Invoke and provoke: Ben Pryor's new series at Gibney Dance

Jess Pretty in FIVE
at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
(photo: Scott Shaw)

Invocation Proclamation Manifesto--described by Gibney Dance Center's new programmer, Ben Pryor, as "a three-week micro-festival of short works from choreographers and performance makers wrestling with the urgency of being a body at risk in 45’s America"--launched last night in the notoriously micro-confines of Gibney's Studio A.

First off, aside from Studio A's size and the tiny capacity audience of 30 folks lounging on puffy body pillows, nothing much seemed "micro" here. I wanted to give Diego Montoya (decor designer) and Asami Morita (lighting designer) a standing ovation for the lavish magic they worked with a Mylar fringe curtain, deliciously variable colors of light and a disco ball--a gently dazzling backdrop and atmosphere spanning all three dances. That all seemed hyuggge and bold to me in such an intimate setting, a visual metaphor for the way American artists do a lot with a little. Publicity for the series quoted Justin Vivian Bond's call for Glamour As Resistance!--no argument from me, Mx. Bond--and Montoya and Morita went to work. Jonathan Johnson's pop music tapestry for the final piece, Untitled (Duet in A), and the unidentified, impressive score Jess Pretty used for her solo, FIVE, were also opulent ingredients.

Elena Rose Light in NEUTRALDANCINGBODYMASS
(photo: Scott Shaw)

The choreographers--all of whom performed their works, two solos and a duet--took on the other mission of "casting off, tearing down, and blowing up that which holds us back, denies the truth, and champions regression." So, about that description of these piece as "short works." I didn't time them, but I didn't get the impression of anything micro or mini or short. All three seemed to be big chunks of provocation and not only more than long enough but also capable of continuing to resonate beyond their formal end. Elena Rose Light even concluded her solo, NEUTRALDANCINGBODYMYASS, by having a helper pass out a little white booklet (Tarot inside joke...sorry, I had to drop that for my Tarot peeps) that we could study at our leisure and informing us of the date and location of the next session of her MADATDANCE critical investigation of whiteness in Western body culture and dance training. It's tempting to go.

Her solo invoked, for me, the nightmare of getting stuck in someone's idea of how your body should look and move, and it's coded with dance history and aesthetics that dance artists will recognize. Basically, she shows us the jaw-locked, closed-mouth tension and fakeness of someone directed by authority figures and laboring to fit in and, even if you are not a dancer, you'll get it. We're all under this particular gun, just in different ways. The experience of the Western dancer--in its insularity and insecurity--here stands in for the experience of anyone who just wants to breathe.

Jess Pretty clearly wants out from under, too. A relationship gone bad? A religion of promises that might or might not be kept? I enjoy the way she silkily strides, flows and then swirls and curlicues through the limited space of Studio A in the initial moments of FIVE. She seems to claim the breath and have the self-possession that eluded Light even though one exhortative song--and this could just be my interpretation--appears to signal trouble in the past or even ahead.

She changes up when she coyly hides herself behind the Mylar curtain, advancing sideways across the space in ways we can track only by watching the slow advance of her white sneakers at the base of the curtain. She gradually abandons them. As she emerges, shoeless, one of the things she does next strikes me as particularly vulnerable. Still moving to that shouting gospel voice, she swings her arms around as if jumping rope. In the game but at an eager, younger age.

I know Pretty is thinking beyond this being a subtle character piece, but I actually like its elusiveness and how it offers a personal journey as a metaphor for tackling and surviving and towering over a wider oppression.

Carlo Antonio Villanueva and Miriam Gabriel,
choreographic and performing partners, in Untitled (Duet in A)
(photo: Scott Shaw) 

Time to confess that I have never--no, not ever--watched any televised dance competition shows, but I think Miriam Gabriel and Carlo Antonio Villanueva created my fantasy of one in Untitled (Duet in A). Described as focusing "within and against the hyperstimulation of a volatile pop landscape," it appears to be a long, intricate, meaningless dance routine that the partners dutifully and skillfully perform, side by side, before gradually increasing the groundedness, determination and looseness of their attack. It might not mean anything more to them--or us or, at least, me--at that point, but they have grown more alive and more themselves and more relatable than ever before.

