Douglas Dunn + Dancers at Judson Church

By Douglas Dunn

Feb 19 - Mar 1  |  Culture

Douglas Dunn + Dancers Two-week season February 19 – March 1!

Judson Memorial Church

55 Washington Square South New York, NY 10012

SHOWTIMES:
February 19 · 8pm – March 1 · 8pm EST

Douglas Dunn + Dancers will present a two-week season at Judson Memorial Church February 19-March 1, 2025. The first week features the experimental opera BODY / SHADOW, a collaborative project with choreography by Douglas Dunn, music by Paul J. Botelho, libretto, video, and set design by Brice Brown, and visual media design by Steve Gibson. The second week brings the world premiere of L’Embarqement pour Cythère, by Dunn with visual design by Mimi Gross, poetry by Anne Waldman, a commissioned score by Jerome Begin, played live by Begin and String Noise, and lighting design by Miriam Crowe.

BODY / SHADOW, Feb 19 – 22, 8pm

L’Embarqement pour Cythère, Feb 26 – March 1, 8pm

Tickets: $25 per show; limited number of Both-Show Packages for $40!!!

No refunds.

Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, NYC

Doors open at 7:15; books will be for sale.

Running times approximately one hour.

Seating is in the round.

No elevator access.

The first week, Dunn and collaborators Brice Brown, Paul J. Botelho and Steve Gibson, will reprise BODY / SHADOW (2023), a layered multimedia opera that calls into question the coherence of the human body, highlighting its vulnerability and doubleness. The work asks: What is more real, a body or its shadow? The work features 17 dancers and Paul J. Botelho, who performs vocal improvisations and the libretto to a set score. The dancers perform a series of nonlinear, one-minute acts, at times stretching screens—or skins—as they move throughout the space activating different sections of a five-channel video. Two of the dancers act as fifth column free agents, invading the other dancers’ organized space, as well as Botelho’s actions, mischievously disturbing the logic of the performance. The video is a hallucinatory collage of shadows, still and moving images, and colors.

BODY / SHADOW will be performed by dancers Jules Bakshi, Cemiyon Barber, Alexandra Berger, Dwayne Brown, Janet Charleston, Savannah Jade Dobbs, Steph Jacco, Eve Jacobs, Vanessa Knouse, Corinne Lohner, Emily Pope, Deniz Sancak, Jin Ju Song-Begin, Dongri Suh, Timothy Ward, and Arthur “Trace” Yeames.

www.bodyshadowopera.com

The second week brings the world premiere of L’Embarqement pour Cythère, an evening-length work for 12 dancers. It centers on Dunn’s fascination with the construction of trios and the ambiguities when three relate. The work features an original score by Jerome Begin, played live by Begin and the violin duo String Noise. Set and costume design is by Dunn’s longtime collaborator Mimi Gross. Anne Waldman, another longtime collaborator, will contribute a series of poems performed live by her as she moves about the space with the dancers. Lighting design is by Miriam Crowe.

L’Embarqement pour Cythère will be performed by dancers Jules Bakshi, Alexandra Berger, Dwayne Brown, Janet Charleston, Vanessa Knouse, Emily Pope, Deniz Erkan Sancak, Jin Ju Song-Begin, Timothy Ward, Christopher Williams, Mark Willis, and Arthur “Trace” Yeames.

On sale at the shows: a limited edition hardbound publication of BODY / SHADOW, featuring text, images, and a CD– as well as other books produced by MAB and by Douglas Dunn.

About the Artists:

Douglas Dunn is a New York-based dancer and choreographer working since 1971. He was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1969 to 1973, and a founding member of Grand Union, the non-rehearsing troupe that rollicked from 1970 to 1976. Following his own duet, solo, and film work in the 1970s, he formed Douglas Dunn + Dancers in 1978, and in 1980 set Stravinsky’s Pulcinella on the Paris Opera Ballet. He is Board Member Emeritus of the New York City presenting organization Danspace Project. He likes to collaborate with poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, composers, and playwrights to offer a multifaceted theatrical experience. In 1998 he was awarded a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for Sustained Achievement, and in 2008 was honored by the French government as Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. While continuing to lead Douglas Dunn + Dancers, he teaches Open Structures at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and presents salons at his studio at 541 Broadway in Manhattan. His book of collected writings, Dancer Out of Sight, is available at amazon.com. douglasdunndance.com

Called a “fabulous composer-pianist” and an “unimpeachable” choice of collaborator by The New York Times, Jerome Begin has composed many scores for dance, theater, concert works, installation, and film. Equally at home in the classical, experimental, theatrical and pop worlds, he has always been drawn to collaboration. Begin’s recent works have incorporated extensive use of electronics to process and augment the sound of acoustic instruments. His vast experience composing in the dance and theater realms has lent to his music a deep understanding of the dynamics of live performance. He writes with a keen consciousness of the inherent theater present in the making of music. Begin’s works have been performed throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia. Commissions include Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Abraham in Motion, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Brian Brooks Moving Company, and many others. He is currently on the faculty of The Juilliard School. jeromebegin.com

