DNA PRESENTS: OBject.obJECT | Garnica, Nugent, Westwood February 17, 2011

Dance New Amsterdam (DNA) announces three collaborative creations piloted by fearless women, Ximena Garnica, Jennifer Nugent and Adrienne Westwood, in the Winter 2011 installment of OBject.obJECT, February 17-20. Through self-reflection, Garnica’s interdisciplinary work investigates identity and the continuous state of “Becoming”; a vigorous duet integrates partnering, awkwardness, tension and vulnerability in Nugent’s I’d Go Out With You; Westwood’s nostalgic world premiere, Record, incorporates varied forms of multi-media including miniature objects with a live projected video feed and an engineered traveling sound score.

A post-performance talkback moderated by choreographer/dance film presenter Michael Bodel will take place on Thursday, February 17.

Initiated in 2006 as DNA’s most interdisciplinary series, OBject.obJECT celebrates the spirit, tenacity and ingenuity of female dance artists. DNA created the series to offer homage and encouragement for ongoing exploration and interdisciplinary collaboration experienced through the female lens. This season’s shared evening of leading women illustrates possibilities for the field of dance by offering a glimpse at each artist’s unique blending of dance, music, theater and new media.

Performances take place Thursday – Saturday, February 17-20 at 8:00pm. Tickets range from $12 - $17 and may be purchased by visiting DNA’s box office or www.dnadance.org. DNA is located near all major trains to Chambers Street/City Hall.

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Ximena Garnica/LEIMAY
Becoming (Excerpts)
Choreographed by Ximena Garnica
Concept and Design by Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya
Performed by Masanori Asahara, Ximena Garnica, Miyu Leilani, Denisa Musilova
Music Composed and Performed Live by Roland Toledo, additional songs by Laddio Bolocko
Costume Design by Ximena Garnica
Live Video Projections by Shige Moriya

LEIMAY’s newest work Becoming is an inter-media performance, synthesizing dance with live manipulated video and original live music. The work mediates on the continuous cycles of life and death and on the modern human search for identity and the struggle to become someone.

Becoming was developed at The Yard, a colony for performing artists, as part of the Bessie Schönberg Choreographers’ Residency. Produced by CAVE, a space for the development of contemporary art and performance.

Colombian-born interdisciplinary choreographer and installation artist, Ximena Garnica, is active as a curator and producer. She is currently an Artist in Residence at HERE Arts Center and has been awarded with the 2010 Bessie Schonberg Individual Choreographers Residency at the Yard. Garnica has been recognized with the prestigious Van Lier Fellowship for young Hispanic directors in New York and has received grants from The Urban Artist Initiative (UAI/NYC), Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, The Japan Foundation and the Asian American Arts Alliance. She has been in residence at Watermill Center, the New and Hazlett Theater, the National Museum of Dance and at Silo. Her work has been presented at the Japan Society, Joyce SoHo, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Safe-T Gallery, and The CAVE NY Butoh Festival, among others. Internationally, her work has been presented in Japan, Spain, France, The Netherlands, Mexico and Colombia. Garnica is Co-Director of CAVE Organization and of The New York Butoh Festival. She has led master classes and lectured at Denison University, Skidmore College, DeSales University, Muhlenberg College and the Academia Superior de Artes de Bogota. Currently, she teaches an undergraduate course at P.H.T.S., New York University. Garnica received a B.A. in theater from The City College of New York and graduated from Tokyo’s Akira Kasai's Tenshikan Dance Institute in 2006. Residing in Brooklyn, she leads ongoing training in dance and performance at CAVE.

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Jennifer Nugent
I’d Go Out With You
Choreographed by Jennifer Nugent
Performed by Asli Bulbul, Elaina Morgan, Jennifer Nugent
Music by Sam Crawford and Elaina Morgan

This is a duet of a woman - colliding, carrying, wading through the body of another. Finding her through her. Arriving here. No resolution or finale.

This work was made possible, in part, through the Movement Research Artist-in-Residency Program, funded, in part, by the Leonard and Sophie Davis Fund, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Jennifer Nugent is a performer, teacher, and choreographer. She was a member of David Dorfman Dance from 1999-2007, receiving a “Bessie” in 2006 for her performing work with the company. Jennifer has also had the pleasure of working with Barbara Sloan, Gerri Houlihan, Mary Street, Daniel Lepkoff, Nina Winthrop, Lisa Race, Yin Mei, Doug Elkins, Bill Young, Colleen Thomas, Martha Clarke, and Kate Weare. She continuously creates her own work and collaborates with Paul Matteson. Jennifer was a 2008 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence and a 2004 Artist-in-Residence at Dance New Amsterdam. Her own work and collaborations have been presented at Dancespace Project, Dixon Place, Judson Church, Rhode Island College, Bennington College, Middlebury College, Hollins University, The Florida Dance Festival, Galapagos Art Space, and Jacob's Pillow. Jennifer teaches in NYC at Movement Research and Dance New Amsterdam as well as festivals and universities throughout the United States, Korea, Russia, and Vietnam. She is currently dancing with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

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Adrienne Westwood
Record
World Premiere
Performed by Jung-eun Kim (aka Je), Dawn Poirier, Helen Simoneau, and Jacob Slominski
Original score and sound design by Jim Briggs III, additional music by Lila Sand Jones
Costumes by Seth Easter and Adrienne Westwood
Scenic Collaboration by Seth Easter

Record conjures the space of a distant memory in live performance, allowing the phantoms of that memory to be felt in the present space, right here, right now. “Objects of memory” such as a record player, table and chairs, childhood toys, miniature objects, old family photographs, live-feed video and directional audio are central areas of research.

The development of Record has been made possible, in part, by residency at One Arm Red in DUMBO, Brooklyn, and by an anonymous grant.

Brooklyn based dance artist Adrienne Westwood co-founded VIA Dance Collaborative in 2003 after being awarded the eight-month Kenan Fellowship at Lincoln Center Institute. Her choreography has been presented at Jacob's Pillow, the CCN-Ballet de Lorraine in France, and The WUK in Vienna, Joyce SoHo and Dance Theater Workshop, Dance New Amsterdam, Center for Performance Research, and Dixon Place. Westwood’s choreography has been supported by grants including the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Fund for Creative Communities and Manhattan Community Arts Fund, The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, and by numerous space grants. Her choreography has received finalist awards in both the Island Moving Company Choreography Competition and the McCallum Theater Dance Under the Stars Choreographic Competition. She has been visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at SUNY Fredonia, Artist in Residence at University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Performática in Mexico; New York teaching includes CLASSCLASSCLASS and Lincoln Center Institute; she is also a lecturer at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Westwood has danced for Helen Simoneau since 2006. She recently completed her MFA in dance on fellowship through Hollins University/The American Dance Festival.

Official Website: http://www.dnadance.org/site/performances/dna-presents-winter-season-2011/obj/