This first week of Pryor's interesting three-week series continues through Saturday with performances at 8pm. Space is extremely limited. For information and ticketing for this and upcoming weeks, click here.

Week Two:

Kenya (Robinson), Alexandra Tatarsky

and Eli Tamondong

September 28-30, 8pm

Week Three:

Angie Pittman, Kristopher K.Q. Pourzal

and Ashley R.T. Yergens

October 5-7, 8pm

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
280 Broadway (entrance at 53A Chambers Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Serious Moonlight dance podcast launches on iTunes!

I am over the moon about Serious Moonlight, a new dance interview podcast I'm producing with Tei Blow for Gibney Dance Center's Digital Technology Initiative. (Big thanks to you, Tei!) Our first shows are finally up on iTunes. (Subscribe, please!) 

Episode 1 is a recording of my final Not The Master's Tools panel of speakers--Katy Pyle, Nia Love, Benjamin Kimitch and Kazu Kumagai. Episode 2 is a chat with Cassie Mey, archivist for the New York Public Library's Jerome Robbins Dance Division. In Episode 3, choreographer Jessica Chen talks about her blooming life and career following a devastating accident. And in Episode 4, dance artist Sydnie L. Mosley of SLMDances discusses her multifaceted work as a performer, dancemaker, scholar, educator, administrator and activist dedicated to social justice.

I hope you'll enjoy Serious Moonlight. Let's dance!

Visit and subscribe to

Serious Moonlight here.

Gibney Dance celebrates an anniversary...and its home

Alexeya Eyma-Manderson (left) with Nigel Campbell
in a duet from Gina Gibney's Time Remaining (2003)
(photo: Scott Shaw)

Duets mean everything to choreographer Gina Gibney: evolving moments of human drama compressed, anchored, revealed and displayed in her work like new gems. This season, with a program entitled Duet, Gibney celebrates 25 years of dancemaking by overlapping and interweaving duets from her evening-length dances--from 1992's Landings to a preview of coming attractions.

The unique presentation takes advantage of Gibney's command of a sprawl of redesigned space at 280 Broadway, Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, opened in 2014 at the site of the former Dance New Amsterdam.

Amy Miller (above) with Natsuki Arai
in a duet from Coming From Quiet (1998)
(photo: Scott Shaw)

The hour-long suite of dances moves performers and audience from a tiny downstairs studio lab to two larger studios and two transitional spaces--Gibney's gallery and a long corridor connecting the familiar Gibney floor plan to the rest of the building and a bank of elevators. Yesterday afternoon, in the middle of a rather fraught ensemble derived from 2013's Dividing Line, a chime suddenly sounded, and an elevator door opened onto the floor. Watching from the far end of the corridor, the audience could clearly see the leading edge of a plastic bag swing out and quickly draw back. Someone inside, spying several barefooted, black-clad bodies scattered around the floor, thought twice about venturing out!

Gibney's scheme for Duets has the flexibility to both allow for and recover from a possibly mood-shattering, if amusing, incident like that. Even the shuttling of audience from place to place can't diffuse the focused atmosphere created by seasoned veterans Natsuki Arai and Amy Miller along with impressive newcomers Nigel Campbell, Alexeya Eyma-Manderson, Devin Oshiro and Brandon Welch. I most enjoyed anything involving Campbell and Eyma-Manderson, two well-matched deities with lightning and intelligence crackling between them. Gibney's intricate, never less than human interactions--whether assertive, volatile, sexy, tender or contemplative--reward men and women with physical strength, range and genuine, one-to-one responsiveness. Duet offers ample opportunity to watch a promising, well-chosen team go to work.

Amy Miller (left) with Brandon Welch
in a preview from a work-in-progress, Folding In
(photo: Scott Shaw)

Duets continues through Saturday, March 26 with performances at 8pm each evening plus a 5pm matinee on Saturday. But don't delay, because ticketing is limited. The availability of chair seating varies from location to location. Dress comfortably for possible standing-room-only or cushion seating and cool temperatures. A complimentary coat check is provided. For information and tickets, click here.

