General Mischief Dance Theatre Presents RASCALS WITH ALTITUDE This Weekend

General Mischief Dance Theatre presents its spring performance, Rascals with Altitude. Performances will take place from today, April 25 - May 4 at The Connelly Theatre, 220 East 4th Street, NYC.

Tickets are $20 in advance for general admission ($25 at the door, $15 for students and seniors, $10 for children ten and under) and are available at https://www.artful.ly/store/events/2754 or by calling (212) 714-4694. Performances are Friday, April 25 at 8pm; Saturday, April 26 at 8pm; Sunday, April 27 at 5pm; Friday, May 2 at 8pm; Saturday, May 3 at 3pm and 8pm; and Sunday, May 4 at 3pm. The performance is appropriate for ages 4 and up.

General Mischief Dance Theatre is dedicated to reinforcing the power that joy and laughter have in communicating ideas. The company's mission is to create and present theatrical dance works that engage audiences emotionally, socially, and kinesthetically. Combining aerial work with more earthbound forms of movement, the company removes spatial and physical limits from theatrical dance.

The program includes:

Suite Shel, a one-act suite of dances inspired by the poems of Shel Silverstein, choreographed by Celine Rosenthal, Pushpanjali Sharma, and Emily Smyth Vartanian

Featuring Madeline Hoak of Upsidown Productions (May 2-4) in an aerial solo on rope.

Duel, an interactive bungee duet, choreographed by Emily Smyth Vartanian

Duel is a face-off between rival baseball fans (Yankees v. Red Sox). They appear to have made peace by the time flying balls are added to the equation, but the very end of the dance calls that notion into question.

Buzz, choreographed by Emily Smyth Vartanian

Buzz is a multi-part, caffeinated cityscape of a dance. It shows the dancers slowly waking up in the morning, then features them interacting with various objects typical to the morning commute - coffee cups, books, and cell phones - as well as each other. The majority of the time, they pass each other by, unnoticed, but as the piece goes on they begin to connect with each other. The next section, lit only by the dancers' cell phones, takes place late at night and shows the dancers "connected" electronically, but not connected to the individuals they are supposedly spending time with.

Excerpt from Pressing Empty, performed by the Kinesis Project (May 2-4)

Pressing Empty is a character based, physical, contemporary dance theatre work that uses marriage to examine choice and emptiness. The work follows five brides through a beautifully crafted, fierce evening of playful dresses and real panic. Ms. Riker continues her fascination with moments in time and decision in an edgy, riveting, and accessible evening of wedding gowns, tuxedos, and blue feathers.

Untitled from Q&A Productions (April 25-27), choreographed and performed by Dare Harlow and Quincy Hydock

Originally performed at The Green Space in Brooklyn, this hilarious piece provides clever commentary on the different roles women are asked to play as adults.

This production will feature performers Jane Abbott, Dare Harlow, Gautam Nima, Pushpanjali Sharma, Andrea Steiner, and Emily Smyth Vartanian, with direction by Celine Rosenthal, andmusic from Grammy® winning Ozomatli, Led Zepagain, and composer Lizzie Hagstedt.

Guest artists include Kinesis Project, Q&A Productions, and Madeline Hoak.

Celine Rosenthal is an alumae of NYU Tisch and Founder of the Neela Theatre Project in Mumbai. She is currently an MFA Directing Candidate at the New School for Drama. Selected Credits - Director: Rose Petals (NYMF), The Post Office (Bank St), Hitgirls: The Musical(Manhattan Theater Source), The Weird (Manhattan Theater Source), Hapless Romance (Wings Theater). Producer: The Glass Menagerie (Booth), Seminar (John Golden), Leap of Faith* (St. James), The Spitfire Grill (The Sage), Turn of the Screw (Bank St). *Tony-nominated

Lizzie Hagstedt is a new member of the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop. This past summer she saw a reading of her musical "Rose Petals" at the NYMF just one week after her musical Oneida was heard at the VOX Festival at Dartmouth College. Other current projects include musicalizing the YA novel Camo Girl and participating as one of the featured writers in Prospect Theater Company's Musical Theatre Lab this spring. An avid performer & member of Actors' Equity, credits include the new musical Southern Comfort at Barrington Stage Company, the NAMT, & CAP21 as well as the national tour of "Sweeney Todd".

Dare Harlow holds a BFA from the University of the Arts in Modern Dance Performance

Quincy Hydock completed a traineeship with Richmond Ballet while earning a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Madeline Hoak is a NYC based dancer, aerialist and teaching artist. An alumni of the Theater and Dance Department of Muhlenberg College, Madeline is now on staff teaching Aerial Acrobatics. She is currently performing with the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company (DGDC), Grounded Aerial, and Kinesis Project (KP).

General Mischief Dance Theatre was founded informally in 2004 as an artistic collaboration between performer/choreographer Emily Smyth Vartanian, rigger/lighting designer Mark Baker and sound designer/choreographic advisor Adam Vartanian. The company was formally incorporated in 2008 in the interest of actively producing theatrical dance pieces that reinforce the power that joy and laughter have in communicating ideas, as well as to encourage the natural human desire to express oneself through movement. The company has previously presented interactive events at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, The Connelly Theater, Theater for the New City, New York City Center Studios, and The Zipper Theater amongst other venues. They have also been invited to perform at the JCC, Dance Manhattan, and Brooklyn's Kumble Theater as well as numerous festivals and special events. The company has also received multiple grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to support the presentation of their interactive dance adventures. For more information, please visit www.generalmischief.com.

The Connelly Theater reopened in February 1997 after ten years of darkness. Located in the historic 19th Century school building at 220 East 4th Street, this beautiful 99-seat miniature opera house features air conditioning, a pressed tin ceiling and proscenium arch over a raised stage, and a horseshoe-shaped balcony.

The space is a popular off-off-Broadway venue for non-profit theater companies and plays host to The New York International Fringe Festival each summer. The theater is also used as a site for community meetings such as the First Lower East Side Girls' Congress, as well as throughout the year for students' drama, art and music presentations.