Video: 10 Hairy Legs Dance Company Presents JUST SUITS August 24 in New Jersey

Randy James' all male dance company, 10 Hairy Legs, will perform Just Suits at Crossroads Theatre, 7 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick on August 24 at 5:00 pm as part of Hub City Sound's 2013 month long festival of music and dance. Admission is free.

"Bull" in many ways was the "son" of "Horn" (1990) which was the first in a series of three original duets that comprise "Live Sax Acts" by David Dorfman and Dan Froot. Where "Horn" was a non-verbal, sax-playing, body-flinging show of affection and competition charting Dan and Dave's budding friendship, "Bull" dug deeper, using verbal improvisation and provocation amplified through electronic bullhorns to excavate intimate feelings rarely shared by men together. The fifteen minute performance piece features a slap dance, replete with pleasantries exchanged in a banter as crisp as the slaps. Later, crotch-grabbing replaces slaps as fodder for commentary and a personal fantasy section ensues where the duo re-define "hotness" for themselves. By "Bull's" end, a hope for tenderness permeates the stage. Company members Kyle Marshall and Carlo Antonio Villanueva will debut in the work.

Porter, a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship award recipient for choreography, pulls apart what seems to be normal and then puts it all back together in funny, absurd, touching pieces of spoken word and movement. "Her repertoire is cleverly crafted from everyday gestures that reveal human foibles." Wilma Salisbury, The Plain Dealer. Company member Tyner Dumortier will perform Piano.

David Parker's Bang is a subtly witty duet. The performers lie side by side on the floor, punctuating their movements with slaps and unexpected kisses. Performed by company members Kyle Marshall and Nick Sciscione, it is an ode to the rhythm of the body. Parker set the work on 10 Hairy Legs last season - the first time it has been performed by a company other than his own. Alex Biegelson will perform Porter's Interview.

10 Hairy Legs, now in our second season, is a repertory company - comprised entirely of men -­- of Randy James' work as well as existing and new works by today's most significant choreographers, not meant to reflect a specific point of view about the male experience, but rather to celebrate and explore the tremendous technical and emotional range of today's male dancer. 10 Hairy Legs seeks to advance the understanding of the male role in dance through the creation, acquisition and performance of exceptional work. Our World Debut performance prompted Robert Johnson, Dance Critic for The Star-Ledger, to cite 10 Hairy Legs among the top 20 dance events of 2012 in his year-end review, along with notables in the field such as The Paris Opera Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Bill T. Jones, Jiri Kylian and Sylvie Guillem.

The Founding Principal dancers are: Alex Biegelson, Tyner Dumortier, Kyle Marshall, Scott Schneider and Nick Sciscione. In addition to 10 Hairy Legs, they currently appear with Stephen Petronio, Doug Elkins, ZviDance and Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company. Tony Bordonaro, Robert Burke, Aaron Ramos and Carlo Antonio Villaneuva join the founding members.

For more information about this event: 732-729-0320 X 203 or www.newbrunswickarts.org

10 Hairy Legs is funded in part by a leadership grants from The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, New Music USA's 2013 Live Music For Dance Program, with generous support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, and the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission.

Partner organizations for Hub City Sounds include The City of New Brunswick, Civic League of Greater New Brunswick, New Brunswick Recreation, New Brunswick Jazz Festival, New Brunswick Jazz Project, George Street Playhouse, American Repertory Ballet, State Theatre Regional Arts Center, Crossroads Theatre Company, New Brunswick City Market, JT Jazz Project, Judah Tribe, Devon's Renaissance, 10 Hairy Legs, CoLAB Arts, 90.3 The Core, Don Giovanni Records, and Elijah's Promise.

Randy James, Artistic Director of 10 Hairy Legs, has made a significant impact in the field of dance for more than three decades locally, regionally, nationally and internationally as a highly regarded dancer (Dan Wagoner and Dancers, Princeton Ballet), choreographer, teacher and staunch advocate of the arts.

James' former company, Randy James Dance Works, operated with uninterrupted service for 16 years until 2009, at which time he and the board decided to put the company on hiatus. James has an international following as a master teacher and choreographer, receiving commissions from dance companies, colleges and universities across the nation. The New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State honored him with two Choreography Fellowship in recognition of his artistic excellence and named him "Distinguished Teaching Artist."

James has been a guest artist at various institutions, including American Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow, London Contemporary Dance Theatre and School, VII Annual International Contemporary Dance Conference and Performance Festival in Poland, Tage des Tanzas in Germany and Austria, Fine Five School in Estonia, Via Danse in Latvia, Dance Space, Inc., SUNY Purchase, George Mason University, University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Greensboro, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, East Carolina University and Ram Island Dance, among others.

About The Bang Group

THE BANG GROUP, founded in 1995 by David Parker and Jeffrey Kazin who continue to direct the company together, is devoted to Parker's love of rhythmic form and the humor which flows inevitably from it. TBG appears regularly throughout NYC and has been presented in ten full evening programs at Dance Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts) including Nut/Cracked (which celebrated its 10th consecutive season in December 2012). The company has appeared in 13 countries and 23 of the United States. TBG has been in residence every summer at Concord Summer Stages Dance Festival in Massachusetts for the past 12 years and has presented almost all of Parker's new work there. Parker is a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship Award Winner for choreography.

