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Michelle Brandon
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Focus Dance

by Michelle Brandon
January 3, 2012
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue (at the corner of 19th Street)
New York, NY 10011
212-242-0800
Gotham Arts Exchange presents
FOCUS DANCE
with Four Programs featuring Eight Choreographers
January 3-8, 2012
A celebration of U.S.-based dance, featuring performances by 8 companies in a repertory schedule. Presented by Gotham Arts this new annual event is the centerpiece of an initiative to promote American dance. FOCUS DANCE is comprised of four programs featuring eight U.S.-based choreographers/companies: Keigwin and Company, zoe | juniper, Abraham.In.Motion, Kate Weare Company, Monica Bill Barnes and Company, Joe Goode Performance Group, Trey McIntyre Project, and Jason Samuels Smith & Company. FOCUS DANCE will run from January 3-8, 2012 at The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, NYC. Tickets are $10-$39 and are available at 212-242-0800 or www.joyce.org.

Program A features zoe | juniper with A Crack in Everything which premiered in 2011 at Jacob's Pillow, and Keigwin + Company with Triptych (2009), Mattress Suite (2005), and Runaway (2008).
Tuesday, January 3 at 7:30pm; Saturday, January 7 at 8pm

Program B includes works by Kyle Abraham's company, Abraham.In.Motion, and Kate Weare Company's Garden, which premiered at the 2011 Gotham Dance Festival at the Joyce Theater.
Wednesday, January 4 at 7:30pm; Sunday, January 8 at 7:30pm

Program C features Monica Bill Barnes & Company presents Mostly Fanfare (2010 Jacob's Pillow) and Everything is Getting Better All the Time (Gotham Dance Festival 2011) with Joe Goode Performance Group's The Rambler (2011 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts).
Thursday, January 5 at 8pm; Saturday, January 7 at 2pm

Program D includes Jason Samuels Smith & Company with Anybody Can Get It (2010 Jacob's Pillow) and excerpts from Chasing the Bird, Charlie's Angels: a tribute to Charlie Parker that premiered in 2009 at The Kitchen and Trey McIntyre Project with The Sweeter End (2011 New Orleans Ballet Association) and In Dreams (2007 Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts).
Friday, January 6 at 8pm; Sunday, January 8 at 2pm

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

KEIGWIN + COMPANY, founded in 2003 by Larry Keigwin, creates and presents Keigwin's electrifying brand of contemporary dance. K+C reaches national and international audiences and invigorates diverse communities with a refreshing vision of dance that embodies a theatrical sensibility of wit, style, and heart. Community projects seek to physically engage audiences in movement and the choreographic process, and bring new opportunities for individuals to become more invested in dance. Since K+Cs premiere performance at Joyce Soho, Keigwin has created 16 dances, including the large-scale choreographic event Bolero and recent acclaimed works such as Runaway (2008), the site-specific Sidewalk (2009) and Bird Watching (2010). K+C looks forward to sharing its work with audiences throughout the coming year at The Joyce Theater, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the inaugural season of The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts in Minneapolis. Over the past eight years, K+C has presented performances throughout NYC and nationwide at venues including The Kennedy Center, Summerdance Santa Barbara, New York City Center, The Joyce Theater, American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, and more.

zoe | juniper was co-founded by choreographer Zoe Scofield and visual artist Juniper Shuey for the creation of dance, video installations and photography works. Their collaboration originally began in 2004 with I am nothing without you for On the Boards NW New Works Festival, and eventually led to them forming their company in 2006. Since then their work has been presented/commissioned by Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, On the Boards, Bumbershoot, SCUBA 2007, Bates Dance Festival, PICAs TBA Festival, DiverseWorks Art Space, Spoleto Festival, Wesleyan University, Spectrum Dance Theater, American Realness Festival, Dance Theater Workshop/NYLA, World Music/CRASHArts, Frye Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center, Trafo House of Contemporary Art, Body Festival, Southern Lights Dance and The Myrna Loy Center. Their latest collaboration, A Crack in Everything, premiered in July 2011 at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, and will be on tour through 2013.

ABRAHAM.IN.MOTION is a representation of dancers from various dance disciplines and diverse personal backgrounds. Combined together, these individuals create a social narrative crafted by Abraham's personal movement impulses and varied inspirations. Born into Hip hop culture in the late 70s and grounded in Abraham's artistic upbringing in classical cello and visual arts, the movement's goal is to delve into identity in relation to a personal history. Abraham.In.Motion premiered in Pittsburgh, PA in 2006 and has since gone onto present work throughout the US and abroad. In 2010, the company received a Bessie Award for The Radio Show presented by Danspace Project. Most recently the company premiered The Quiet Dance at Gotham Dance Festival, and will premiere Live! The Realest MC at The Kitchen from December 8-10, 2011.

