NVA & Guests

The Fear Project

NOV 2 & 3 , 2023
8PM
NOV 4, 2023
2PM & 8PM

Runtime: 60 minutes with no intermission

Portions of this performance contain loud sounds and water based haze.

Created and Directed byNicole von Arx in collaboration with the dancers

Performers
Maddy Wright
Caitlin Taylor
Gabriella Sibeko
Sasha West - Understudy
Annie Morgan - Understudy

Costume Design: Caitlin Taylor
Music: Benjamin Louis Brody from his album "Floating Into Infinity"
Additional sound design: Nicole von Arx
Project Manager: Alyssa Myers
NVA & Guests Fellow: Tessa Fungo
Lighting Design: Connor Sale
Lighting and Sound Board Operator: Anna Wotring

Nicole von Arx is a Swiss & British performer and choreographer based in Brooklyn, New York. She is actively working in Canada, the USA, and Switzerland. She is a 2023 NYSCA grant recipient, 2022 Dance Initiative artist in residence, 2022 Leimay Incubator, 2020 Lauréate of a Gland Culture Grant, a 2020 Jacob’s Pillow Choreography Fellow, and 2018 STUFFED artists in residence at Judson Memorial Church.

Nicole most recently choreographed the opera Orphée+ at the Edmonton Opera. She’s been commissioned to create original works for Der Freischütz at Wolf Trap Opera, Stanford Live, Whim W’Him, LINK Choreography Festival, and the Luminato Festival. She creates under the name NVA & Guests.

Her performance career led her to become a soloist at the Royal Opera House and Chicago Lyric Opera while dancing for Jasmin Vardimon. She’s worked for Carte Blanche - The Norwegian National Company for Contemporary Dance, Bryan Arias, The Metropolitan Opera, Company XIV, Loni Landon, and Romeo Castellucci.

Caitlin Taylor (Performer and Costume Designer)

Based in New York City, Caitlin Taylor (She/Her) earned her B.F.A. in Dance at Marymount Manhattan College, and continued on to freelance with many dance ensembles including Loni Landon Dance Projects, NVA & Guests, and HEWMAN. She worked with Alexander Whitley Dance Company from 2017 to 2019, touring across the UK and Europe, and was a part of the creation of Noumena, which premiered at the Royal Opera House. Caitlin performed in Nixon in China by John Fulljames at The Royal Danish Opera and Scottish Opera and has most recently performed at Jacob’s Pillow with Loni Landon Dance Projects. She is excited to share NVA & Guests’ latest work, Stay With Me, with audiences across Europe. Caitlin is also a costume designer, wardrobe coordinator and assistant for several companies and dance schools in the New York City area.

Maddy Wright (Performer)

Maddy (She/Her) - originally from Toronto, Canada - is a New York City based professional dance artist. After graduating from Point Park University in 2016, she transitioned to New York where she first performed in the premiere production of Sonya Tayeh’s you’ll still call me by name, that was remounted for a commission at Jacob’s Pillow in 2018. Over the course of her professional career, Madeline has collaborated with and performed the works of choreographers like Peter Chu, Cindy Salgado, Loni Landon, Mary Grace McNally, Spenser Theberge and Jennifer Freeman to name a few. Madeline’s most recent performance credits include the production of Stay With Me by NVA & Guests, a remount of Solace of Surrender (a collaboration between Loni Landon and harpist Mary Lattimore) at Jacob’s Pillow, and the premiere of Akira Uchida’s And On… at Fire Island Dance Festival - all of which were presented this spring and summer. Madeline’s latest project was the completion of a performance residency at New Victory Theater in Times Square with artists Akira Uchida (dancer and choreographer) and Joshua Strmic (drummer and percussionist) for the premiere of their first creation together Full Stop. Start Again.

Gabriella Sibeko (Performer)

Originating from Montreal, Canada, Gabriella Sibeko (she/her) is a freelance dance artist, performer, educator, choreographer and alumna of The Ailey School Scholarship and Certificate program. Her artistry has been shaped profoundly by the choreographers she has worked with including Dolly Sfeir, Omar Román De Jesús, Al Blackstone, Jakob Karr, Akira Uchida, Ellenore Scott, and Jon Rua to name a few. Combining her love for concert, commercial and theatrical work, Gabriella has had the privilege of dancing for a range of dance companies including Hivewild, Boca Tuya, Stewart/Owen Dance, MICHIYAYA, Abarukas, and BARE Dance and is represented by New York’s Clear Talent Agency. As a passionate dance educator and choreographer, Gabriella teaches and sets choreographic work throughout North America and is a faculty member of Luminous Tour Dance Convention. She is thrilled to be joining NVA & Guests for their upcoming season.

Benjamin Louis Brody (Composer)

Benjamin Louis Brody is a composer and multi-instrumentalist currently based in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for creating empathic compositions for TV, film and live concert settings. AnEarful describes his music as "...consistently gorgeous and full of invention and adventure." Benjamin's eclectic background and sonically unique palette has led him to meaningful relationships with musicians, filmmakers and storytellers from around the world. His music can be heard on media outlets such as Emmy Award-winning episodes of VICE News, HBO, SHOWTIME, BBC Radio3, and NPR.

