What’s New
Meet the FIRST LOOK 2018 Choreographers!
Learn more about these talented choreographers below, and save the dates for performances - July 20 & 21 at The Mark O'Donnell Theater at The Actors Fund Arts Center in Downtown Brooklyn.
Plus, a special treat for audience members on July 20 - a free beer with your ticket purchase, thanks to our Free Beer Friday sponsor Greenport Harbor Brewing Company.
David Appel is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher whose work has been presented in a range of contexts throughout North America, Europe, and in Mexico since 1973. Part of the early post-Judson generation that transmitted and transformed those artists’ innovations, he has since primarily followed his own path, while performing along the way with Simone Forti, Steve Paxton, City Dance Theater of Boston, as an instigator and/or part of several dance/music collaborative and improvisation groups, and with many other individual artists in various media. He has received a number of grants and awards, among them three NEA Choreographers Fellowships, and has been invited to festivals in both the United States and abroad. Appel’s influences include learned and/or discovered approaches to movement languages and investigation, as well as his immersion in the popular social dancing from the 1960s and 70s that continues to serve as an anchor for the development of his ever-evolving kinesthetic sense. He is intrigued by and explores relationships between the body’s capacity to be more subtly articulate, the ways we find to move together, and our connections to and within the world around us.
Hollis Bartlett and Nattie Trogdon are performers, teachers and dance makers. They have been collaborating together for the past 4 years building duets that draw from their experiences as humans and movers. Their work has been presented at Dixon Place, The Dance Complex (MA), Triskelion Arts, Mark Morris, and Gibney Dance Center. Hollis Bartlett, graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has been a member of Doug Varone and Dancers since 2011 and has also worked with Brian Brooks, Adam Barruch, and the Metropolitan Opera. Nattie Trogdon was born and raised in North Carolina and graduated from SUNY Purchase. As a freelance artist in NY, she has worked for Doug Varone, David Dorfman, Kendra Portier, Annie Kloppenberg, Mark Dendy, and Oliver and Terri Steele.
Katy E. Cashin is freelance choreographer and resident dance choreographer for White Horse Theater Company (WHTC) in New York City. Cashin is fortunate to create original works for The Tallahassee Ballet with live orchestra and chamber ensemble including "Focus", "Sing, Sing, Sing", "Mainframe", "Trio for Six", and "Rebonds B" among others. Cashin’s WHTC productions include Tennessee William’s "A Cavalier for Milady", "A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot", Sam Shepard’s "Eyes for Consuela" and WHTC Artistic Director Cyndy Marion’s world premiere, "You. Are. Perfect." (YAP). YAP was selected for the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival and will be revised this summer in Los Angeles, CA. Cashin has also created works for South Georgia Ballet, Brown Bag Dance Series and Sharp Show Production. Cashin received her BFA in dance performance and BA in history from Southern Methodist University. At SMU, Cashin performed in master works by George Balanchine, Maurice Béjart, Arthur Mitchell, and Gerald Arpino. She trained with The Tallahassee Ballet (TTB) under the direction of Joyce Fausone, Christina Paolucci of New York Theatre Ballet, Sheila Humphreys of the Royal Ballet, and Richard Sias of National Ballet of Canada. Cashin is currently pursuing her masters of public administration from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs in New York City.
Experimentation and research, the key elements to choreographer Enzo Celli’s work, power his unconditional love for contemporary dance and theatre. His relentless curiosity gave birth to a structured technique permeated by poetry and aiming to become part of the current Avant-garde. Even though Celli has codified a technical language belonging to the contemporary dance field, it is the use of simple gestures appreciated by the audience that the essence of his poetic language reveals itself. Enzo Celli’s work, focusing on man, from the start has aimed to create an uncommon poetic language able to deal with sociological topics. Enzo Celli works have been set on prestigious theatres including: Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater (New York), La Cigale (Paris), Erfurt Opera House (Germany), Na Strastnom Theater (Moscow), Guaria Theater (Curitiba, Brazil), Belgrade National Theater (SerbIa), Teatro Municipal Joaquim Benite (Lisbon), Espace Robert Hossein (Lourdes), Auditorium Conciliazione (Rome), James and Russia Drama Theater (Ufa, Russia), Sao Pedro Theater (Porto Allegre, Brazil).
Lisa R. Chow serves as Desert Dance Theatre’s artistic director, company manager, choreographer, performer and educator, and has toured with the company throughout Arizona, Mexico, Texas, New York, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Oregon and Vermont (since 1982). She is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Crossroads Performance Group with her husband Step Raptis, performing interdisciplinary music and dance projects throughout the state of Arizona and regionally since 1989. Lisa is also a manager, performer and collaborator in Step’s Junk Funk. She was the first Vice-President on the board of the Arizona Dance Arts Alliance, and since 2000 has coordinated the Annual Arizona Contemporary Dance Festival, currently called the Arizona Dance Festival. She is one of the founders and President of the Arizona Dance Coalition, a web-based non-profit organization that supports dance resources throughout Arizona. Since Desert Dance Theatre, Crossroads Performance Group and Step’s Junk Funk were listed on the artist roster of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, Lisa has had experience as a teaching artist for 36 years.
Maya Lee-Parritz is a dancer and choreographer based in NYC. As a performer she currently works with Jodi Melnick and Joanna Kotze, and she has shown her own work at Center for Performance Research. In the fall of 2017 she co-founded with Anna Witenberg a monthly dance series, Sundays in Process, where peers are invited to show their recent choreographic work in various stages of development, in order to facilitate discourse around new and experimental work in a non-curated platform. She works with time, pattern, rhythm, texture, color, space—and the relation of those elements to more concrete questions of politics, identity-making, and the (uneven) distribution of power locally and globally. She asks: what political values inhere in certain aesthetic experiences and formal structures? Her choreography follows film maker Abigail Childs’ dictum: “radical form equals radical content,”—through radical sensitivity to time, space, weight, speed rather than propagandistic persuasion, her work aims towards transformations of perception, changes in how we see and feel that remake the ground of our politics. What is the manifestation of that politics but the human bodies which live and die by its whims? She looks to the human body, the dancing human body, to reveal a phenomenology of the self.
