Velocity Dance Center Presents Ate9's Return Concert with New Works Tonight

Ate9 Dance Company has become one of the country's "hottest cultural commodities" (Dance Magazine). Join us as they return to Seattle to celebrate their 3rd anniversary at the venue where it all started: Velocity. mouth to mouth is a critically acclaimed contemporary dance piece created by Agami, former Batsheva dancer and Artistic Director of Ate9, with original music by Jodie Landau, merging "breathtaking physicality, sly humor, and a hip theatricality" (Dance Magazine).

When Ate9 premiered mouth to mouth in Vancouver, the Georgia Straight declared, "The rush of bodies, the detailed, edgy movement, and the thumping beats fully captured the sound and the fury, the rapture and the rush of life. Odd, fleeting, and gorgeous, it left you wanting much, much more."

Matt Drews' solo world premiere, The Weltgeist, is an exciting collaboration with composer Garek Druss (Saint Genet, A Story of Rats) and award-winning costume designer Anna Telcs (Saint Genet, Shabazz Palaces). Celebrated for his "completely captivating" (Seattle Dances) performances, Drews has drawn a following performing on the stages of On The Boards and Velocity, with companies such as tEEth, Ate9, Saint Genet, and Kate Wallich + the YC.

In 2012, after holding a three-day workshop at Velocity, Danielle Agami formed her company Ate9. The first beneficiary of Velocity's Made in Seattle program, Agami created her first full-length piece, Sally Meets Stu, which was commissioned and produced by Velocity. The show proved so popular that Velocity produced a sold-out encore performance. Matt Drews has long been a part of the Velocity family. His solo is supported through Velocity's Creative Residency program.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

DANIELLE AGAMI studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance High School and was a member of the Batsheva Dance Company from 2002-2010. Between 2007- 2009, Agami served as the artistic director of Batsheva Dancers Create and functioned as the company's rehearsal director from 2008-2010, during which she received the Yair Shapira Prize for Excellence in Dance in 2009.

In 2011 Agami relocated to New York City, where she functioned as Senior Manager of Gaga U.S.A. Since arriving in the U.S., Agami has met and taught thousands of dancers. During 2011 she created original work at Rutgers University (NJ), Boston Conservatory (MA), Springboard Montreal, Cornish College for the Arts (WA) and more. In 2012 After relocating to Seattle, Agami founded Ate9 dANCEcOMPANY, as her first longitudinal project and created both Sally meets Stu and Sheila for Ate9. In 2013, she chose Los Angeles as the company's home. During 2013 she presented TacTics forAte9, Shula in Israel, for the Batsheva Ensemble, This Time Tomorrow for NorthWest Dance Project in Portland, Oregon, Loose Gravel for Barak Ballet in L.A, and a unique collaboration with L.A. Dance Project for Invisible Cities by The Industry Opera.

Agami is a renowned Gaga teacher and for the past few years, has been traveling across the world as an ambassador of Ohad Naharin. In the past few years Agami has staged Naharin's work with Alvin Ailey Company, Ballet Atlanta, Ita Dansa / Barcelona, The Juilliard School, and more.

>> ate9dancecompany.com

JODIE LANDAU is a 21-year-old composer, vocalist, and percussionist. His
music combines elements of chamber music, rock, and jazz for live performance, film, theater, and dance. As a solo performer, Jodie sings while playing vibraphone and marimba. He has performed with groups such as ACE Jazz Collective, wild Up, Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, Gnarwhallaby, Gutbucket Chamber Orchestra, The Guthrie Project, CalArts Chamber Orchestra, and CalArts Percussion Ensemble. He studies at California Institute of the Arts in the Performer-Composer Program.

