STAGE DIVE +

OCTOBER 14, 2021
8PM

Featuring….

Aminah Ibrahim
Quaba V. Ernest / Venza Dance
Team Wolcott/Zubair
Terre Dance Collective
Mark Schmidt + Remi Harris

2021 Resident Artist: Aminah Ibrahim
The longest breath

Created by Aminah Ibrahim

This work in progress sits in the moment when the wind has been taken out of you. You have paused to catch your breath, and the sensation of your pounding heart is ringing in your ears. Heat is steaming from your head, chest, and with sweaty palms you just hold on, while you try to grasp the air. Slowing the pace of the spiral you are granted time for reflection. In this moment of lightheaded sparkle brings a sense of awareness between the fluid boundaries of the corporeal self and the limitless energy observing from within. But how much further is there to go?

Aminah Ibrahim is an interdisciplinary artist, raised in Kuwait and based in New York City. Her work is primarily grounded in the body, connecting somatic movement, sound, and visual documentation. Through meditative modes of improvisation and repetition, and an intimate relationship with ritual garb and adornment, Aminah explores the geographies of identity, body politics, and body as spiritual instrument. Expanding her practice, more sculptural works in progress incorporate organic material, embroidery, and text.

www.aminahibrahim.net
@tendermountain

Quaba V. Ernest / Venza Dance
Hallucinations? (Excerpt)

Choreography: Quaba V. Ernest
Performers: Quaba Venza Ernest and Jordan Lang
Sound: William Basinski & Loscil edited by Quaba V. Ernest
Costumes: Quaba V. Ernest
Collaborator: Jordan Lang

Short-term sessions of sensory deprivation are described as relaxing and conducive to meditation; however, extended or forced sensory deprivation can result in extreme anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, and depression. This segment looks into the long terms effects of sensory deprivations.

Quaba Venza Ernest, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, began his dance training at Dance Theatre of Harlem. He continued his training at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, and SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. He began his career with Ballet BC for their 2019/2020 season. He received the Thayer Fellowship in the Arts for Choreography & Dance in 2019, The Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow in 2021, and was selected as an Early Career Artist for the 12th Annual Making Moves Dance Festival. Quaba has danced in the works of many notable choreographers such as: Kimberly Bartosik, Ronald K. Brown, Sidra Bell, Sharon Eyal, Robert Garland, Johan Inger, Loni Landon, Ana Maria Lucaciu, Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Jerome Robbins, Ted Shawn, Medhi Walerski. He has been featured in the NY Times for performances at BAM Fisher & Jacob’s Pillow. Quaba began working with Doug Varone and Dancers in 2021.

Venza Dance is a series of works directed/created by Quaba V. Ernest. It is a project-based collective with the mission of exploring live/digital creations that invoke the viewer to further questions. Placing an emphasis on multidisciplinary collaboration it aims to research the endless possibilities of movement, all the forms it exists in, and the countless perspectives to capture it. Using seemingly abstract interpretations, the work seeks to turn focus towards often overlooked or internalized feelings of identity, race, culture, isolation, and crisis. Pulling inspiration from my own experience and that of collaborators, it aims to give a new perspective on everyday life, our roles within, and constantly evolving culture.

Jordan Lang was born and raised in Long Island, New York where he began his dance training at 12 years old. At age 17 Jordan was awarded the New York City Dance Alliance College Scholarship to pursue a ballet concentration at Marymount Manhattan College in 2015. While at Marymount Jordan was a part of the Marymount Manhattan Dance Company 2015-2019 where he performed works by Alexandra Damiani, Adam Baruch, Darell Moultrie, Gabrielle Lamb, Jessica Lang, Jon Ole Olstad, Jo Stromgren, Larry Keigwin, Robert Battle, Trey McIntyre and many more. Jordan attended Springboard Danse Montreal in 2018 and 2019 where he performed works by Alejandro Cerrudo, Marco Goecke and Micaela Taylor. In the summer of 2019 Jordan joined Ballet BC under the direction of Emily Molnar. In his time with Ballet BC Jordan had the honor of performing works by some of the great leaders in contemporary dance including Vancouver native Crystal Pite, later artistic director of Ballet BC Medhi Walerski, Sharon Eyal, Johan Inger, Ohad Naharin and Aszure Barton.

This research excerpt was created for a larger work titled A(VOID). Please feel free to share your thoughts, feelings, & observations! Special Thanks to Triskelion Arts' Space Subsidy program supported by the New York State Council on the Arts & Jacob’s Pillow Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship.

