Norte Maar, a committed international think-tank dedicated to the creation, promotion, and presentation of collaborations in the disciplines of the visual, literary, and the performing arts, presents the sixth season of Counterpointe, a curated performance series features new work by women choreographers for pointe. Seven women choreographers have been paired with 7 NY metro-based women visual artists to collaborate and create both a new physical and visual work by each - investigating the process of creation, inspiration and development. The annual series will be presented April 13-15 at The Actors Fund Arts Center in downtown Brooklyn.
Inaugurated in 2012 CounterPointe is focused on the presentation of new works by women choreographers for the pointe shoe. The series has been celebrated for breaking new ground expanding the ballet concert vocabulary, investigating new and historic territory, encouraging discussion and creating a forum for women, young or old, emerging or established, to take artistic risks. This spring the series will present collaborations by Courtney Cochran with artist Melissa Dadourian, American Ballet Theater corps de ballet member Zhong-Jing Fang with artist Audra Wolowiec, Donna Salgado with artist Liz Atz, Dasha Schwartz with artist Lindsay Packer, konverjdans with artist Priscilla Fusco, Eryn Renee Young (XAOC Contemporary Ballet) with artist Jeri Coppola, and series curator Julia K. Gleich (Gleich Dances) with artist Karen Schifano. (Curiously, Karen Schifano shares a historic connection with Julia Gleich. Discovered after the pairing, Karen and Julia, who had never met, discovered that Karen's mother, Natalie Schifano, was Julia's Hastings High School art teacher.)
"This is Norte Maar's 6th year producing the work of women artists, and the third year of new and exceptional visual collaborations which involve pointework," explains Julia Gleich, co-founder of Norte Maar and originator of the CounterPointe Series. "Every year it is my unique opportunity to witness the development of these new works which celebrate a range of artistic approaches to ballet. And each year the submissions get better and better. We have been quietly continuing to promote new work, creating opportunities to innovate, and supporting artistic collaborations in New York and abroad for 13 years."
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department for Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION:
Friday, April 13 at 7:30 pm (post-performance reception with the choreographers and artists)
Saturday, April 14 at 7:30 pm (post-performance discussion with artists and choreographers)
Sunday, April 15 at 4:30 pm
General admission tickets are $25, Students and seniors, $20. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at http://bit.ly/2pvK6QF.
VENUE INFOMATION:
The Actors Fund Arts Center is located at 160 Schermerhorn Street in downtown Brooklyn and accessible by A, C, or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn. 2, 3 to Hoyt Street. F, R to Jay St./Metrotech. 4, 5 to Borough Hall.
REPERTORY DETAILS
Uncurtain | Work in Progress, 2018
Collaboration: Courtney Cochran with artist Melissa Dadourian
Music Credit: Alabama Shakes
In a representation of boundaries, this work explores the patterns of human nature, the need for love and trust, and the evolution into division, prejudices, and uncertainty.
Untitled | Work in Progress, 2018
Collaboration: Zhong-Jing Fang with artist Audra Wolowiec
Music Credit: Audra Wolowiec
A work steeped in ballet vocabulary, this work pursues the dynamic relationships between dancer and audience, struggle and victory.
Flux | World Premiere, 2018
Collaboration: Dasha Schwartz (Cardboard Stage) with artist Lindsay Packer
Music Credit: Max Richter
Appreciation of the subtlety of shifting border, edges and movement between the material and the immaterial, the light and color collaboration represent a physical presence and an expansive and constantly shifting color field in an atmosphere in which the dancers might appear and disappear, catching color and light as they move.
Untitled | World Premiere, 2018
Collaboration: konverjdans with artist Priscilla Fusco
Music: Zoë Aqua and Chris Aiello
Video Projection: Sergio Carrasco
Inspired by the film by Priscilla Fusco featuring the Blue Death Feigning Beetle, this new work integrates the strangeness, discomfort and oddity of dancing with a live crawling accessory. Creating unique and strangely beautiful movements, the nuance of this improv will be further detailed by a projection on the back of the stage, filmed Sergio Carrasco.
Seen Through | World Premiere, 2018
Collaboration: Julia K. Gleich (Gleich Dances) with artist Karen Schifano
With constant conversations of walls, Seen Through considers the ways structure can both influence and isolate. Glimpses of forms and obstructed bodies are seen through openings in a stepped terrain asking what goes on behind closed doors, in people's houses, under the surface. The work is a series of episodic collages instigated by iconic identities danced in music settings that range from the popular to the avant garde.
Untitled | Work in Progress, 2018
Collaboration: Eryn Renee Young (XAOC Contemporary Ballet) with artist Liz Atz
Music: Beethoven
Videos