Nicole Loeffler-Gladstone is a Brooklyn-based artist. Her writing appears in Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, The Dance Enthusiast, Chamber Music Magazine and The Jewish Book Council. She is the director of Undertow Dance and has the pleasure of performing with TYKE Dance, under the direction of Sophie Sotsky. Nicole is pursuing her Pilates teaching certification through Core Pilates, is a stagehand at Gibney Dance and serves as the Communication Director for Clowns Without Borders USA. She is particularly interested in environmental justice, non-hierarchical political organizing and dismantling capitalism. She pays respect to Lenape elders, past, present and future, and endeavors to walk lightly on Manahatta, the Lenape homeland.
Debbie Mausner graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College in 2016. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, she began her dance training at LaGuardia High School and The Ailey School. At Barnard she performed in works by Pam Tanowitz, Mark Morris, Caitlin Trainor, Trisha Brown, and Joanna Kotze. Since graduating, she has performed with company TrainorDance. She has also collaborated and performed with visual artist Eric Gottshall on numerous multi-media performances, most recently at Art Against the Occupation Gallery. Debbie founded a collaborative company, Debbie Mausner Dance Collective (DMDC), in 2017. Her work has been showcased through Collab Arts Collective, NACHMO, The Dance Complex, HATCH Presenter Series, The Creator’s Collective, WAXworks and Fertile Ground. In addition, Debbie has been a Teaching Assistant at Mark Morris Dance Center, working predominantly with kids with disabilities. She currently teaches creative movement and modern at Dancewave and with Kinderdance.
Stephanie Saywell is a choreographer, performer, poet, clown, musician, and dramaturg from Groton, MA. She holds a BA in Dance and a BA in Written Arts from Bard College, where she was also the recipient of the Ana Itelman Prize for Choreography in 2014. In 2015 she completed the Dell' Arte International School of Physical Theatre's Professional Training Program where she studied commedia, melodrama, mask, clown, mime, and devised theatre. In addition to apprenticing for and dancing repertory by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Stephanie has had the pleasure of performing for Witness Relocation, Messenger Theatre, ANIMALS, Paul Matteson, Peter Kyle, Sam Asa Pratt, Ainesh Madan, Brian Feigenbaum, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is a 2016 graduate of Doug Varone's DEVICES 3 choreography intensive and mentorship program, and a 2017 recipient of the Streb GO! Commissioning Program for Emerging Artists. Her work has been shown at the Streb Lab for Action Mechanics, Triskelion Arts, Gibney Dance, New York Live Arts, Mark Morris Dance Studios, Green Space, and the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College.
Sarah Toumani graduated from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She danced as a soloist for the opening of the Danone Nations Cup in 207 at the Redbull Arena of New-York, danced for Miri Ben Ari and others and also became a member of Valleto Dance Company. Sarah has admired hip-hop since her childhood and has been most influenced by the largest street dance company in New-York City "It's Showtime NYC". She is now studying social dances under scholarship at Peridance Capezio Center. Sarah Toumani Dance Company is a New-York based dance company, mixing street styles and contemporary dance movements. The company uses the creativity and diversity of each member to create authentic work.
Anna Witenberg is a dance maker and performer. Anna received her BA in Dance and a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies in 2017. She has worked extensively with Sarah Michelson as a part of her four year residency at Bard, performing in works such as "tournamento" at the Walker Art Center, "September 2017 /|" at Bard, and "October 2017 /\ "at The Kitchen this past fall. Anna has performed in the work of Beth Gill and Anna Sperber at American Dance Festival. Anna is currently collaborating on a new ballet to be performed this Spring at the Whitney Museum in Nick Mauss’ exhibition Transmissions. Her own work entitled Wrought Coil was presented by Triskelion Arts this past February. She is currently collaborating with Anna Sperber on a new work. She works to illuminate themes of alienation and intimacy; the image of self through the other. She uses sparse rhythm, shape, and stillness to ride the vicissitudes of time that press upon the human body, leading it towards its inevitable decomposition and deterioration. Her own fictional, non-linear short stories and prose are the primary source from which she makes her dances. Her research and interests in plastic, color, fantasy, sci-fi, sex, and ancient mythologies surrounding the female body heavily informs her tastes and imagery. She is interested in choreography as a formal tool that can shape the sub-conscious into visible and rigorous forms.
Lizzy Zevallos is from Jackson, NJ. After studying architecture and dance at Middlebury College, she came to New York where she has danced with Yin Yue Dance Company, Dante Brown/Warehouse Dance, Abarukas, and Circuit Debris among others since 2011. She has choreographed site-specific pieces for art galleries around Brooklyn and collaborated with artists, musicians, and designers.
Performances take place July 20-21 at The Mark O'Donnell Theater at The Actors Fund Arts Center, 160 Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Tickets are $15, with discounts for students and seniors.
Click here to purchase tickets!
Reflections on Revisionist History
In April, Brooklyn Ballet presented Revisionist History, an exuberant garden of dance to finally welcome springtime in New York.
The program, which boasted ballet, pop-and-lock and modern, among other styles, shone a spotlight on the company’s unwavering commitment to connect the dots between our past and our future as a dance community. By offering a range of diverse genres in performance, sometimes side-by-side in the same work, Artistic Director Lynn Parkerson calls on us to honor our inspirations and move forward with all the knowledge in our bones.