@quaba_ernest
@venzadance
venzadance.org

Team Wolcott/Zubair
WELCOME TO MY WORLD

Directed by Nicole Wolcott and created in collaboration with Omar Zubair.
Performer: Nicole Wolcott
Sound designer: Omar Zubair

Nicole Wolcott takes a stage dive into a high risk improvisation guided by the incredibly dense sound scape of manifestos, irreverent tongue twisters, and existential questions designed by her partner in crime, Omar Zubair. Set inside the mind, the interior clanging space of her head, she inhabits her new pandemic persona: a red headed punked out puppet. Operating in the moment. The only thing she really owns. The only thing that really is. Wolcott invites the audience to judge her in her vulnerability, her comedy, her success and her failure. To embrace the absurd profundity of life as it is. Now.

Nicole Wolcott is a Brooklyn based movement artist and teacher. In 2003 she co-founded KEIGWIN + COMPANY and was the Associate Artistic Director until 2013. She continues to work with Keigwin on a myriad of independent projects, including their recent online collaboration for Guggenheim Works and Process and ‘Bolero Juilliard’ (broadcast on PBS ‘Great Performances’) She directs ‘The Well’, a dance theater production house she founded in 2018 that is rooted in a collaborative process, generating performances endemic to the artists that create them. The throughline of her independent creations of the last twelve years is the artistic collaboration with sound designer, philsopher and friend Omar Zubair. Wolcott has been in show business for over thirty years. This fact astounds her. In that time she has helped create dances for Broadway, Off Broadway, a major motion picture, an international art rock band, for shows at The Guggenheim, The Kennedy Center, The Joyce, The American Dance Festival and even CBGB’s. She has been in the ensemble and she has been the star. She loves dance.

Omar Zubair has created sound for the Wooster Group, Lady Gaga, Paul Simon, French perfume commercials, movie trailers, spiritual gathering. and has been traveling the country for a decade developing a new national anthem. In 2019, performances that Omar Zubair created sound for were listed as top 10 of the year by the New York Times, LA Times, and Boston Globe. Also, in the past year a gallery show with his work was named the must-see of the season by Art Forum, there was an article about him in Harper's, he had a show at the Pompidou, and had work presented by the Guggenheim and the Kennedy Center. Since the lockdown, he has been working with institutes both in the US and abroad to innovate new models of socially-distanced performance.

@nywolcott
facebook: nicole wolcott
nicolewolcott.com

Special thanks to Rachel Mckinstry. Her support as artistic colleague and presenter has been invaluable in this time of upheaval. She is fierce.

INTERMISSION

Terre Dance Collective
Cycle A

Choreography: Robert Rubama
Performers: Veronica Kulik, Jonathan Colafrancesco, Alyssa Myers, Xavier Porro, Marina Vianello
Music: Nightingale by Tony Anderson

Cycle A is an excerpt of a longer work called Circulation. The dance is about the architectural design concept of Circulation, which is how light, people, and water move through a building. The layout of a building is determined by the movement that will take place within the structure. The work explores how we inhabit our built environments and question how these spaces affect our interactions with each other.

Circulation is premiering at The Floor on October 30th, 2021.

Terre Dance Collective is a New York City-based group of movement artists creating emotionally engaging and physically compelling contemporary dance. Terre was established in July 2017 by Artistic Director Robert Rubama.

Since its inception, we have developed and presented choreographic and improvisation-based work in various venues across the east coast & midwest of the United States. Exploration and collaboration are a large part of our creative work. We believe that movement is the connective tissue of the universe and brings all bodies together.

In 2019, we were the Artists in Residence at the National Building Museum and had the opportunity to collaborate with NYC-based architecture firm The Lab @ Rockwell. In May 2021, we were able to host "Layers V.2", a virtual performance that showcased the work of 10 choreographers from New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. We have also performed in 1Journey Festival (DC), Spaces Gallery (OH), Cleveland Public Theater (OH), and The Tank(NYC). We are the Artists-in-Residence at The Floor.

Marina Vianello graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Global Systems from George Mason University. Throughout college, she performed work by Alejandro Cerrudo, Robert Battle, and Lar Lubovitch. Other performance credits include the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, B12 dance Festival in Berlin, Yoo & Dancers, JKing Dance Company, and As Arts NY Dance. She currently serves as the Administrative Assistant for Moulin/Belle and dances with Mari Meade Dance Collective and Arsenal Movement Dance Project.

