Pentacle Curates Dance At The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Starting July 14

While the Garden remains closed, we are sharing special performances by artists whose work connects plants, people, and the planet. In a time when we cannot gather together in the Garden, we are grateful to bring the voices and work of these artists to you virtually.

Each performance will premiere live on BBG's Facebook page, and afterward remain available here and on Facebook to enjoy and share.

Curatorial Partner for all four dance events: Pentacle

Raphael Xavier & Gary Dourdan

Tuesday, July 14, 2020 | 7 p.m. EDT

Performed in front of the weeping beech near Oak Circle in June 2020.

In this work, Xavier explores the intuitive concept of listening, assessing, and adapting through improvisational street dance. Acoustic sound and movement drawn from environment and experience intertwine to create an ambient performance that reflects on growth and maturity. Dourdan accompanies on flute, guitar, and beats.

A multitalented artist who has forged an exceptional approach to improvisation, Raphael Xavier is a self-taught hip-hop dancer and has practiced breaking since 1983. His work draws upon B-boy culture and his background as a photographer and musical artist. As a sound designer, his understanding of movement and musicality allows him to structure beats, noises, and sounds into captivating music that draws upon emotion and coincides with his choreography. Xavier started choreographing dance with the Brandywine School of Ballet in 1995 and spent years with the renowned hip-hop dance company Rennie Harris Puremovement; he's been recognized as a Pew Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, and United States Artist Fellow and his solo and ensemble choreographic dance works have been performed worldwide. Originally from Wilmington, Delaware, Xavier currently lives in Philadelphia and is a guest lecturer in dance at Princeton University.

Born in Philadelphia, Gary Dourdan (Kolâde Kouyaté) evolved in a culturally rich environment: His uncle was a saxophonist who played with Platinum Hook and Sister Sledge, his brother was a DJ on WRTI radio, and his father encouraged his children to explore literature and the arts. A graduate of the prestigious Freedom Theatre Performing Arts training program, Dourdan relocated to New York where he spearheaded two musical projects, the eclectic act Rent Money and rock band New Congregation, and also sang for the Bell Café Band. Dourdan is an actor who has appeared on CSI and in the film Alien Resurrection and has performed at the Emmy Awards with Macy Gray and on stage with hip-hop artist DMC at the Live 8 concert in Ontario, Canada. He works closely with multiple nonprofit organizations including the Heart Fund, aimed at bringing "state-of-the-heart" surgery to children in need in areas such as Haiti, India, and West Africa.

Company SBB: Unnatural Contradictions

Tuesday, July 21, 2020 | 7 p.m. EDT

Performed in the Osborne and Woodland Gardens in June 2020.

This film study by Stefanie Batten Bland's Company SBB offers the point of view of a Garden visitor who happens upon three installation solos by Jennifer Payán, Yeman Brown, and Bland herself paying homage to Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. Costumes by Shane Ballard and music by long-term SBB collaborator Paul Damian Hogan.

Jerome Robbins awardee Stefanie Batten Bland is an interdisciplinary global artist who interrogates contemporary and historical culture with work situated at the intersection of dance-theatre and installation. She created her Company SBB in Paris in 2008 and established it in New York City in 2011, when she was in residency at Baryshnikov Arts Center. Known for her unique visual and movement aesthetic and commissioned by numerous global fashion and lifestyle companies, Batten Bland also directs dance cinema films and recently created a virtual global performance for EU Day and a physical performance installation related to climate change, both for the United Nations.

SBB received her MFA in interdisciplinary arts from Goddard College and lives in SoHo with her family. A 2019 fellow for New York University's Center for the Ballet Arts, in 2019 she was named a choreographer for American Ballet Theatre's inaugural Women's Movement initiative and premiered her recent work "Look Who's Coming To Dinner" at La MaMa for FIAF's Crossing the Line Festival. Company SBB will celebrate its tenth U.S. anniversary in the 2021-2022 season with historic and new works.

Dance Heginbotham: You Look Like a Fun Guy

Tuesday, July 28, 2020 | 7 p.m. EDT

Performed on Cherry Esplanade in June 2020.

You Look Like a Fun Guy is based broadly on avant-garde composer John Cage's methods of creation and his commitment to mycology. Dancers Courtney Lopes and Mykel Marai Nairne share a series of identical, short movement phrases; the phrases are performed in an order randomly selected for each performer.

Dance Heginbotham (DH) is a New York-based contemporary dance company committed to supporting, producing, and sustaining the work of choreographer John Heginbotham. With an emphasis on collaboration, DH enriches national and international communities with its unique blend of inventive, thoughtful, and rigorous dance theater works and a mission to move people through dance.

The company is celebrated for its vibrant athleticism, humor, and theatricality. Well-known for his 14-year tenure as a dancer with Mark Morris Dance Group, artistic director John Heginbotham creates work known for its "tight formal structure and inventive movement, bolstered by a disarming wit and strangeness" (New Yorker). In recognition of his unique artistic vision, Heginbotham received the 2014 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award and a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Development of You Look Like a Fun Guy has been generously supported through creative residencies at the National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron (NCCAkron), where Heginbotham is currently an artist in residence; and White Oak, funded by the Howard Gilman Foundation.

Inspiration for this work: In 1959, John Cage correctly listed the 24 white-spored Agaricus species to win top prize on the Italian game show Lascia o raddoppia. He gave most of the winnings to his artistic and life partner, choreographer Merce Cunningham, specifically for the purchase of a VW bus to transport members of the young Merce Cunningham Dance Company during its early performance tours.

Urban Bush Women: The Artist Journal

Tuesday, August 4, 2020 | 7 p.m. EDT

Performed in the Water Garden in June 2020.

In this sharing of active research, company members Courtney Cook and Love Muwwakkil explore practices for navigating discomfort, healing, and visioning onward that have charted the survival and progression of people of color. Engaging in "Listening, Re-Membering, and Restoring," the dancers cite their bodies, their environment, and the Garden's collection as reservoirs rich with experience and memory.

Urban Bush Women (UBW) galvanizes artists, activists, audiences, and communities through performances, artist development, education, and community engagement. With a groundbreaking performance ensemble at its core and ongoing initiatives including the Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), BOLD (Builders, Organizers & Leaders through Dance), and the Choreographic Center, UBW continues to strengthen the overall ecology of the arts by promoting artistic legacies, projecting the voices of the underheard and people of color, bringing attention to and addressing issues of equity in the dance field and throughout the United States, and providing platforms for culturally and socially relevant experimental art makers. www.pentacle.org

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