Revisionist History takes the audience on a journey from early modern dance to Cunningham quirk, from Balanchine to ballet-with-street-cred.
The evening began with a refashioning of historical works - Isadora Duncan’s Chopin Dances performed alongside and interspersed with movements from Michel Fokine’s famed Les Sylphides. By pairing choreography from each, Parkerson examines the obvious impressions Duncan’s work made on Fokine.
Miku Kawamura, Acée Francis Laird, and Angelique Smith in Chopin Dances
Isadora Duncan once said, “Nature is the source of the dance. The movement of the waves, of winds, of the earth is ever in the same lasting harmony.”
In watching the two dances co-exist, one can see Duncan’s waves move through the elegant, expressive port de bras of Fokine’s sylphs. Duncan’s lightness, her freedom of expression - this is the wind that flows through Fokine’s choreography to create that stirring romanticism unheard of in ballets that came before.
Where Duncan’s choreography feels of-the-moment, almost improvisatory, prompted by sensation - Fokine’s is structured just-so, to leave the impression that it’s emotionally and impulse-driven.
After this provocative mash-up, Parkerson herself performs a deliberate encore. In Revolutionary Etude, she seems to be declaring Duncan’s impact triumphant, profound, unmistakable.
Lynn Parkerson in Revolutionary Etude
This solo was created by Duncan after the death of her children. It’s raw and powerful, passionate and severe. Wordless screams, tightly held fists and an intense gaze come as a shock after such ethereal and subtle beauty in the dance just before. But isn’t there even more freedom in power than in running with abandon? In this brief moment, Duncan is deigned just as important as the prominent and legendary male choreographers on the program.
Brooklyn Ballet’s performance of The Four Temperaments, Themes 1-3 by George Balanchine comes like an academic interlude. Here, you see the body anew. One of Balanchine’s neo-classical masterpieces, The Four Temperaments is not sentimental or narrative in the least. It is a cold but wickedly compelling abstraction of the four humors of the body: Melancholic, Sanguinic, Phlegmatic, and Choleric.
Miku Kawamura and Charles Cooper in the First Theme from The Four Temperaments
Christine Sawyer and Acée Francis Laird in the Second Theme from The Four Temperaments
In the program’s historic progression, expression has moved from the arms, the heart, the eyes and the throat to a tilt of the hips, the wrapping of a thigh, a set of turned-in knees and deep, prolonged lunges. Ballet is finding a new voice right before our eyes.
Two lithe dancers take on Merce Cunningham’s duet from Landrover next, a work of exacting precision from 1972. One can imagine Cunningham’s original idea - to perform the work in front of a projection of changing landscapes - even though a set design was never instituted in performance. It’s modern dance, but it isn’t free from ballet’s postures and poses or technical precision. Fourth position, tendue, arabesque. Still, one can sense a different texture and new relationship to the music. This is how Landrover veers from The Four Temperaments. This is how art rebels at the same time as it genuflects.
Katherine Norton-Bliss and Acée Francis Laird in Landrover
Finally, Parkerson shares two works of her own.
Pas de Deux, a duet that premiered in 2017, is a direct commentary on how forms can influence one another if simply introduced. Against a projection of expanding and contracting vertical bars, designed by visual artist Cornelia Thomsen, ballet dancer Miku Kawamura (Paunika Jones, Friday cast, is pictured) and gliding hip-hop dancer James "Floats" Fable sit back to back, undulating slowly, waking up to the other’s presence.
Paunika Jones and James "Floats" Fable in Pas de Deux
The dancers watch each other move with instinctive acceptance and appreciation, not curiosity. The music by Jean Phillipe Rameau, played live by pianist Julius Abrahams, supports Kawamura’s strong staccato movement as well as it does Fable’s undulating torso and sliding, swirling footwork. There’s beauty and strength in what they both do best. And when they try on each other’s movement, it isn’t awkward or cheesy - it’s lovingly performed. Fable is credited as a collaborating choreographer on the work.
Parkerson’s newest work-in-progress closes the program. Brooklyn Ballet has been creating integrated works since 2005, and their newest signature mixed-movement piece, At The Intersection was created with longtime collaborator Michael “Big Mike” Fields and joins three hip-hop dancers and eight ballet dancers. Music, a city soundscape complete with MTA announcements, is by Malcolm Parson.
Brooklyn Ballet Company in At The Intersection
The repetition of life in the city, the routine, the exasperation of it all is apparent throughout. When the conductor says “Ladies and gentlemen, protect yourself…” it feels more ominous than looking for suspicious packages. But moments of choice, individuality and personality shine through. In a stirring, mid-dance solo, dancer Paunika Jones (Miku Kawamura, Friday cast, is pictured) rolls her wrists and ankles while prone on the floor. It feels like giving up, but the world picks her back up and moves back into a routine again before you know it.
Photos by Julie Lemberger
Amy Jacobus is a dancer turned marketing strategist for artists and entrepreneurs. You can learn more about her work at amyjacobus.marketing
Thank you for coming! Plus, upcoming show at St. Francis College
A magical weekend, and we are so grateful to our supporters, board members, dancers, collaborators, technical crew, staff, volunteers, and audience members for making these performances a success.
And we thank New York City Ballet Principal Tyler Angle - who led a thoughtful and enlightening Q&A after Saturday evening's performance.
If you missed the performance and are eager to see masterworks by George Balanchine, Isadora Duncan, Michel Fokine, and mixed movement works by Lynn Parkerson, you are in luck! We have a final encore presentation of Revisionist History at St. Francis College as part of their Concerts at Half-Past Twelve Series next week. Details below!
