Janusphere Dance Company to Premiere Heart on a Dirty Platform at IATI Performing Arts Marathon

PRLog (Press Release) - Jul. 3, 2012 - August 2-4, 2012, Janusphere Dance Company will stage the premiere performance of Heart on a Dirty Platform at IATI Theater’s 5th Annual Performing Arts Marathon (PAM) at the Nagelberg Theater of New York City's Baruch College.  Choreographed by Janusphere Dance Company Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer Darion Smith, the evening-length, multi-media performance transforms the Nagelberg stage into the underground world of the New York City transit system in which a colorful cast of characters collides.

Heart on a Dirty Platform, Mr. Smith's most recent choreography for his five-year-old multicultural contemporary dance company, explores themes that range from love to idiocy through characters that populate an urban underworld.  Heart on a Dirty Platform features the character Olivia, a cute, clumsy, nostalgic woman around whom the other characters orbit.  Olivia longs for acceptance and companionship among her fellow straphangers, including Mike, an avid reader who does not seem to register Olivia's existence; Willy, a technologically-armed, high strung moneyman; Angela, a sadomasochistic man eater; and Mayumi, a stoic woman of Asian heritage.

Janusphere Dance Company is a dynamic company with a growing group of artists distinguishing themselves through the innovative use of varied dance styles and techniques to produce bold, unique and compelling dance that reflects the collective history of dance and experience and the ever changing contemporary world.  

The mission of IATI (International Theater Arts Initiative) is "to perform and promote contemporary Latino heritage through full productions in theater, music and dance, as well as staged readings and workshops, serving as a bridge between artists and underserved communities.”  Heart on a Dirty Platform premieres August 2, at 7 p.m. with additional performances August 3, at 10 p.m., and August 4, at 3 p.m.

Janusphere Dance Company has given over fifty public performances since its founding in 2007, including performances at the Riverside Theatre, Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre, Brooklyn Music School and Playhouse, Center for Performance Research and City Center Studios. The Company has performed on tour in California and Rhode Island.

Darion Smith, Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer, co-founded Janusphere Dance Company and has created over ten original pieces for Janusphere including the company's first evening-length work. Mr. Smith has collaborated with award winning musicians including Reinhold Heil, Dick Hyman, David LaMarche, Yuval Waldman, Felix Ventouras and Jonathan Melville Pratt.  His choreography has been presented in New York City, Rhode Island and California.  For more information about Janusphere Dance Company visit http://januspheredance.com