MATT DREWS is a movement artist who oscillates between the realms of dance, yoga + performance. His creative roles aqueous as choreographer, performer + teacher. He facilitates states of experience for bodies to investigate movement with a heightened lens toward healing, presence + ritual. He studied at Naropa University + holds a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts. His work has been produced at Decibel Electronic Music Festival, On the Boards + Velocity Dance Center. He has collaborated with Ate9 dANCE cOMPANY, tEEth Performance, Saint Genet, Kate Wallich + the YC, The Pendleton House + Modern Recollections. He is currently developing a new work as a 2015 Artist in Residence at Velocity Dance Center.

GAREK DRUSS is a Seattle-based artist and musician who uses aural and visual mediums to create a multi-layered experience that examines the phenomenological like singularity between sight and sound. Garek Druss manipulates frequency and tone to address notions of time, space, and ecstatic states. He often employs diagram- like watercolor drawings to navigate and score the formless sonic experience. Garek Druss creates work that subtly expands the audiences' palette for active listening, contemplation, and what can be perceived beyond the common awareness of self, sight and sound.

Druss is a member of the Seattle based ensemble Saint Genet, and has collaborated and preformed in a variety of musical projects, including A Story of Rats. He has performed extensively across the US and throughout central Europe including Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto, The Henry Art Museum in Seattle Washington, and the Forum Frohner Museum in Krems Austria.

ANNA TELCS

How we dress is one of our most fundamental modes of expression. Telcs' work combines historical and technical research, sculpture, sewing and dying techniques, filmography and performance to create objects that powerfully evolve our relationship

with clothing and the cultural elements it comprises. Telcs' personal work The Dowsing, is an ongoing exploration in textile-sculpture. As a costume designer Anna Telcs has collaborated with Saint Genet (formerly Implied Violence) from 2009 to 2013, highlights include a performance curated by Robert Wilson at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's Works and Process showcase. Telcs has costumed Cypher by Samita Sinha from 2013-2014, and is currently working with choreographer and artist Brendan Fernandes for Seattle Art Museum's Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, 2015.

PRESS
READ Review - "Ate9 Dance Company." Wendy Perron. wendyperron.com. May 26, 2014.

READ Feature - "Ate9's Danielle Agami doesn't need a mirror to know what she's doing." Victoria Looseleaf. LA Times. April 19, 2014.

WATCH Coming to Seattle...
WATCH Promo Video - mouth to mouth

ABOUT VELOCITY

Mayor's Arts Award and Genius Award winning Velocity Dance Center is Seattle's forward-thinking laboratory and essential incubator for dance and emerging ideas. A national nexus for dance, Velocity is recognized as a leader in new dance development in the US. With artist-driven, community-centered artistic and education programs, Velocity is instrumental in making Seattle a destination city with one of the most active dance communities in the nation. With artist-led classes and workshops every day, performances every week, three annual dance festivals, ongoing humanities programs that activate thoughtful conversations, as well as weekly community events from social dances to family-style dinners, Velocity is a portal for those new to dance and an important community resource. Home to hundreds of independent dance artists and renowned for producing innovative, cutting-edge work, Velocity has featured performances and master classes by art stars Tere O'Connor, Pat Graney, Reggie Watts, Miguel Gutierrez, Anouk van Dijk, Deborah Hay, Faye Driscoll, 33 Fainting Spells, KT Niehoff, Zoe Scofield/Juniper Shuey, Danielle Agami and many more. Velocity is Seattle's only dedicated contemporary dance venue where groundbreaking work and disciplined practice coexist.

VELOCITY MISSION

Velocity advances contemporary dance and movement-based art by fostering the creative explorations of artists and audiences through an invested commitment to education, creation, performance, inquiry, community participation, and inter/national exchange.

This presentation of Ate9 Dance Company is made possible through Velocity's Guest Artist Series, with special underwriting from Case van Rij, additional support from Seattle International Dance Festival, and support from season sponsors: 4Culture, ArtsFund, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, NEA Art Works, NEFA, The Seattle Foundation, Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, The Glenn H. Kawasaki Foundation, The Pruzan Foundation, Pacific Continental Bank, Boeing, Microsoft, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and media sponsor KUOW 94.9.

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