengali Indian from New Jersey–premiered Can We Dance Here? to sold out audiences at Gibney, a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and rave reviews. 2023 Bessie Award nominees Amanda Castro (Tap), Arielle Rosales (Flamenco), and Brinda Guha (Kathak) return to our stage to present a reimagined reprisal of the enticing evening of rhythmic exchange. The three storytellers bask in the light of their second iteration of percussive conversation. Rooted in all that their crafts provide them, and in dialogue with live music, this trio invites audiences to pause, witness, and receive three women boldly taking the floor here and now.

MOVE|NYC|'s Young Professionals Ensemble

August 24-25, 2024

For their season at Gibney, MOVE|NYC|'s acclaimed Young Professionals Ensemble will present six world premieres by exciting, emerging choreographers. MOVE|NYC| is an arts and social justice organization with a mission to cultivate greater diversity and equity in the dance field and beyond. Its core program, The Young Professionals Program, is a tuition-free mentorship and college preparatory program for gifted New York City teenagers with a 100% matriculation rate to the nation’s top colleges and conservatoires for dance.  The ensemble offers professional and community-based performances throughout NYC at venues like Gibney, BAM, New York City Center, Chelsea Factory, and BAAD!

Company / Artist Biographies
Listed in alphabetical order

2nd Best Dance Company 

2nd Best Dance Company creates, performs, and teaches physically rigorous, sometimes virtuosic, almost always slapstick dance-plays. We connect to audiences, students, and professionals alike as we share emotionally accessible work that is relatable, honest, and resonant. Led by Hannah Garner, its work...

• believes in art-making that is exploratory, empathetic, and goofy,
• values feeling over reality and seeks our truest sensations over absolute truth,
• blends humor and tragedy while tackling big topics, like death and queer identity through “rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine),
• grapples with big ideas in very human ways (aka messy ways).

Since its founding in 2016, the company has used its practice and platform to play out absurdist scenes: they move, perform text, sing, utilize props, unconventionally handle proscenium spaces, and ask the audience to play active roles or even perform in the work alongside the company.
 

Kyle Abraham

Kyle Abraham (Artistic Director, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham) and his choreography have been featured in Document Journal, Ebony, Kinfolk, O Magazine, Vogue, and Vogue UK, amongst other publications. Abraham is the proud recipient of a Dance Magazine Award (2022), Princess Grace Statue Award (2018), Doris Duke Award (2016), and MacArthur Fellowship (2013). He currently serves as the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professor in Dance at The University of Southern California (USC) Glorya Kaufman School of Dance (2021-). Abraham also sits on the advisory board for Dance Magazine and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the ​​inaugural Black Genius Brain Trust, and the inaugural cohort of the Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab, a partnership between the Prada Group, Theaster Gates Studio, Dorchester Industries, and Rebuild Foundation. For more information, please visit http://aimbykyleabraham.org. 

Camille A. Brown

Camille A. Brown is a prolific Black choreographer whose work taps into both ancestral and contemporary stories to capture a range of deeply personal experiences and cultural narratives of African American identity. Through the medium of dance, she is successfully balancing careers in Stage, TV, and Film.

As artistic director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, she strives to instill curiosity and reflection in diverse audiences through her emotionally raw and thought-provoking work. Her trilogy on race culture and identity has won accolades: “Mr. TOL E. RAncE” (2012) was honored with aBessie Award; “BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play” (2015) was Bessie-nominated; and “ink” (2017) premiered at The Kennedy Center to critical acclaim.

Most recently, Brown made her Broadway directorial debut for the Broadway revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, making her the first Black woman to direct and choreograph a Broadway show since Katherine Dunham in 1955. The production received seven Tony Award nominations including Best Direction of a Play and Best Choreography. The New York Times proclaimed the production "triumphant."

For more information, visit https://www.camilleabrown.org/
 

Dual Rivet

Dual Rivet is a women-led dance company focused on creating and sharing highly physical contemporary dance to a wide audience. Based in NYC, Dual Rivet creates work for stage and film that exchanges a cinematic and visceral language to influence both platforms. Directors Jessica Smith and Chelsea Ainsworth have been making and presenting work since 2017. They have performed and set work at Festival PRISMA (Panama), Centro Cultural Los Talleres (Mexico), Oklahoma International Dance Festival, Barnard College/Columbia University, West End Theatre, Kittery Maine, Musikfest Pennsylvania, Peridance Capezio Center, CreateArt, Arts On Site and many more. The company teaches a myriad of classes, throughout the United States and internationally, with an emphasis on contemporary partnering and floorwork. Dual Rivet is currently on faculty at The Juilliard School, Gibney, Peridance, SUNY Purchase and Adelphi University. The company hosts an annual choreography festival, MADE BY WOMEN, highlighting women choreographers and creators.
 

