Arts on Site to Present Janis Brenner in SHE REMEMBERS HER AMNESIA in November

Arts on Site will present Janis Brenner, dancer/singer/actress, in the premiere of her one-woman show She Remembers her Amnesia, based on true stories, and set to a musical score by Jerome Begin. Three performances: November 9 at 8 PM and November 10 at 6:30 & 8:30 PM at Arts on Site, 12 St. Mark's Place. Evening performances will be followed by a Q&A session.

Ms. Brenner's new interdisciplinary show is her second personal narrative, dance-opera-play, and comic drama. In Amnesia, based on true personal stories of a lifetime, the artist investigates and reveals her own bizarre forays and adventures, all in relation to the head, the brain, and the circuitous, unintended paths we take that create who we are and ultimately become. Memory has long been a compelling subject matter in many of Ms. Brenner's company works, and here it is a central motif in the trajectory of the theatrical scenes. Prolific composer Jerome Begin and Ms. Brenner, in their third collaboration, marry both recorded musical episodes with live vocal narration and original arias written for her particular vocal range.

Ms. Brenner suggests that the often asked question "Is it Nature or Nurture," be expanded to include "Isn't it also Fate or Happenstance, or that one moment of good or ill fortune that guides our unique and unpredictable lives"? And what is a "normal brain" anyway? There is no moral, no culmination, no cathartic finish - only a circuitous, unpredictable life, on-going, as is each of ours."

Janis Brenner is a multi-award-winning dancer/choreographer/singer/teacher/collagist and Artistic Director of Janis Brenner & Dancers in NYC. Known for her "meticulous artistry," (The Village Voice) she has toured in 36 countries and is recognized as a "singular performer (Eye on Dance)." Awards/honors include: NY Dance & Performance Award ("Bessie") for performance in Meredith Monk's work, Lester Horton Award for Choreography in L.A., Copperfoot Award for Lost, Found, Lost at Wayne State, Fund for US Artists at International Festivals, Asian Cultural Council, Trust for Mutual Understanding, O'Donnell Green Music & Dance Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, US Embassies in Moscow, Bosnia, Jakarta and Dakar, and a commission for The Memory Project from the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her work has been commissioned/restaged on more than 50 companies and colleges worldwide, and she performed with Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble from 1990 - 2005, 2014, recording on ECM Records. She was a soloist with the Murray Louis Dance Company (1977-84), working with Rudolf Nureyev, Placido Domingo, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Joseph Papp, Bat Sheva Dance Company, and Alwin Nikolais.

Ms. Brenner was on faculty at The Juilliard School until 2021, directing Choreographers and Composers Collaborations and teaching Improvisation. Her multi-award-winning one-woman show, Inheritance: A Litany received "Best Performance" at the United Solo Theatre Festival Off-Broadway, and has since received five 5-Star reviews and the Critics' Choice award from All About Solo publication and at the American Dance Festival this past summer. Janis Brenner & Dancers has performed throughout the US, Asia, Russia and Europe since 1989 and has served as Cultural Ambassadors on numerous tours. Ms. Brenner's first Visual Art exhibit of mixed-media collage at Susan Eley/Fine Art gallery debuted in March, 2022. One of the collages is a center-point of this new work, She Remembers her Amnesia.

Photo Credit: Ben McKeown

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