Kyle Marshall. Photo: Ted Alcorn.

Anabella Lenzu

DraftWork: Anabella Lenzu / Kyle Marshall

Saturday, February 1 at 3pm
DraftWork is free and open to all! No advance reservations.

Curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones, the DraftWork series hosts informal Saturday afternoon performances that offer choreographers an opportunity to show their work in various stages of development.

Performances are followed by discussion and a reception with the artists and curator.

DraftWork is presented, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Accessibility: Danspace Project’s main entrance is fully wheelchair accessible via ramp. A same-level restroom is available near Danspace Project’s main performance space in the church sanctuary.

Originally from Argentina, Anabella Lenzu is a dancer, choreographer, writer and teacher with over 25 years experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy, London and the USA. Lenzu directs her own company, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama (ALDD), which since 2006 has presented 380 performances, created 14 choreographic works and performed at 100 venues, presenting thought provoking and historically conscious dance-theater in NYC. ALDD’s work has been seen at La Mama, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Movement Research at Judson Church, 92nd Street Y, HERE Arts Center, Abrons Arts Center, DMAC, Queens Museum, Bronx Museum, Gibney Dance, Center for Performance Research, Roulette, Chashama, Dixon Place, Sheen Center, The Consulate of Argentina in NYC, NYU/Casa Zerilli Marimo, University Settlement, Baruch Performing Arts Center, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Instituto Cervantes, 3LD Center for Art & Technology, among many others. She has received grants from Brooklyn Arts Council, Puffin Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Edwards Foundation, The Vermont Community Foundation, and the Independent Community Foundation. She holds a MFA in Fine Arts (concentration in Choreography) from Wilson College, PA. Classically trained at the renowned Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires, Lenzu studied the modern dance techniques of Humphrey/Limòn and Graham in New York. Her studies of Tango and the folkdances of Argentina, Spain, and Italy, further inform her work. Her choreography has been commissioned all over the world for opera, TV programs, theatre productions, and by many dance companies. Lenzu founded her own dance school L’Atelier Centro Creativo de Danza in 1994 in Argentina, and has maintained an active teaching career ever since. Lenzu has written for various dance and arts magazines, and published her first book in 2013, entitled Unveiling Motion and Emotion. The book contains writings in Spanish and English on the importance of dance, community, choreography, and dance pedagogy. Her second book, Teaching Dance through Meaningful Gestures, is expected in 2020, and explores basic exercises, visualization exercises, active imagination and artistic application. The book explores how technique is a philosophy and a theory, and how the body is an instrument for expression. Currently, Lenzu conducts classes at Peridance Capezio Center and NYU Gallatin, and is Artist-in-Residence at CUNY Dance Initiative, 2019-2020.

Dancer and Choreographer Kyle Marshall is a 2018 Bessie Award winner and a NJ State Council of the Arts Fellow. His dance company, Kyle Marshall Choreography (KMC) sees the dancing body as a site for celebration, an igniter of social change and a container of history. KMC has performed at venues including: Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Joe’s Pub at the Public, Actors Fund Arts Center, NJPAC, NYC Summerstage, Wassaic Arts Project, and Conduit Dance (PDX). Commissions have included: “Dance on the Lawn” Montclair’s Dance Festival, NJPAC and Harlem Stage. KMC has received residencies from MANA Contemporary and County Prep High School. Kyle dances with the Trisha Brown Dance Company and graduated from Rutgers University with a BFA in Dance.

Photo: Rachel Neville

NYTB/Chamber Works: REP

Community ACCESS provides subsidized off-season rental opportunities for Danspace Project community members.

