AVANT-GARDE-ARAMA is Coming to Kingston's Lace Mill Gallery in March

Avant-Garde-Arama Visits The Lace Mill, the latest iteration of a festival of short works of dance, music, performance art and video that originated in the Lower East Side in the '80s, will be coming to Kingston's Lace Mill Gallery, on Friday and Saturday March 31 & April 1 6pm. Lace Mill Gallery is located at 165 Cornell Street in Kingston, NY. Admission is $20.

Avant-Garde-Arama was originally created in 1980 by performance artist Charles Dennis and musician/visual artist Jeffrey Isaac at the legendary East Village, Manhattan venue Performance Space 122 (P.S. 122) now Performance Space New York. Producer Charles Dennis was a co-founder of P.S. 122 and presented his critically acclaimed inter-disciplinary dance, performance art and video in that space for over 40 years.

In 2019, Charles Dennis moved from Brooklyn, NY to Hurley, NY and began searching for opportunities to present avant-garde, experimental works to the Hudson Valley. During the summer of 2021, he curated and produced two Avant-Garde-Arama programs that were presented at the Mountain View Studio in Woodstock NY.

The Lace Mill is an anchor of the Ulster County arts community. Built in 1903, the U.S. Lace Curtain Mill employed hundreds of Kingstonians - particularly women - over several generations. RUPCO purchased it in late 2013. The building currently houses 55 affordable apartments with a preference for artists. The building offers several gallery spaces and designated shared and private work studios.

Avant-Garde-Arama Visits The Lace Mill presents a smorgasbord of short works in an informal, cabaret setting with a cash bar, hosted by Charles Dennis over two consecutive evenings. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online here. Parking is available on Manor Avenue and Progress Street.

Avant-Garde-Arama Visits The Lace Mill Performances:

Claire Porter - In her piece Sexy Grammar, an earnest librarian strives to arouse her audience to the love of grammar. Carried away, she recomposes herself after each attempt to finally succeed by getting down down down to the basics of grammar. It's a strip. Choreography, Performance and Text by Claire Porter. Music by David Rose.

Charles Dennis & Spaghetti Eastern Music - Performance artist Charles Dennis will perform a different movement piece each night. Friday March 31 he offers his dance duet with a stack of 2 x 4 lumber, "2 x 2 x 4", featuring live electric guitar music by Sal Cataldi aka Spaghetti Eastern Music. An EP of the score from a performance of the piece at Avant-Garde Arama Lands in Woodstock in July 2021 was much praise, with Chronogram Magazine calling it "melodic, transcendent, cool and inspired, a wave of sonic warmth and light. On Saturday April 1, Charles performs his latest work, "Recycle Me", a duet with his plastic waste featuring live electric guitar music by Sal Cataldi/aka Spaghetti Eastern Music.

Ian Laughlin - Video "Flower Power" - Collaboration with David Van Tieghem - Percussionist/Composer & Performance. Ian Laughlin - Sound Sculptor FLOWER POWER_IRL22_75" x 37" x 24" Painted wheelbarrows, pitchforks, knives & forks, alarm bell, drainage pipe, brake drum, tires, & microphone. Sound mixes David Van Tieghem.

Sylvia Bullett - Video "Hokey Pokey" (edit by Ian Laughlin). Music by Sylvia Bullett synthesizers and vocals Sylvia Bullett guitar and vocals Dave Cook drums and vocals Dan Hickey recorded at Area 52 Studios by Dave Cook mastered by Tod Levine/Magnetic North Studios.

Shelley Wyant - A Mask Walk - short intermittent performances between the evening's longer performances.

Nancy Ostrovsky - A live painting performance to complement a live performance by violinist Megan Gugliotta.

Peter Wexler - Solo piano improvisations.

Mia Brazilian Jazz Trio - Mia sings Brazilian jazz with guitarist Peter Einhorn and acoustic bassist Lou Pappas.

Artist Biographies:

Claire Porter of Claire Porter / PORTABLES is a writer, dancer and choreographer with an extensive record of performances and residencies in Europe, Asia and in the USA. Porter is a Guggenheim Fellow who has received National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, New Jersey State Council on the Arts Choreography Fellowships and Mid-Atlantic Choreography Fellowships. She has received many university commissions for her work, including Out of The Question for Purchase College and Sentenced to Sentences for Montclair State's New Works Initiative. She created Falling for Prepositions with composer Mary Ellen Childs with support from a New Music for Dance Grant. Porter teaches Laban Movement Analysis, Choreography, and Improvisation in the MFA program at Montclair State University and Creativity as Practice at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Porter has an MA in Dance from Ohio State, a BA in Mathematics and is a Laban Movement Analyst.

Charles Dennis is an interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, director/producer, video cameraman/editor and proprietor of Charles Dennis Productions, a company that produces festivals of live art as well as providing videography services to a host of corporate and not for profit clients. Charles has been an active participant in downtown New York dance and performance for over 40 years. In the 1970's he performed in many of theater director Robert Wilson's early works. In 1979 Charles co-founded Performance Space 122, one of this country's most active presenters of new dance and performance. He created and performed solo and large group community-oriented performances at P.S. 122 and other venues from 1980-2000, receiving numerous fellowships including, most recently, a 2022 commission from Arts Mid-Hudson to create and perform his latest solo performance work "Recycle Me" which was presented at the Greenkill Gallery and the Rosekill Art Fram in Kingston, NY.

