Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy Presents Misters and Sisters

The Concord-based Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy is celebrating its 15th anniversary, and as part of the celebratory lineup of events throughout the season will present Misters and Sisters ? A Love Story in Song and Dance, a new dance theater cabaret by David Parker and Jeffrey Kazin of The Bang Group for two performances only, Wednesday January 11 and 18, 2012 at OBERON, corner of Arrow Street and Massachusetts Avenue, Harvard Square, Cambridge.

Misters and Sisters ? A Love Story in Song and Dance received raves and performed to sold-out houses at Joe's Pub this past summer. Misters and Sisters: Part One was a great hit when presented by Summer Stages Dance as a work in progress during the 2010 summer performance series in Concord, MA. This latest work by and about David Parker and Jeffrey Kazin and their performing alter egos, represents a new way of working for Parker. The show ? a kind of autobiographical fiction ? is inspired by and dedicated to Parker's late father, mystery novelist Robert B. Parker, whose words "Don't look for yourself in your work, look for your work in yourself," Parker pays homage to here. Parker and Kazin, joined by Nic Petry and Amber Sloan, cut a swath through an array of romantic standards from the American songbook as they chronicle their life together in song and dance. Misters and Sisters includes dramaturgy by Anne Davison and musical direction by Anna Ebbeson.

About David Parker and The Bang Group
David Parker began his career tap-dancing on the sidewalks of Boston while still a teenager. He attended Bard College, where he was introduced to modern, postmodern and classical dance forms and began, through his dancing, to generate a free exchange among all four forms. He danced in New York City with a variety of companies and choreographers, performing everything from ballet character roles to experimental tap. He founded The Bang Group in 1995 with his muse and dancing partner Jeffrey Kazin to pursue his fascination with the rhythmic potential of the dancing body. The Bang Group has appeared extensively throughout North America and Europe and has had eight full-evening programs presented by Dance Theater Workshop (DTW), two by Danspace Project, and two by Symphony Space in New York City. The company is best known for Parker's comic/subversive neo-vaudeville version of The Nutcracker entitled Nut/Cracked, which has been touring nationally and internationally for the past eight seasons including three encore productions at DTW. He has also created a repertory of highly formal yet comic

duets for himself and Kazin, one of which, Slapstuck, for two Velcro-clad men, won a 2002 New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award for Design. The company has also been touring ShowDown, Parker's choreographic reinvention of Annie Get Your Gun, which was commissioned by DanceNow [NYC]. The piece played two seasons at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, toured to Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Edinburgh, and recently became the inaugural dance event for the Steel Stacks Performing Arts Center in Bethlehem, PennsylvaniA. Parker was artist/curator of Danspace Project's Platform on Rhythm and Humor in March 2011, and also curates a series of choreographic

mini-festivals which take place twice yearly at Manhattan's West End Theater where The Bang Group has been the only dance company in residence since 2003. Parker is a regular contributor to Dance Magazine and sits on the boards of directors of Danspace Project and The Field. He has also served extensively on curatorial and grant panels at DTW, NYFA, Pew Charitable Trust, Green Street Studio in Cambridge, MA, American College Dance Festival, and has been a member of the Bessie Awards Committee, and Pentacle's Help Desk and Advancement, Reinvention and Creativity (ARC) programs. He is a member of the faculties of The Juilliard School, Barnard College, and The Alvin Ailey School where he teaches dance composition. The Bang Group has a second home at the Summer Stages Dance Festival in Concord, Massachusetts, where they create new work, perform, and serve as mentors for young artists. The company has been generously supported by The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts (Build Grant), Pentacle's ARC program, Department of Cultural Affairs, Mid-Atlantic Arts Fund, Fund for Mutual Understanding, Arts International, Puffin Foundation, Netherland-America Foundation and many others.

About Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy
Founded fifteen years ago by Amy Spencer and Richard Colton, Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy is a rigorous training program for students of contemporary dance and a laboratory for choreographers to develop new work. The SSD intensive workshop and Meet the Artist Performance Series have earned a distinctive reputation for the emphasis on mentorship and on the creation of new work, and for presenting leading contemporary dance artists in an acclaimed series of public events. The Workshop, July 8-28, takes place in a 2,500 square foot state-of-the-art dance studio space designed by award-wining architect Graham Gund on the campus of Concord Academy, an independent secondary school where the performing and visual arts are a central part of the curriculum. Public performances take place at Concord Academy's 400-seat Performing Arts Center (PAC), and at the stunning harbor front Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theatre at The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.

Performances of Misters and Sisters will take place at OBERON, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge. Doors open at 7:30pm for an 8:00pm curtain. Tickets prices are $50 for premium table seating, $35 general admission table seating, and $20 standing room, and can be purchased through www.cluboberon.com or by phone at OvationTix at 866-811-4111.

For further information on this production and Summer Stages Dance, visit summerstagesdance.org or call 978-402-2339.

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