The Bang Group Presents POP PERFORMANCE: WOMEN IN MOTION

The Bang Group presents POP Performance: Women in Motion from Thursday, January 30 to Saturday, February 1 at 8pm at The Theater at Gibney, 280 Broadway (entrance at 53A Chambers). Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door, and can be purchased online at https://gibneydance.org/event/pop-performance-women-in-motion-commission/2020-01-29/, by phone at 646-837-6809, or in person at The Theater at Gibney 280 Broadway (entrance at 53A Chambers).

Women in Motion Commission 2019/2020:

Brilliant, challenging and charming, Women in Motion 2019-2020 Commissioned Artists asubtout (Katy Pyle + Eleanor Hullihan), Rebecca Stenn, and Same As Sister (S.A.S.)/Briana Brown-Tipley + Hilary Brown-Istrefi bring their crafted, diverse ingenuity to the Gibney stage.

The Centaur Show is a nouveau New Age fantasy death metal poperetta about two centaurs on an interstellar voyage to save their (non) binary star system from imminent supernova. Originally created by artists Katy Pyle and Eleanor Hullihan in 2007, 13 years later the pair return to their former personae as they look back on all the ways their world has already imploded, and stop to put on latex gloves to pick up the crystal shards of what remains. Featuring original live music, costumes, video and choreography by asubtout

Rebecca Stenn

The Oak and The Willow is a new duet choreographed by Rebecca Stenn and performed by Stenn and dancer Quinn Dixon. The original, commissioned live music score is composed and performed by Jay Weissman on electric bass. The Oak and The Willow is a painterly exploration of the movement of color and brushstroke, and creates a continually unfolding and evolving visual canvas on stage. Costumes are created collaboratively by Stenn and Dixon.

Against the familiar yet anonymous backdrop of an IKEA store, the young Sámi protagonist of Same As Sister's "Kallax" will go on a journey of ascent into American celebrity. Performer, Kristina Hay, joined by the supporting cast of Leigh Atwell, Hilary Brown-Istrefi, Briana Brown-Tipley + Jamie Robinson, will encounter the aspirations, expectations, fears, and consumptions of our contemporary society.

About Women in Motion

Women in Motion is a volunteer-run organization whose mission is to foster female and female-identifying choreographers through commissioning, producing and mentoring. Founded in 2000, WIM has produced a diverse group of over 90 dance artists, and the list of once-emerging, now-established choreographers goes on. In addition to their annual concert performance, WiM hosts quarterly performance salons presented in non-traditional performance spaces throughout the city, offering female artists the opportunity to show work-in-progress in a supportive, intimate setting, intended to create a dialogue between artists and audiences. Women in Motion is directed by Melissa Riker, Erin Cairns Cella, and Amber Sloan.

asubtout is a two-person collaborative dance band created by artists Eleanor Hullihan and Katy Pyle in 2003. Throughout the Aughts, Katy and Eleanor presented work as asubtout at Galapagos, Ur (the dance palace), PS122, Dixon Place, BAX, La Mama and in Miguel Guitierrez's loft.

Eleanor Hullihan

is a dancer/performer, choreographer and teacher based in Brooklyn, NY. Eleanor received early training from North Carolina School of the Arts, ADF, Tisch School of the Arts and SEAD. She continues to study the Cunningham technique, ballet with Janet Panetta, Iyengar yoga with Genny Kapuler and various other modalities that come her way. Eleanor has performed with John Jasperse (2003-2016), Beth Gill, Andrew Ondrejcak, Sufjan Stevens, Jessica Dessner, Sarah Michelson, Jennifer Monson, Tere O'Connor and Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener among others. She is currently collaborating with Jimmy Jolliff and Asli Bulbul on mixed media video/dance/sound projects.

