Pentacle's Spring 2011 Updates

dougp@pentacle.org
www.pentacle.org

Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group

Dear Friends,

It was a pleasure to see some of you at Arts Presenters last January.

Several of our dance companies are working on new projects that will tour in 11/12 and 12/13. You will find more information about them below.

Also, we are delighted to welcome Lucky Plush Productions to our Roster.

Lastly we invite you to peruse the list of our companies' upcoming performances.

We hope this finds you in good spirits and look forward to connecting with you in the near future!

Sincerely,

Ivan Sygoda, Sophie Myrtil-McCourty, Angela Luem, Michelle Coe and Doug Post

Pentacle welcomes Lucky Plush Productions to the Roster

Pentacle is elated to welcome Lucky Plush Productions to our Roster of dance artists. Lucky Plush is a Chicago based dance-theater company that devises works with a focus on strong ensembles, complex choreography, innovative use of new media technology, and intellectually bold content. Led by Artistic Director Julia Rhoads since 1999, Lucky Plush has created over 30 original works that are known for their distinctive movement style, fusing contemporary dance with theater and visual design. For more information visit LuckyPlush.com and StealThisDance.com. For booking and tour information please contact Angela Luem at angelal@pentacle.org or 212-278-8111 x305.

New projects for Pentacle's artists

Eiko & Koma bring Naked, their new "living" installation, to the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York March 29 through April 9. Commissioned last Fall by the Walker Art Center, the presentation invites viewers to determine for themselves how many minutes or hours to spend in these legendary performers' mesmerizing presence. Naked is a component of Eiko & Koma's ongoing Retrospective Project, and is free to the public. www.eikoandkoma.org or www.bacnyc.org.

Heidi Latsky's eye- and mind-opening Gimp continues to reveal beauty and virtuosity where audiences have not expected to find it. The work will tour widely next year. Meanwhile, Heidi is developing If, a task-oriented, site-specific incarnation of the Gimp Project that harnesses different aspects of her performers' brilliance.

Lionel Popkin's charming and intriguing There is an Elephant in this Dance is proving to be a perennial favorite. While it continues to tour widely, Lionel is starting work on Looking for Ruth, a choreographic rumination on modern dance pioneer Ruth St. Denis. Ms. Ruth's ambiguous expropriation of Indian dance from the sub-continent is a pretext for Lionel to examine his own bi-cultural heritage.

Molly Shanahan and her Mad Shak collaborators are on a multi-year journey of kinetic discovery. Collectively titled Stamina of Curiosity, the work's evolving iterations dig deep beneath the veneer of "performance" to release more authentic wellsprings of shape and motion. The result has been attracting fellow travelers in ever greater numbers.

CONTRA-TIEMPO is currently working on a new full-evening length work entitled FULL.STILL.HUNGRY set to an original score by Cesar Alvarez and prominent Latin percussionist, Bobby Matos. The piece reconnects food and over-commercialized Salsa to its authentic origins. It will premiere in Los Angeles at the Ford Amphitheater on September 23, 2011 and will be available for touring in 11/12 and 12/13.

Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion will present a new work entitled Live! The Realest MC at The Kitchen (NYC) December 7-10, 2011. Inspired by the duality of Pinocchio's plight to be a "real boy", Live! The Realest MC investigates gender roles in the black community and societal perspectives of the black man through hip hop and celebrity culture. Accompanying this overlying theme of realness is the juxtaposition of live performance versus all things prerecorded, articulated through Abraham's original hip hop lyrics and his love for the mysteries a karaoke system can evoke.

Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project is currently working on Planet Karaoke: The space that belongs to no one, a new installation and stage performance which delves into personal and historical memories of violence, discrimination, and tenderness. It draws from the movement vocabularies of West African dance, Japanese Noh Theatre, Martial Arts, Hip Hop, and Post-Modern Dance Theatre. Live music and drumming contribute to a rich tapestry accented by stunning set and installations. Planet Karaoke will premiere in 12/13. To view their most recent work in progress, please click here.

In the Spring of 2012 Nrityagram will present a new work entitled Shambavya: Imagine. The piece combines two dance traditions: Bharatanatyam from India and Kandyan from Sri Lanka in an effort to find the similarities and a meeting point between these traditions and Odissi, which is Nrityagram's specialty. The company will collaborate with Priyadarsini Govind, one of the prime Bharatanatyam dancers among the current generation; Upeka Chitrasena, the foremost Kandyan dancer of Sri Lanka; Raghunath Panigrahi, an eminent Odissi Musicologist, and Bombay Jayashri, a sought after singer and composer of Karnatak music.

