Durham's American Dance Festival to Bring Selections to New York Live Arts

The American Dance Festival (ADF) will present the work of Claire Porter & Sara Juli (October 10-11, 7:30pm), Yossi Berg & Oded Graf Dance Theatre (October 13-14, 7:30pm), and dendy/donovan projects (May 10-12, 7:30pm) at New York Live Arts.

"ADF is thrilled to present the New York premieres of three dance theater works by three outstanding contemporary dance companies," said Jodee Nimerichter, Executive Director. "These evening length works are filled with illuminating social commentary, humor, and poignancy. Durham, North Carolina audiences were wowed by these works this past summer, and we so happy to be able to share the talents of these sensational choreographers with New York audiences."

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Claire Porter & Sara Juli
October 10-11, 7:30pm
New York Live Arts

The duo Claire Porter & Sara Juli, first paired by ADF in 2015, present their latest ADF-commissioned collaboration, The Lectern: rule by rule by rule. Living according to rules is the demand on all of us. We are surrounded by the rules of our laws, protocols, manners, and expectations. But what are these rules? What are the rules of the game we're playing? And what happens when rules take over? Using movement, text, sound, song, and a catwalk runway, the acclaimed comedic performers upend our day-to-day, necessary-to-survive rule-rituals in The Lectern: rule by rule by rule and find the hilarious in the rule-bending of our daily lives.

Claire Porter is a writer, dancer, and choreographer who has performed in Scotland, Germany, Poland, Holland, Latvia, Korea, and India and in the US at The Joyce Theater, Town Hall, American Dance Festival, Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Florida Dance Festival, and The Kennedy Center with the American College Dance Association. Porter is a Guggenheim Fellow 2013 and has received NEA choreography fellowships, NJ State Council on the Arts choreography fellowships, NewMusicUSA awards, a Rockefeller Foundation residency at Bellagio Center Italy, and Mid-Atlantic choreography fellowships. She choreographs for her Claire Porter / PORTABLES, other dance companies, faculty members, and university dance companies. Claire performs her award winning Namely, Muscles, the poetic enactment of all the muscles of the body and then some, at body conferences, poetry festivals, medical schools, and theater festivals, most recently for the UnitedSoloFestival in NYC 2016.

Sara Juli has been creating and performing innovative solo work since 2000. In NYC, Sara's work has been presented by Performance Space 122, The Chocolate Factory Theater, Danspace Project, 92nd St. Y, Joe's Pub as part of the Dancenow/NYC Festival, Joyce Soho, Bushwick Starr, and Dixon Place, among others. Nationally, her work has been performed at the American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Napa Valley Opera House, SPACE Gallery, Connecticut College, UC Riverside, Bates College, Artown Reno, IN's Center for the Performing Arts, among many others. Her work has toured internationally to sold-out houses in The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, London, and Russia. Sara is a recipient of a 2015-16 New England Foundation for the Arts NEST Touring Grant, a New England Dance Fund Grant and is a 2017-18 National Dance Project recipient for touring support of her solo show, Tense Vagina: an actual diagnosis. Sara is also a 2017 Maine Fellow for the Performing Arts.

Yossi Berg & Oded Graf Dance Theatre
October 13-14, 7:30pm
New York Live Arts

Come Jump With Me is a daring, provocative, and witty work that examines the relevancy and significance of creating art in the urgent political reality of Israel. In the explosive political and social reality, this work indeed pushes the limits and "plays with fire," both literally and visually.

Since the beginning of Yossi Berg and Oded Graf's partnership in 2005 (after having incredibly successful individual careers in companies such as Batsheva Dance Company and DV8 Physical Theatre), this dynamic duo has built a reputation for creating supremely physical, provocative, and poignant dance works. Their company has toured extensively in the most prestigious venues around the world including Montpellier Danse, the American Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater NYC, DansensHus Stockholm, and SIDance South Korea, to name but a few. They create for opera houses and have won numerous choreography awards. Yossi & Oded offer new ways of looking at dance and performance. The duo were Aerowaves artists, received Israel's Ministry of Culture Award for Outstanding Choreographers, and in 2016 were awarded the Rosenblum Prize for Artistic Excellence in the Performing Arts. The choreographers' rich repertory includes 10 evening length works and many short works.

dendy/donovan projects
May 10-12, 7:30pm
New York Live Arts

The ADF-commissioned Elvis Everywhere is dendy/donovan projects' latest work. "America is Elvis Presley-the most beautiful, talented, rebellious nation in the history of Earth. And now, you're in your Vegas years. You've squeezed yourself into a white jumpsuit, you're wheezing your way through 'Love Me Tender' and you might be about to pass away bloated on the toilet. But you're still the King." - John Oliver

This performance contains adult language.

dendy/donovan projects choreographer Mark Dendy's work has been applauded for his "sharp wit" (Andrew Boynton, New Yorker). Inspired by an interview with Donald Rumsfeld on his encounter with Elvis Presley in Vegas, Dendy's Elvis Everywhere scrutinizes society's fascination and obsession with celebrity. Dendy utilizes the arc of Elvis's life as a metaphor for the United States, drawing chilling parallels to today's election cycle. (Lauded for his work's "speed, force, brilliance and surprise" (Alan Kresigsman, The Washington Post), Dendy has received a wide range of accolades for his work including a 1997 "Bessie" award, a 2000 Obie Award, the National Society of Arts and Letters Sustained Achievement Award (1990), and the Herb Alpert, and the Joe A. Calloway Awards (both in 2000), as well as numerous grants. Founded in 2008 with longtime collaborator Stephen Donovan, his company dendy/donovan projects focuses on creating socially conscious dance-theater work.

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Tickets to performances can be purchased online at newyorklivearts.org/calendar or by calling 212-924-0077.

Throughout its 84-year history, ADF has been a nationally recognized leader in our indigenous art form of modern dance. Generations of dancers and choreographers have come to ADF as students, taught as faculty, and created and performed work as professional artists. Each summer, ADF has been the beating heart of the dance world. The best companies in the world premiere work on ADF's stage, much of it commissioned by the festival. Other festivals and season programs are measured against ADF. Over 26,000 people see performances by more than 30 companies each season. The festival has commissioned 426 works and premiered 689 pieces including dances by Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Paul Taylor. Each summer at ADF, more than 370 students from some 25 countries and 42 states study with ADF's 70 faculty members. They come as kids in leotards with as many doubts as dreams. They leave as dancers and artists-and sometimes even new members of companies. Lives change in those 6½ sweaty weeks. Beyond the summer, ADF maintains year-round dance studios offering movement classes to over 650 participants, provides over 180 free classes to more than 3,900 local dancers, and offers choreographic residencies providing artists with the necessary space and time to create. Visit americandancefestival.org for more.

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