Leading Choreographers Create Site-Specific Dance at the Rubin Museum

Leading contemporary choreographers will premiere site-specific performances in a new dance series at the Rubin Museum of Art, presented in partnership with the arts organization Pentacle. For "Suspending Time," Beth Gill, Zvi Gotheiner, Raja Feather Kelly, and nora chipaumire have each created a work connected to the Rubin's exhibitions and 2018 theme, "The Future." The twenty minute performances will take place on four Wednesday evenings in March and April, each in a different gallery within the Museum.

March 21 - Beth Gill

Guggenheim, Doris Duke Impact, and Bessie award-winning choreographer Beth Gill has been making contemporary dance and performance in New York City since 2005. Her body of work critically examines issues within the fields of contemporary dance and performance studies, through a focused exploration of aesthetics and perception. Gill is a 2015-16 Princeton Hodder Fellow and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Extended Life Artist in Residence. She was a 2013-14 New York City Center Choreography Fellow, received a 2012 Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant, and was a selected artist for the Hatchery Project. In 2011 Gill was awarded two New York State Dance and Performance "Bessie" awards for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and the Juried Award "for the choreographer exhibiting some of the most interesting and exciting ideas happening in dance in New York City today."

March 28 - ZviDance

Zvi Gotheiner was born and raised in kibbutz Mesilot in northern Israel. He began dancing at age seventeen and soon after formed his first performance group. He joined the Bat-Sheva Dance Company after serving in the army. Zvi arrived in New York in 1978 on a dance scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and danced with the Joyce Trisler Dance Company and Feld Ballets/NY. After directing Tamar Ramle and the Jerusalem Tamar Dance Companies in Israel and the Israeli Chamber Dance Company in New York, he founded ZviDance in 1989. He has created more than twenty-five works for his company, among them Dabke, which was named by the New York Times as one of the ten best dance works of 2013. Zvi is a highly regarded ballet teacher, described by the New York Times as the "Zen Dance Master of New York." Most recently, Zvi received distinguished teaching awards from the American Dance Festival and the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center's Playing Field.

April 11 - the feath3r theory

Raja Feather Kelly was born in Fort Hood, Texas, and is the first and only choreographer to dedicate the entirety of his company's work to Andy Warhol and the development of popular culture over the last thirty years. Kelly can be seen in the work of Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group, Keely Garfield, and Kota Yamazaki. He has formerly been a company member with David Dorfman Dance, Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion, Christopher Williams Dance, Zoe | Juniper, Colleen Thomas and Dancers.

April 18 - nora chipaumire

Born in Mutare, Zimbabwe, and based in New York City, nora chipaumire uses her work to challenge and embrace stereotypes of the African black body. She seeks to question how status and power are experienced and presented, working within modes of portraiture, self-portraiture, and biography. She was awarded a 2015 Doris Duke Artist Award and is a three-time Bessie award winner. Chipaumire's most recent performance work, "portrait of myself as my father" (2016) has toured in Africa, Europe, and the United States, and her debut film, "Afro Promo #1 King Lady" (2016, commissioned by Montclair State University), was featured in the 2017 New York African Film Festival. She is now developing a new work titled #PUNK %POP *NIGGA (2018), and is currently a fellow at the Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) at the University of Cape Town.

About the Rubin Museum of Art

The Rubin Museum of Art is an arts oasis and cultural hub in New York City's vibrant Chelsea neighborhood that inspires visitors to make powerful connections between contemporary life and the art and ideas of the Himalayas and neighboring regions, including India. With a diverse array of thought-provoking exhibitions and programs-including films, concerts, and on-stage conversations-the Rubin provides immersive experiences that encourage personal discoveries and spark new ways of seeing the world. Emphasizing cross-cultural connections, the Rubin is a space to contemplate the big questions that extend across history and span human cultures. For more information, visit www.rubinmuseum.org

About Pentacle

Pentacle is a not-for-profit management support organization whose mission is to provide hands-on support to project-based choreographers and small dance companies, to help them further their artistic vision and strengthen the arts field. For over 40 years, Pentacle has served as a model for nonprofit administration, allowing artists to do what they do best-create art and engage with audiences. www.pentacle.org

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