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center

280 Broadway (enter at 53A Chambers Street), Manhattan

(map/directions)

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Meet New York's dance and arts publicists!

Gibney Dance Center 

invites you to 

Meet the Publicists

a panel discussion moderated by

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Tuesday, March 3, 6-8pm

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center

280 Broadway

L-r: Fatima Kafele, John Wyszniewski and Amber Henrie

Meet Amber Henrie, Fatima Kafele, Chris Schimpf, and John Wyszniewski—four publicists representing some of New York's most celebrated dance and performance artists and institutions. How do they help clients address the challenge of decreased arts funding and the decline of mainstream media coverage in the world's most competitive market for the arts? How can artists work effectively with publicists to take advantage of new opportunities in marketing and social media.

Bring your questions for this event which is FREE and open to the public with required RSVP.

To reserve your space, click here.

Panelist Bios

John Wyszniewski is the Managing Director of Blake Zidell & Associates, a New York-based public relations firm that represents artists and arts organizations spanning a variety of disciplines. He specializes in dance, theater and visual art, plus the tricky stuff in between. John has handled press campaigns for Abrons Arts Center, Karole Armitage, BRIC House, The Kitchen, Performance Space 122, Soho Rep, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Wendy Whelan, and the 2012–14 tour of Einstein on the Beach, among others. Previously, John worked in press & marketing at the School of Visual Arts, BAM, Dance Theater Workshop and Galapagos. http://wyszniewski.tumblr.com/

Fatima Kafele is a creative strategist, public relations consultant and dance enthusiast. She currently serves as the Media Relations Manager for the Brooklyn Museum. Prior to BKM she spent almost a decade at BAM. Her consultancy experience includes work with Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, and Cumbe Dance Center. She is a former member of the Bessies. Fatima is currently a NYSCA Performing Arts Panelist. Fatima has studied Afro-Cuban folkloric technique for most of her adult life and has a profound love for house music and dance culture. Connect with Fatima on Twitter: @Empress718 or Instagram: @LovejonesPR

Amber Henrie is a seasoned PR veteran and arts professional and leads In The Lights with strategic diligence and empowerment for its clients. She has coordinated and developed marketing, branding, social media and media outreach initiatives with large corporations, emerging start-ups, non-profits and artists. Bringing principles learned in dance training – discipline, tenacity and attention to details – she successfully publicized the technology, consumer and entertainment sectors for 6 years before starting In The Lights in 2010. She now brings technology understanding into her press campaigns for arts organizations; specifically encouraging companies explore simple ways to effectively utilize technology and new media to gain the spotlight. She holds a B.A. in Dance from Brigham Young University.

Chris Schimpf is Senior Director, Sacks & Co. Before joining the team at Sacks & Co., Chris served as Vice President of Marketing & Communications at the French Institute Alliance Franciase (FIAF). He has conceived and led communications campaigns across a broad spectrum of media and artistic disciplines including contemporary and classical music, dance, the visual arts, the commercial recording industry and education. Over the years he has partnered on campaigns with cultural institutions as diverse as the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the River To River Festival, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the American Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Space, JazzReach, Pace University, the Schimmel Center and many more.

Agnes Varis Performance Lab
Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
280 Broadway (entrance: 53A Chambers Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Kate Peila: In "lessons learned" post, Harwell ignores DNA's efforts

Two respected leaders of New York's dance community differ in their accounts of the recent history of The Sun Building at 280 Broadway, the former home of Dance New Amsterdam (DNA), a dance education, development and presenting organization which went bankrupt and shut down last year after a long struggle to renegotiate its lease and pursue a new business plan.