In September 2011 Compagnie Thor will make their New York City debut by presenting their new work, To the Ones I Love, which premiered in Belgium in January 2010. In this piece, Thierry Smits is using the music of Johann-Sebastian Bach, on which he stages nine dancers of African origins, all from various dance backgrounds. The choreography aims to be, above all, aesthetic. Without making any concessions to exoticism in this work, the rule of conduct is the movement of bodies marked by 'western' choreographic techniques, but nevertheless profoundly shaped by other traditions and dances. Smits once again dives into an energetic and abstract dance to celebrate the body and its movements, through the great composer's particular universe, in a playful choreography which will also celebrate the company's 20 years of existence. You can view an excerpt from To the Ones I Love here.

Reggie Wilson just started working on a new piece entitled (project) Moseses Project. In this work, he is exploring the mythical, biblical, ethnographic, historic and global references of Moses. Grounded in the Zora Neale Hurston novel, Moses, Man of the Mountain, Reggie has been lead to exploratory travels in Israel and Egypt, where he had conversations and collected individuals' thoughts, relationships and knowledge of the Moses story. The work is progressing to looking at Moses as Prophet, Priest, Soldier, Law Giver, Leader, man and husband. It is scheduled to premiere in the late Spring of 2013.

Bridgman/Packer Dance (Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer) are currently developing a new work inspired by the characters, style and architecture of Edward Hopper's paintings. In true Bridgman/Packer style, the piece will integrate video technology and live performance, blending imagery from pre-recorded video and live cameras that capture their performance, evoking Hopper's timeless aura of late night encounters and stolen moments in private lives. The work is commissioned by the Edward Hopper House in Nyack, NY and will be designed, with a moveable set, as a performance installation for museums, galleries and alternative spaces. The piece will premiere in Fall 2011, and tour with Double Expose and other repertoire through 12/13.

Lucky Plush Productions' latest endeavor, The Gaslight Project (working title), will premiere at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in October 2011. A unique hybrid of dance, theater and film, it will be co-created by theater director Leslie Danzig and Lucky Plush Artistic Director Julia Rhoads. The piece is a modern reworking of the classic movie melodrama, Gaslight. In Gaslight, the movie, a woman is manipulated by her husband into believing she is insane. The Gaslight Project uses the narrative thread of the movie and tracks the unhinging of a contemporary marriage. Each partner grasps for alternative and thrilling story lines with narratives crossing through time from Gaslight to Bourne Identity.

Sheetal Gandhi's new work is a multimedia dance theater reinterpretation of Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. Gandhi, as performer and choreographer, interacts with video and animation as she explores the complex relationship between giving and taking. She draws on the emotional charge of this archetypal relationship between the boy and the tree, to address humanity's frightening misuse and abuse of its own relationship to Nature. The work is available for tour beginning in late 11/12.

Soul Steps is currently in co-collaboration with Dance Theatre of Ireland on a new work titled Every Little Step ... the rhythm of hope to be available for tour in 12/13. The piece explores how hope is born, tested, resolved and becomes a connecting force in our lives. Soul Steps and DTI are working together to create a dance of hope by combining Step, Irish and urban dance rhythms, modern dance and storytelling. It will be a full length program including dancers and musicians from both companies. The premiere of the work will take place in November 2011 in New York as part of Imagine Ireland.

Imagine Ireland - a year-long season of Irish arts in America in 2011, an initiative of Culture Ireland, with funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

NDP Tour Support Available

NDP Tour support for David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group:

Presenters who book David Neumann's Big Eater between June 1, 2011 and August 31, 2012 are eligible for National Dance Project fee support of up to 50%. Gia Kourlas in The Times called this intriguing performance work "a tragedy disguised as a comedy." It's well worth a look.

To explore the rest of Pentacle's rosters:

Roster Artists: pentacle.org/roster

Metropolitan Intersections: pentacle.org/metro

The Gallery: pentacle.org/gallery

Pentacle Artists in Performance March-June 2011

Mar 2 - Nrityagram - Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD

Mar 2-6 - Eiko & Koma - REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA

Mar 3-6 - Liz Gerring Dance Company - Theater Artaud, San Francisco, CA

Mar 4-5 -Lionel Popkin - Velocity Dance Center, Seattle, WA

Mar 4-5 -Soul Steps - Colby College, Waterville, ME

Mar 6 - Nrityagram - Kennedy Center,Washington, DC

Mar 7 - Heidi Latsky Dance - Harvard Graduate School of Education / The Gimp Project: A Discussion

Mar 10-11 - Nrityagram - Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Mar 11 - Compagnie Thor - Centre de Arts Pluriels, Ettelbruck, Luxembourg