About David Dorfman and Dan Froot

DAVID DORFMAN - artistic director of David Dorfman Dance since 1985, has been Professor of Dance and now Department Chair at Connecticut College since 2004.Dorfman is the 2007 recipient of The Martha Hill Fund for Dance's Mid-Career Award anda 2005 Guggenheim Foundation fellowship to continue his research and choreography in the topics of power and powerlessness, including activism, dissidence, and underground movements. This research culminated in underground, performed by David Dorfman Dance and 25-50 additional dancers around the world. He recently appeared on several episodes of A Chance to Dance, a reality show on OvationTV starring Dorfman's pals, the BalletBoyz who invited David Dorfman Dance to make a three minute video for RandomAct/Channel 4UK. We Don't Own a Dog came out of that invitation and can be seen at http://www.balletboyz.com/videos/we-dont-own-a-dog-c4-random-act/.Dorfman has been honored with four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, three New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships, an American Choreographer's Award, the first Paul Taylor Fellowship from The Yard, and a New York Dance & Performance Award ("Bessie") for David Dorfman Dance's community-based project Familiar Movements (The Family Project). Dorfman's choreography has been produced in New York City at venues ranging from the BAM Next Wave Festival (2000, 2006, 2013) to The Joyce Theater, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, The Duke on 42nd Street, Danspace Project/St. Mark's Church, P.S. 122, and Dancing in the Streets. His work has been commissioned widely in the U.S. and in Europe, most recently by AXIS Dance (Oakland), Bedlam Dance Company (London), d9 Dance Collective (Seattle), Eisenhower Dance Theatre (Detroit), and the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia for the musical Green Violin, for which he won a 2003 Barrymore Award for best choreography. Dorfman toured an evening of solos and duets, Live Sax Acts, with friend and collaborator Dan Froot, most recently in New York City and at the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe. Dorfman has been a guest artist at numerous institutions across the country and abroad. As a performer, he toured internationally with Kei Takei's Moving Earth and Susan Marshall & Co. Dorfman holds a BS in business administration from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA in Dance from Connecticut College.

DAN FROOT is a producer, composer, writer, saxophonist, and dancer. He has performed throughout the U.S. and overseas since 1983 with such artists as Yoshiko Chuma, Ping Chong, David Dorfman, Mabou Mines, Dan Hurlin, Ralph Lemon, Guy Klucevsek and Victoria Marks. He received a Bessie (New York Dance & Performance Award) for his music/theater piece, "Seventeen Kilos of Garlic," and a City of Los Angeles Artist Fellowship and a playwriting commission from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture for his gangster-vaudeville, "Shlammer." "Who's Hungry" (2012), an adult puppet play in collaboration with Dan Hurlin, will tour throughout New England in 2013-14. Dan teaches at UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance.

About Claire Porter

Claire Porter, known for her smart comedic work mixing language and movement, has performed Claire Porter / PORTABLES internationally with appearances in India, Scotland, Germany, Holland, England, Latvia, and Korea. In the New York City area her work has been produced at Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace St. Mark's Church, PS 122, Joe's Pub, The Kitchen, The Joyce Theater, Joyce SOHO, 92nd Street Y, Town Hall, The Bottom Line, The New York Horticulture Society, Liberty Science Center, and The New Jersey Performing Arts Center. PORTABLES has also showcased at the American Dance Festival, The Lucille Ball Festival of Comedy, Bates Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Florida Dance Festival, The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theater (Washington, D.C.), Tampa Bay Off Center Theater, Duncan Theater (Palm Beach, Florida), Center Stage (Raleigh, North Carolina), The Southern Theater (Minneapolis), The Yard on Martha's Vineyard, among others.

Porter's work has highlighted special events, including a performance introducing the Peter Eisenman Building at the University of Cincinnati, performing as hostess-comedienne-scene-changer for the Minnesota Composers Forum's New Music Concert, and performing in Mikhail Baryshnikov's 2009 GALA. She has also appeared on staircases, boats, backyards, gyms, classrooms, airports, humor festivals, museums, and soapboxes. Porter has performed her Namely, Muscles, an enactment of all the major muscles of the body in poetry, and recipient of the NYC Fringe Festival 2010's Overall Excellence Award, at festivals, body conferences, theaters, medical schools, and universities around the U.S.

Porter was a Resident Artist at The Baryshnikov Art Center and has received several National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, New Jersey State Council for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Awards, a Live Music for Dance Award and Commissions from Dance Theater Workshop's First Light Project, The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival, Art Matters, Meet The Composer, Vogue Magazine, University Dance Companies, including Purchase College 2013, and Domino's Pizza Company. Porter has taught Laban Movement Analysis and/or Choreography f

To post a comment, you must register and login.