Roderick George

Roderick George was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He has trained at Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy, The Alvin Ailey School, and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). George was a bronze winner of the Youth American Grand Prix in 2005 and a YoungArts Winner and Presidential Scholar of the Arts in 2003. He has danced for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Basel Ballet/Theater Basel, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and The Forsythe Company. In addition, he has performed the work of choreographers such as Marie Chouinard, Peeping Tom, Jorma Elo, Jacopo Godani, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Jiří Kylian, Sharon Eyal, Ohan Naharin, Benoit Swan-Pouffer, and Richard Wherlock.

In 2012, George was a part of the Emerging Choreographer Series for the Youth American Grand Prix and an Emerging Choreographer for Springboard Danse Montréal in 2013. In addition, he has been commissioned by dance companies, institutions, and festivals, including Bodytraffic, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, Festival Quartiers Danses, Suzanne Dellal, Zurich Tanzhaus, Pavillon Noir| Ballet Prejlocaj, Ballett Basel, L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and Fall for Dance North/NIGHTSHIFT. Most recently, George was a YoungArts Fellow Winner Awardee for the 2021-2022 season. Knonameartist.org

Mayte Natalio

Mayte Natalio is from Queens, New York by way of Dominican parents. She studied at the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts and SUNY Purchase (BFA). Mayte began her career as a concert dancer and has performed and toured nationally and internationally with several companies, including the Parsons Dance Company, Camille A. Brown and Dancers, Kyle Abraham's A.I.M and Darrell Moultrie. She has also performed with pop artists Mylene Farmer and Kanye West as well as in several regional and off-Broadway productions. TV and film credits include episodes of Neil Patrick Harris’s “Best Time Ever,” “Project Runway All Stars,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar Live” (also assistant choreographer to Camille A. Brown), Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Amazon Prime’s “Harlem.” Theater choreography credits include The Winter’s Tale (DTC/ Public Works), Runaways (NYU), Into The Woods (Barrington Stage Company), Measure for Measure (The Public Theater/ Mobile Unit 2019), Love in Hate Nation (Two River Theater), Hair (The Old Globe), Kiss My Aztec (Hartford Stage), How To Dance In Ohio (La Hora Santa written, directed and choreographed by Mayte for Ars Nova’s Vision Residency and Kiss My Aztec (Hartford Stage).  Broadway: Associate Choreographer, For Colored Girls…

Rosy Simas Danse 

Rosy Simas Danse (RSD) was founded by Native choreographer and transdisciplinary artist Rosy Simas in 2012. Its primary commitment is to create and present innovative, transdisciplinary Native contemporary art that connects artists and audiences. With strong ties to Native communities and local and national dance communities, RSD uniquely bridges disciplines and cultures. On stages, outside and in museums, it creates resonant work in collaboration with artists and community members. An emphasis on process produces intimate, nuanced work; comprehensive engagement events connect with audiences long before the performances. 

Its efforts make visible the work of Native artists nationally and internationally, shifting the global view of how Native people are seen, demonstrating that Native artists are contemporary, groundbreaking artists bringing critical Indigenous worldviews to all arts fields. Its international ties help increase the visibility of and understanding about Native people to the world. The company networks with community arts organizations and national institutions to create critical connections, fostering both artist and audience development.

Sidra Bell Dance New York

Sidra Bell Dance New York is an internationally recognized boutique brand of prolific movement illustrators based in New York City that presents and fosters a canon of innovative and progressive dance theater programming in realms of ideas, environs and (im)possibilities.

Soles of Duende

A Brooklyn-born Puerto-Rican from New Haven, a Mexican Puerto-Rican Jew from the Lower East Side, and a Bengali Indian from Jersey walked on to the wooden floor and the rest? History. Bonded by their deep love of music, their crafts, and true connection, Soles of Duende is on a lifelong mission to elevate the joy and music of true collaboration across disciplines and the celebration of the forms they practice. Based in the sounds of Tap (Amanda Castro), Flamenco (Arielle Rosales) and Kathak (Brinda Guha), Soles of Duende’s fire is the spirit that lives within each of these women to celebrate their connection given their beautiful differences and to uplift the forms that made them. 
 