Veronica Kulik, originally from Chicago, Illinois, graduated with a B.F.A in Dance from George Mason University in 2020. During her time at Mason, she performed works by Lucinda Childs and Rafael Bonachela and has completed intensives such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Henny Jurriens Studio in Amsterdam, and P.A.R.T.S under Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in Brussels. Veronica interned for Cat Buchanan at Mason and has worked for Carolyn Kostopoulos, of Carelli Costumes, at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC as part of the costuming department. Veronica is based in New York City and is currently working as a freelance artist.

Xavier Porro is originally from Norfolk, Virginia, and began studying dance at the Governor's School for The Arts. He is a graduate of George Mason University's s School of Dance. At George Mason, he had the privilege of dancing works by Lar Lubovitch, Adonis Foniadakis, Nacho Duato, and Doug Varone. In 2020, Xavier performed with Bill. T jones/Arnie Zane Company as a community dancer in their world premiere of What Problem?, and had the opportunity to dance with Doug Varone and Dancers in 2017 in their work Shelter in the fold/Mass. Xavier is currently a member of Nimbus Dance (NJ).

Jonathan Colafrancesco has danced in productions of Italian and international choreographers like Enzo Celli, Elisabetta Minutoli, Dario Lupinacci, Roberta Ferrara, Francesco Asselta, Vivake Khamsingsavath. He moved to Melbourne, Australia in 2017 to study with contemporary choreographers from companies such as Chunky Move and Lucy Guerin inc. Jonathan is currently a dancer for Nimbus Dance, Hussein Smko’s “Project Tag”, Spark Movement Collective, and Terre Dance Collective. He graduated from Peridance in NYC. He has also danced in works by Roya Carrera, Caleb Teicher, Assaf Salhov, Igal Perry, and Tsai-Hsi Hung. He is a co-founder of Kroma Mvmt in NYC.

Alyssa Myers is originally from Yuma, Arizona where she received her classical ballet training at Yuma Ballet Academy. She then attended the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance graduating in 2020. During this time, she was mentored by Jodie Gates, Moncell Durden, and Bret Easterling. She performed works by Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Paul Taylor, George Balanchine, and Azsure Barton. As an undergraduate, she became the Event Manager for SC Choreographic Collective and helped produce multiple fundraiser events in connection with Dancer’s Responding to Aids. She recently joined Traverse City Dance Project and was commissioned to choreograph “Winter” for their production of Four Seasons.

Robert Rubama (They/Him) is a New York City-based dancer and choreographer. They graduated from George Mason University with a BFA in Dance. He has been able to work with companies such as Agora Dance, Haus of Bambi, Groundworks Dance Theater, PrioreDance, Carolyn Dorfman Dance, and Orange Grove Dance. Robert has also had the opportunity to perform works by Alejandro Cerrudo at The Joyce, Donald Byrd, Dianne McIntyre, Andrea Miller, and Mark Morris. They are the Artistic Director of Terre Dance Collective and a Co-Collaborator in Kroma. Robert is also a dancer in Peridance Contemporary Dance Company and LaneCo Arts.

We would like to thank The Floor on Atlantic for providing space to investigate and create.

Mark Schmidt + Remi Harris
Social Dance Score for Two

Created and performed by Mark Schmidt + Remi Harris

Costumes: Malcolm-x Betts
Sound: Metronome 50 BPM and  Metronome 60 BPM by Largo

Through structured improvisation and set material originally created for 15 people and with an ethos of “come as you are”, this dance score reflects a shared value system of community and individual expression.

Mark Schmidt + Remi Harris have been making dances collaboratively since 2018. Together they find a play between camp, performance, contemporary composition, and the joy in movement while attempting to capture the parallel and intersecting paths of a dynamic creative process. Their collaboration continues to address a cluster of physical, aesthetic, and sociopolitical concerns: the idea of and value of performance, dance’s ability to heal and unite, spaces that are designed by and for POC’s and Queer folks, and community activation. Recent works include: The Civic Social commissioned by American Dance Asylum as part of the IMAGINE Festival (Corning, NY, 2021), Body Comes Apart (Time Piece Collective, 2020), Yes! Yes! Yes! (Triskelion Arts, Bol Theatre, and Kraine Theatre for Estrogenius Festival, 2019), Come As You Are (as part of ¡Spontaneous Combustion!, 2019). Residencies include: 2019 Bring It Home with American Dance Asylum in Corning, NY. They have co-taught master classes and lead workshops at Hofstra University, the online teaching platform freeskewl, and SUNY Brockport’s summer dance intensive.

@marks_dance
@remiharris_
www.remitharris.com
www.markschmidt.org

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