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JEN ROSENBLIT

OFF-SITE @ The Invisible Dog Art Center
Oct 27-31, Nov 3-7 at 7:30pm

New York, NY, September, 2010 - Dance Theater Workshop, the preeminent U.S. based center for contemporary dance and performance, presents Yanira Castro½a canary torsi in Wilderness. Creating illustrious environments, Yanira Castro crafts worlds in unexpected places. Her newest work, Wilderness is a performance and audio installation with live piano performed by Michael Dauphinais. For this iteration, Wilderness unfolds in a dark field set in a warehouse where the audience and dancers are contained. Ranging from stark and emotional to highly formal the work features performers Luke Miller, Peter Schmitz, Darrin Wright, Pamela Vail, and Kimberly Young with sound design by Stephan Moore and light and set design by Roderick Murray.

“Forget the safety of distance; this is the palpable sensation of art - up-close and personal.” –Encore Magazine

Performances will take place at The Invisible Dog Art Center, October 27 - 31, Nov 3 - 7 (Wednesday - Sunday) at 7:30pm. There will also be a Coffee and Conversation pre-show talk with Ursula Eagly and Ivan Sygoda on Oct 27th (Wednesday) at 6:30pm, a Post-show Talk with Hélène Lesterlin on Oct 29^th (Friday), and a Post-show Talk with Brian McCormick on Nov 5^th (Friday). Tickets are $20-LIMITED SEATING-and are available online at dancetheaterworkshop.org, over the phone at 212.924.0077, and in person at the box office. Dance Theater Workshop Members, Students and Seniors are eligible for a 25% discount ($15 Tickets).  Box office hours are Monday - Friday from 5pm-9pm and Saturday - Sunday from 12pm - 8pm. The Invisible Dog Art Center is located at 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn - Btw Smith & Court St. Subway F or G to Bergen Street.

In addition the Wilderness installation will be open to the public at The Invisible Dog Art Center October 28 - 31, and November 4 - 7 from 1pm until 5pm.

About the  Artists

a canary torsi creates site-adaptable dance projects within visual and audio environments. Established in 2009 by New York director/choreographer Yanira Castro, a canary torsi invites audiences to engage in scenarios that are anchored around live performance and extend into other media and online platforms. These multidisciplinary arts collaborations incorporate unconventional sites and transform traditional venues. Ranging from formalist movement and immersive audio installations to fictional Twitter feeds and photographic narratives, Castro’s collaborations plunder behavior, gesture, text and sound from a multitude of sources-fiction, film, photography-to engage participants in an immediate, personal encounter with the work. www.acanarytorsi.org

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Puerto Rican born and Brooklyn-based director/choreographer Yanira Castro collaborates with performers and designers on individual projects under the name a canary torsi. Her performance works integrate movement, installation, music, text and visual elements such as film and video. She has developed work for a variety of spaces including: theaters, warehouses, a hotel room, a cellar, a former bathhouse, a confessional.

Castro’s work has been presented in New York City by Dance Theater Workshop, Performance Space 122, The Chocolate Factory, and HERE Arts Center, among others. Her work has toured nationally and internationally. Her latest work, Dark Horse/Black Forest, was presented in the public bathrooms of over six national and international theaters and premiered in New York at the Gershwin Hotel.

Castro has been recognized with various awards including: NEFA’s National Dance Project, The Jerome Foundation, The Multi-Arts Production Fund, New York Foundation for the Art’s BUILD, Meet the Composer’s Commissioning Music/USA program, New York State Council on the Arts, American Music Center Live Music for Dance, Trust for Mutual Understanding, USArtists International, and LMCC’s Swing Space program, among others. She has also received fellowships from the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center. She also received a residency fellowship with the Sugar Salon, a program of Williamsburg Art neXus (WAX) in partnership with the Dance Department of Barnard College, and was selected artist-in-residence for ArtistNe(s)t, a project developed by the Swiss Cultural Programme by Pro Helvetia and the Swiss Development Cooperation SDC in the George Apostu Cultural Center in Bacau, Romania. Castro received her B.A. in Theater & Dance and Literature from Amherst College.

Funding

Wilderness is commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop’s Commissioning and Creative Residency Program with support from the Jerome Foundation, The Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Jerome Robbins Foundation and commissioning support from the New York State Council on the Arts Dance Program. Wilderness is also commissioned by the American Music Center Live Music for Dance Program, and is funded, in part, by Jerome Foundation, the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center and by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation. Wilderness is also supported with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

Leadership support for Meet the Composer’s MetLife Creative Connections Program is generously provided by the MetLife Foundation. Additional support is provided by The Amphion Foundation, Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, BMI Foundation, Inc., Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, Jerome Foundation, mediaThe foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Virgil Thomson Foundation, Ltd.

