DanceTheYard Presents ATLAS, 4/29

DanceTheYard performs atlas, Blue of Distance (film by Danielle Mulcahy) Vantage Point, one performance only, Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 7pm at the MV PAC.

Since 2011, a remarkable dance company has been growing up in the wilds of Chilmark, a dedicated ensemble of brilliant dancers who, in addition to building the island-wide programs of The Yard, have found themselves in the midst of a shared and sustained creative outpouring of visionary dance-making, DanceTheYard (DTY). Bringing to the Vineyard their own diverse backgrounds as well as the professional experiences derived from exchanges with the many visiting artists who populate The Yard's YARD ARTS and WINTER YARD seasons, the members of DTY are a formidable gang of creators and performers, most recently acclaimed at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Maybe you know them as neighbors AND artists. In addition to co-directors Keller and Manning, they are: Benjamin Cheney, Leah Crosby, Danielle Doell, Chloe Jones, Holly Jones, Zach Khoo, and Kimberly Murry. Come see them at their best . . .

"Watching gorgeous dance against a breathtaking backdrop. (It) never ceases to take my breath away." - Christopher Duggan on DanceTheYard's performance at Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out.

atlas delves into the internal map that is the human experience of the self. The performers exist between universes: longing at once for the past-maps already charted and traversed-and for the future, a map that has yet to be drawn. Directionless at times, each one lives out their own story and discovers their own routes along the way. Stories intertwine for brief moments, some joining together as the performers traverse a route. atlas is a journey; one of self discovery and the building, breaking, and resurrecting of relationship, as bodies move through a brief moment in time and space, supporting one another along the various pathways and creating a map together. A map that is then left... time for another, the next one, to be created.

Blue of Distance (film by Danielle Mulcahy) is a work inspired by what identity means to the individual. At once both personal and universal, the theme and piece journeys the five performers through a landscape of identity framed, unframed, created, deconstructed, and ultimately receding into the collective distance of time, space, memory, and dreams. The film version is directed by Martha's Vineyard film director, Danielle Mulcahy. The film was premiered in 2015 as a part of The Yard's 2015 YardArts Season.

Vantage Point is inspired by natural lines, intersections, vast openness, the architectural elements of landscapes. Jesse Keller and Alison Manning create a moving landscape of bodies, manipulating and inhabiting the space simultaneously, playing with and adjusting the audience's perspective, allowing the viewer to take in the whole scene or view details of each body/view point in the space. There is time to take in the scenery; time may erode the cliff but a new view is found - or created.

The Yard | 2016/17 Winter Yard Season | DanceTheYard

This performance is a part of ArtWeek Boston

ArtWeek is an award-winning innovative festival featuring more than 150 unique and creative experiences that are hands-on, interactive or offer behind-the-scenes access to artists or the creative process. Celebrated twice per year, ArtWeek was born in Boston in 2013 and has since expanded to serve communities across Eastern Massachusetts.

"We are thrilled to have organizations like The Yard participating in ArtWeek this season," said Josiah A. Spaulding, Jr., President & CEO of Citi Performing Arts Center. "ArtWeek is an innovative festival that works to spotlight how the creative economy is thriving in Massachusetts. We are very excited to offer a diverse lineup of events this season, with activities spanning dance, fashion, media arts, spoken-word, poetry, writing, culinary, visual arts, music, opera, theater, design, film, and much more."

For more information and a complete calendar of events, visit http://www.artweekboston.org.

ABOUT DanceTheYard

DanceTheYard (DTY) is The Yard's resident dance collective. Co-directors and choreographers Alison Manning, The Yard's Executive Director, and Jesse Keller, The Yard's Director of Island Programs & Education (with Artistic Advisor David R. White), have been building a body of work and presenting an annual weekend of performances each summer, as part of the Yard Arts season. DTY is comprised of professionals living on Martha's Vineyard and in New York City, and each member has become a part of The Yard's greater service mission: working together to present performances for the public, participating in educational residencies and dance making programs for children and adults, along with other community based events around Martha's Vineyard. Each component of DTY's work contributes to The Yard's overarching mission of support for emerging choreographers through residency and financial support, dance and related arts presentations, and a commitment to arts education in the local and national communities. DTY's directors have created an emerging body of work and a collective of professional artists who are committed to seeing the work presented in the local and national dance arena.

SEED. GROW. REAP. REPEAT: THE NATURE OF THE ARTIST.

Mission: The Yard supports artists in both their creative processes and social instrumentality through paid research residency, public performance, and long- term educational and community engagement across all ages and diverse cultural populations of Martha's Vineyard, and in broad application to New England and the nation.

In so doing: The Yard promotes creation, education, and community building through artistic practice- with a special emphasis on contemporary dance and related collaborative forms-in the defining rural/island environment of Martha's Vineyard.

The Yard | 2016/17 Winter Yard Season | DanceTheYard

The Yard acts, on behalf of its core commitments, as an active collaborator, co- commissioner, and touring partner with other leading institutions across a regional/national/international context to raise up a "culture of cultures" ecology that reflects-and benefits-the demographic life and times of the island of Martha's Vineyard and the country.

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