An Edgier Image for Elisa Monte Dance in 2017

Elisa Monte Dance, an emotionally charged and highly acclaimed dance company that champions individuality, continues in it's 36th Season under new directorship. Upon the retirement of 35-year founder and director, Elisa Monte, Tiffany Rea-Fisher has spent the first half of the season creating new work, defining a newer and edgier image, and working on a broad range of collaborations. The first of these collaborations with Chris Brubeck's Band, Triple Play, will be showcased at APAP, the world's premiere gathering of performing arts professionals, on January 7. During this showcase, Rea-Fisher will also present her newest evening length work, Things Past.

Instrumental in defining American modern dance, Elisa Monte's legacy is defined by the creation of a specific and stylized dance language. It is not a coincidence that Rea-Fishers first piece presented in the new year, encapsulates all that came before, but with a contemporary flair suited and relevant to today's dancers and audiences. In the spirit of inevitable evolution, Things Past, first premiered for an intimate audience in May, exposes the human behind the performer. In accentuating a particular artist's eccentricities and oddities, they become defined as building blocks to drawing our personal lineage and drawing roadmaps for what is to come. This work is also a direct reflection of new relationships forged between dancers and their new director, perhaps seeing them as different movers than they may have previously served as, and a chance to explore undiscovered or under-celebrated skills in a varied dance language.

"There is nothing more fitting than starting this new directorial season with Things Past, my first evening length work for the company," explains Rea-Fisher. "The months following our 35th season have been tremendous for us as a dance company. It has been a time of seeing each dancer through new eyes, learning key technique from the celebrated Monte repertory, and looking at ways to move and think differently. The new charge for the company is to cater to change, to new expectations and to the promise of progress."

Lastly, musician Chris Brubeck, son of the acclaimed American jazz pianist and composer, Dave Brubeck, celebrates his father's famous "cool jazz" standards with working along side Rea-Fisher and her dancers. A collaborative work set to live music, this work pays homage to the Brubeck legacy and its famous compositions, and enlightens it for the present-mirrored in Fisher's movement approach. In setting movement with a contemporary modern flair, incorporating jazz, line dancing and pedestrian movement, Blue Rondo, Memphis Hesitation, and Take Five are the musical landscape of a work that merges past and present, a company theme of 2017.

ELISA MONTE DANCE APAP SCHEDULE

Things Past will be presented January 7 from 8:00-9:00 p.m. in Studio 4 at New York City Center.

The showcase with Triple Play, will be presented January 7 from 9:00-9:30 p.m. in Studio 5 at New York City Center.

TICKETS and VENUE INFORMATION

This showcase is free to the public. New York City Center is located on West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The studios are centrally located and accessible by the N, Q, R, W, F, D, E, A, B,C,D and 1 trains.

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