Events – Danspace Project
Photo: EP Falck/Effyography

Raja Feather Kelly | The Feath3r Theory: Andy Warhol’s Tropico

Please note: Advance tickets for all 3 performances are sold out. A wait list will begin at the door at 7:15pm each evening.

Andy Warhol’s Tropico is choreographed and directed by Raja Feather Kelly and performed by Kelly his dance theater company, The Feath3r Theory.

Andy Warhol said, “It’s the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.” In Tropico, Kelly questions if this is true.

Loosely-inspired by Lana Del Rey’s short film of a similar name, Tropico explores Kelly’s relationship to pop-culture as he attempts to demystify pop-culture’s relationship to humanity. The performers find themselves lost in a surreal, cartoonist landscape. The characters, each constellations of archetypes from television, movies, and children’s stories, seek refuge from the same Warhol-inspired pop-art-world they created.

Concept, Choreography and Direction Raja Feather Kelly

Lighting Design Tuce Yasak

Music Bryan Strimpel with Raja Feather Kelly

Performers Raja Feather Kelly, Shaina Branfman, Amy Gernux, Beth Graczyk, Sara Gurevich, John Gutierrez, Lindsay Head, Rebecca Hite Teicheira, Nik Owens, Rachel Pritzlaff, Collin Ranf, Aaron Moses Robin

Video Aitor Mendilibar +  Laura Snow

Production Louise Dodet, Rebecca Schulman

Costumes Melody Eggen

Catherine Gallant/DANCE and Dances by Isadora: Retrograde Universe

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

Click here to watch a trailer for Retrograde Universe

Retrograde Universe is the title of a new world premiere and this special evening by Catherine Gallant/DANCE and Dances by Isadora, both led by Artistic Director and Choreographer Catherine GallantRetrograde Universe includes four pieces by Gallant and three Isadora Duncan works. Duncan works include a historical re-animation of Duncan’s Beethoven No. 7, which has not been performed since 1979, Three Scriabin Etudes, danced by Kristen Foote of the Limón Company on opening night, and Valse Brillante. Gallant’s Retrograde UniverseFinally, The Secret and Meeting #12 complement these works with an evening of dance that is both inspired and collaborative.

This program opens with Gallant’s very first work, The Secret, a duet created in 1980 under the guidance of then-teacher, 20th century dance master, Anna Sokolow, which is accompanied by pianist Yegor Shetsov. Gallant’s world premiere work Retrograde Universe, a contemporary work for an ensemble of four, uses indeterminate structures to investigate the fragility and uncertainty of the material world. Video projection by Nadia Lesy provides a sound and visual score of crumpling paper and images of flight to personify a world of imagined reality and a seemingly fraught future.

As films or notation of Isadora Duncan’s dances were not made until long after her death in 1927, Duncan’s choreography has been preserved through the teaching of one generation of Duncan dancers to the next, with the interpretation of phrases and physicality. In 2011, Gallant began to explore Duncan’s work to the Beethoven No. 7 (Allegretto and Presto movements), and has now re-imagined this 108-year old work for the stage. Gallant and an ensemble of 10 dancers have spent the last year enlivening this piece for contemporary audiences. This re-staging features seasoned dancers as well as the company’s next generation of Isadora dancers.

 

Catherine Gallant, has been creating for dance in traditional venues and alternative sites for more than 30 years. Ms. Gallant has received funding for her choreography from the Harkness Foundation for Dance, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Trust, among others. She holds a BFA in Dance from The Boston Conservatory and an MFA from Temple University. Catherine leads workshops for the Dance Education Laboratory and is a NYCDOE Dance Educator.  www.catherinegallantdance.com

Dances by Isadora‘s mission is to share the history of dance as an art form with a contemporary audience through the presentation and teaching of the work of modern dance pioneer, Isadora Duncan (1877-1927). The company is also dedicated to the growth of new work which comments on history and culture while making connections from past to present with an eye to future innovation. Dances by Isadora is committed to educating audiences/students of all ages through touring its educational programs and performances.

