Ephrat Asherie Dance Makes Joyce Debut With ODEON

Following an appearance in the 2019 American Dance Platform, Ephrat Asherie Dance makes its official Joyce debut with the evening-length Odeon. Presented by The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director), the high-energy work featuring a hybrid of street and club dances will play The Joyce Theater for three performances only from November 5-7. Tickets, ranging in price from $10-$45, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

For Ephrat Asherie Dance's Joyce debut, the namesake dancer and choreographer teams up for the second time with her brother, jazz pianist Ehud Asherie, for the company's newest evening-length work, Odeon. Set to reimagined works of Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, the distinctive blend of breaking, hip-hop, house, and vogue pushes the boundaries of each dance style by picking them apart and putting them back together in new, unfamiliar contexts. Featuring seven dancers and four musicians, choreographer Ephrat Asherie melds both dance and music styles in Odeon to create a hybrid approach to movement that is entirely original.

Ephrat Asherie Dance (EAD) is a dance company rooted in street and social dance. Dedicated to revealing the inherent complexities of these forms, EAD explores the expansive narrative qualities of various street and club styles, including breaking, hip hop, house, and vogue, as a means to tell stories, develop innovative imagery, and find new modes of expression. EAD's first evening-length work, A Single Ride, earned two Bessie Award nominations in 2013 for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and Outstanding Sound Design by Marty Beller. The company has presented work at The Apollo Theater, Celebrity Series, Columbia College, Dixon Place, FiraTarrega, Guggenheim Works & Process, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, La MaMa, River to River Festival, Mass MoCA, New York Live Arts, Summerstage, and The Yard, among others.

Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie (Artistic Director) is a New York City-based b-girl, dancer, and choreographer and a 2016 Bessie Award winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance. Asherie has received numerous awards to support her work, including Dance Magazine's inaugural Harkness Promise Award, the Jacob's Pillow Fellowship at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU, and a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant. She received a National Dance Project Award to support the development and touring of her newest work, Odeon. Asherie is also the recipient of a Mondo Cane! commission from Dixon Place, a Creative Development Residency from Jacob's Pillow, Workspace and Extended Life Residencies from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and two residencies through the CUNY Dance Initiative. Asherie is a regular guest artist with Dorrance Dance and has worked and collaborated with Doug Elkins, Rennie Harris, Bill Irwin, David Parsons, Gus Solomons Jr., and Buddha Stretch, among others. She earned her BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in Italian and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she researched the vernacular jazz dance roots of contemporary street and club dances. Asherie has been on faculty at Wesleyan University and set pieces for students at Smith College, SUNY Brockport, Alvin Ailey Dance Center, University of Texas Rio Grande, Old Dominion University, and teaches at Broadway Dance Center. She is a co-founding member of the all-female house dance collective, MAWU, and is forever grateful to NYC's underground dance community for inspiring her to pursue a life as an artist.

Ehud Asherie is a jazz pianist who integrates the venerable New York piano tradition into his inventive style. Born in Israel in 1979, Asherie lived in Italy for six years before his family moved to New York. Though he began playing piano as a child, his passion for jazz came later-with a Thelonious Monk cassette tape-and his first visit to Smalls Jazz Club in Greenwich Village. Largely self-taught, or rather, "old-schooled," Asherie learned the ropes at Smalls, spending the wee small hours of his early teens, becoming a fixture of the late-night jam sessions. From Smalls to the Rainbow Room, from Lincoln Center to The Village Vanguard, Asherie has since worked with a broad range of musicians, including Eric Alexander, Roy Ayers, Peter Bernstein, Jesse Davis, Bobby Durham, Vince Giordano, Wycliffe Gordon, Scott Hamilton, Catherine Russell, Ken Peplowski, and Clark Terry. Beyond his dedication to jazz music, Ehud Asherie has also developed a passion for traditional Brazilian music. His appreciation and profound knowledge of the music, language, and culture are the foundation of his project entitled Bina & Ehud, a duo formed in 2003 with Brazilian guitarist Bina Coquet. Asherie has toured clubs and festivals around the world and can be heard on countless recordings, including the 2010 Grammy Award-winning soundtrack of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire." He recently released his twelfth album as leader entitled Shuffle Along (Blue Heron Records), a solo piano performance of Eubie Blake songs from the musical Shuffle Along.

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