PRESS RELEASE:
FAMILY MATTERS

DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP
announces the 2009- 2010

FAMILY MATTERS SERIES

New York, NY, November 19 - Dance Theater Workshop, announces the 2009 - 2010 Family Matters Series curated by Keely Garfield, Peggy Peloquin, and Ellen Robbins. Created for families looking to introduce their children to fun, intelligent, and innovative live performance. Dance Theater Workshop’s Family Matters shows are relaxed and informal, and appropriate for children of all ages. Showcasing both art created for adults presented in kid-friendly, bite-size-pieces, and art made and performed by children ages 8 - 18, the Family Matters Series provides families and caregivers an opportunity to experience innovative contemporary dance, music, theater, puppetry, and more. Now in it’s 17^th year, the Family Matters Series has expanded to include two performances or more of each showcase.

All Performances will take place at Dance Theater Workshop in the Bessie Schönberg Theater. Tickets are FREE FOR KIDS and fee-free adult tickets are $15. All tickets are available online at dancetheaterworkshop.org, over the phone at 212.924.0077, and in person at the box office. Box office hours are Monday - Friday from 5pm - 9pm and Saturday - Sunday from 12pm - 8pm.  Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219 West 19th Street between 7^th and 8^th Avenues. All children under the age of 13 must be supervised by an adult.

SHOWCASE DETAILS:

4 Wings, 2 Legs, Ukuleles, and a Tale, Jan 16 - 17 at 2pm
First up, 4 Wings, 2 Legs, Ukuleles, and a Tale is a jam packed showcase full of rock bands and family acts, animals, and insects. Sing and bop along with The Ukaladies and their ukuleles, the punk rock of Dirty Power: Weena Pauly, Katy Pyle & Katie Workum, and the whimsical sounds of Michael Hearst. Dance with YaliniDream and her pet monkey, engage in a game of dance with Brandin Steffensen, and enjoy the running, jumping, and howling talents of El Macho del Norte (John Leo) and his Sidekick. Sit back and let your imagination go wild as you enjoy an afternoon of far reaching journeys and tropical creatures.

Dances by Very Young Choreographers, Jan 23 at 2pm, Jan 24 at 1pm and 4pm
Dances by Very Young Choreographers is a mélange of witty and intriguing original dances created and performed by children ages 8-18.   The young choreographers have been taught and mentored by Ellen Robbins, the nationally renowned dance educator, since they were the tender age of five. The dances are sometimes hilarious, sometimes melancholic, but always surprising. Choreographic themes can include dramatic storylines, real-life situations, the world at large, or may be cleverly abstract. Don’t miss this opportunity to inspire your children by exposing them to live performances created and performed by their peers.

Groove-cation!, Mar 20 - 21 at 2pm
Can’t wait for Spring? Enjoy a much needed escape with Family Matters’ Groove-cation! a soul filled get away with wild dancing, extraordinary music acts, and unparalleled puppetry. Dance along with PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER, giggle with a grooving grandma strung up by Eric Wright, and view in amazement the mind bending movement of Kyle Abraham and Gerald Casel. Top it all off with the mellow tunes of Matthew Brookshire and the deep pulsing enigmatic sounds of Sxip Shirey. Leave the theater with a swing in your step and a grin on your face.        

About the  Curators

Keely Garfield is a choreographer, dancer, teacher, and curator.  She has received numerous commissions for her work, and has been presented at many theaters and festivals both nationally and internationally.  A hallmark of her career has been the diversity of projects, artists and audiences she has worked with.  Among other endeavors, Garfield has created work for ballet dancers (Dance Theatre of Harlem), antique puppets (Golem, Chechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre), musical theater (Gypsy, Sundance Theatre, Utah, Carnival, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival), children (Reel to Real, Lincoln Center), students (Barnard, Hunter, The New School etc), and MTV.  Garfield has curated Dance Theater Workshop’s Family Matters series since 1996, and serves as the chair of DTW’s Artist Committee.  Highlights include: Deep (The Joyce Theater), Disturbing The Peace (Zenon Dance Company, MN), Iron Lung (Groundworks Dancetheater, OH), and Disturbulance (Dance Theater Workshop), Scent of Mental Love (A film for Radio Bremen/Canal Arte), Line & Sink Her (Danspace Project).  More recently, Keely choreographed Yeast Nation, the triumph of life by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis (Urine Town) at Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska, appeared in Wind-Up created in collaboration with David Brick and Dan Rothenberg at Princeton University.  In 2009, Keely Garfield Dance was presented by Philadelphia Dance Projects at The Performing Garage in Philadelphia, at Danceworks in Milwaukee, and at Danspace Project, NYC.  Keely holds a BA from Middlesex University in England, an MFA from University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is a certified yoga teacher and Integrative Therapist.  In 2010, Keely will premiere a new commission at Duo Multicultural Arts Center, New York City.  www.keelygarfield.org