Katy Pyle re-imagines ballet culture through an intersectional queer feminist lens. Pyle's company, Ballez, uses the gendered vocabulary of classical ballet in unexpected combinations to create large-scale projects that celebrate complex contemporary queer identities, making space for diverse representation within ballet's traditionally exclusionary culture. Major works include "The Firebird, a Ballez," Danspace Project (2013), "Variations on Virtuosity" American Realness (2015), and "Sleeping Beauty & the Beast," La Mama (2016). Pyle choreographed "Slavic Goddesses," at the Kitchen (January, 2017) for artist Paulina Olowska. The company has been supported by the Jerome Foundation, Mertz Gilmore, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Mount Tremper Arts, and over 1500 individual donors. Pyle has brought Ballez to Yale, Princeton, Sarah Lawrence and NYU, Whitman College, Bowdoin College, and Beloit College. The Ballez has been featured in the New York Times, Dance Magazine, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, Bust Magazine, and on NBC. Pyle teaches Ballez Class regularly at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and on faculty at Eugene Lang College. ballez.org

Rebecca Stenn (dancer, choreographer, educator, writer, painter) has been hailed in The New York Times as an artist who possesses "wit, concision and gutsy passion." Rebecca Stenn Company has performed in over 50 cities, including such venues as The Edinburgh Festival, The Joyce Theater, BAM Fisher, Danspace Project, and Jacob's Pillow. As a dancer with MOMIX, Stenn performed in over 30 countries, and appeared as a featured performer in films for Italian, Spanish and French television. Stenn is a founding member of Pilobolus Too. She is currently on faculty at The New School and Princeton University and is Choreographer-in-Residence at Dartmouth College. Recent projects include the completion of the Elusive Bird Trilogy at the Gowanus Loftand the recently published book,

A Life in Dance: A Practical Guide.

Quinn Dixon (dancer)grew up dancing around his mother's farmhouse in Wisconsin. He briefly studied dance at UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts, where he met Rebecca Stenn. Quinn moved to NYC at 18 to apprentice with LeeSaar the Company. In addition to his work with Stenn,Quinn performs in Sleep No More, and enjoys being in process with Molly Mingey Projects and SWG Dance Theatre. He creates work in a collaborative environment under the alias private parts.

Jay Weissman (composer/bassist) is by far the luckiest bass player in the world, getting to work in a continuous music and dance collaboration such as Rebecca Stenn Co. He has also composed for and performed with such diverse artists as Pilobolus Dance Theatre, The Flux Quartet, Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach, and Perry Farrell. His compositions have been featured at Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theatre, Merkin Concert Hall, Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, as well as the Andy Warhol Museum.

Same As Sister (S.A.S.)/Briana Brown-Tipley + Hilary Brown-Istrefi is a Toronto and NYC based performance collective founded in 2013. S.A.S. collaborates within the fields of experimental dance, theater, music, video and design, to retell familiar stories in unfamiliar ways. Their interdisciplinary commissions have been presented at venues in Greece, Italy, France, Canada and the US including Video Art Miden exhibitions at Kinitiras, Marmo - Libreria d'Arte Contemporanea, MOMus - State Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Archaeological Museum of Messenia; Centre d'Art Marnay Art Centre (2017 Artist Program Residents); Dancemakers Centre for Creation; Danspace Project (Platform 2018); BRIC Arts | Media House (2015 BRIClab Residents); and New York Live Arts (2014-15 Fresh Tracks Residents). They are the recipients of a New York Foundation for the Arts' 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography; a Foundation for Contemporary Arts' 2017 Emergency Grant in Dance; and were finalists for the Jerome Foundation's 2019-20 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship in Dance. sameassister.squarespace.com

WOMEN IN MOTION

2008: Lindsey Dietz Marchant, Sara Joel, Melissa Riker, Sharon Estacio, Janessa Clark/KILTERBOX

2009: Jessica Edkins, Janusz Jaworski, Alexandra Shilling and Ann Robideaux, Amber Sloan, Esther Palmer

2010: Anne Zuerner, Yina Ng, Amiti Perry, Kate Enright

2011: Julie Fotheringham, Zena Bibler, Jessica Morgan, Erin Cairns Cella

2012: Rachel Cohen, Laurie Berg

2014-15: Zoe Rabinowitz, Deborah Lohse, Maura Nguyen Donohue/inmixed company

2015-16: Kristin Swiat, Remi Harris, Brynne Billingsley

2017-18: Joya Powell, Rebecca Lazier, Garnet Henderson

2019-20: Katy Pyle (asubtout), Same As Sister, Rebecca Stenn

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