NYTB/Chamber Works returns to Danspace Project for their sixth season with their REP program. Works on this program include:

RICHARD ALSTON
The Small Sonata (co. premiere)

ROBERT LA FOSSE
The Soldier’s Tale (premeire)

ANTONIA FRANCESCHI
Uncaged (premiere)

PAM TANOWITZ
Double Andante

With its ever-expanding repertory, NYTB/CHAMBER WORKS’ cutting-edge programming brings fresh insight to classic revivals paired with the modern sensibilities of both established and up-and-coming choreographers. Going strong in the 40th year, NYTB’s diversity in repertory explores the past while boldly taking risks on the future with respected programs: NYTB/CHAMBER WORKS with REP, the ONCE UPON A BALLET Series, the NYTB SCHOOL and the LIFT Community Services Program. NYTB is a resident organization at St Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery.

day pulls down the sky album and book cover art. Original art by Ralph Lemon.

Saturday Afternoon Conversation #1: Platform as Practice – Collaborative Organizing

We are not able to accommodate any more advance reservations at this time. We encourage you to attend on Saturday, February 22, and we will do our best to find space for everyone. Thank you for your understanding!

Saturday, February 22, 12-5pm
Doors open 11:30am.
Please enter quietly.

DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM

This conversation takes place in the Parish Hall at St. Mark’s Church. See below for schedule & accessibility info.

Lydia Bell, Maura Donohue, Judy Hussie-Taylor, Kristin Juarez, Seta Morton, Okwui Okpokwasili, Cecilia Vicuña, Asiya Wadud, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, and others to be announced. With food installation by Spiral Theory Test Kitchen: Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Quori Theodor & Precious Okoyomon.

This series of long form conversations unfolds over four Saturday afternoons during PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus. They will allow for different ways to gather, talk, and share practice. Curators, artists, audience, writers, scholars, friends and family will take this slow time to process the lines of inquiry guiding the Platform to come together, across disciplines.

To open the day, writer-curator Eva Yaa Asantewaa will invite participants to form a circle of light and voices, building from quiet to a fabric of sound formed by the interweaving of names of ancestors and ourselves.

SCHEDULE
Please note: all times are approximate.

11:30am: Parish Hall Opens (Please enter the space quietly)

12pm: Opening Ritual, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

12:15pm: Trembling Archive, Kristin Juarez

12:20pm: Land Acknowledgment and Platform Introduction, Okwui Okpokwasili

1pm: 10th Anniversary of The Platforms & Collaborative Inquiry: Lydia Bell, Maura Donohue, Judy Hussie-Taylor, Kristin Juarez, Seta Morton, and Okwui Okpokwasili

2-2:15pm: Programmatic Pause

2:15pm: Cecilia Vicuña

2:45pm: Asiya Wadud

3:15pm: Spiral Theory Test Kitchen

3:30-5pm: Publication Launch/Album Release Party

This opening day will end with a toast to three public releases:
day pulls down the sky, The debut vinyl album from Okwui Okpokwasili;
day pulls down the sky / a filament in gold leaf, a book collaboration between Asiya Wadud and Okwui Okpokwasili;
PLATFORM 2020: Utterances From The Chorus, Volume I, The Platform 2020 Catalogue

Food and edible art installation by Spiral Theory Test Kitchen:
Light snacks will be offered throughout the day and an edible art installation by Spiral Theory Test Kitchen will be on display. If you have food sensitivities or allergies please proceed with caution. If you have airborne allergies please let us know, seta@danspaceproject.org. Thank you.

Accessibility: Danspace Project’s main entrance is wheelchair accessible via a ramp. The Parish Hall is accessible through the 11th street doors via one (8 inch high) step or a (28.5 inch wide) temporary ramp with assistance from our staff. Please request the use of the temporary ramp, ahead of the event date. All gender bathrooms are accessible via a stairway (24 steps that are all 7.5 inches high). A same-level, one stall restroom is available near Danspace Project’s main performance space in the church Sanctuary. The doorway of that bathroom is 33 inches wide. There is a small corridor to pass through when moving between the Sanctuary and Parish Hall, the narrowest corner of this corridor is 29 inches wide.

CART (Communication access real-time captioning) will be provided.

