BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance Presents Davalois Fearon Dance “EXCERPT OF FOR C.J.”
Company:
BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance
BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance Presents
Davalois Fearon Dance “EXCERPT OF FOR C.J.”
(with post-performance discussion) as apart of the BlakTinX Performance Series
Monday, December 3rd, 2018
ACCLAIMED ARTISTIC ACTIVIST RETURNS HOME TO THE BRONX TO FIGHT DISPARITIES
IN ASTHMA CARE IN THE BOROUGH AND PERFORM “EXCERPTS OF FOR C.J.”
(Bronx, NY)–Fresh off of back to back engagements on Broadway and at Martha’s Vineyard, and her successful crowdfunding campaign that raised over $20,000 to artistically combat disparities in asthma care, the Bessie Award-Winning Artistic Activist Davalois Fearon is excited to announce her return home to The Bronx for two engagements at BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance to close out 2018, and kick off her 2019 season. The performance on Monday, December 3rd, 2018 at 8pm, is free, and will be excerpts of the 2018 Bronx Council on the Arts Artist for Community and Arts Fund project, and evening length work, “For C.J.”. The full work will premiere on March 29th & 30th of 2019 at BAAD! 2474 Westchester Ave., Bronx 10461. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit www.davaloisfearon.com or www.baadbronx.org.
“For C.J.”will honor Ms. Fearon’s nephew, who recently fell victim to a fatal asthma attack, use dance as a platform to spread awareness about the hidden dangers of asthma, and provide resources to mitigate them. After C.J.’s death, Ms. Fearon began to take action and research asthma fatalities, which led her to the alarming discovery of systemic medical and environmental negligence. Resources to prevent asthma fatalities are available, however, Davalois and her nephew were not aware they even existed until it was too late. This heartbreaking information motivated Ms. Fearon to be part of a solution in hopes of saving lives.
“For C.J.”is an ensemble work that celebrates C.J.’s life and tells his story through movement, live music, and visual arts. Performances of “For C.J. are followed by a panel discussion about asthma and various environmental and medical resources, and are done with the support of organizations such as Bronx Council on the Arts, Pentacle, and local asthma organizations. “For C.J.”bridges the gap between communities and organizations like the Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America. This combination of art and community not only honors the life of C.J., but also draws people together to build a support network, provide resources, and help prevent more unnecessary deaths.
“The asthma hospitalization rate for children in The Bronx, where C.J. and I grew up, is 70 percent higher than the rest of New York City, and 700 percent higher than the rest of New York State,”says Fearon. Statistics show that asthma-related issues disproportionately affect individuals from lower socio-economic groups and people of color from the inner cities. According to the Annual Review of Public Health Vol. 26:89-113 “asthma hospitalization and death rates among Blacks and Hispanics were 3–5 times those of Whites,”in New York City.
Davalois Fearon is a Bessie Award Winning, critically-acclaimed dancer and choreographer and one of Dance Magazine’s Up-and-Coming Black Artists to Have on Your Radar. She was born on the island of Jamaica and raised in The Bronx, New York and is the founder and Artistic Director of Davalois Fearon Dance. Her choreography has been presented throughout New York City including on Broadway at the New Victory Theater, the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art, the world-renowned Joyce Theater, Dance Enthusiast’s “Moving Caribbean in NYC,”the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, and the Inception to Exhibition Dance Festival, among others; as well as across the US and in Kingston, Jamaica. She has collaborated with internationally renowned poet Patricia Smith, multi-reedist Mike McGinnis, fashion photographer Nigel HoSang, and interdisciplinary artists Andre Zachery and Deborah Castillo.
Full Bio at www.davaloisfearon.com.
The creation of “For C.J.”was made possible with partial financial support from Bronx Council on the Arts, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, individual contributions, and the RestorationART ChoreoQuest dance residency. “For C.J.”was created in part from “As Above, As Below,”a site-specific piece created in dialogue with Gordon Matta-Clark’s exhibition "Anarchitect" at The Bronx Museum of the Arts and The BxMA Co Lab commission program. BxMA Co-Lab is made possible by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Davalois Fearon Dance is fiscally sponsored by the Foundation for Independent Artists, Inc., a non-profit organization administered by Pentacle (DanceWorks, Inc) and also receives capacity-building support from Pentacle’s Administrative Resource Team (ART).
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