Dance | Performance Space New York

Prima

“LeeSaar’s dances always require unwavering attention” – Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

The physicality and explosive tempos synonymous with LeeSaar’s award-winning choreography mature and ripen in the company’s fourth presentation at Performance Space 122.
In Prima, four arresting performers explore a world of pure sensation and energy. Teasing out the feminine and the virile, they are alternately playful and bashful as they navigate sexuality and temptation.

The company’s process and technique is influenced by the Gaga training of Ohad Naharin. Lee and Saar are recipients of the Six Point Fellowship 2007-2009, the Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography for 2008, and the New York Foundation for the Art Fellowship for 2008.

Featuring: Jye-Hwei Lin, Hsin-Yi Hsiang, Candice Schnurr, Hyerin Lee
Featuring the music of political activist and artist DJ Filastine

A co-production of Performance Space 122, the JCC (Manhattan), Fusebox Festival, and testperformancetest (Austin TX).

WORLD PREMIERE
Presented as part of COIL
2010
50 Minutes
Off Site at the Jewish Community Center
Thu, Jan 7 8pm
Sat, Jan 9 8pm
Sun, Jan 10 3pm
PS122 original Premiere: Nov 18-22, 2009

Help PS122 Go Green by viewing your Prima Program online!

Why Won’t You Let Me Be Great

“It’s hard to justify seeking any other form of entertainment on your Saturday night.”-Claudia La Rocco , The New York Times

“Would you totally go out and see some of the underground artsy dancing and acting that New York offers so much of, if only you had an ironclad guarantee that the performance wasn’t going to be boring and sucky? Well, today is your lucky day.”
– Emily Gould, Gawker.com

Catch & the creators of Our Hit Parade meet Kanye West!

WHY WON’T YOU LET ME BE GREAT!!! is a group show inspired by Kanye West’s ground-breaking, “Thom Yorke in the Strip Club” crossover pop album 808s & Heartbreak. Conceived by Brendan Kennedy and presented by Neal Medlyn and Catch in association with Performance Space 122, the evening-length performance will feature work by a vast array of downtown superstars showing pieces inspired by each song from the album, much as the Joffrey Ballet’s (in)famous Billboards choreographed the songs of Prince.

Choreographer’s playlist

Overture (new material) Justin Jones and Elliott Durko Lynch

1. “Say You Will” Karinne Keithley
2. “Welcome to Heartbreak” Neal Medlyn
3. “Heartless” Christine Elmo
4. “Amazing” Jennifer Monson
5. “Love Lockdown” Ann Liv Young
6. “Paranoid” Myles Kane
7. “RoboCop” Varsity Interpretive Dance Squad
8. “Street Lights” Kenny Mellman
9. “Bad News” Dance Gang
10. “See You In My Nightmares” Asubtout (Katy Pyle and Eleanor Hullihan)
11. “Coldest Winter” Juliana F. May/May Dance
12. “Pinocchio Story” Neal Medlyn

July 30 – Aug 1, 2009
Thu – Sat 8pm
Plus added show: Sat Aug 1st 10pm
Tickets from $20, Students/Seniors $15

Darling

“Ms. Kim is a smart, analytical artist, creating works that challenge personal and cultural assumptions…
her choreography, often drawing on deeply personal experiences, relies on a gripping, dreamlike logic.”
– Claudia La Rocco, The New York Times

“Undoubtedly smart and talented.”
-Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice

Darling is a black comedy disguised as a horror film disguised as a dance. Inspired by the genre subversion and dysfunctional family dynamics of the ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ Darling exposes killers, cannibals, half-wits and the sexually demented for who they really are – monsters with extraordinary human qualities who must put up with the shaming and nagging of their insufferable families, just like everyone else. Darling answers the burning question, “What do butchers and cannibals do in their off-time? And, how do they do it?” Darling is essentially the story of family – necessary, painful, horrific, and ultimately laughable.
Performed by Jodi Bender, Sam Kim, Ryan McNamara, and Liz Santoro

SAM KIM makes dances that focus on the margins of culture and behavior, creating space for vulnerability while courting danger. Since 2002, Sam has created dumb dumb bunny (The Kitchen, 2007), Cult (Dance Theater Workshop, 2007), AVATAR (Mulberry St Theater, 2006), Nobody Understands Me (Dance Theater Workshop, 2004), Placid Baby (Performance Space 122, 2003) and Valentine (Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, 2002). She has created several shorter works since 1997.

Darling was created, in part, through the Artist in Residence Program at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange with support, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and with private funds from the Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Darling was created, in part, with support from The Lucky Star Foundation.