REVISIONIST HISTORY at St. Francis College
Monday April 30 at 12:30pm
180 Remsen Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Free!
Top Six Photos: Rodin Hamidi
REVISIONIST HISTORY: Spotlight on Duncan/Fokine
Isadora Duncan is widely known as the “mother of modern dance”. She rejected the rigidity of ballet in favor of more expressive, natural movement, and her dancing became hugely popular in tours throughout Europe.
Michel Fokine was a Russian choreographer and dancer, and the first resident choreographer of the Ballet Russe. His choreography was groundbreaking for the time - his ballet dancers had more freedom of movement in the upper body - and historians speculated that he may have been influenced by Duncan after seeing her perform in Russia.
Lynn Parkerson puts that theory into practice with “Chopin Dances” a recreation of the works of these two giants of the dance world, performed by Brooklyn Ballet Company. To see these historic works side by side and in the flesh, check out Revisionist History April 19-22. Tickets are on sale now!
Top photo: Michel Fokine and Isadora Duncan
Lower photos: Brooklyn Ballet Company rehearses "Chopin Dances" by Richard Glover
REVISIONIST HISTORY: Spotlight on Merce Cunningham
Jamie Scott (former Cunningham dancer and Princess Grace Award recipient) of the Cunningham Trust restages Duet from Landrover on Brooklyn Ballet company. The piece, which originally premiered in 1972 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is rooted in the exploration of people moving through different geographies and representing varied spaces with varied backgrounds.
Cunningham began his career as a soloist in the Martha Graham Dance Company. He went on to form his own company and created over 150 dances. He was renowned for his great innovations in movement vocabulary using chance procedures, his collaboration with musician and partner John Cage showcasing that dance and music could exist in time and space without influencing one another, and his belief that “the subject of his dances was always dance itself”.
To see an example of Cunningham’s innovations in the flesh, check out Revisionist History April 19-22. Tickets are on sale now!
Top photo: Merce Cunningham CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images, 1967. Credit: Getty and Corbis
Other Photo/Video: Brooklyn Ballet Company Members Katherine Norton Bliss, Acee Francis Laird and Angelique Smith rehearse Landrover
REVISIONIST HISTORY: Spotlight on George Balanchine
For this season’s performances (April 19-22), Brooklyn Ballet is embracing multifaceted dance styles and refashioning historical works. One of those historic works is The Four Temperaments (1946) by legendary dancemaker George Balanchine. A ballet with unceasing appeal, The Four Temperaments references the medieval concept of the psychological humors that exists within every person: melancholic, sanguinic, phlegmatic, and choleric.
The Four Temperaments is visionary because of its abstractness - the dance was not created to tell a story (unlike many ballets of that time) and the dancers performed the work in simple, black and white practice leotards and tights - so as not to distract from the movement.
In 1957, New York Times critic John Martin wrote of the ballet: “Looked at purely as movement, this is a remarkable ballet, both in its invention of curiously creative movements and in its development of them in phrases of high potency.”
Former New York City Ballet dancer Deborah Wingert restages Themes 1-3 of this iconic ballet on Brooklyn Ballet Company. Pianist Julius Abrahams accompanies the work. Tickets are on sale now!
Photos of Brooklyn Ballet Company performing The Four Temperaments in 2011 by Julie Lemberger
Hello Spring!
Brooklyn Ballet is excited to present Revisionist History, a provocative and diverse Spring season of broad range and repertoire. This Season's offerings include works of legendary dance makers George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Isadora Duncan and Michel Fokine, as well as premieres of mixed genre and interdisciplinary works by Founding Artistic Director Lynn Parkerson.
“With the infusion of modern and improvisational techniques and an ethnically diverse cast Brooklyn Ballet is expanding the ballet vernacular through creative dialogue with seemingly disparate dance forms,” states Lynn Parkerson. “Our Spring Season, “Revisionist History” provides an historic perspective of dance in the 20th Century while leading ballet into the 21st.”
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Thursday, April 19 at 8:00pm, Pre-performance reception at 6:30pm
Friday, April 20 at 8:00pm, Free Beer Friday!
Saturday, April 21 at 4:00pm, Children’s reception after the show
Saturday, April 21 at 8:00pm, A post show discussion follows the show
Sunday, April 22 at 4:00pm
TICKETS
Opening Night $75 (Includes Pre-Performance Reception)
General $25
Students/Seniors $15
Children Under 12 $10
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS
Photos: Tameeka Colon
Next Step Summer Intensive Announced!
Next Step Summer Instensive Dates
July 30 - August 24, 2018
Brooklyn Ballet's Next Step Summer Intensive program is designed to give each participant a solid technical foundation, based in classical training, upon which to build his or her own creative power. We aim to prepare dancers for professional and high school performing arts auditions while cultivating increased technical ability. Students are also offered a performance opportunity where they will collaborate with Brooklyn Ballet’s Artistic Director Lynn Parkerson and Next Step Director, Richard Glover. A culminating performance will be held at The Actors Fund Arts Center, in the heart of downtown Brooklyn.
Audition Dates
FREE DANCE SHOWING: "Yam Potatoe an Fish!"
Alanna Morris Van-Tassel returns home to Brooklyn to showcase her most recent choreographic work-in-progress: "Yam, Potatoe an Fish!" This piece explores the themes of home and displacement. Performance also featuring Elyse Morris (Former artist with Abraham.In.Motion)
This is a FREE showing for the Brooklyn Ballet community and select guests. Seating is limited!