Part of PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus

Photo: Vincent Daenen.

Okwui Okpokwasili & Peter Born: Sitting On a Man’s Head

Friday, February 28, 6-10pm
Friday, March 6, 6-10pm: We are no longer taking advance ticket reservations for this evening at this time. However, there will be a limited number of tickets available for sale the night-of at 6:15pm and 8:15pm. Night-of tickets are $25, cash-only.
Friday, March 13, 6-10pm: We are no longer taking advance ticket reservations for this evening at this time. However, there will be a limited number of tickets available for sale the night-of at 6:15pm and 8:15pm. Night-of tickets are $25, cash-only.
Friday, March 20, 6-10pm: We are no longer taking advance ticket reservations for this evening at this time. However, there will be a limited number of tickets available for sale the night-of at 6:15pm and 8:15pm. Night-of tickets are $25, cash-only.

The box office for Sitting On a Man’s Head will open at 5:30pm. Ticket holders are welcome to enter any time between 6-9:45pm to experience this durational practice.

One of PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus‘s central questions “How do we weave a collective song?” builds on the ideas behind Okpokwasili’s and Born’s durational piece, Sitting On a Man’s Head.

Okwui’s 2016 research into Nigerian women’s embodied protest resulted in the durational performance created by Okwui and Peter. The practice known as “sitting on a man” was a disruptive durational practice and a public act of shaming carried out by a collective of women in Southeastern Nigeria. It involved gathering in the private courtyard of a colonial official, dancing and singing songs that expressed their grievances and was designed to embarrass the official until he promised to address their concerns. This practice was used by women as a critical tool to protect their economic and social interests.

Rather than “shaming” or seeking redress, Okpokwasili’s and Born’s Sitting On a Man’s Head is an attempt to create a “space of restoration and restitution,” write Okpokwasili and Born. “We are engaged in a creative practice concerned with the formation of new bonds of kinship. In collaboration with a select group of artists, we use the tools of our performance practice to build a space for the creation of an improvisational public song composed of aural and choreographic gestures. Can a shared creative practice be generative and generous while also being instructive in imagining new possibilities of communal relations?”

The work features a rotating chorus of performers, who will activate the performance: Martita Abril, Peter Born, Jennifer Brogle, mayfield brooks, Leslie Cuyjet, André Daughtry, Eisa Davis, Brittany Engel-Adams, Lily Gold, Naja Gordon, Melanie Greene, Audrey Hailes, Remi Harris, Jasmine Hearn, Justin Hicks, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Chaesong Kim, Tendayi Kuumba, Breyanna Maples, Priscilla Marrero, Anais Maviel, Okwui Okpokwasili, Maya Orchin, Kay Ottinger, Jess Pretty, Greg Purnell, Hans Rasch, Katrina Reid, Jean Carla Rodea, Lily Bo Shapiro, Samita Sinha, Eleanor Smith, Tatyana Tenenbaum, David Thomson, Pyeng Threadgill, Asiya Wadud, Charmaine Warren, AJ Wilmore, Anna Witenberg, and Nehemoyia Young.

Part of PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus

Accessibility Danspace Project’s main entrance is fully wheelchair accessible via ramp. A same-level restroom is available near Danspace Project’s main performance space in the church sanctuary.

Other performances

Photo: Ian Douglas.

Saturday Afternoon Conversation #2: Kin & Care

Saturday, February 29, 12-4pm
RSVP

DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM

devynn emory, iele paloumpis, Angie Pittman, Jaime Shearn Coan, and Maura Nguyen Donohue.

Facilitation by Seta Morton
Audio Description by Alejandra Ospina
Grounding exercises and Mental Health Resource, Jasmine Cohen (LCAT, R -DMT)
Cupping Practice, Kristin Cheng (LMT, L.Ac.)
Sound Bath, GraceElaine F. Osborne

This series of long form conversations unfolds over four Saturday afternoons during PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus. They will allow for different ways to gather, talk, and share practice. Curators, artists, audience, writers, scholars, friends and family will take this slow time to process the lines of inquiry guiding the Platform to come together, across disciplines.