Sal Cataldi (aka Spaghetti Eastern Music) is a Saugerties & NYC based guitarist/keyboardist. Sal's solo project Spaghetti Eastern Music fuses krautrock and jazz fusion-fired guitar instrumentals with intimate vocal ballads straight out of the Nick Drake/John Martyn playbook. The New York Times says "Cataldi's funk-tinged original instrumentals and acoustic vocal tunes have a beat unmistakably his own" while Time Out New York writes: "his largely instrumental, Eastern-influenced jams are infused with some delicate guitar work and hauntingly moody atmosphere." Hudson Valley One calls him "part Sergio Leone fever dream, part Ravi Shankar raga, a whirling dervish of musical creation."

Nancy Ostrovsky has been "Painting To Music" in performance with musicians for more than 40 years. She has been called "one of the pioneers of performance painting." The paintings are done "live" while she is on stage with the musicians as they play. Ostrovsky uses the immediacy of the musicians, the music and environment to record the performance in a highly original and innovative context She has performed at many venues including Jazz At Lincoln Center, Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston, Knitting Factory, The Fabrik- Germany, The John Coltrane Memorial Concert, Rochester School of Music, WGBH, USIA/Germany, Massachusetts College of Art, The International Festival of Media Art Media Future/Germany, and The Festival of Women Improvisers to name a few.

Megan Gugliotta - With not much rhyme or reason, eight-year-old Megan Gugliotta chose to play the violin in her Buffalo area school program, but it quickly became her favorite activity. After earning degrees in Music Education and Violin Performance at the University of South Carolina, she began her teaching career on Long Island in 1998. In 2007 Megan moved to the Hudson Valley after she was hired by the Middletown City School District to start a string program from scratch. She is currently the orchestra director at Middletown High School. In addition to her teaching career, Megan is an active performer. She enjoys playing a wide range of genres, from Classical to ambient and improvised. Currently, she performs with the Northern Dutchess Symphony and with local rock band Tulula. She is also the pit violinist at the Woodstock Playhouse during their Summer Theater Festival season. Megan resides in Kerhonkson, NY with her husband Biagio and their cat Louie Sweets.

Peter Wetzler - After a lifetime of writing music for dance, theater, film and tv Peter Wexler has transformed his interpretation of visual elements into live improvisation, creating soundtracks of the moment via solo piano. Wetzler returns to his roots as a classical pianist and brings years of experimental, jazz and non-western elements into an evolving palette of rhythms, timbres and harmonic motion.

Ian Laughlin Originally from Christchurch, New Zealand, Ian Laughlin graduated from Ilam University with a Fine Arts Degree with Honors. After exhibiting in numerous galleries and museums throughout New Zealand and in Sydney, Australia, he moved to NYC in the early 1980's. There he exhibited at Fashion Moda, M13, Ronald Feldman, Arbitrage/Anita Shapolsky, the Drawing Center, PS1, Exit Art, MoMA, and more recently at White Box, Y Gallery, and Pratt Manhattan. Within the US Laughlin has shown work at the Smithsonian, Washington DC; Mexic Art, Austin Texas; Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio; and internationally at 2B Galeria, Budapest, Hungary; ZAIM, Yokohama, Japan; and Museum of Arts and Crafts, Itami, Itami-shi, Japan. In Upstate New York works have been exhibited at Donskoj, WAAM, Kingston Sculpture Biennale, Upstate Art, GCCA Catskill Gallery, Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, Cross Contemporary, Byrdcliffe, & Streamside. He currently lives and has his studio in Chichester, NY.

Mia Jazz Trio is led by Mia, a jazz vocalist enchanted by the music of Brazil. She brings joy, improvisation and adventuresome arrangements to the creative conversation between these two musical traditions. With her warm voice, Mia delights in singing beautiful Brazilian melodies, playing in the waves of Brazilian rhythms, and scatting her way through its rich harmonies back to jazz. You'll hear Bossa Nova classics by Jobim sung in English and Portuguses, compositions by contemporary Brazilian composers and improvisations that transcend all language! Mia's CD entitled "Encantada" was described by jazz critic Scott Yarrow as "irresistable, inspired and extremely enjoyable". Mia is joined by guitarist Peter Einhorn and acoustic bassist Lou Pappas. Mia has brought her ensemble of world-class Brazilian jazz musicians to venues such as The Jazz Forum, The Cornelia St. Cafe, Pangea and The Rockwood Music Hall. She has performed in São Paulo with Brazilian jazz guitarist Renato Consorte and around New York City with an array of musicians ranging from GrammyAward winning saxophonist Donny McCaslin to trumpeter/band leader Frank London. Musicians, pianist Matt King, bassists Itaiguarra Brandão and Eduardo Belo and percussionist/vocalist Nanny Assis are regular members of her Brazilian Jazz ensemble.

Shelley Wyant has worked with masks since she went to Bali in 1981.She has taught MaskWork at many notable universities and conservatories from YALE and BROWN to SUNY New Paltz over the last 42 years. Currently she is teaching at TERRY KNICKERBOCKER STUDIOS in Industry City, Brooklyn. She is proud to have trained thousands in this exquisite form of expression.

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