RSVP: CLICK HERE or Call Brooklyn Ballet: 718-246-0146
Brooklyn Ballet
160 Schermerhorn Street
Brooklyn, New York, 11201
www.brooklynballet.org
About Alanna Morris-Van Tassel:
Dance Magazine's "Top 25 Dancers to Watch in 2018," Alanna Morris Van-Tassel has spent 10 seasons with Minnesota-based dance company TU Dance (Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri sands, Co-Artistic Directors) and has worked professionally with Nathan Trice/RITUALS, Andrea Miller, and Janis Brenner & Dancers. During her tenure at TU Dance Alanna danced featured roles by celebrated choreographers, Kyle Abraham, Gioconda Barbuto, Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown, Greggory Dolbashian, Katrin Hall, Francesca Harper, Dwight Rhoden, and Uri Sands. In 2011, Morris-Van Tassel received a Minnesota SAGE Award for Outstanding Performer and is a recipient of the 2015 McKnight Dance Fellowship. In the summer of 2016, supported by The Jerome Foundation, she traveled to Trinidad to study Afro-Caribbean dance as a part of the New Waves! Festival in Port of Spain. In September 2017 Alanna was an Artist-In-Residence with Art On Purpose (Arima, Trinidad) where she commissioned a new solo dance by choreographer, Jamie Philbert and participated in a range of community engagement activities, including a Master Class and public showing of the works-inprogress. Alanna continues to actively engage community in the Twin Cities by producing her own work and collaborating with many arts and educational programs and individuals. She is currently developing a solo dance concert to premiere in Minneapolis in Spring 2018. Alanna holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. https://www.alannamvt.com/
Free APAP Performance Sunday January 14!
RSVP
AFRO-CARIBBEAN & DIASPORA MASTER CLASS
FOR DANCERS AGES 9-17
- All levels welcome!
- Live drumming!
About Alanna Morris-Van Tassel:
Dance Magazine's 25 to Watch in 2018 Awardee, Alanna Morris Van-Tassel has spent 10 seasons with Minnesota-based dance company TU Dance (Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri sands, Co-Artistic Directors) and has worked professionally with Nathan Trice/RITUALS, Andrea Miller, and Janis Brenner & Dancers. During her tenure at TU Dance Alanna danced featured roles by celebrated choreographers, Kyle Abraham, Gioconda Barbuto, Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown, Greggory Dolbashian, Katrin Hall, Francesca Harper, Dwight Rhoden, and Uri Sands. In 2011, Morris-Van Tassel received a Minnesota SAGE Award for Outstanding Performer and is a recipient of the 2015 McKnight Dance Fellowship. In the summer of 2016, supported by The Jerome Foundation, she traveled to Trinidad to study Afro-Caribbean dance as a part of the New Waves! Festival in Port of Spain. In September 2017 Alanna was an Artist-In-Residence with Art On Purpose (Arima, Trinidad) where she commissioned a new solo dance by choreographer, Jamie Philbert and participated in a range of community engagement activities, including a Master Class and public showing of the works-inprogress. Alanna continues to actively engage community in the Twin Cities by producing her own work and collaborating with many arts and educational programs and individuals. She is currently developing a solo dance concert to premiere in Minneapolis in Spring 2018. Alanna holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. https://www. alannamvt.com/
Fees:
Free for Brooklyn Ballet Conservatory Students
$20 - Brooklyn Ballet Students
$30 - Guest Participants
TO REGISTER, Click HERE, call 718-246-0146 or email [email protected]
Kickstart The Brooklyn Nutcracker!
Brooklyn Ballet creates in a spirit of inclusivity and in celebration of diverse dance styles. This is the core of our mission. After a run of sold out performances last year, The Brooklyn Nutcracker is back, and bigger than ever before. It is the perfect show for Brooklyn, and we hope you will become a backer. Your gift supports the creativity of our choreographers & collaborators, the excellence of the dancers, and the promise of our Youth Ensemble. Every donation (no matter what level) is deeply appreciated!
Opening Night Gala!
We are pleased to invite you to our Opening Night Gala of The Brooklyn Nutcracker! Tickets include premier seating to this acclaimed holiday performance, immediately followed by a sumptous dinner at Maison May - a beautiful and intimate brownstone, just a short walk from the theater. Dinner will be a specially-chosen menu of locally sourced, sustainably produced farm-to-table fine cuisine.
Tickets may be purchased here, by selecting "Performance + Gala" at checkout.
GALA DATE & TIME
December 7, 2017
7pm Performance at Irondale Center
8:45pm Dinner at Maison May
LOCATION
Performance:
Irondale Center
85 S. Oxford St.
Brooklyn, NY
Dinner:
Maison May
246 Dekalb Ave.
Brooklyn, NY
Questions? Contact [email protected] for more information.
The Brooklyn Nutcracker is Back!
We are thrilled to present the return of The Brooklyn Nutcracker, December 7-16, at the Irondale Center in downtown Brooklyn. Following a sold-out premiere season in 2016, The Brooklyn Nutcracker fuses ballet, hip-hop and an array of world dance genres to create a new tradition for today’s audience. A re-imagined holiday classic, this critically acclaimed work transforms familiar Nutcracker characters and scenes to represent the diverse traditions and vibrant multicultural history of Brooklyn.
Our unique collaboration with tech-based artists and designers provide audiences with a multi-sensory experience, exploring ground-breaking technology of light and motion-responsive costumes. Within moments, the digital set and backdrop transports the plot from historical old Dutch Brooklyn to the iconic Flatbush Avenue—in an homage to the county of Kings.
"The Brooklyn Nutcracker was born in 2010 on a Brooklyn street corner, a dance collaboration between a petite ballerina and a large hip-hop dancer. Passersby were mesmerized so I knew we were on to something,” explains artistic director Lynn Parkerson. “Last year’s sold-out season confirmed that Brooklynites loved seeing a holiday classic, personalized to the places they call home.”