In 2016, Danspace Project’s Lost & Found Platform revealed the persistent connections between artists and legacies of care. Dance is a vital vehicle for this heightened attending that we call care, and during that (11th) Platform, curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones and Will Rawls to focus on the impacts and echoes of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, time became elastic, history reshaped itself, and tenacious bonds formed among kindred spirits.

Initiated by Danspace Executive Director and Chief Curator, Judy Hussie-Taylor in Spring 2019 and with facilitation from Danspace Project’s Assistant Curator, Seta Morton, The Kin and Care Research Fellows: devynn emory, iele paloumpis, Angie Pittman, Jaime Shearn Coan and Maura Nguyen Donohue have been following individual threads that have gathered along the lines of blood and time. The group has circulated questions and writings about what it is to be kith, kin and/or comrades, as well as the sustainability of care as a practice.

Plans for the culminating event grow out of conversations about time as it relates to trauma, death and dying, queer time, “crip-time.” It has turned towards the bodies that disrupt linear time, including vampiric and sci-fi entities navigating blackness, isolation, white supremacy and the violence inherent in late-stage capitalism. The group has investigated the complex symbolism and rich materiality of blood in relation to ancestry, indigeneity, seropositivity, and Eastern and Western medicine, and healing.

We will gather in the Sanctuary of the St. Marks church. The day will end with a shared meal in the Parish Hall of St. Mark’s church.

SCHEDULE (Please note: all times are approximate.)

Throughout the day, guests are invited to come in and out of the collective programming while also invited to independently explore the space where stations, resources, and accommodations will be available to be activated.

11:30am: Sound Bath, GraceElaine F. Osborne
12pm: Land Acknowledgement, devynn emory and Angie Pittman
12:10pm: Welcome, Seta Morton
12:15pm: Listening to “How to Catalogue a Crisis: An Afterward to Lost and Found: Dance, HIV/AIDS, New York, Then and Now (2016)”, iele paloumpis, Jaime Shearn Coan, and Samantha the robot screen reader
12:35pm: mmm, devynn emory (with post-performance/lecture conversation facilitated by Seta Morton)
1:15pm: Collective Vibrational Tuning, led by iele paloumpis
1:30pm: Open Space Exploration
2pm: Kin & Care Research Group Panel Conversation, devynn emory, Angie Pittman, iele paloumpis, Jaime Shearn Coan, and Maura Nguyen Donohue. Moderated by Jaime Shearn Coan.
2:45pm: Collective Land Acknowledgment
3pm: A Shared Meal in the Parish Hall

Guests may sign up for 20-minute cupping sessions with Kristin Cheng anytime between 1-4pm.

Accessibility: Danspace Project’s main entrance is wheelchair accessible via a ramp. The Parish Hall is accessible through the 11th street doors via one (8 inch high) step or a (28.5 inch wide) temporary ramp with assistance from our staff. Please request the use of the temporary ramp, ahead of the event date. All gender bathrooms are accessible via a stairway (24 steps that are all 7.5 inches high). A same-level, one stall restroom is available near Danspace Project’s main performance space in the church Sanctuary. The doorway of that bathroom is 33 inches wide. There is a small corridor to pass through when moving between the Sanctuary and Parish Hall, the narrowest corner of this corridor is 29 inches wide.

CART (Communication access real-time captioning) will be provided.

Audio Description will be Provided for devynn emory’s mmm performance lecture

If you have food sensitivities or allergies please proceed with caution. If you have airborne allergies please let us know, seta@danspaceproject.org. Thank you.

Part of PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus

Accessibility Danspace Project’s main entrance is fully wheelchair accessible via ramp. A same-level restroom is available near Danspace Project’s main performance space in the church sanctuary.