Wilderness has also been made possible by EMPAC through an artist residency and production support: Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space program; space at 14 Wall Street is donated by Capstone Equities, and with residencies at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and the Theater & Dance Department of Amherst College.

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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 2010 - 2011 Season Supporters   (as of July 1, 2010)

Private support provided by: Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Fund for the City of New York, FUSED: French U.S. Exchange in Dance of the New England Foundation for the Arts, The Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Jerome Foundation, The Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, Multi-Arts Production Fund (MAP), National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, The New York Community Trust, Open Society Foundations, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Scherman Foundation, Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation, Inc., Trust for Mutual Understanding.

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

Public support provided by the following government agencies and elected representatives:

National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Kate D. Levin, Commissioner, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, Historic Preservation, Speaker Christine C. Quinn, New York City Council, State Senator Thomas K. Duane.

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Dance Theater Workshop is currently experiencing technical difficulties with our online ticketing system. Please note that you can still buy tickets through the box office (212.924.0077) today, Friday, September 3 from now until 6pm, and Tuesday - Friday next week from  5- 8pm. Dance Theater Workshop and it’s Box Office will be closed over the holiday weekend. If this problem persists we will extend our regular box office hours.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and we hope to see you soon,

Dance Theater Workshop

New York, NY, September 1, 2010 - Dance Theater Workshop, the preeminent U.S. based center for contemporary dance and performance, in partnership with Hip-Hop Theater Festival, present olive Dance Theatre in Swift Solos. Swift Solos is an evening-length series of vignettes based on the choreographic legacy of seminal Breakin’ innovator Ken Swift. This collection of solo and ensemble offerings celebrates Ken Swift’s choreographic body of work from battle and cipher to the concert stage. Pivotal to the globalization of the American folk form known as breakdancing -Swift’s work as a master choreographer spans over 30 years, crossing borders of race, age, culture, genre and venue.

“As breakdancing develops into a historical style, programs like Swift Solos are taking it off the international competition circuit and treating it as a form of theater. Swift Solos aims for a degree of emotional introspection that doesn’t exist in a typical breakdance “battle.” - Star Ledger

Performances will take place at Dance Theater Workshop in the Bessie Schönberg Theater, Sep 29 - Oct 2 (Wednesday - Saturday) at 7:30pm. There will also be a Coffee and Conversation pre-show talk with Carlos MARE 139 Rodriguez on Sep 29 (Wednesday) at 6:30pm, a Post-show Talk on Oct 1^st with Clyde Valentin (Friday), and a free wine reception following every performance (Wednesday - Saturday). Tickets are $20 and are available online at dancetheaterworkshop.org, over the phone at 212.924.0077, and in person at the box office. Dance Theater Workshop Members, Students and Seniors are eligible for a 25% discount ($15 Tickets).  Box office hours are Monday - Friday from 5pm-9pm and Saturday - Sunday from 12pm - 8pm.  Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219 West 19^th Street between 7^th and 8^th Avenues.

About the  Artists

olive Dance Theatre is a Philadelphia-based organization, founded in 2002 by Artistic Director, Jamie Merwin. Their mission is to validate the indigenous American hip-hop dance form of breakin’, through the creation and performance of new dance theatre works domestically and abroad. The company aims to educate audiences and communities about the form’s history and illuminate proper techniques. Providing an outlet and appreciation for pioneers, current generation and future practitioners of these styles. oDT mentors emerging artists and remains committed to the growth and development of artistic communities.

Funding

This project is made possible in part by support from the National Performance Network (NPN) Performance Residency Program. For more information: www.npnweb.org.

Swift Solos was made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpiece: Dance initiative, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts.

About Hip-Hop Theater Festival
For a decade, Hip-Hop Theater Festival (HHTF) has showcased the stories, people, music, dance, and word of Hip-Hop live and on stage. All around the world HHTF is known as one of the most influential outlets showcasing Hip-Hop performing arts. For more information visit, hhtf.org.

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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 2010 - 2011 Season Supporters   (as of July 1, 2010)
Private support provided by: Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Fund for the City of New York, FUSED: French U.S. Exchange in Dance of the New England Foundation for the Arts, The Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Jerome Foundation, The Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, Multi-Arts Production Fund (MAP), National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, The New York Community Trust, Open Society Foundations, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Scherman Foundation, Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation, Inc., Trust for Mutual Understanding.

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

Public support provided by the following government agencies and elected representatives:

National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Kate D. Levin, Commissioner, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, Historic Preservation, Speaker Christine C. Quinn, New York City Council, State Senator Thomas K. Duane.

PRESS KITS AND DIGITAL IMAGES AVAILABLE
DANCETHEATERWORKSHOP.ORG/PRESS
Login: DTWPress

PASSWORD: pressphotos

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