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Thursday, December 7 at 7:00pm*
Friday, December 8 at 7:30pm
Saturday, December 9 at 3:00pm and 7:30pm
Monday, December 11 at 7:30pm
Wednesday, December 13 at 7:30pm
Thursday, December 14 at 7:30pm
Friday, December 15 at 3:00pm and 7:30pm
Saturday, December 16 at 3:00pm and 7:30pm
*An opening night Gala reception at Maison May follows the performance. More information here.
Three additional student performances for public schools held on December 11, 12 and 14 at 11:30 a. m.
TICKETS and VENUE INFORMATION
Prices start at $25.
Click here for tickets!
Irondale is located at 85 South Oxford Street in Brooklyn, New York. The theater is accessible by Subway: C to Lafayette; B, D, M, N, Q, R, 2, 3, 4, or 5 to Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street; and G to Fulton Street.
Brooklyn Ballet Open House!
OPEN HOUSE: Saturday, September 9, 10am-5pm
Children's classes free!
10:00-10:30 -- Pre-Ballet I + II (age 3 + 4 by September)
10:45-11:30 -- Elementary Ballet I + II (age 5 + 6 by September)
11:45-12:30 -- Beginner Teen Ballet (ages 13-18)
*12:30-2:00 -- Ballet Conservatory IA/II Placement ages 8-12
*2:00-3:30 -- Ballet Conservatory III/IV Placement ages 13-18
4:00-5:00 -- Directors meeting with Conservatory Parents & Students
*Denotes placement class with audition fee. Pre-register to audition here.
Pre-Register for Free Classes Here!
We hope you'll join us for a chance to learn more about Brooklyn Ballet. Registration for Fall classes is open all day!
And don't forget to visit the Capezio pop-up shop for a 15% discount on all dancewear. If you are unable to join us on September 9, you may also purchase dancwear at capezio.com. Use code BrooklynBallet15 for a 15% discount at checkout! Look here for Brooklyn Ballet dress code information.
Above Photograph by Jennifer Davidson
Gaudium Awards 2017
The Gaudium Award is presented by the Breukelein Institute, a non-religious, not-for-profit organization under the direction of the Brooklyn Oratory of St. Philip Neri. The Breukelein Institute is devoted to affirming, improving, and reforming the quality of life in the City of New York, and particularly the County of Kings, through the development and support of programs that foster educational, social, and recreational activities.
This year's awards ceremonies are benefitting Brooklyn Ballet, Nazareth Housing, and The Oratory Scholarship Fund.
The awards will honor:
Farrell Evans
Sports Illustrated/ESPN golf journalist; Co-Founder, The Bridge Golf Foundation, Harlem
Bebe Neuwirth
Tony and Emmy-winning actress, dancer, singer in film, television and theatre
Garry Trudeau
Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of Doonesbury, Tanner ’88, Alpha House
Carolyn Woo
Recent President and CEO of Catholic Relief Services; Dean, University of Notre Dame,
Executive VP, Purdue University
and
THE 2017 GAUDIUM AWARD OF MERIT
Monday, September 18, 2017
Half After Six O’Clock
The Yale Club
50 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City
Business/Cocktail Attire
For ticket information, please email [email protected].
The Brooklyn Nutcracker - Professional Audition
The Brooklyn Nutcracker transforms familiar Nutcracker characters and scenes to represent the diverse traditions and vibrant culture of melting pot Brooklyn. Starting from the point of view of old Dutch Brooklyn and leading to our iconic Flatbush Avenue, the production is fresh and full of virtuosity— in essence, a Christmastime love letter to the borough we call home.
Dancers must have excellent ballet technique (pointe required), experience with partnering, musicality, and stage presence. Interested dancers will also be considered for work in our 2018 Spring Season. Please bring your headshot and resume to the audition. Rehearsals begin October 11.
Audition date is Sept 24th 1:30-3:30.
Click HERE to register.
Meet the FIRST LOOK 2017 Choreographers!
Learn more about these talented choreographers below, and join us for a performance - July 21 & 22 at The Actors Fund Arts Center in Downtown Brooklyn!
Aaron Atkins
As an emerging choreographer, Aaron Atkins was has received the 2014 & 2015 Jamaica Performing Arts Center Emerging choreographer’s award, 2015 Rider University Emerging Choreographer’s Award, 2015 Lounsbery Choreography Award, was a 2015 Finalist of the Hubbard Street Choreographer Competition, 2014 & 2015 YCF Young Choreographer’s Award recipient and was an Finalist in 2013 & 2014 for the Joffrey Ballet – Choreographers of Color Award. Most recently Mr. Atkins has been commissioned for creation of new work in 2014 & 2015 by Jamaica Performing Arts Center, 2015 Earthside The Band. Atkins’s choreography has become critically acclaimed as “Beautiful, Quirky, Lush and Expansive” - Critical Dance. Mr. Atkins combines an eclectic accessible range of genres of dance to create an individual contemporary ballet esthetic that showcases each artist’s uniqueness and prowess. In 2012 Mr. Atkins Founded Ballet Inc. Since Ballet Inc.’s founding, Mr. Atkins' artistic vision and choreography has led Ballet Inc. to commendable, international credibility and ground breaking success. Broadway World called the company “Hard-hitting..Powerful..Beautiful..Sensual”.
