Green Space Presents TAKE ROOT and Cruise Mercer/TheREDProjectNYC, 5/12
By: Christina Mancuso Apr. 18, 2017
Green Space is pleased to offer a diverse roster of new/emerging artists in May.
Fertile Ground will present new work by various artists and Take Root will present an evening of work by KaNu Dance Theater and Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDProjectNYC.
TAKE ROOT, now in its 8th season, aids in the continued development and performance of new dance work of various aesthetics by providing choreographers with the opportunity to be produced in a full-length or paired evening of work. This once a month series supports dance makers by providing our venue, Green Space, with full technical and marketing support.
8:00pm
Admission: $15
Tickets are available at the door or online at www.GreenSpaceStudio.org
About the Work
KaNu Dance Theater: An abstract but forward narrative about the fight for economic, social, class, and political justice in Haiti and how similar it is to what is currently going on here in the United States of America. Many people are sacrificing their lives every day in the fight for a better tomorrow in Haiti; but still not much has changed. Despite all that is happening around them Haiti and its' people are still standing. The Human Spirit is on that is resilient.
Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDProjectNYC: Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDprojectNYC provides an in depth look at memories relation to reality. A Decade from Hell (quoted from TIME magazine) traces back to familiar times, quoting and sourcing American society between the years 2000-2010 to understand contemporary times and its relation to the past, the inevitable, and the future. Using director Johnnie Cruise Mercer's conscious memory as a launching point, the work engages subconscious memory in order to understand history's conscious motion of action and its connection to colonization of self. This work has been created while in residence at the 92Y Harkness Dance Center.
"Mercer is a sophisticated choreographer..." - Dance Enthusiast- 2016
Company/ Choreographer Biographies
KaNu Dance Theater: Jessica St. Vil, the artistic director of KaNu Dance Theater, is a graduate of Lehman College, where she received her B.A. in Mass Communications and Dance. She thus continued her training with a partial scholarship from the Alvin Ailey School's professional division, where she completed the independent study program. Jessica teaches classes and gives workshops in Ballet, Modern, and Afro-Caribbean dance. Some of her teaching credits include: Pratt Institute, Brooklyn Friends School, Educational Center for the Arts in North Haven Connecticut, and the Dance New England Foundation in Maine. She currently works as a teaching artist for the Alvin Ailey arts in education program. Jessica is also one of the co-founders of "Danse Xpressions" center for the performing arts. She has worked with many choreographers such as Christopher Huggins, Martial Roumain, Marcea Daiter, Sean Curran, Kwame Ross, and Dyane Harvey. She has worked and performed with several dance theater companies, such as Feet of Rhythm, The Joan Peter's Dance Company, Vissi Dance Theater, Tamboula D'ayiti, Opus Dance Theater, the Rod Rodgers dance company, and National Ballet Folkloric of Haiti (BFH). Jessica worked in collaboration with Unimix films; choreographing a short film titled "One More Try" and their newest award winning feature film "Forever Yours". Jessica was honored in Washington DC by the National Museum of Women and the Haitian Embassy for her accomplishments in dance and for her continued dedication to Haitian art and culture. In 2014, she was invited to travel to Haiti with the New Waves Dance Institute as 1of 50 dance professionals and educators from around the world to study and explore dance in the Caribbean, as well as teach classes and seminars in dance and collaborate with other dance professionals in Haiti. In the Spring of 2015, Jessica was able to send several dancers from KaNu, to Cuba to perform in the Findance festival. In the summer of 2016, she completed an intensive course on teaching early childhood dance with the Dance Education laboratory at the 92nd street Y. Jessica is extremely grateful for all opportunities she has been given and aspires to continue to enrich her life and the lives of others through the arts.
Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDProjectNYC: Johnnie Cruise Mercer is the artistic and choreographic director of Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDprojectNYC, a New York City based company that conceptually concentrates on the through excavation of the human super ego through performance. Using conversation and difference as an inspiration for creation, the company of artists alongside Mr. Mercer are devoted to acknowledging the connection between self and outer, while conjuring familiar and unfamiliar experiences in a stage space. Founded in 2014 in Richmond, VA (later to be relocated to New York City in 2015) Johnnie and the company have been presented/commissioned by The Dance Place, Dogtown Dance Theater, BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance), Gibney Dance's Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, Dogtown Dance Theater, The Center for Performance Research, Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), Danspace @ St. Mark's Church, Harlem Repertory Theater, The Greenspace, Dogtown Dance Theater, The Bolls Theater of Detroit, The Grace Street Theater of Virginia and as a part of various festivals throughout the country. The company has also been in residence at the University of Texas at Austin, Chez Bushwick Inc., NYU Tisch as a part of the Summer Residency Program, Silo Farms, and are currently in residence at the historical 92Y Harkness Dance Center. A company that falls into rejection as easily as acceptance, Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDprojectNYC is deeply invested into facilitating spaces/stage experiences that provide a front row seat to see unknown perspectives, re-live old or new memories, acknowledge emotional tendencies, and confront reality. The company tackles composition's relation to politics, history, human emotional availability, while quietly pushing the boundary between comfortably being and the uncomfortably sharing one's private self in public.
Johnnie is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University's Dance and Choreography, and will be in residence at York College with the company as apart of the Cuny Dance Initiative 2017-2018.
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FERTILE GROUND is a monthly new works showcase for emerging and established artists now in its 11th season, producing the work of over 50 choreographers each year. This non-curated performance event features five or six choreographers each evening and includes a post-performance discussion with wine, moderated by Green Space's Artistic Director, Valerie Green.
May 14th, 2017
7pm
Admission: $12
Tickets are available at the door or online at www.GreenSpaceStudio.org
Featuring:
AGile Dance Collective
Alaina Wilson Dance
AMO Dances
Angela Schöpke Dance Theater
The Aseemkala Initiative
JP Dance Group
Open Dance Ensemble
DANCE ENTROPY / GREEN SPACE
Dance Entropy Inc. created its company home base, Green Space, in Long Island City, in November 2005. Green Space is a spacious 2000 sq. foot venue housed in a former silk factory with magnificent views overlooking Manhattan. Green Space offers choreographers, dancers and the local community an affordable professional dance rehearsal, class, and performance space in New York City.
DIRECTIONS
By Subway: N, W, or the 7 to Queensboro Plaza, the first stop outside Manhattan. Take the North pedestrian bridge to the street. Look to your right, you will see Crescent St., turn right on Crescent and walk to 38th Ave. Turn left on 38th Ave. Walk one block to 24th street. Green Space is in the red brick, four-story building. (Approximately a ten-minute walk.)
SPONSORS FOR DANCE ENTROPY / GREEN SPACE
Green Space is supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, NYC Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and The Mertz Gilmore Foundation.
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