About the Album - Floating Into Infinity: Originally composed as a ballet in 2017, Floating Into Infinity is a unique set of pieces that utilizes Sunhouse's, Sensory Percussion. The premiere featured Ian Chang and later, in 2021, it was released as a collaborative album on New Amsterdam Records.

Annie Morgan (Understudy)

Annie Morgan hails from Birmingham, Alabama and studied at Point Park University’s Conservatory of Dance. After graduating, Annie performed for GroundWorks DanceTheater for four seasons, and was named “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. Recent credits include Valerie Chiang's short film, "You Gotta Dance for It," Joelle Santiago's "another route demands,” Brian Golden’s “Smile and Wave,” WHITE WAVE Dance, backup dancing for comedian Hannibal Buress and Impractical Jokers, and performing as an immersive character in Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s “Casa Bonita.” Annie is currently a Community Actionist for Gibney Dance’s Hands Are for Holding community programming.

Sasha West (Understudy)

Sasha West began her dance training in Atlanta, Georgia and was accepted as a conservatory student at Atlanta Ballet. Sasha continued her dance education at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and performed in works by Sidra Bell and the Trisha Brown Dance Company. She also participated in summer intensives such as Gallim Dance Intensive and the Arts Umbrella ISDI. Since graduating, she has been a guest artist with David Dorfman Dance and is an assistant teaching artist at the Mark Morris Dance Center. Sasha is very excited to be working with NVA & Guests for the Fall/Winter 2023/24 season.

Alyssa Myers (Project Manager)

Alyssa Myers is a 2020 graduate from the University of Southern California Kaufman School of Dance and is an artist with Terre Dance Collective. Under the direction of Jodie Gates, she performed works by Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, and Azsure Barton while at USC. She has created choreographic work for Utah Metropolitan Ballet, Traverse City Dance Project, various pre-professional companies across the midwest, and showcases in NYC. In the spring of 2022, Alyssa was an artistic collaborator for Jodie Gate’s NYU Residency Fellowship serving to research inclusivity and identity within balletic organization. She was also the 2022 artistic recipient for Converge2Emerge’s fellowship program and utilized this opportunity to create awareness of choreographic tools through an evening of live improvisation and conversation with audience members. By building and facilitating movement workshops, performances, and dialogue she aspires to influence the way people are able to embrace collaborative models and encourage growth from a curious and empathic lens.

Tessa Fungo (NVA & Guests Fellow)

Tessa Fungo is an emerging dancer and creator. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a BFA in modern dance performance and minors in Arts Management and Spanish, she currently works in New York and Oklahoma City as a freelance dancer and content creator. As a creative, her interests include photography and videography, and she blends her love of dance and music through videos of her own and projects with musicians. Tessa is thrilled to be a fellow with NVA & Guests and further explore her potential as an artist, both as a dancer and as a digital creator.Connor Sale

Connor Sale (Lighting Designer)

Connor is a New York based lighting designer. Recent projects include Small: 2Big, the end of theory (Triskelion Arts), The Dybbuk Part Two, or Still Between Two Worlds (Triskelion Arts), Helen (La Mama), Julia Antinozzi’s double bill (Pageant), the body || dust (Gibney), Earth Temple (with Nocturnal Medicine at SMUSH Gallery), and Sea Change (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago). Additionally, he tours with the production of Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring that Sadler's Wells is producing. He’s interested in using the temporary nature of light to make people more active in space. More of his work can be found at connorsale.com and at @connorsalelight.

Anna Wotring (Director of Production)

Anna, a Pittsburgh native, is a community-minded dance artist, designer, and production stage manager committed to the practice of collaborative leadership. She currently works with Annie Heath, Lauren Horn, Jennifer Nugent, and slowdanger as a technical design consultant, dancer, and production stage manager. Wotring obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at the Five College Dance Department in Western Massachusetts. She has had the privilege of working with a multitude of dance organizations, including Alvin Ailey Studios, Attack Theater, Ballet Des Ameriques, BalletNext, Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Company, the Dance Conservatory of Pittsburgh, Dance Place, H2O Contemporary Dance, Monica Bill Barnes and Company, New York Live Arts, the Pillow Project, Prayers of the People, RoseAnne Spradlin, Scapegoat Garden, Time Lapse Dance, and many others. Wotring is beyond excited to be working and imagining with the Trisk team.

Many thanks to Bare Bait Dance, The Westside Theatre, GLUE, and Triskelion Arts for their support in making this production possible.

Many thanks to our donors The Ardsley House Foundation, Jackie von Arx, K Ramme Setterberg, Dan Gross, Valerie & Fabio Iselin, and all the anonymous donors who have already supported us via our Indiegogo and spring 2023 fundraiser. We can't do what we do without your support!

We respectfully acknowledge that the work of Triskelion Arts is situated on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape peoples. We pay our respects to their land, water, and ancestors, past, present, and future. This acknowledgment demonstrates a commitment to the process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism and to learning to be better stewards of this land.