Peggy Peloquin, originally from Escanaba, MI, has been dancing in NYC since the late seventies. Peloquin’s choreographic works are based in an exploration of interpersonal relationships, the constructs of communities and how they are rooted in the subtext of social issues. Her work has been presented by Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Joe’s Pub, The West End Theater, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, MovementResearch at Judson Church, Spoke the Hub, The Governors Institute for the Arts in Vermont, and Dance & Co, in Virginia, among other venues. Her piece Fossil in Amber, was featured in DanceNOW/NYC festival. Her critically acclaimed community based performance, Tender: The Nurses Project, was created through her Artist In Residency with Dance Theater Workshop’s Public Imaginations program, from 1997-2004. In 1998 she received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for her work with Red Dive, a group of independent artists that produced site-specific, multi-sensory environments. She has also received a 2000 A.I.R. from the Brooklyn Arts exchange, a 1996 Field’s Independent Artists Challenge Grant, and a 1986 Meet the Composer grant with C. Hyams Hart. As a dancer, some of the choreographers Peloquin has worked with are; David Dorfman  (1987-95), Ralph Lemon, Martha Bowers, Jeff Bliss, the French Opera’s production of Aty’s and a music video with XXY. Peloquin is a trained facilitator of NYFA’s Leaders Circle program, and SEED leader (Seeking Equity and Educational Diversity). She is a founding member of the Dancers Forum. Peloquin has created over 20 choreographic works in collaborations with her students at the Governor’s Institute on the arts of Vermont. She is a certified yoga instructor and student of the Urban Zen Integrative Therapist program. Presently she teaches dance, life skills, yoga, and is a trustee at LREI (Little Red School House Elisabeth Irwin high school).

Ellen Robbins has a been curator for Family Matters Series for the past 14 years. She was the Resident Dance Educator at Dance Theater Workshop for many years and now teaches at Studio Maestro , 48 West 68 Street (212 254 0286). She is a recipient of the 1993 Arts in Education Round Table Award and a 1986 Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) for her work with children. She has taught Dance Education at Sarah Lawrence College and as guest lecturer around the country and abroad. She is a consultant to choreographers working with children. She has been on the faculties of the 92nd St. Y, Bennington College July program, and ArtsConnection, a performance arts project of public school children.  She has directed the Young Dancers School at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina. In the summer of 2001, Dances By Very Young Choreographers (Ellen Robbins’ students ages 6 - 18) was produced at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Doris Duke Theater. Ms Robbins is known for her extensive repertory of dances, choreographed in collaboration with children.

Funders
Family Matters is supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Bloomberg L.P., The William Randolph Hearst Foundations, and Consolidated Edison Company of New York.
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Dance Theater Workshop is the preeminent U.S. based center for dance and performance that maintains an uncompromising mission to identify, present, and support independent contemporary artists and companies to advance dance and live performance in New York and worldwide. Dance Theater Workshop supports innovative artists through all facets of their creative process and offers audiences the opportunity to experience and engage with artistic expression in bold and evocative ways.

Dance Theater Workshop’s 2009-2010 Season Supporters   (as of July 1, 2009)

Private support provided by: American Masterpieces: Dance Initiative of the New England Foundation for the Arts; The Carnegie Corporation of New York; Chervenak-Nunnalle Foundation; The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; The Ford Foundation; French United States Exchange in Dance of the New England Foundation for the Arts; The Howard Gilman Foundation; The Mertz Gilmore Foundation; The Greenwall Foundation; The William Randolph Hearst Foundations; The Jerome Foundation; The Lambent Foundation; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts; National Performance Network; The New York Community Trust; New York State DanceForce; The Jerome Robbins Foundation; Rockefeller Brothers Fund; The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; The Scherman Foundation; The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; The Trust for Mutual Understanding; and The Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund.

Corporate support provided by: Bloomberg L.P. and Consolidated Edison Company of New York.

Public support provided by the following government agencies and elected representatives: National Endowment for the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; Kate D. Levin, Commissioner; Speaker Christine C. Quinn; New York City Council; New York State Council on the Arts; New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; Senator Thomas K. Duane, New York State Senate.

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