Mary Ellen Beaudreau
Mary Ellen Beaudreau comes with 15 years of experience as a director, dance educator, professional dancer, and choreographer. Holding a Masters in Choreography degree from the Laban Conservatoire in London, and Bachelors in Dance degree from The Juilliard School, Ms. Beaudreau worked with renowned dance companies such as San Francisco Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre and Pilobolus Dance Theatre. As a dedicated director of children's dance programs, including Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts in Long Island, NY, Mary Ellen lead programs around the world, collaborating with organizations such as the International Rescue Committee, Harlem Children’s Zone and Artists Striving to End Poverty. As a lead teaching artist with Pilobolus Dance Theatre since 2011, Mary Ellen enjoys sharing the art of dance and the creative process to thousands of children and adults. Mary Ellen Beaudreau is excited to present a new work for FIRST LOOK 2017 in collaboration with dancer/performer Roni Mahler.
Winnie Berger
Tucson, Arizona native, Winnie Berger, began her dance training at Ballet Arts and then went on to completing a dual degree in Dance and Theology in the Ailey/Fordham BFA program cum laude in 2014. Winnie is the Artistic Director of Mook Dance Company, which came to fruition in 2014. Mook has performed at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Dixon Place, Green Space, the Actors Fund Arts Center, in the DUMBO Dance Festival, and more. Ms. Berger was the 2015 recipient of the Eryc Taylor New Choreographer Grant and one of her works was purchased by Fusionworks Dance Company in Lincoln, RI. She has also set pieces and taught master classes with students of Montclair High School, New York Dance, Cresskill Performing Arts Center, and American Academy of Dance and Performing Arts.
Courtney Cochran
Courtney Cochran was born in Sacramento, California and began her dance career at the age of 5. She spent her early ballet training at Deane Dance Center and was a member of their pre-professional company Crockett Deane Ballet. With CDB, she was chosen as an emerging choreographer at Regional Dance America's festival. Courtney attended Dominican University of California as part of the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Bachelor of Fine Arts Program. She then went on to spend two years in Dance Theatre of Harlem's Professional Training Program under the direction of Robert Garland, and most recently danced in Brooklyn Ballet's Spring Season, Roots and New Ground 2. Courtney is an aspiring choreographer and wants to use her talents for dance therapy and outreach.
Lindy Fines
Lindy Fines is the choreographer and artistic director of GREYZONE a multi-media dance company that she formed with artist Justin Fines with the aim to further explore the intersection of dance, sound design, time-based media and the visual arts. Her work has been presented at New Dance Alliance's 30th Anniversary Performance Mix Festival at Abrons Arts Center, Socrates Sculpture Park as part of Norte Maar's Dance at Socrates, Mike Perry's 'Wandering Around Wondering' art space, Juri Onuki's Spacial Design at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, FLICfest at Irondale Center, Movement Research at the Judson Church, The Flea, and Dixon Place. GREYZONE received funding from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant for their work 'Drift' which included a costume collaboration with visual artist Maia Ruth Lee. Their short dance film 'Queens Duets' screened at the International Dance Film Screening (NYC), the Philadelphia Screendance Festival, the Fine Arts Film Festival Santa Barbara, and Salamanca Moves/Movies by Movers (AUS). Lindy Fines received her BFA in modern dance from the University of Oklahoma and trained on full scholarship at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio.
Leah Moriarity
Leah Moriarty is a Brooklyn-based dance artist who began her training at the Educational Center for the Arts High School in New Haven, Connecticut focusing on dance and choreography. She received her BFA in Dance at the University of Massachusetts as part of the Five College Dance Department. Since graduation, Leah has worked with choreographers Kellie Lynch, Donna Mejia, Shalewa Mackall, Ni'Ja Whitson, Souleymane Badolo and Rosangela Sylvestre. She is currently working with choreographer Joya Powell. She also works as a study abroad coordinator for ThisWorldMusic, a dance and drum intensive in Ghana. Her work has been presented at the New Haven Arts & Ideas Festival, on Martha's Vineyard, Boston College, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Martha's Vineyard, Hampshire College, Amherst College, Dixon Place, Cedar Crest College and Arts On Site.
Corinne Shearer
Corinne Shearer is a freelance dancer and dance/film-maker based in Brooklyn, NY. Shearer graduated from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Performance and a Concentration in Dance Composition. She has studied choreography under Doug Varone, Rosalind Newman, and choreography and directing under Alexandra Beller. Her work has been presented at Dixon Place, The Hudson Guild Theater, and FiveMyles Gallery, among other venues.
Alaina Wilson
Alaina Wilson is a New York based choreographer, dancer, and visual artist trained in classical ballet, modern, and contemporary dance. She graduated with a BA from Vassar College in 2016 after completing a thesis on the legacy of ancient Greek dance within contemporary performance. Throughout her time at Vassar, Wilson contributed to the Vassar Repertory Dance Theater, directed by John Meehan, as both a performer and choreographer. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Contemporary Dance at Sarah Lawrence College. Her creative process is largely driven by imagery and content collected through research into art history, philosophy, Greek and Roman studies, and contemporary aesthetic theory, resulting in works the strive to reinvigorate classical forms within innovative choreographic contexts. Wilson’s work has been presented at Green Space in Queens, NY, the Burklyn Ballet Theater in Johnson, VT, the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, NY, Bard College, Sarah Lawrence College, and Vassar College.
Mei Yamanaka
Mei Yamanaka is a dancer and choreographer from Japan. Mei moved to New York in 2008. Mei has worked and collaborated with artists including Tiffany Mills Company, Mark Dendy Projects, Jennifer Archibald, Katy Pyle, Patricia Noworol Dance Theater, Jody Oberfelder, Dai Jian, Palissimo, Oui Danse, Catherine Galasso, , among others. Mei's work has been seen at Fresh Tracks at New York Live Arts, Movement Research at Judson Church, Under Exposed and Crossing Boundaries at Dixon Place, "Take Roots" Series at Green Space, "Collaborations in Dance Festival" and "Split Bill" Series at Triskelion Arts, Mix Festival at HERE, and more. Mei was a "Fresh Tracks" residency artist at Dance Theater Workshop(now New York Live Arts) in 2010 - 2011. She was also residency artist at Chez Bushwick Artist In Residence: Cycle 1, in 2014 at Chez Bushwick.
