January Virtual Salon Series for Social Change 2023 at Virtual

Mark DeGarmo Dance Broadcasts its 13th Annual Virtual Salon Performance Series for Social Change, featuring NYC, U.S., International, Emerging, and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color)  Dance Performing Artists, on Thursday, January 5, 2023 7:00-8:30 PM ET on Zoom: a sharing of works-in-progress with a facilitated audience response curated and facilitated by dancer, choreographer, writer, researcher, and Founder, Executive & Artistic Director of MDD Dr. Mark DeGarmo.

Thursday, January 5th, 2023 7:00 PM ET on Zoom*

*Zoom Link will be sent to attendees at 4:00 PM ET the day of the performance from info@markdegarmodance.org. If a donation for tickets is made after that time, the MDD staff will send the link via email as soon as possible. Contact info@markdegarmodance to communicate regarding ticket status.

Tickets by Donation:

Online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mdds-virtual-salon-performance-series-for-social-change-jan-5th-2023-tickets-473667792117?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb

Paypal: paypal.me/markdegarmodance

Venmo: Mark-DeGarmo-2

Mark DeGarmo Dance launches its 13th annual transcultural transdisciplinary Virtual Salon Performance Series for Social Change for a New York City and State, national, and international audience on Zoom with performances of works-in-progress featuring global performing artists from New York City and the Democratic Republic of Congo-Kinshasa -- Lucia Gagliardone (Brooklyn, New York), Misaki Hayama (Manhattan, NY), Rush Johnson (Manhattan, NY), David Lopiki (Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo-Kinshasa) on Thursday, January 5th at 7:00 PM ET. Each performance is curated and includes audience response supported, encouraged, and facilitated by Dr. Mark DeGarmo.

Founded in 2010, MDD's Salon Performance Series for Social Change aims to support the professional learning and development of its selected performing artists. SPS provides a curated opportunity for the general public to view, engage with, and demystify original dance and movement works-in-progress of selected guest artists. Since October of 2020, MDD produced and presented 18 salons, including 2 Virtual International Arts Festivals featuring 329 Artists from 18 states: California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky. Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin & 29 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, England, France, Germany, Haiti, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Trinidad, Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, & USA.

NYC lost two thirds of its employment in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sectors between December 2019 and December 2020 according to a report by the New York State Controller’s Office.There was also a notable exodus of the population from the early global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. The effects of the pandemic continue to be felt across the City with lowered quality of life indicators, such as, increased concerns about safety, subways, street crime, homelessness, and rodent infestations among others. 

MDD’s immediate pivot to live virtual programming since March 2020 led the fields of dance, performing arts, education, and nonprofit organizations from the beginning of the COVID-19n pandemic. MDD’s webinar on navigating live remote teaching with New York City public elementary schools and students for the National Dance Education Organization for 150 U.S. dance educators in June 2020 exemplifies its commitment to dance in all of its forms for all audiences locally, nationally, and internationally. In 2023, MDD continues to lead its fields and domains of endeavor by returning to live in-person performing arts-based performances, productions, and presentations in and from New York City in order to help the City recover and to rebuild from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

MDD will broadcast its January, February, and March Salons live on Zoom with artists and audiences interacting live. MDD will broadcast its April, May, and June Salons from MDD Studio Theater 310 at The Clemente Center in NYC’s Lower East Side with live performers and audiences simultaneously broadcast via Zoom for a global audience. 

Dancer/performer, choreographer, writer, and researcher Mark DeGarmo founded and curates MDD’s innovative series. He supports and facilitates audience response as part of each salon. DeGarmo guides positive discourse among the artists and audience members and encourages the public to actively participate in the development of original works-in-progress and understanding of dance as an accessible transcultural transdisciplinary art form and an essential part of humankind’s global cultural heritage.

https://markdegarmodance.org

About the Artists

Lucia Gagliardone (she/her/hers) is a Vermont-born choreographer and dance artist whose movement origins are found in intergenerational, community-centered dance-making directly amongst the trees, on the land, and in the waters. Lucia has premiered eleven original live and film dance works, which have been presented by The Living Room, Bowdoin College, Taffety Punk, The Hopkins Center for the Arts, Atlas Performing Arts Center, and has performed in works by Reggie Wilson with the Fist and Heel Performance Group, Katy Pyle with Ballez, Aretha Aoki, Gwyneth Jones, Olga Aru, and as a principal dancer for Flock Dance Troupe under the artistic direction of Carol Langstaff.

Misaki Hayama (she/her/hers) was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She moved to New York in 2015 as a scholarship student at the Alvin Ailey Dance School. After graduating from Alvin Ailey School, she presented her work ”Touryanse” at Ailey Citigroup Theater, Tank Theater and The Works Studio. In 2019, she performed a 30-minute solo dance ”Warabe Uta” at the TADA!Theater. In 2021, She performed the same piece in Green Space as a Take Roots 2021 artist.

Rush Johnston (they/them) is a Bronx-based artist who creates at the intersection of visual and performing art, often exploring modes of artistic expression beyond the binary. Their work often plays with perception and identity, often encompassing themes of political turmoil, queerness, Indigeneity, and mental health.

Lopiki Mboko David (He/Him/His), born in Goma, DR Congo, is a social technic diplomate and the Choreographer and Artistic Director of HEARTIST DANCE COMPANY, standing out today in the urban environment. Driven by the desire and passion to learn different forms of contemporary dance, in 2016 he joined the INUKA DANCE COMPANY and trained during BUSARA DANCE COMPANY workshops and masterclasses. He never stops learning by participating in creations, training internships and dance workshops in his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and worldwide. This is his second appearance in MDD’s VSPS.

About Mark DeGarmo Dance

Mark DeGarmo Dance, founded in 1987 and celebrating its 35th Anniversary in 2022-23, is a leading New York City nonprofit dance organization located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side at NYC-owned The Clemente Center. MDD educates under-resourced and marginalized New York City Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities and children; creates, performs and disseminates original artistic and scholarly work; and builds transcultural community through dance arts. In 2022, MDD taught over 1,000 under-resourced elementary public school students and 100 teachers across Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens in its evidence-based elementary school educational intervention Partnerships in Literacy through Dance & Creativity© program with the support of federal pandemic relief funds. The program is deemed “a national model” by the National Endowment for the Arts. President Barack Obama commended DeGarmo and MDD for “your service to your community and the nation.”

About the Founder

Founder, Executive & Artistic Director Mark DeGarmo, Ph.D., B.F.A. is an award-winning, internationally recognized choreographer, performer, researcher, and educator with a passion for transcultural and international community-building. New York press and audiences have heralded his dance performance work as “mesmerizing” and “fearless” and DeGarmo as “a gladiator in various arenas.” Dance Teacher Magazine made him its cover feature (June 2017). Martha Hill Dance Fund awarded him its Mid-Career Award (2015). His Las Fridas: A Movement Installation and Offering is invited to the Mexico City International Contemporary Dance Festival in August 2022. DeGarmo’s latest research publication, Roadkill, American Style was published in November 2022 with original photographs and poetry in hardcover and online in Massive/Micro Autoethnography: Creative Learning in COVID Times, Editors Daniel X. Harris, Mary Elizabeth Luka, and Annette N. Markham, Volume 4 in the Studies in Arts-Based Educational Research series by Springer, Singapore.

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