Dances by Isadora is a non-profit, tax exempt organization dedicated to the preservation of the repertoire and technique of Isadora Duncan while creating programming which includes historic and contemporary dance. The group received its name in 1986 when arts administrator, Alan Casso produced the companies first public performance in Boston. Since then Dances by Isadora has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the Massachusetts Cultural Council, MIT Council on the Arts, Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Bossak/Heilbron Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts and City Parks Foundation. In performanceDances by Isadora honors Duncan’s original choreography while retaining the vitality and vibrant physicality of the movement. As no films or notation of Isadora’s dances were made until long after her death in 1927, Duncan’s choreography has been preserved through the teaching of one generation of Duncan dancers to the next.  Since 1986 Dances by Isadora has reached out to diverse audiences through the medium of performance and educational workshops informing and inspiring future generations.  www.dancesbyisadora.com

“Nobody’s Dance” at Macao in Milan, Italy. Photo by Eleanor Bauer.

The Oracle Dance via Eleanor Bauer

**For this event, please enter the Church via the side entrance on 11th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue**

The Oracle Dance is a score for a dance that answers questions, or tells the future. The dance follows a simple set of rules and roles, whereby a handful of dancers act as an Oracle answering an audience member or visitor’s question. Their danced answer to the question is interpreted and orated by an external reader of the dance. The roles of reader and dancer can shift from question to question, or over a duration of performing several question-answers. Come by and have your questions answered by a dance!

The Oracle Dance plays with meaning production in movement, the “usefulness” of a dance to serve a specific purpose, the contemporary invention of rituals, the use of improvisation to address unknowns, and a practice of receptivity to unexpected insights from anywhere.

The Oracle Dance originated in the TTT sessions (Teachers Teaching Teachers) at Impulstanz festival in Vienna in 2014 with and by Jennifer Lacey, Alice Chauchat, Valentina Desideri, Alix Eyunaudi, Keith Hennessy, Anne Juren, Mark Lorimer, Raimundas Malašauskas, Philippe Riéra and Mårten Spångberg. It has been passed on to others since then, and belongs to nobody and anybody.

Photo by Stacy Szymaszek.

Gun Violence Awareness Vigil

​Join the St. Mark’s community as we mourn for Orlando,​ ​remember all lives lost to gun violence, and build a safer community together.

Wednesday, June 29, 6:30 PM
St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery
131 East 10th Street (at 2nd Avenue)

Co sponsored by Danspace Project​, ​The Poetry Project​, ​New York Theatre Ballet, and ​St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery

with performances by Ricardo Maldonado, Julia Guez, Ballez​ (Artistic Director, Katy Pyle)​, Jeannine Otis, New York Theatre Ballet, and more​.​

Summer at Danspace Project!

This year Danspace Project had the privilege of partnering with seven of our East Village neighbors along with 100+ artists. Our 10th Platform, Eiko Otake’s Platform 2016: A Body in Places held this winter lives on at danspaceproject.org/journal. We were thrilled and honored that you came to visit, watch, engage and share with us. THANK YOU for being our community!

Summer means we’re hard at work on our Fall season which opens in September. Upcoming highlights include:

· a 2-week run of in tow, a brand new commission by the brilliant Jennifer Monson

· our 11th Platform, Platform 2016: Lost & Found (October 12 – November 19, 2016), curated by choreographers Ishmael Houston-Jones and Will Rawls. Lost & Found originates from Houston-Jones’ rediscovery of a pamphlet of collected writings remembering the choreographer John Bernd who died of AIDS in 1988. With over 50 artists, we’ll look back at the plague years of mass AIDS hysteria, specifically 1981-1996, to try to recover the loss of a generation of mentors, role models, and muses.

· and much, much more!

Stay in touch this summer!
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Tickets for our fall season will be on sale in July! Join our email list and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for fun photos, videos, and the latest updates and announcements this summer.

Until September…Thank you!

Love,
Danspace Project

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