BARYSHNIKOV ARTS x The Playground NYC
Company:
The Playground NYC
Baryshnikov Arts x The Playground NYC
Lead by: Omar Román de Jesús
Friday, 10/22 || 10:00AM-12:00PM
$10, Early-bird rate is first-come, first-served.
Baryshnikov Arts Center: 450 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018
6th Floor, Cage and Cunningham Studios.
The Playground NYC allows dancers to experience various choreographic styles and ideas, engage with a new community of dancers, and gather resourceful information and inspiration from the array of choreographers involved. In turn, established choreographers are paid for their creative investigations, are given free space to explore new movement with professional dancers, and are provided with the opportunity to establish relationships with new dancers and fellow choreographers.
Class Description:
This class invites dancers to challenge their physical instincts and mental patterns through layered improvisational tasks. Each session is designed to heighten body awareness, shake off limiting thought, and unlock the infinite creative possibilities within every individual. It's an invitation to rediscover your body as a site of intuition, imagination, and play.
Bio:
Omar Román de Jesús is a queer Puertorriqueño choreographer and the director of the NYC-based dance company BOCA TUYA. Currently, he is a proud Artist in Residence at 92NY. Omar is the inaugural Baryshnikov Arts Center Fellow at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park and a 2023 Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Awardee. He was recently awarded the Alan M. Kriegsman Residency at Dance Place and the Kennedy Center. His accolades include the 2022 Princess Grace Award in Choreography, the 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography, the 2022 Palm Desert Choreography Festival Grand Prize, and the 2020 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow.
He has been commissioned to create works for over 20 companies and pre-professional schools, including The Paul Taylor Dance Company, Charlotte Ballet, The Juilliard School, Ballet Hispánico, BalletCollective, Limón 2, SALT Dance, St. Louis Dance Theater, MOVE NYC, Bruce Wood Dance, Joffrey Ballet Concert Group, Whim W’Him, Parsons Dance, The Ailey School, Kennesaw State University, James Madison University, and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
Omar’s works for stage and screen have been presented worldwide, receiving top recognitions through the Joffrey Academy of Dance's Winning Works Choreographic Competition, Whim W’Him’s Choreographic Shindig, The Dance Gallery Festival, Reverb Dance Festival, and the International Dance Festival of Puerto Rico, where he was awarded the Ambassador of Dance medal. His screendance, Los Perros del Barrio Colosal, has been viewed by audiences in over 20 countries and was awarded Best of Screen Dance International as well as Best Choreography and Best Narrative at the ReThink Dance Film Festival. Over the past five years, he has toured internationally to Colombia, Panama, and the Canary Islands, and has presented work domestically in New York, Georgia, Washington, Pennsylvania, and California. In 2023, his piece Papagayos, commissioned for Ballet Hispánico, premiered at New York City Center and traveled to North Carolina for the American Dance Festival. Most recently, Like Those Playground Kids at Midnight was presented in celebration of the 92NY 150th anniversary.
Omar is fond of education and has experience teaching workshops and master classes all over the world for professional dancers, students with special needs, people with physical disabilities, and marginalized communities.