Photo by: Ryan McNamara

Wed, June 24 – Sun, June 28, 2009
Wed – Sat 8p/Sun 6p
$20, $15 (students/seniors),
$10 (P.S. 122 members)

Dark Horse Black Forest

darkhorse

Dark Horse/Black Forest at The Gershwin Hotel
Presented by Performance Space 122 and Neke Carson

A special Dance Installation: Space is Limited, Book in Advance

What is DARK HORSE/BLACK FOREST?

It’s an intense love story presented in the most intimate of spaces: the bathroom.

It’s designed to be bought and owned for an evening in the privacy of your own bathroom in your home or special event venue.

It’s dance. It’s art. It’s interior design.

It’s critically acclaimed and causing quite a stir.

And… It’s currently being performed in an exclusive engagement in the lobby bathroom of The Gershwin Hotel NOW through Sunday, June 28.

Buy tickets to this special event Click here to purchase tickets online
Act fast – space is limited – only seven spaces are available per night.

If event appears to be sold out, you can come to The Gershwin Hotel one hour before the performance you wish to see and add your name to a waiting list.
The wait list is accessible in person at The Gershwin Hotel Lobby only and must be signed up for on the same day you wish to attend.

Inquire about booking Dark Horse / Black Forest as a private event in your home or selected venue.
Prices begin at $1650 for private home installations and begin at $2500 for corporate events.
Private bookings are available worldwide and include fully edited archival digital documentation of the event for continued enjoyment.

To find out more about private home bookings of Dark Horse / Black Forest, please email darkhorse@ps122.org
These privately booked performances are made available exclusively through Performance Space 122 and for a limited time only.

More about the limited run at The Gershwin…
The W.C. at The Gershwin Hotel in New York City has been transformed by flourescents, mirrors, and video screens. The audience is privy to an emotional and private exchange between a couple that evolves into a formal, sensual dance. There are two casts that rotate bi-weekly: a man and a woman (Heather Olson & Joseph Poulson), and two men (Luke Miller & Darrin Wright).

” as much an installation artist as a choreographer” – Gia Kourlas, The New York Times

“Castro’s smart, kooky shenanigans captivate…” – Chris Dohse, The Village Voice

“Castro’s upcoming duet takes voyeurism to a precipice… it doesn’t happen on a stage but in a bathroom like yours.” – Lori Ortiz

Photos courtesy of Charles Houghton, Brett Crocitto and Yanira Castro

2010 Bessie Award

Heather Olson & Joseph Poulson:
June 5-7, 12-14
Luke Miller & Darrin Wright:
June 19-21, 26-28

June 5 – 28, 2009
FOLLOW THIS PROJECT ON TWITTER:
twitter.com/doghebitedme
twitter.com/darkbloom8

yessified

“One of the most beloved of downtown choreographers.”
– Joan Acocella,, The New Yorker

” Bewitching … One of today’s most alive, sensitive performers.”
– Claudia LaRocca, New York Times, 2008

Iconoclassical choreographer Sally Silvers returns to Performance Space 122 with her first new group dance since 2005’s Puppy Skills.

Whiteness is on the hook and down for the hybrid. Silvers answers the seductive call of a stable/single racial life by outing and othering it. Whiteness as symbiotic, open face Blackness. Sudden turns and shocks, bleed-throughs and angularity, pivoting centers, conflict embrace — a new world is ever unexplored and the night’s secret is to make the day swing blue. Jutting and swerving, Yessified is a hyperactivating dance of quirky, fun wired physicality and imagery, a provocative text by Bruce Andrews, electronica star-crossed with sweet soul music and 10 duper super dancers: Javier Cardona, Alan Good, Sara Beth Higgins, Takemi Kitamura, Alejandra Martorell, Miriam Parker, Julia Planine-Troiani, Keith Sabado, and Sally Silvers

Sally Silvers & Dancers has performed nationally and internationally in South Korea, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Europe, the American Dance Festival, and many other locations. Artistic Director Sally Silvers has an on-going fascination with the poetic as well as the social meanings of movement — to offer a no-holds-barred exploration of movement possibilities often wittily tilted toward the eccentric, awkward, and unexpected. Resonating from the movement are the motifs of risk, vulnerability, playfulness, and extremity. Often operating in areas between idiomatic dance and unconventional movement, the work keep its focus on clearly defined, if unusual structures for the articulated body. Her meticulously madcap dances engage experimentation at the edges of drama, fierceness and hope.

Photo by Jenny Woodward

Sun, Mar 22 – Sun, Mar 29, 2009
Tuesday – Saturday 8pm
Sunday 6:30pm
Tickets from $20

Dark Horse/Black Forest at The Gershwin Hotel Presented by Performance Space 122 and Neke Carson

Dark Horse/Black Forest at The Gershwin Hotel
Presented by Performance Space 122 and Neke Carson