VIM VIGOR

VIM VIGOR is a physical dance theater company under the artistic direction of Shannon Gillen and co-choreographer Jason Cianiculli. Founded as a collaborative think tank, VIM brings together innovative and profoundly gifted artists from around the world to create original, cutting edge, dance theater creations. Interdisciplinary by nature, VIM’s research calls upon whole performers to activate unstable universes where conscious reality collides with dream space and characters rise and fall in virtuosic action, often using cinematic approaches to light, sound, and time to amplify the uncanny experience of each work. Since its founding in 2015, the company has created five evening length shows (SEPARATI, 2016), (FUTURE PERFECT, 2017), (FOREVER, 2019), (TOGETHER IS CLOSE ENOUGH, 2021), (PUNCH LINE, 2023), seven half-evening works, and received over thirty commissions with professional companies and universities across the USA, Canada, Central America, South America and Europe. In tandem with building new works, VIM established an education platform in 2015, dedicated to supporting the professional lives of artists of all ages with ongoing classes, workshops, and annual intensives. In 2023/24 VIM will teach and create new work for the b12 festival in Berlin, Henny Jurriëns in Amsterdam, and the Arthur Miller Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
 

Maleek Washington

A native New Yorker, Maleek Washington is a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist at Broadway Dance Center. Previously, Maleek has worked with Sia, Kyle Abraham, Rihanna, ASAP Rocky and is currently a collaborator with Camille A. Brown and Dancers. While also creating an extensive career as a teaching artist, Washington has taught at Joffrey Jazz and Contemporary, Boston Conservatory, LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Bard College, Move|NYC|, and NYU Tisch to name a few. With multidisciplinary, experiential performance works that investigate the people, practices, and spaces shaping Washington's black identity, he is proud to have presented his art in 2017 at the Boston Dance Festival, Pepatian and BAAD!, Periapsis Dance and Music Noesis, and at the legendary Movement Research at Judson Church in 2018. Washington is also a 2017-18 Dancing While Black top 10 choreographic finalist. Gibney granted Mr. Washington an evening length show in 2019. Maleek was nominated for a 2021 Bessie Award for “Outstanding Breakout Choreographer” and was named a 2022 Princess Grace Award winner for choreography. Maleek has been a collaborator, performer, assistant, and associate choreographer to Camille A. Brown for seven seasons.

MOVE|NYC|

Founded in 2015, MOVE|NYC| is a leading-edge New York City based arts and social justice organization whose mission is to cultivate greater diversity and equity within the dance profession and beyond. It holds the important responsibility of shaping the next generation of dance artists and leaders and actualizes this responsibility by providing artistic training, mentorship, professional development, presenting opportunities, and other quintessential resources for career advancement to primarily historically marginalized and underrepresented artists. Through its programs and activities, MOVE|NYC| is committed to artistic excellence, mentorship, community engagement, equity, and social change in its capacity to level skewed access to a professional and sustainable dance career for artists at the earliest stages of their artistic pursuits.

MOVE|NYC| imagines a field in which exceptionally gifted dancers, no matter where they are from, have access to the best training. It imagines more artists who are empowered to bring their own cultural backgrounds to their specialized fields. It imagines more artists creating new ways to move the field forward. It imagines an art form that will connect with more audiences.

It imagines more people imagining.
 

YY Dance Company

Based in NYC, YY Dance Company (YYDC) is a not-for-profit contemporary dance company dedicated to the teaching, production and performance of original choreographic works by founder and artistic director, Yue Yin. Over the past decade, Yin has refined and expanded an original movement vocabulary – FOCO Technique™–a fusion inspired by the Chinese folk and contemporary dance movement. The vision for YYDC is to incorporate this signature movement style in original company productions and choreographic commissions, to produce original, dynamic, emotionally and physically charged performances under the direction of Yue Yin and to present the works nationally and internationally; to establish and develop FoCo Technique™ into a globally recognized training method for professional dancers as well as dance practitioners; to cultivate audiences' interest in dance, especially in contemporary dance, by presenting artistically responsible and socially conscious works.

The company boasts international touring credits, presenting works at various international venues, namely Schrit_tmacher Festival in Germany and presentation at Rassegna Musike in Italy. The company has also presented works at BAM Fisher, Peridance Theater and soon a world premiere at Chelsea Factory this year.