Paul J. Botelho is an Azorean-American composer and performer. His work includes acoustic and electro-acoustic music, multimedia installation pieces, visual artworks, vocal improvisation, and several one-act operas. He performs as a vocalist (countertenor) worldwide, primarily through extended vocal techniques. His recent work explores vocal responses to composed and prerecorded sonic environments and includes LAF (West Lafayette, IN; 2024), In Moscow We Marched (Moscow, Russia; 2019-20), and Visby Project (Visby, Sweden; 2017–18). His work has been performed, presented, and exhibited in concerts, festivals, galleries, and museums across the world. Botelho received a Ph.D. and M.F.A. in Music Composition from Princeton University, an A.M. in Electro-Acoustic Music from Dartmouth College, and a B.F.A. in Contemporary Music Performance and Composition from the College of Santa Fe. Botelho has taught at Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans and currently teaches music composition at Bucknell University.

Brice Brown is an artist and writer living in New York City and Bath, UK. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and reviewed in The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, NPR, and The Village Voice, among others. He has held residencies at Yaddo, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center, and has been a visiting artist/lecturer at Bucknell University, Dartmouth College, Carnegie Mellon University, Williams College, and Drew University. Brown’s work is held in public collections including the Speed Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Swope Art Museum, and Yale University. Brown was a regular art critic for the New York Sun (2006–2009) and for City Arts (2009–2010). He founded Milton Art Bank (2017), a museum and publishing house located in a converted bank building, and has launched two arts journals, The Sienese Shredder (2006–2010) and Tether (2015–2018), both with Trevor Winkfield. He received a BA from Dartmouth College, an MFA from Pratt Institute, an MA from Bath Spa University, UK, and has studied at the Chautauqua Institute School of Art.

Miriam Nilofa Crowe (Lighting Designer). Recent work includes Where Shall I Send My Joys? (Fly-by-Night Dance Theater), Earths to Come (BAC), playtem tsuzamen (Josh Waletzky), All of Me (Barrington Stage),Kennedy (film version and Off-Broadway),Teenage Dick (Ma Yi +The Public), Trial by Jury (Bronx Opera), Sanctuary (Lindsey Hanson Dance), Stop-Motion, Mirrors and Charlie’s Waiting (Parity Productions), Hurricane Party (The Collective NY), SeagullMachine and home/sick (The Assembly),This is Modern Art and Platonov (Blessed Unrest), Anna (Dǔsan Týnek), PS 160 (Gabrielle Mertz), 6 Characters… (Theodora Skipitares), 2Hymnvb (Anneke Hansen),The Penalty (The Apothetae), Medea (Bryan Davidson Blue), and Symphony for the Dance Floor (BAM). She recently produced a short film, Bigby’s Dead Bunny (Brown Brick Manifestations). She has an MFA from Yale School of Drama and is an Adjunct at Lehman College CUNY and NYU Tisch Drama. www.wingspace.com/miriam

Steve Gibson is the founder of Creature/Feature Design. He has been creating large-scale art and making monsters and fantasy characters out of paint, clay, latex, silicone and foam for more than 30 years. As a self-taught artist, Gibson enjoys sharing his knowledge with anyone wishing to gain a broader approach to their own personal style. In 2016 he founded The Arts Underground in Lewisburg, PA, a unique, collaborative space for local artists. In 2021 he created Art Academy of Milton, which serves the Central PA Valley in all things art, theater performance, and music. He has taught classes in sculpting, painting, graphite, mural creation, and portraiture. His award-winning video work can be seen in feature films The Feed (2010) and The Lost Within (2017), as well as numerous shorts, music videos, and commercial projects. Clients include Transitions of PA, Campus Theatre LTD, Habitat for Humanity, Bucknell University, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, and dozens of retail, online, corporate, government, and independent agencies. Gibson is a published writer, cinematographer, producer, director, audio designer, and editor, who also happens to dabble in fine art photography. creaturefeaturedesign.com

Mimi Gross is a painter, set and costume designer, and teacher. Working in a variety of media, she has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work is in numerous significant public and private collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Brooklyn Museum, the Jewish Museum, le Musée des Art Decoratifs in Paris, the Nagoya Museum of Art, the Onasch Collection in Berlin, the Lannan Foundation, and the Minneapolis Museum of Art, as well as the Fukuoko Bank in Japan, and New York’s Bellevue Hospital. Gross is the recipient of countless awards and grants including from the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for Visual Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award for sets and costumes. Recent exhibitions include North Norwegian Art Centre, Solvaer, Lofoten Islands, Norway, late spring/summer 2023. Gross gratefully received the Emily Harvey Foundation residence in Venice, 2024. Her teaching engagements include the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), the Art Institute of Chicago, RISD, and SUNY Purchase. She has collaborated with Douglas Dunn + Dancers since 1979, making sets and/or costumes for more than 25 of Dunn’s dances. Currently she is non-exclusively represented by Eric Firestone Gallery in New York.