Eryn Renee Young
Eryn Renee Young is co-founder and resident choreographer of XAOC Contemporary Ballet, a New York City-based neoclassical ballet company founded in 2010. Her choreographic work has been showcased at many venues including at The Ailey Citigroup Theater, the Young Choreographer’s Festival at Symphony Space, Boston Contemporary Dance Festival at the Paramount Theater, Triskelion Arts Center, Steps on Broadway, the Moving Beauty Series, the Algonquin Arts Center, Peridance Capezio Center, the Boston Conservatory, the Bart Leukede Theater at Rider University, and New York University, including a solo choreography show entitled A New Era: Elements of Dance in 2009 and another in the Gallatin Arts Festival in 2012. Her awards include selection as one of five winners of the 2015 Edward Villella Emerging Choreographers Competition at Rider University, a 2015 Manhattan Community Arts Fund Grant for her ballet outreach program “Project Ignite,” the 2014 Eryc Taylor Dance New Choreography Grant, selection as a mentee for the 2013 Dance/USA Institute for Leadership Training, and selection as a choreographer for the 2013 Women in Dance Series. In 2016, Norte Maar commissioned her to create “The Edge of Sunset Gems” in collaboration with visual artist Amanda Browder for the CounterPointe series, celebrating women making work on pointe. Ms. Young holds a degree in Contemporary Ballet Choreography and Fine Art from New York University. She began choreographing in 2007 and draws inspiration from Balanchine-Stravinsky works, classical sculpture, Greek myth, Christopher Wheeldon, and William Forsythe.
Sarah Zehnder
Sarah Zehnder, Artistic Director of Zehnder Dance, is a New York based dance artist originally from Ohio, where she began her training as a hip-hop dancer. Zehnder Dance, established in 2010, is known for commanding physicality, boldness and architectural precision, and has been produced nationwide, performing in such prestigious festivals as Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Reverb International Dance Festival, Pasadena Dance Festival, DUMBO Dance Festival, the MAD Festival, Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival, and the Women in Dance Project (NYC and Chicago). Her work has been presented at Dixon Place, Ailey Citigroup Theatre, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Gowanus Arts, Triskelion Arts Center, 92nd Y, Greenspace, and the Center for Performance Research (CPR). Zehnder received her BS in Dance from Bowling Green State University and her MFA from SUNY Brockport.
Peformances take place July 21-22 at The Actors Fund Arts Center, 160 Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Tickets are $15, with discounts for students and seniors.
Click here to purchase tickets!
Meet the Musicians!
Malcolm Parson a composer who has created 5 original scores for Brooklyn Ballet. Malcolm has performed with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a Grammy-winning old-time string band from Durham, North Carolina and is currently a member of the Turtle Island Quartet. Listen to some of his music below.
This year, Malcolm teams up again with Choreographer David Fernandez on This Dance Goes Like This, and with Lynn Parkerson for Found and Lost. He will be joined on stage by cellist Amy Kang and guitarist Gabe Schnider.
Equally at home in both the concert hall and downtown rock venues, Amy Kang performs as a classical chamber musician as well as with hip hop artists, jazz ensembles, and singer-songwriters. She is currently the cellist in the JP Jofre Hard Tango Chamber Band. Recent performances in 2016 have brought her around the world to Poland, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and Japan.
After falling in love with the guitar at age 10, Gabe Schnider has performed/recorded with artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Bell, Bill T. Jones, Damian Woetzel, Arturo O'Farrill, Jon Batiste and Stay Human, & Ben Folds, among others. He is a regular performer/bandleader at Jazz at Lincoln Center and has worked in New York City and beyond at venues including Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center.
Brooklyn Ballet is also excited to be teaming up with pianist Julius Abrahams, a collaborator since 2011. After finishing graduate studies at The Juilliard School, he continues to work as staff pianist at the esteemed Juilliard's Vocal Arts Institute since 2012. He has appeared in numerous performances with the Brooklyn Art Song Society and Gil Morgenstern Reflection Series, among others.
We can not wait to perform alongside all of these talented musicians in just two short weeks. We hope you can join us at the show!
Tickets available here!
Meet the Visual Artists!
Elana Herzog's work is on view alongside Julia K. Gleich's piece Martha, and Cornelia Thomsen's visuals pair with Lynn Parkerson's Pas de Deux.
Elana Herzog is an artist who uses material culture to consider aspects of ephemerality and entropy, pleasure and pain, attraction and repulsion. She has built a visual language that is both formal and evocative, and is increasingly focused on the relationship between technology and culture, the hand and the mind, the mind and the machine. Herzog finds and collects non-precious materials that are often second hand, discarded or cheaply mass produced. Herzog was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017. She is a lecturer at Yale University.
Cornelia Thomsen's exploration of stripes, or color curtains, carries on the traditions of Blinky Palermo, Gene Davis, Agnes Martin and Gerhard Richter. Individual stripes are painted either uniformly or in a progression from light to dark. Stripes appear to hover above one another, revealing outward or inward cylindrical curves and creating a sense of movement. Born in Germany, Thomsen currently lives and works in Manhattan. Solo exhibitions include Leslie Feely gallery (NYC), Kashima Arts (Tokyo), German Consulate NYC, Friedrich-Froebel Museum (Germany), Erik Thomsen Gallery (NYC), among others.
