The 2021 Virtual Dumbo Dance Festival Announced, Featuring 60 Companies From New York And Around The World

WHITE WAVE Dance will celebrate their 20th Anniversary season of the DUMBO Dance Festival VIRTUALLY! WHITE WAVE scours the globe in search of today's most innovative dancemakers, both emerging and established, and brings them VIRTUALLY together for one extended weekend, all the while paying extra attention to the new, emerging, and experimental. Dance lovers will experience a veritable cornucopia of the best of contemporary dance. 2021 VDDF attracts the very best by providing artists access to their global audiences to experience, first-hand, the incomparable vitality of the NY & around-the-world Dance scene. https://www.whitewavedance.org/.

2021 VDDF features 60 contemporary dance troupes combining over 350 artists who will present solo, chamber, and full-scale works. Dancers from across the United States, and internationally, from Mexico, Hungary, China, and Korea will join the New York's active dance community to offer the full range of new directions in Dance in the 21st century.

June 10 - 7pm VDDF VIRTUAL GALA

June 11 - June 13 - Festival Performances

June 13- Family Friendly Program

"This is a festival about opportunities," says Young Soon Kim, Artistic Director and founder of White Wave Dance. "The DUMBO Dance Festival, (now VIRTUAL) provides an opportunity for over 350 performing artists to showcase their work. Further, it offers New York and global audiences the chance to experience one of the most diverse displays of leading-edge choreography and excellence at an affordable price."

Among their roster group, VDDF welcome Daegu City Dance Company, the first national public modern dance organization in South Korea; Batsheva Dance Company's Sean Howe performs to Mozart's Sonata no.11; Mary Verdi-Fletcher, praised by Dance/USA for Dancing Wheels, is a "visionary who paved the way for generations of dancers with disabilities"; emerging Choreographer Olivia Passarelli recently won 1st place in the Shape Choreography Festival; TalCual is a NY collective by Latinx artists Katherine Garcia and Joan Rodriguez, both WHITE WAVE Dance members, present their wistful new dance-film Formerly Intangible; ShawnBibleDanceCo. presents his latest solo "Ash" set on dancer Ashley Menestrina in a contorted introspection into her psyche; RivelDuet, female duo, Jessica Smith and Chelsea Ainsworth, present Rabbithole, a work that "examines humanity's relationship to technology"; DDF 2019 awardee Jesse Obremski/ObremskiWorks hailed by Dance Magazine as "a dancer on the rise,", Jesse is a Juilliard grad, and member of Gibney and WHITE WAVE; collective A: Jinyeob Cha was Choreographer for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics Opening & Closing Ceremony and non-resident choreographer at Random Collision in Nederland; LeeTaeSang has won Best Choreographer at the 8th Dance Festival for the Critic's Choice of Artistsand 2014 UN Achievement Award; Kwak Young-eun (Meta Dance Project) received Grand Prize at the 2020 National Dance Festival in Seoul; Won Kim was an exchange professor at several institutions such as Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, the University Paris VIII(France) and Kinki University (Japan), and currently, she is a Member of TanztheatreOnes and a Board Member at Contemporary Dance Association of Korea; Yongchul KiM, Artistic director of SEOP Dance Company, is Adjunct Professor of Korea National University of Arts; Choi Sung-Ok has received Best Dance and Acting Awards in the National Dance Festival (1999), and Choreography Award (2015) in Korea.

2021 VIRTUAL GALA Opening Night: June 10, 2021 at 7PM

The 2021 VDDF will kick off with WHITE WAVE's Opening Night GALA Celebration on Thursday, June 10th at 7PM.

The evening will be hosted by distinguished guests keynote speakers will include: philanthropist and their Patron Gerald Appelstein; Dance Curator at SummerStage NYC Danni Gee; Jennifer Muller/The Works Artistic Director Jennifer Muller; former WHITE WAVE Board Member & Angel Ludo Scheffer; former WHITE WAVE Board Chair Thera Marshall, their longtime supporter and selection panel member Pascal Rekoert; along with Company Board members and their Artistic Director Young Soon Kim.

Their opening remarks will be to intersperse through-out the show by six sensational contemporary dance troupes: Jennifer Muller|The Works, Obremski/Works, three of the most eclectic companies from South Korea: DAEGU CITY DANCE COMPANY, collective A|Jinyeob Cha & Theatre Mucheon|Ara Kim, and host WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company.

Special Performance Opportunities:

This year at the 2021 VDDF, WHITE WAVE Dance will select TWO outstanding companies to have the opportunity to perform at the 2021 New Dance Festival in Korea; and at the 2021 Detroit City Dance Festival. Both of these highly regarded festivals will provide companies with another fantastic opportunity for further exposure, promotion, and performances. All participating VDDF companies will be carefully considered and will be notified after the GRAND FINALE PERFORMANCE!

In their commitment to presenting dance for all, the 20th Annual DUMBO Dance Festival is proud to announce the following events in their exciting 2021 program:

Family-Friendly Program: Sunday, June 13th 12 noon-3pm

Celebrating the next generation of dancers... and their parents (!) WHITE WAVE's Kids Can Dance education program will lead by a Company member, Katie Garcia with Hip Hop/B-boy and Modern Dance classes through Zoom Session for kids of all ages. Following the class, seven companies will take to the stage in a fun, exciting, and educational program featuring the best, family-friendly performances of the 2021 festival.

Grand Finale: Sunday, June 13th 8pm

For the VDDF Grand Finale, eight companies will present works. Their names will be announced shortly!

2021 DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL Performance Schedule:

Thursday, June 10 at 7pm - Virtual GALA Opening Night

Friday, June 11 at 7pm & 9pm

Saturday, June 12 at 2pm, 4pm, 6pm & 8pm

Sunday, June 13 at 12-1pm - Kids Can Dance (Open Free Class)

Sunday, June 13 at 1:30-3pm - Family Friendly Program

Sunday, June 13 at 4pm & 6pm - GRAND FINALE

The full performance schedule, please visit www.whitewavedance.org.

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