String Noise, New York’s most daring violin duo, is composed of violinists Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris. Recognized for their distinct blend of disparate genres, from arrangements of songs by punk legends to conceptual minimalist treatises by Alvin Lucier, they have expanded their repertoire with over 50 new works since their debut at Ostrava New Music Days in 2011. Nearly a decade later, they continue to break down the boundaries of traditional expectations and inspire innovative compositions, displaying formidable virtuosity, integrating multimedia art, electronics, improvisation, video projections, opera, and dance. Premieres by String Noise include works by George Lewis, Christian Wolff, Michael Byron, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, John King, Phill Niblock, Caleb Burhans, Catherine Lamb, David Lang, Petr Kotik, Du Yun, Annie Gosfield, Bernhard Lang, John Zorn, Greg Saunier, Alex Mincek, Tyondai Braxton, James Ilgenfritz, Richard Carrick, and others. String Noise has recorded for Northern Spy Records, Dymaxion Groove, Black Truffle Records, Cold Blue Records, New Focus Recordings, Infrequent Seams, and Nouveau Electric Records and has been featured on WNYC, WKCR, WFMU and BBC Radio.

Poet, professor, performer, librettist, curator and cultural activist Anne Waldman is the author of over 70 volumes of poetry, poetics and anthologies including The Iovis Trilogy: Colors in The Mechanism of Concealment (Coffee House Press) which won the Pen Center Literary Prize. Penguin has published her books over many years, including Trickster Feminism, among five others. Her album SCIAMACHY was released in 2020 by Fast Speaking Music and has been described by Patti Smith as “exquisitely potent, a psychic shield for our times.” Waldman was arrested at Rocky Flats with Daniel Ellsberg and Allen Ginsberg in the 1970s, reading poems that challenged deliveries of plutonium for the manufacturing of pits for nuclear warheads. She was part of protests during the Vietnam War and at the Chicago Seven trial, and has participated in current doings of counter-cultural/political intervention in subsequent times, such as Occupy Wall Street. She works with the Rizoma collective in Mexico City. Waldman co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics program at Naropa University with Allen Ginsberg and Diane di Prima which will have continue its 50th Anniversary celebration at the Summer Writing Program session in Boulder in June, 2025. Waldman was the keynote speaker for the Bob Dylan and the Beats Conference in Tulsa in the Spring of 2022, and wrote the libretto for the critically acclaimed Grammy nominated (2024) opera/movie Black Lodge with music by composer David T. Little that premiered at Opera Philadelphia. Publishers Weekly has called Anne Waldman a “counter-cultural giant.” Waldman is most recently the author of The Velvet Wire with No Land (Granary Press), Bard, Kinetic (Coffee House Press) and Rues du monde / Streets of the World, (Apic Press in Algeria, with translations into French by Pierre Joris & Nicole Peyrafitte), and co-editor with Emma Gomis of New Weathers: Poetics from the Naropa Archive (Nightboat). She has worked with Douglas Dunn on many projects, performative and literary, for many years, including: The Secret Of The Waterfall, Tanks Under Trees, and the book Quantum’s Wing, forthcoming from Grenfull Press, 2025. She recently co-curated The Video Work of Ed Bowes: Language and Light, for Anthology Film Archives. OUTRIDER, a film on and about Anne Waldman by Alystyre Julian, will be premiered in 2025, produced by Sarah Riggs and Executive Producer Martin Scorcese. Also forthcoming are Archivist Scissors (from Staircase) and a new epic volume, Mesopotopia, (from Penguin) in 2025. From the Poetry Foundation (Chicago) review of Waldman’s Bard, Kinetic: “Waldman is one of the most important and irreducible living American poets.”- Nick Sturm. http://www.annewaldman.org/

About Judson Memorial Church

Judson Arts continues the long tradition of arts ministry at Judson Memorial Church, a spiritual force in Greenwich Village for more than 120 years devoted to creative freedom, social justice, and progressive faith. From the acclaimed Judson Poets Theater and Judson Dance Theater to today’s Judson Arts Wednesdays (JAW) programming, Judson embraces the necessity of art in our lives and nurtures an uncensored environment for innovative expression.

Image: BODY / SHADOW, Photo by Jacob Burckhardt, October 2023

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