DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP PRESENTS THREE CHOREOGRAPHERS,
THREE WAYS TO LOOK AT THE WORLD
PREMIERES BY KEELY GARFIELD (JANUARY 26–FEBRUARY 5);
VINCENT MANTSOE (FEBRUARY 10–12);
AND CATHY WEIS (FEBRUARY 16–26)
Dance Theater Workshop
performances once again celebrate the diversity of contemporary
dance. The coming offerings, with premieres by Keely Garfield (January
26–February 5), Vincent Mantsoe (February 10–12) and
Cathy Weis (February 16–26), present unique takes on life.
While their means differ—Garfield uses darkly shadowed erotic
wit; Mantsoe, a blend of contemporary and traditional African movement;
and Cathy Weis, a twinning of technological and physical humor—they
share a vibrant commitment to striking out anew.
Although Keely Garfield seems to
have discarded her signature use of narrative and theatrical elements
in “Disturbulance,” a world premiere, the duet retains
Garfield’s fascination with the twisting complexity of human
relationships. In “Disturbulance,” she suggests twins
whose relationship has been torn asunder. Garfield and Walter Dundervill’s
matching red and white sequined dresses rustle with each glittering
movement as the entangled pair attempts to reconcile their separation.
The dance is set to an original score by guitarist Marc Ribot. With
its punning title typical of Garfield’s dark wit, “Scent
of Mental Love” examines the reckless entrances and painful
exit wounds exacted by human love and estrangement. Original songs
played live by Rachelle Garniez accompany the duet, a New York premiere.
Vincent Mantsoe, whose brilliant
dancing has riveted audiences since he began performing in 1990,
will present the American premiere of his solo “NDAA.”
A native of Soweto, South Africa, now living outside Vichy, France,
Mantsoe draws inspiration from ancestral rituals and modern world
cultures, as well as from his own cultural background. The musical
and movement-based rituals of his mother and aunts, both traditional
healers, as well as his years with South Africa’s first multiracial
dance school, the Moving Into Dance Company, are combined in Mantsoe’s
choreography. In contrast to “NDAA” is “Motswa
Hole,” a playful depiction of a mischievous character magnetically
attracted to the magical qualities of water, inspiring a witty and
flirtatious game between performer and viewer.
Cathy Weis will present the world
premiere of “Electric Haiku: Calm as Custard,” a continuation
of her 2002 “Electric Haiku.” Combining lighting by
Jennifer Tipton and live sound design by Steve Hamilton, Weis once
again finds kinetic joy in the mingling of technological magic and
human movement. Structured as a series of short vignettes, the work
evokes the succinct poetry of haiku. The work is a quartet for Weis,
Scott Heron, Diane Madden and Jennifer Miller. Also merging film
and movement is Weis’s 2001 “A Bad Spot Hurts Like Mad,”
in which the two dancers are accompanied by their own on-screen
images and by Zeena Parkins’s score.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Keely Garfield Dance: (formerly Keely
Garfield Sinister Slapstick), founded by Artistic Director Keely
Garfield in 1989, has performed at venues including P.S. 122, The
Joyce SoHo, Danspace Project, Movement Research at Judson Church,
Dixon Place, the Knitting Factory, Joe’s Pub, Symphony Space
and The Duke on 42nd Street. Dance Theater Workshop (where the company
has performed numerous times) has commissioned several of Garfield’s
works. Twice featured on PBS’s “City Arts” show,
the company has also performed at the Dancenow/NYC/Festival, Free
Range Arts’s Humor Unplucked series, New Dance Alliance, Martha@Mother,
the Spring Loaded Festival (London), Danse Vernissage (Montreal)
and The Pittsburgh Playhouse (Pittsburgh). The company has been
awarded three New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies) for
performance, original score and lighting design.
Keely Garfield: After graduating from England’s
Middlesex University with a B.A. Honors in dance and performance
arts, London-born Keely Garfield attended the London Contemporary
Dance School and the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, eventually
making New York her home in 1986. Garfield’s eclectic performance
and choreographic history has included touring throughout England
on a double-decker bus with improvisational movement group The Flowers
and appearing with the Percussion Research Ensemble as part of the
International Music Festival. She has created choreography for Dance
Theater of Harlem, the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre,
Sundance Theater’s “Gypsy” (Utah), “’Twas”
for NextStage
Entertainment (Las Vegas), “Carnival” for the New Jersey
Shakespeare Festival, as well as for children’s programs at
Lincoln Center’s Reel-to-Real and Meet-The-Artist series and
The Children’s Museum of the Arts. She also choreographed
for MTV, working with artists such as Adam Ant and Herbie Hancock.
Nominated for the Cal/Arts Alpert Award, Garfield is chair of DTW’s
Artist Board and co-curator of the theater’s Family Matters
series. She has collaborated with many artists including visual
artist Power Boothe and choreographers Lawrence Goldhuber, Sally
Silvers, Yoshiko Chuma, Steve Gross, RoseAnne Spradlin, Amy Sue
Rosen and Neta Pulvermacher.
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Vincent Mantsoe: Born in Soweto, South Africa,
but currently living in Vichy, France, Vincent Mantsoe began his
formal dance training with the Moving into Dance Company in Johannesburg,
where he later became the company’s resident choreographer
for ten years and associate artistic director from 1997–2001.
