Jennifer Nugent To Debut New Work At Gibney Center, April 28-30

From April 28-30, Gibney Center will present the world premiere of up against, a new work by acclaimed performer Jennifer Nugent. Through invitation, memory, movement, text, and sound, Nugent's up against emphasizes physical resonance.

A collective endeavor between the artists, the set, and the audience the work highlights the mental and physical transition dancers undergo as performance unfolds. Asking for help, listening, allowing for consent, and following, Nugent invites the audience to participate by doing or witnessing. With the feeling of moving forward and backward at the same time and pouring weight from limb to limb, she questions the concept of stability inside an ever-shifting compositional structure. A minimal set design using classical pine wood theater flats, designed by Adrian W. Jones, creates a frame for imaginative play. Ted Coffey's intricately composed soundscape of synthesized melodies, constructed room tones, and occasional guitar builds upon itself throughout the 65-minute performance.

American Sign Language (ASL) Interpretation will be provided for all three performances by Jess Ames. up against features video by Tori Lawrence and was supported by Anna Wotring who served as rehearsal director and creative collaborator.

up against is commissioned and presented by Gibney Center as part of the 2021-2022 season curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa. The work is a part of Gibney Presents, Gibney's premier presentation series, offering a rich blend of dance and performance in fully-produced, evening-length commissions.

The creation of up against was supported by Triskelion Arts' Space Subsidy program supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, MOtiVE Brooklyn, (NYC), Sarasota Contemporary Dance Residency, Leymis Bolaños Wilmott (Sarasota, FL).

Ticket prices for performance: $15 - 20. Tickets available for purchase on Gibney website.

Upon arrival to Gibney Center for a performance, audience members will need to show proof of full vaccination (including booster dose, if eligible), a photo ID, and their tickets. Children under 17 will not need a photo ID, as long as they're accompanied by an adult. Children under five will not be admitted.

Face masks are required.

Jennifer Nugent addresses her body, mind and being through questioning. She articulates internal experiences through performance and teaching and augments these practices by sharing and refining ideas in front of others-a transmission of spoken and gestural language.

Nugent has been performing in NYC since 1999, most notably with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company from (2009-2014), David Dorfman Dance from (1999-2007), and Paul Matteson (2002-2020). She was a 2005 New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Awardee: "For her physical and emotional audaciousness, and for making abandon look controlled and control look abandoned, in the works of David Dorfman Dance among others." In 2011, Nugent was presented by PBS Southern California's LAart as "a dancer motivated by her passion for music and rhythm; her teaching practices are highlighted in a mini documentary made at the Bates Dance Festival, 2014, and a current Movement Research (NYC) Faculty Profile released in December 2019. Nugent received a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2019 from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA.

Her practices are profoundly inspired by Linda Rogers Albritton, Ann Cummings, Patricia Cummings, Beatrice LaVerne, Bambi Anderson, Dale Andree, Gerri Houlihan, Daniel Lepkoff, Wendell Beavers, Lisa Race, David Dorfman, Patty Townsend, Thomas F. DeFrantz, Paul Matteson, Barbara Sloan, and Janet Wong, Nugent is a teaching artist at Sarah Lawrence College, Gibney Center, and the hybrid platform freeskewl.

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