[Read more here: Curtain Closes On Dance New Amsterdam: Beloved NYC Studio And Simonson Technique Hub Bankrupt, To Close Doors by Nadine DeNinno, International Business Times, August 29, 2013]

280 Broadway, located across Chambers Street from City Hall, was recently annexed by Gibney Dance Center, an organization that administers Gina Gibney's dance troupe and several rental studios developed at 890 Broadway, a Flatiron District building owned by ballet choreographer/director Eliot Feld. GDC has reconfigured the Lower Manhattan extension for a slate of dance classes and plans to create new spaces for performance at the site. In addition, the organization's well-regarded Community Action program for survivors of domestic violence will be relocated to 280.

On May 14, Lane Harwell, Executive Director of Dance/NYC, contributed a blog post to The Huffington Post about "lessons learned" in the effort to save 280 Broadway for New York's dance community. The essay, which makes no mention of DNA's accomplishments or struggles, begins,

There are lessons for the creative sector in the story of 280 Broadway, whose new tenant, Gibney Dance, opens its doors to the community to shape the future. In a real estate climate where too many are losing space and reporting escalating costs -- real threats to creative life -- some, like Gibney Dance, are making solutions.

[Read more here: Making Space Solutions for Making Arts and Culture]

Catherine A. Peila, who served as Executive and Artistic Director of DNA from 2007 to 2014, asserts that that organization's "30 years of community building has been disappeared." In her initial response, posted yesterday on Facebook and forwarded to this writer among others, Peila wrote,

Having received phone calls from the cultural community regarding Lane’s blog “Making Space Solutions for Making Arts and Culture,” I must respond. It is imperative that a deeper investigation regarding the 280 Broadway transition from DNA to Gibney Dance be initiated before any attempt of a qualified statement regarding “lessons learned” be made. As the executive and artistic director of DNA, 2007-2013, Lane’s post is devoid of information that sets the stage for the DNA to Gibney transition. DNA’s original renovations, partnership negotiations, efficiency practices and financial modeling, legal battles, bankruptcy filing and its unnecessary dissolution enabled Gibney Dance to “reengage” the 280 Broadway dance space.

DNA successfully saved a space in NYC for dance, which represented nine years of unflagging work by its staff and board, thousands of artists, pro-bono lawyers and financial analysts, foundations and individual donors, elected officials, city cultural representatives, and Fram Realty. Gibney’s team received all the benefits without the burden of DNA's renovation debt, which proved to be its ultimate unraveling. Lane omits vital information that shows the cultural, funding and government sectors colluded to transfer the assets of DNA's/Dance Space Center’s 30 years of community building and program development to what they considered to be a healthier business. 280 Broadway is reengaged. I recognize Gina Gibney's commitment, but it is important to publicly analyze 280 Broadway’s transition so a proper list of “lessons learned” will aid in strengthening the non-profit field and this city’s cultural policy.

Yesterday, I reached out to Lane Harwell for a response to Peila's concerns, and he agreed to forward a written reply by 10am this morning. I have not received his response in time to include it in this post. Business travel over the next few days will delay my ability to post a follow-up, but I still hope to receive and append anything that Harwell would like to share with the readers of InfiniteBody.

Your comments on this issue are also welcome.

Gibney Dance Center welcomes community to its new downtown branch

Gina Gibney
(photo: Christopher Duggan © Gina Gibney Dance, Inc.) 

This is our space. It’s a safe space. And here is our opportunity to share our stories and look forward to what may be.

With those words, Lane Harwell (Executive Director, Dance/NYC) welcomed members of New York’s dance community and its supporters to an open discussion about Gibney Dance’s successful campaign to rescue 280 Broadway--former home of Dance New Amsterdam–and preserve it for the field of dance.  The SRO crowd, gathered in the 130-seat theater space, erupted in applause as Gibney Dance Artistic Director and CEO Gina Gibney announced the organization’s 20-year lease for 280 Broadway and its receipt of a $3 million grant from the Agnes Varis Trust.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and State Senator Daniel Squadron offered congratulatory remarks. GDC staff members were introduced, and panelists Adair Smith (Gibney Dance Executive Director), Gus Solomons, Jr. (Gibney advisor), and Kathleen Hughes (Assistant Commissioner for Program Services, Department of Cultural Affairs) spoke of their hopes and visions for the project.