In his own work, Mantsoe combines the traditional African dance
of his youth with contemporary dance forms, such as ballet, modern
dance and Asian movements. Currently in residence at the Foundation
Jean-Pierre Perreault in Montreal, Canada, Mantsoe has also created
works for Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ballet Theatre Afrikan, Sweden’s
Skanes Dans Teatre and Israel’s Inbal Dance Company. He has
performed throughout the world at venues including House of World
Culture in Berlin, Dance Umbrella in London, National Arts Center
in Ottawa, Harbourfront Center in Toronto and The HK Cultural Centre
in Hong Kong. Performances in the United States have included appearances
at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, The New Jersey Performing
Arts Center in Newark, Bates Dance Festival in Portland, Maine and
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Lee, Massachusetts. The recipient
of the 1995 Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Award, Mantsoe
has been awarded numerous other honors, including First Prize at
the First Contemporary African Choreographic Competition in Luanda,
Angola in 1995 and the 1996 FNB Male Choreographer of the Year Award.
In 1999, he won FNB VITA awards for Choreographer of the Year and
Most Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer; that same year he
was awarded the Prix de Peuple at the Festival International de
Nouvelle Danse in Montreal. More recently, in 2001, Mantsoe once
again received the FNB VITA Choreographer of the Year Award, as
well as the award for Best Male Dancer in the Contemporary Style.
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Cathy Weis Projects: In 1994, Cathy Weis formed
the New York-based Cathy Weis Projects, in which she innovatively
integrates technology into performance. Recently, the company has
performed at The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, Judson Church
and Forti Studio in New York, as well as at Temple University in
Philadelphia, Colorado College in Colorado Springs and Scripps College
in Claremont, California.
Cathy Weis: Cathy Weis was born and raised in Kentucky,
where she performed as a soloist with the Louisville Ballet. She
studied modern dance at Bennington College, receiving a B.A. in
dance and an M.F.A. in technology and performance. Weis moved to
New York City in 1983, where, over the next decade, she videotaped
hundreds of
dance and performance art works, amassing a unique video library
that stands as an important historical document of New York City’s
vibrant “downtown” performance scene. Her study of the
kinesthetic union of dance and technology began as a natural outgrowth
of her involvement with dance and video. In her performances, Weis
uses technology in experimental and simple ways, partnering it with
the human body to create real and virtual images that ask audiences
to be aware not only of what they see, but the act of seeing itself.
Since 1995, she has produced work annually in New York City, including
the Bessie Award-winning “Fractured: Just the Fracts, Ma'am”
(1996); and “Electric Haiku” (2002), which was supported
by a Guggenheim Fellowship and named one of the top ten dance events
of the year by The New York Times. In 1999, her innovative "Live
Internet Performance Structure" (“LIPS”) used Internet
technology to create live, collaborative performances with dancers
and musicians in New York City and in Macedonia and the Czech Republic.
Her current video installation, “Look Into the Past with Madame
Xenogamy,” transports viewers back to witness rare dances
not seen in twenty years (with newly digitized footage drawn from
her extensive archive). Weis frequently teaches and lectures on
the intersection of dance and technology. She directs “The
Salon,” a monthly series in which the dance community investigates
movement and discusses their findings. She is also collaborating
on a database prototype in which choreographers can track the development
of a creative idea in the course of making and performing new work.
Her teaching includes regular workshops with the Creative Center
for Women with Cancer, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, for the disabled,
the hospital bound, the aged and their caregivers. She is a 2004-2006
Lambent Fellowship recipient.
LOCATION & TICKET INFORMATION
The evening curtain at Dance Theater Workshop is at 7:30pm. Tickets
to Keely Garfield and Cathy Weis Projects are $25; Vincent Mantsoe
tickets are $20. All tickets, including 4 for 40% Club discounts,
may be purchased at the box office, by calling 212-924-0077 or online
at www.dtw.org. Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219 West 19th
Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues.
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“Scent Of Mental Love” was originally
commissioned by Celebrate Brooklyn. Some of the material for “Scent
Of Mental Love” was created during a residency provided by
The Joyce Theater Foundation, with major support from The Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation. “Scent Of Mental Love” received
additional support from Zenon Dance Company, MN, who premiered the
piece at The Southern Theater in November 2004. The work has also
been supported by the Bessie Schönberg/First Light commissioning
fund and the Creative Residency program of Dance Theater Workshop.
Rachelle Garniez’s live music and the original score have
been made possible by a grant from the American Music Center’s
Live Music for Dance Program. “Disturbulance” was commissioned
by the Bessie Schönberg/First Light commissioning fund and
the Creative Residency program of Dance Theater Workshop with funds
from the Ford Foundation and The Jerome Robbins Foundation. “Disturbulance”
is produced by Dance Theater Workshop in association with Judy and
Steven Gluckstern of the David R. White Producers Circle, and has
also been supported with funds from the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable
Foundation, the Harkness Foundation for Dance and by Dancenow/NYC/Silo
Project. Marc Ribot’s original score has been made possible
by a grant from the American Music Center’s Live Music for
Dance Program.
This presentation of “NDAA” and “Motswa Hole”
was made possible in association with Judy and Steve Gluckstern
of the David R. White Producers Circle.
“Electric Haiku: Calm as Custard” is a co-commissioning
project by Dance Theater Workshop, the Flynn Center for the Performing
Arts and the National Performance Network Creation Fund. The Creation
Fund is sponsored by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Altria,
Inc.
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