Angie Pittman is a New York based Bessie award-winning dance artist, dance maker, and dance educator. Her work has been performed at The Kitchen, Gibney Dance, BAAD!, Movement Research at Judson Church, Triskelion Arts, STooPS, The Domestic Performance Agency, The KnockDown Center(Sunday Service), The Invisible Dog(Catch 73), and Danspace Project. Angie is currently working as a collaborator and dance artist with Adam Linder, devynn emory/beastproductions, Anna Sperber, Stephanie Acosta, and Donna Uchizono Company. Angie has had the pleasure of dancing in work by Ralph Lemon, Tere O’Connor, Jennifer Monson, Kim Brandt, Tess Dworman, Antonio Ramos, Jasmine Hearn, Jonathan Gonzalez, and many others. Angie’s work resides in a space that investigates how the body moves through ballad, groove, sparkle, spirit, spirituals, ancestry, vulnerability, and power. Angiepittman.com

iele paloumpis is a dance artist, death doula and intuitive space-holder. their work is rooted in kinesthetic awareness and ancestral healing practices – all within a trauma-informed framework that centers social justice.Choreographic works have been shown through the Chocolate Factory Theater, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, New York Live Arts, Dixon Place, the Flea Theater, Movement Research, Painted Bride Art Center, and Franklin Street Works, among others. iele is excited to premiere their newest evening length work, “In place of catastrophe, a clear night sky” at Danspace Project this coming May 21st, 22nd and 23rd, 2020. iele received a BA from Hollins University in 2006 and was awarded end of life doula certifications from Mount Sinai, Valley Hospice, and the Quality of Life Care, LLC Accompanying the Dying Program between 2014-16. As a disabled, queer, trans survivor from a working class background, iele empathizes across multiple axes of oppression and brings this awareness to their work a dance artist and death doula.

Jaime Shearn Coan is a writer, editor, and PhD Candidate in English at The Graduate Center, CUNY, where he is completing a dissertation titled Metamorphosis Theater: Performance at the Intersection of HIV/AIDS, Race, and Sexuality. A current 2019-2020 CUNY/Schomburg Center Archival Dissertation Year Fellow, Jaime previously served as a Mellon Public Humanities Fellow at The Center for the Humanities, CUNY and has taught literature, composition, and creative writing at City College, Hunter College, and Queens College, CUNY. Jaime’s writing has appeared in publications including TDR: The Drama Review, Critical Correspondence, Drain Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Jacket2, Movement Research Performance Journal, Gulf Coast, On Curating, Women & Performance, and Bodies of Evidence: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Politics of Movement. Jaime is a co-editor of the Danspace Project 2016 Platform catalogue: Lost and Found: Dance, New York, HIV/AIDS, Then and Now and author of the chapbook Turn it Over, published by Argos Books.

devynn emory is a mixed Lenape/Blackfoot choreographer and dance artist living in Lenapehoking. emory’s company devynnemory/beastproductions sources from multiple in-between states of being both in their body as a transgender person, and in their work in multiple realms of liminality as a healer/bodyworker and emergency/hospice Nurse. emory was institutionally trained in rigorous classical lineages of line and exactitude. They have thus committed to formalism as a tool for structural reclamation, investigation and decolonization of pattern making. In addition to making choreographic work they lead ceremony, movement and writing workshops, and engage in somatic practices releasing grief concerning trauma and death and dying.

Maura Nguyen Donohue appreciates the kinship of two teen sons and many other sibling spirits. She is Associate Professor of Dance and Faculty Associate for Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. She has been making, writing about and curating performance works in NYC since 1994. She has served on The Bessies, as well as the Boards of Movement Research, the Congress on Research in Dance and Dance Theater Workshop. She has a BA in Anthropology and Dance (‘92) and an MFA in Dance (‘08) from Smith College.

Danspace
Project

Feb 2020

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