Harwell opened the floor for questions and ideas from the audience. Four main questions or themes emerged from this segment of the evening:

● How can Gibney Dance Center 280 interact with its Tribeca neighborhood as a responsive, useful, creative participant in the downtown ecosystem? How can GDC 280's presence matter, not only in Tribeca, but in this diverse city as a whole?

● How can GDC 280 provide support and resources for the process of developing individual creative voices and original aesthetics in dance?

● How can GDC 280 provide consistent access to space for tech sessions, enhancing the quality of the presentation of work?

● How can GDC 280 provide physical space and opportunities for artists to interact more--especially in informal, social ways--fostering an atmosphere of creative cross-pollination and potential collaboration?

Gibney Dance welcomes you to share your thoughts, bring new ideas or offer your assistance at a series of small group discussions at GDC 890 Broadway, Fifth Floor, Studio 6:

Monday, February 3

4-5pm: Open Discussion/ Welcome Session Follow-up (Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

5-6pm: Rehearsal Space Needs (Adair Smith)

6-7pm: Class, Training and Education Needs (Hilary Easton)

Click to RSVP for February 3 at Eventbrite 

Tuesday, February 18

4-5pm: Performance Space Needs (Sara Juli)

5-6pm: Community Action and Advocacy (Amy Miller, Yasemin Ozumerzifon)

6-7pm: Open Discussion and Thoughts on Next Steps (Sydney Skybetter)

Click to RSVP for February 18 at Eventbrite

All are welcome to come to any and all sessions!

For further information on the expansion, click here.

Gina Gibney premieres "Dividing Line"

Two Gibney dancers: Amy Miller (l) and Natsuki Arai
(photo by Julieta Cervantes)

In the dance world, we're now so used to thinking of Gina Gibney as the force behind the Union Square's bustling, multi-studio Gibney Dance Center, that it's possible to forget how carefully she tends her own art. Dividing Line--her first new piece in a few years, now at Florence Gould Hall--serves as a reminder of her appetite for making. Her long-running collaboration with two distinguished artists--composer Son Lux (aka Ryan Lott) and lighting designer Kathy Kaufmann--continues to be intuitive and fruitful. And Gibney Dance, her evolving ensemble--now a sextet with equal numbers of women and men--renders her formal ideas with discipline and stamina.

Dividing Line, therefore, makes its mark. With this hour-plus work, Gibney roars back onto her stage, and her claim and ferver are best represented by one dancer in particular--Amy Miller. To acknowledge Miller as soloist, duet partner or the fire-starter within any group moment is not to deny anyone else's contribution to the work. Instead, I want to recognize Miller now for embodying the place towards which Gibney Dance is heading.

Amy Miller
(photo courtesy of Amy Miller)

The line initially established at the front of the stage by all six dancers (Natsuki Arai, Javier Baca, Jake Bone, Zachary Leigh Denison, Jennifer McQuiston Lott and Miller), and re-established at work's end, tells us to pay attention. Something special and heightened will happen here in the space between two clear marks in time. And it does. The line gives way to a space churning with the transformative energy of wind, water and human pulse. Son Lux's string quartet, performed live by the thrilling American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), contains lots and lots of lines that divide like blades swooshing and slashing through air. Gibney and her dancers, with precision of form and timing, meet the composer and his musicians edge for edge.




None edgier than Miller, though. When this dancer moves, she's positively multidimensional, her effort and her boyish pixy persona making the eccentricities of the movement pop. That's what Gibney needs and may one day lead her team to achieve: dancing that brings out the mix of confidence, strangeness and rigor in her aesthetic.

With costumes by David C. Woolard

American Contemporary Music Ensemble includes artistic director Clarice Jensen (cello), Caleb Burhans (viola, substituting for Caitlin Lynch on opening night), Ben Russell (violin) and Caroline Shaw (violin).

Dividing Line continues tonight and tomorrow evening with performances at 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Florence Gould Hall
French Institute Alliance Française
55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)