KATE WEARE COMPANY is committed to creating dances that explore a contemporary view of intimacy - both stark and tender - through the power and clarity of the moving body. Kate Weare Company's most recent engagements include The Joyce Theater, American Dance Festival, The Ringling Museum, ArtPower at U.C. San Diego, Florida Dance Association, Dance Celebration Philadelphia, Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, Fall for Dance, Spring to Dance St. Louis, Bates Dance Festival, ODC Theater and Danspace Project, as well as residencies at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Long Island University, Marymount Manhattan College, Bates Dance Festival, SUNY Brockport, Keene State College and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. In addition, major support through development residencies has been awarded by The Joyce Theater, Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Joyce SoHo, Dance New Amsterdams A.I.R. Program and ODC Theater.

MONICA BILL BARNES & COMPANY is a contemporary American dance company with the mission to celebrate individuality, humor and the innate theatricality of everyday life. MBB&C has performed in over twenty venues in New York City and has been presented in 30 cities throughout the United States and abroad, including Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Support has come in the form of creative residencies awarded by The Joyce Theater (2010-2011), Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (2009 Creative Development Residency), the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (2006-2007 Choreographic Fellowship), a residency provided by The Joyce Theater Foundation (2005-2006), Dancenow/NYC Silo Residency (2004, 2008, 2009), Acadia Summer Arts Program (2003-2007) and The Yard (2002). Danspace Project presented the company's first New York season, an evening-length work titled When we were pretty in 2002.

JOE GOODE PERFORMANCE GROUP's innovative form of dance theater is accessible, personal, and explores unabashed emotional terrain with humor and honesty. Using text, voice, and high velocity movement, JGPG blurs the line between theater and dance to make work that is thoughtful, groundbreaking, and deeply felt. The company has made over 25 works since its inception in 1986, and has a devoted following in its home city of San Francisco. While maintaining a robust touring schedule domestically, the company has also performed in Europe, Canada, Africa, and the Middle East. Joe Goode Performance Group has received the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for choreography and performance and the New York Dance and Performance Award for choreography. Additionally, JGPG recently acquired a new home in San Francisco's Mission District, where it expects to continue building improvements and host new educational and small performance programming throughout the year.

TREY MCINTYRE PROJECT is an internationally touring dance company based in Boise, Idaho created to nurture, support and produce the work of one of the world's most vibrant choreographers. McIntyre's work innovates and extends beyond the ballet genre by infusing its classical inheritance with freshness, vitality and depth. In his signature pieces McIntyre explores Americana by taking on such themes as religion, superstition, families and love. McIntyre's work entices and connects all types of audience members. The company's fans range from dance aficionados to bicycle mechanics - from ages 90 to 5 - from multi-millionaires to struggling refugees. Each year Trey McIntyre Project performs in over 30 cities nationally and abroad engaging with over 100,000 people, touring to the most prestigious venues and festivals in the United States and around the world, bringing our art to a wide cross-section of the world.

JASON SAMUELS SMITH (performer, choreographer, director) has emerged as a multi-talented leader in the art form of Tap. He received a Dance Magazine Award as well as an Emmy and American Choreography Award for Outstanding Choreography; the Gregory Hines Humanitarian Award; the Ivy of Education from Brainerd Institute; an Alpert/McDowell Residency Award; among others. Choreography and performances include MYA on CBSs Secret Talents of the Stars, twice as a special guest on Fox's hit series So You Think You Can Dance, and Dancing with The Stars to name a few. Performances include Soul Possessed (leading role); Tony Award winning Broadways Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk (principal and lead roles); and Imagine Tap! (leading role). Mr. Samuels Smith continues to tour the world with his own tap company A.C.G.I (Anybody Can Get It), India Jazz Suites with Kathak Master Pandit Chitresh Das, YouthSpeaks, JaJa Productions Band, and Chasing The Bird (A Tribute to Charlie Parker).

Gotham Arts Exchange: This week of programming is presented by Gotham Arts Exchange, and made possible with major support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), NYC
January 3 – 8, 2012
Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday at 7:30pm; Thursday – Saturday at 8pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2pm
Tickets are $10-$39
JoyceCharge: 212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
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