Venue: A.R.T/New York’s Space @ 520
Address: 520 Eighth Avenue, 3rd Fl, Suite 324
Neighborhood:
Travel: Between 36th and 37th St., 2 block from Penn Station, 4 from Port Authority. Nearest 36th St. Exit off 34th stop A-C-E.
Tickets and Info: $10 Donation; reservations for tickets at choreographicsketches@
Date: Friday, May 30, 2008 at 6PM
LISTINGS INFORMTION: Choreographic Sketches 08 Series II: The Demystification
Venue: BRICstudio
Address: 647 Fulton Street at Rockwell Place
Neighborhood:
Travel: 2, 3, 4 or 5 to Nevins Street; B, M, Q, R to DeKalb Avenue; G to Fulton Street.
Tickets and Info: $25/$20 for seniors and students; admission includes complimentary wine & light hors d’oeuvres. Reservation for tickets can be made at choreographicsketches@
Date: Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 8PM
The panel discussion will take place at A.R.T/New York's Spaces @ 520 in the Bruce Mitchell Conference Room, May 30, 2008 (Friday at 6:00 pm). Tickets are a suggested donation of $10. Reservation for tickets can be made at choreographicsketches@
The performance will take place at BRIC Studios in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, May 31, 2008 (Saturday at 8:00 pm). General admission is $25 ($20 for Seniors/Students with proper identification)
FEATURING:Shani Nwando Ikerioha Collins, Alfred L. Dove, "LA MORA" Danis Perez Prades, Jo Anna H. Norris, William Oaks, Makeda Thomas, Penelope JoAnn Armstead-Williams and Kwame Azalius Ross; curated by Jo Anna Hazel Norris the Founder/ Director of Choreographic Sketches.
Shani Nwando Ikerioha Collins (SNIC), a New York based visual performance artist, native of Greensboro, North Carolina. Holds a Master of Arts degree from Hollins University/American Dance Festival and a Bachelors of Art in Dance from Hollins University, where she was mentored and inspired by Donna Faye Burchfield. Collins spent a year studying dance, music and theatre at the University of North London and has received the Martha Myers Choreography Award from American Dance Festival. She has performed with Urban Bush Women, Bill T. Jones, Nathan Trice/RITUALS, David Dorfman, and Marlies Yearby among others. SNIC's Eternal Works has been commission and performed at Dance Theatre Workshop, Judson Church, Lincoln Theater, Aaron Davis Hall, Hollins University, Long Island University's Kumble Theater, Dixon Place, St. Marks Church, The Ailey School, Howard University, and in Mexico at the Performatica Dance Festival, 2007.SNIC is a recipient of the 2006 New York (Bessie) Performance Award and is currently performing with Ronald K. Brown/ Evidence, on faculty at the American Dance Festival, and developing her vision through Eternal Works.
"LA MORA" Danis Perez Prades is the artistic director of the Experimental Afro-Cuban Dance Ensemble OYU ORO based in Harlem, New York. Originally from Santiago de Cuba, Danis is a dancer, choreographer, artist director, dance ethnologist, and dance educator. “La Mora is one of the best interpreters of the dance forms of Afro-Cuban that are derived from the Yoruba, Congo, Carabali, Arara, and Dahomeyan cultures of West Africa. At the age of 13 she began working as a guest of the national folkloric ballet "CUTUMBA", an opportunity that allowed her to participate in international festivals. Since her graduation as a Financial Media Technician at sixteen she remains with "CUTUMBA". At the same time she joins the Centro de Superacion Arts School, where she studied the specialty of Afro Cuban-Folklore with international personalities like O’Farrell, Johann Garcia, Silvina Fabar, Lazaro Ross, Juan B. Castillo, and Ernesto Arminan. In 1994 she was evaluated as Primera Bailarina and Primera Profesora by the National Dance Commission in Cuba, an organization whose roster includes such great exponents of Cuban Dance as Manolo Micler, the Principal choreographer for the "Folklorico Nacional de Cuba" and Cristy Dominguez “Primera Bailarina Choreographer of the Ballet of National Cuban Television.LA MORA" is an international artist, who offers a profound contribution to the dance world & the world of cultural studies as a whole.
Kwame Azalius Ross (Artist, Musician, Choreographer, Director, Priest) as a performer he has worked with Africa 1 Dance Theater, Children of Dahomey, Viva Brazil, Forces of Nature, Song and Dance Company of Mozambique, the National Dance Theater of Nigeria, and Urban Bush Women. His leadership spans as former Associate Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women, to former Cultural Ambassador of Egypt, to presently, Founder and Artistic Director of KAR Dance Project. Mr. Ross has been commissioned by numerous organizations Long Island University, Florida A&M University, Tulane University, Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, St. Marks Church Dance Project, Riverside Church, Cutno Artist Group, and Cairo Opera House Modern Dance Theater. Kwame A. Ross' work is based on the belief that every soul can express itself, when given the moment and platform to voice their opinion. It is his intention to provide such platforms for expression for freedom of mind, body and spirit. Mr. Ross has studied extensively in four continents, giving a dialogue of expression of unlimited expression. He has received funding from Puffin Foundation, Jerome Foundation; Dance USA, Harkness Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts. Presently Mr. Ross is developing a performance art work around the last fifty years of the independence of Africa.
Makeda Thomas New York/Trinidad dancer, choreographer and artistic director is deeply committed to participating in the cultural life of her era by creating dance works through cross-disciplinary collaboration with artists around the world. Her work is a fresh, rich use of contemporary modern and traditional dance with a platform that gives equal importance to the stage, workshop performances, and multimedia projects for dance-theatre. Thomas work has been presented at HARLEM Stage/Aaron Davis Hall, Dance Theater Workshop, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Chicago Women's Performance Arts Festival, Maputo's Teatro Africa, Caribbean Contemporary Arts (CCA7), and as a Cultural Envoy for the U.S. Department of State. Her choreography has been commissioned by 651 ARTS Black Dance: Tradition & Transformation (2007) and received awards from the United States Embassy (2006 & 2005), Puffin Foundation (2005), New York State Council on the Arts (2005), Bossak-Heilbron Charitable Foundation (2005), Arts International (2003), Yellow fox Foundation (2006), and the National AIDS Council of Moçambique (2005). As a dancer, Makeda Thomas has toured internationally in the companies of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, URBAN BUSH WOMEN, and Rennie Harris/ Puremovement, and independently with Robin Becker Dance, Lula Washington Dance Theater, and Stephen Koplowitz. She began her study in Brooklyn, New York with Michael Goring, continuing on scholarship at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, The Paul Taylor School and Hofstra University where she earned a B.A. in Dance and English.
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