Mar 15-16 - Eiko & Koma - Baryshnikov Arts Center (Delicious Movement Workshop), NYC

Mar 17-20 - KDNY - Ailey Citigroup Theater, New York, NY

Mar 19 - Compagnie Thor - Stadsschouwburg, Utrecht, Netherlands

Mar 19 - Nrityagram - Rose Theater Brampton, Brampton,ON

Mar 19 - contra-tiempo - with Vox Femina at Zipper Concert Hall/Colburn School of Music, Los Angeles, CA

Mar 20 - Danse4Nia Repertory Ensemble - Painted Bride, Philadelphia, PA

Mar 22 - Compagnie Thor - Magdalenazaal , Bruges, Belgium

Mar 24 - Nrityagram - Markham Theater, Markham, ON

Mar 26 - Compagnie Thor - Schouwburg, St. Niklaas, Belgium

Mar 27 - Nrityagram - Ferst Center for the Arts, Atlanta, GA

Mar 29-Apr 9 - Eiko & Koma - Baryshnikov Arts Center (movement/visual art installation), NYC

Mar 31 - Nrityagram - California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA

Mar 31-Apr 2 - Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group - Columbia College Chicago/The Dance Center, Chicago, IL

Apr (TBD) - Jacinta Vlach/Liberation Dance Theater - ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA

Apr 1-2 - Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion - Proctors Theatre, Schenectady, NY

Apr 2 - Nrityagram - California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

Apr 2-3 - Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh - Dance Place, Washington, DC

Apr 4 - TU Dance - U. of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, WI

Apr 5 - Illstyle & Peace Productions - E-Moves Festival at Harlem Stages (The Gate House), New York, NY

Apr 5 - Compagnie Thor - Wolubilis, Brussels, Belgium

Apr 6-10 - Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh - Painted Bride, Philadelphia, PA

Apr 8 - Nrityagram - Aspen Santa Fe Presents, Santa Fe, NM

Apr 8 - Compagnie Thor - Chateauvallon, Ollioules, France

Apr 14 - Nrityagram - Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS

Apr 15 - Chris Ferris & Dancers - Green Space, Queens, NY

Apr 16 - Nrityagram - Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale, AZ

Apr 18 - Illstyle & Peace Productions - E-Moves Festival at Harlem Stages (The Gate House), New York, NY

Apr 29-30 - Bridgman/Packer Dance - Out North (Discovery Theatre) Anchorage, AK

May 6 - TU Dance - Ordway Center for the Arts, St. Paul, MN

May 12 - Illstyle & Peace Productions - Martin Luther King School, Lecture Demonstration, Plymouth, PA

May 13-15 - Jacinta Vlach/Liberation Dance Theater - Cuba Caribe Festival, Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco, CA

May 14 - Illstyle & Peace Productions - Reg Lenna Civic Center, Jamestown, NY

May 16-18 - Illstyle & Peace Productions - Ohio School Tour, Lecture Demonstrations, Springfield, OH - For more information on times and locations, please contact Angela Luem at angelal@pentacle.org

May 18-20 - Soul Steps - Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts Blue Mountain, NY

May 19-21 - The Seldoms - Aronoff Center, Cincinnati, OH

May 21 - Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion - August Wilson Center, Pittsburgh, PA

May 26 - The Seldoms - Spring to Dance, St. Louis, MO

May 26 - Illstyle & Peace Productions - Hartshorn Elementary School, Lecture Demonstration, Short Hills, NJ

May 31-Jun 10 - Eiko & Koma - Saltdancefest at the University of Utah (Delicious Movement Workshop), Salt Lake City, UT

Jun 3-4 - Soul Steps - Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT

Jun 4-5 - Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion - The Joyce Theater, NYC

Jun 10-11 - The Seldoms - Joyce SoHo, NYC

Jun 11 - Illstyle & Peace Productions - New Jersey State Museum, Lecture Demonstration, Trenton, NJ

Jun 16-26 - Juxtapower/South Africa's Dance and Song - South Africa Dance Festival, Dance New Amsterdam, New York, NY

Photo credits: (Top to bottom, left column): Karen Wade; Anna Lee Campbell; Carlos Arias; Steve Gunther; Sand Box Studio; Jamie Moncrief; Steven Schreiber; Steve Gunther; Stephanie Motta; Marie-Francoise Plissart; Antoine Tempe; Julie Lemberger; Cedar Bough T. Saeji; Ewa Figaszewska; Richard Sylvarnes; Julieta Cervantes; Lois Greenfield; Gabriel Bienczycki, Zebra Visual; Bethany Hines; Isaac Oboka; V. Paul Virtucio; Andrea Mohin; Steven Schreiber; William Frederking; Florence Baratay

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