Bryant Park presents A Month of Contemporary Dance

Fresh and original, innovative artists showcase exhilarating works, modern dance curated by Tiffany Rea-Fisher and ballet curated by Donna Salgado.

June 16: Ballet
David Fernandez's Some Dance Company, Gabrielle Lamb's Pigeonwing Dance, Da' Von Doane & Artists of the Shift, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, and Bennyroyce Dance

June 23: Modern
HopeBoykinDance, KineticArchitecture Dance, Bryn Cohn + Artists, and LaGuardia Dance Ensemble

June 30: Ballet
The Ashley Bouder Project, CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet, Island Moving Company, and Thomas/Ortiz Dance

July 7: Modern
Limón Dance Company, The Moving Architects, Black Boys Dance Too, and Harlem School of the Arts Dance Ensemble and Junior Dance Ensemble

July 14: Modern
Kate Weare Company, Now Dance, Monteleone Dance, and Earl Mosley's Institute of the Arts Dance

Friday, June 16 at 6pm: Ballet
David Fernandez's Some Dance Company, Gabrielle Lamb's Pigeonwing Dance, Da' Von Doane & Artists of the Shift, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, and Bennyroyce Dance

Some Dance Company brings together choreographer David Fernandez's favorite dancers, including artists from New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, and creates neoclassical ballets that are playful, jazzy, and full of personality. Fernandez's acclaimed choreography, Five Variations on a Theme, was performed as part of the internationally touring Kings of the Dance program, and he's participated in the distinguished National Choreographers Initiative.

Under the direction of Princess Grace Award-winning choreographer Gabrielle Lamb, Pigeonwing Dance integrates the rigor of classical training into a contemporary movement language with precision and curiosity. In Lamb's choreography, bodies combine into moving sculptures, forming strange angles, then they dissolve quickly to spirals and arcs, like puzzles assembling and disassembling themselves in seconds.

Da' Von Doane & the Artists of the Shift is a new choreography project that explores changes in paradigm in both life and ballet. Doane is a leading member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, frequently in soloist and principal roles, and has been choreographing and teaching for the Dance Theatre of Harlem lecture/demonstration series touring throughout the US. Doane was named one of the "Top 25 to Watch" by Dance Magazine in 2014.

Cherylyn Lavagnino merges the aesthetics of her background as a soloist with Pennsylvania Ballet and the downtown stylings of her artistic home as a professor at NYU's Tisch Dance in her company, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, which she formed in 2000. Her work has been presented both nationally and internationally, including residencies at the renowned Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, and most recently for The New Beijing International Contemporary Dance Festival in 2016.

From concert dance to Broadway, Juilliard graduate Bennyroyce Royon is a two-time awardee of the prestigious CUNY Dance Initiative Residency, and is showcasing works by three Filipino-American choreographers, Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish (former Alvin Ailey principal dancer), Norbert De La Cruz III (Princess Grace Award recipient), and his own pieces. Performed by a group of multicultural, broad-minded dancers, Bennyroyce Dance delivers energetic and physical contemporary works with glimmers of ballet vocabulary and lots of edge.

Friday, June 23 at 6pm: Modern
HopeBoykinDance, KineticArchitecture Dance, Bryn Cohn + Artists, and LaGuardia Dance Ensemble

Born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, Hope Boykin is a three-time recipient of the American Dance Festival's Young Tuition Scholarship. She studied at Howard University and The Ailey School, and worked as assistant to choreographers Milton Myers and Talley Beatty. Boykin was an original member of Complexions, and danced many years with Philadanco, joining the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2000, where she continues to perform as well as teach, and choreograph new works.

KineticArchitecture Dance, founded in 1994 by Arrie Davidson and Shannon-Kayne Amoureux, brings their brand of sculptural, sensual partnering mixed with Buster Keaton-meets-Butoh style while presenting work that is socially relevant, athletic, visually stunning, and artistically progressive.

Award-winning and critically acclaimed, Bryn Cohn + Artists, comprised of collaborative artists from diverse backgrounds, creates works to investigate the edges of physical, imaginative and cognitive boundaries. The company endeavors to make dance more accessible, as well as collaborate with a broad range of artists across disciplines.

LaGuardia Dance Ensemble is the resident company at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which enjoys an international reputation as the first and foremost high school dedicated to nurturing students gifted in the arts, providing a rigorous conservatory-style training and a challenging, comprehensive college-preparatory academic program.

Friday, June 30 at 6pm: Ballet
The Ashley Bouder Project, CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet, Island Moving Company, and Thomas/Ortiz Dance

The Ashley Bouder Project, led by New York City Ballet principal dancer Ashley Bouder, is an arts collaborative dedicated to primarily presenting new works by women choreographers and composers. In addition to these commissions, the company is a forum for Bouder's choreographic ideas such as the pas de deux from her work, In Pursuit of, being performed this evening by two New York City Ballet dancers.

CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet is comprised of classically trained dancers with contemporary artistic voices and a repertory that is fresh, clever, and infectiously dancy. Led by Donna Salgado, the company has fostered collaborations with choreographers from LA, San Francisco, and Amsterdam, appeared at Jacobs Pillow for 3 seasons, and presents works that aim to expand the role of creativity and scholarship in the art of ballet. Tonight features The New York City debut of Prismatic Abstractions, which premiered at the Pillow in 2015 and is choreographed entirely to jazz tunes recorded by Jon Batiste.

For 35 years, Island Moving Company, a contemporary ballet company based in Newport, RI, and founded by artistic director Miki Ohlsen, has nurtured collaborations between dance artists and musicians, poets, and visual artists, and is known for its creative use of unusual venues. The company is home to the Great Friends Dance Festival and Great Friends Touring Project, a residency exchange program that creates new opportunities for small and midsized companies. Ohlsen's La Tierra Giro, a work for nine dancers, is being performed tonight, one of over 40 works she has choreographed for the company.

TEd Thomas and Frances Ortiz foundEd Thomas/Ortiz Dance in 2001, melding his urban athleticism with her Latin sensuality, and their combined choreographic and musical sensibilities. The company of twelve culturally-diverse dancers, with backgrounds in both ballet and contemporary dance, perform a repertoire that explores a multitude of thought-provoking and socially-relevant topics and themes, and has appeared at Jacob's Pillow and the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center.

Friday, July 7 at 6pm: Modern
Limón Dance Company, The Moving Architects, Black Boys Dance Too, and Harlem School of the Arts Dance Ensemble and Junior Dance Ensemble

Hailed as one of the world's greatest dance companies, the Limón Dance Company has been at the vanguard of American modern dance since its inception in 1946. It is the living legacy of dance theater developed by José Limón and his mentors, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman, whose innovative works revolutionized the American dance. The Company is renowned for its technical mastery and dramatic expression, and demonstrates both the timelessness of José Limón's works and the humanistic vision that guides the repertory choices.

The Moving Architects, founded by Erin Carlisle Norton in 2007, is a female-centric Dance Company known for channeling the authentic complexity of both the current and historical female experience into dance works, all with an edge of charged movement and feminine strength.

Black Boys Dance Too is a non-profit organization with a mission to uplift the community and demonstrate the strength and empowerment of the black man through dance, and uniting to keep black culture alive. It is a platform for men of color to showcase their artistry, uplift audiences and educate others in their artistic expression through live dance entertainment, media, illustrations and creative writing.

Harlem School of the Arts Dance offers a range of dance classes in classical ballet, modern, hip-hop, jazz, African and tap. Students have experienced the transformative power of dance by taking classes in the Dance Enrichment Program as an extracurricular activity and in the pre-professional programs which produce classically trained, versatile young dancers who then go on to other elite dance schools and programs. Led by Aubrey Lynch, Director of HSA Dance, the Harlem School of the Arts has become a dance education destination.

Friday, July 14 at 6pm: Modern
Kate Weare Company, Now Dance, Monteleone Dance, and Earl Mosley's Institute of the Arts Dance

Kate Weare Company, known for its startling combination of formal choreographic values and visceral, emotional interpretation, has performed at major venues nationwide. In addition, the company has had teaching residencies at several colleges and universities on the East coast. Established to showcase artistic director Kate Weare's intimate, raw and intense choreography, her dances explore contemporary views of intimacy, both tender and stark, by drawing on our most basic urges to move and decode movement.

Now Dance is a New York City-based contemporary Dance Company founded by choreographer and dancer Jacquelyn Nowicki, that explores athleticism, challenges patterns, and takes dynamic risks. Nowicki has danced with companies around the world, and has taught throughout the country, and has choreographed athletic, daring, and exciting works imbued with her singular approach to movement.

Monteleone Dance is a research-based Dance Company led by Joe Monteleone that presents highly cerebral multimedia dance works, as well as nationally and internationally. The company is committed to the innovation of intricate movement vocabulary, developing new multivalent movement methodologies, as well as synthesizing the two. The work confronts the human experience, analyzing and probing the human psyche in the context of today's technological zeitgeist and cultural fabric.

Earl Mosley's Institute of the Arts Dance provides an environment where student artists from diverse ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds can achieve the highest levels of excellence through positive collaborations with teachers and peers. The institute strives to build a community of dance which enables each student to connect both technically and spiritually with their own art and individuality.

About Bryant Park Corporation

Bryant Park Corporation (BPC), a private not-for-profit company, was founded in 1980 to renovate, finance and operate Bryant Park in New York City. BPC is funded by income from events, concessions and corporate sponsors, as well as an assessment on neighboring properties, and does not accept government or philanthropic monies. In addition to providing security and sanitation services and tending the park's lush lawn and seasonal garden displays, BPC provides public amenities and activities, including movable chairs and tables, cafe umbrellas, restaurants, food kiosks, world-class restrooms, and a wide range of free events throughout the year. The Midtown Manhattan park is visited by more than six million people each year and is one of the busiest public spaces in the world. BPC's website, bryantpark.org, is available for more detailed information and a schedule of upcoming events.