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10 HAIRY LEGS 7th NEW YORK SEASON - Celebrating WorldPride 2019 | Stonewall 50

Company:
10 HAIRY LEGS

10 HAIRY LEGS 7th NEW YORK SEASON

Celebrating WorldPride 2019 | Stonewall 50

June 27, 28, 29 at 7:30 pm

New York Live Arts

World Premiere Commissions by

Larry Keigwin and Adam Barruch

Benefit Evening June 29 – Performance and Champagne Reception

 
Highland Park, New Jersey --- 10 Hairy Legs, the male repertory dance company, holds its 7th consecutive New York Season with a return to New York Live Arts June 27-29. Presented are World Premieres by Larry Keigwin and Adam Barruch. Barruch’s work will have a newly composed score by Roarke Menzies. Larry Keigwin is a native New Yorker and choreographer who has danced his way from the Metropolitan Opera to Broadway and back. He founded KEIGWIN + COMPANY in 2003 and as artistic director, he has led the company as it has performed at The Kennedy Center, The Joyce Theater, The Guggenheim, and New York City Center, among many other venues.  Adam Barruch currently creates and performs work under the epithet of his own company, Anatomiae Occultii. In addition, he has also created works for companies such as The Limón Company, Ailey II, Keigwin + Company, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, River North Dance Chicago, BalletX, Whim W'Him Seattle Contemporary Dance, Graham II, GroundWorks Dance Theater, Gina Gibney Dance Company and Minnesota Dance Theatre, as well as for dance icons Margie Gillis and Miki Orihara.

The program is completed by Stephen Petronio’s seminal duet Bud and 2018 10HL Commissioned Work So It Goes by Yin Yue. The new Commissions are underwritten in part by a Major Grant from The O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation. Tickets are $25 General Admission and $20 for Groups of 10 or more. NEW YORK LIVE ARTS. 10HL is an official Pride Partner of WorldPride 2019 | Stonewall 50.

Artistic Director Randy James noted, “We are pleased to continue expanding upon our commitment to the creation of new works by premiering them to New York audiences. The Artistic team feels strongly that Larry and Adam will bring unique sensibilities to our repertory, expanding the exceptional artistry of our company members while delighting and challenging our audiences. We will then be able to share their work nationally as we continue our aggressive touring each season.”

Larry Keigwin is a native New Yorker and choreographer who has danced his way from the Metropolitan Opera to Broadway and back. He founded KEIGWIN + COMPANY in 2003 and as artistic director, he has led the company as it has performed at The Kennedy Center, The Joyce Theater, The Guggenheim, and New York City Center, among many other venues. Keigwin has created dozens of dances for his company as well as for Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance, Royal New Zealand Ballet, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Juilliard School, and the Vail International Dance Festival. His work in musical theater includes Tales of the City in San Francisco, the off-Broadway production of Rent, and the Broadway musical If/Then. Larry is the co-founder of the Green Box Arts Festival, the dance editor of ArtDesk Magazine and a proud board member of DANCEWorks Santa Barbara.

Keigwin noted, “I am very excited about creating a new dance for the all male dance ensemble, 10 Hairy Legs. Having grown up in a house with three brothers I am interested in exploring sibling rivalry and camaraderie. Of course there will need to be quiet moments where I hope to highlight the maturity of these relationships with intricate partnering that conjure up adult affection and tenderness. I wish to capture the evolution of sibling relationships from childhood play to mature loving adults. I am hoping that these ideas of sibling relationships speak about the power of community at large and the importance of support systems in our society.”

Adam Barruch began his career as a young actor, performing professionally on Broadway and in film and television, working with prominent figures such as Tony Bennett, Jerry Herman and Susan Stroman. He later received dance training at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts. After three years, he graduated early and was accepted into the dance department at The Juilliard School. As a dancer he has performed the works of Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Susan Marshall, Jose Limon, Daniele Dèsnoyers, and was a dancer with Sylvain Émard Danse in Montreal. He has also worked with The Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, performing and researching Conflict Transformation as part of The Legacy Project. Based in Brooklyn, 

Adam currently creates and performs work under the epithet of his own company, Anatomiae Occultii. In addition, he has also created works for companies such as The Limón Company, Ailey II, Keigwin + Company, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, River North Dance Chicago, BalletX, Whim W'Him Seattle Contemporary Dance, Graham II, GroundWorks Dance Theater, Gina Gibney Dance Company and Minnesota Dance Theatre, as well as for dance icons Margie Gillis and Miki Orihara. 
 
Barruch noted: “It is with great excitement that I begin to ruminate about a new commission for 10 Hairy Legs, most especially about another chance to collaborate with composer Roarke Menzies.

Vancouver-born, New York City-based artist and musician Roarke Menzies incorporates his voice, mouth and body with audio tools and toys to craft deeply human electronic music (or deeply electronic human music). His work has been described by The New Yorker as “a layered electronic throb, coming and going, always enhancing but never overpowering.”
 
Menzies has performed at the Material Art Fair in Mexico City, the Spring Break Art Show in New York City, the Untitled Art Fair in Miami, VOLUME in Los Angeles, Quiet City in Vancouver, CHANNEL in Toronto, and many other venues. His music has also been presented on KCHUNG Radio, KFFP Freeform Portland, WNYU's Bentwave FM, and on BBC Radio 3 as part of the series “New Year New Music: exploring iconic masterpieces, avant-garde experiments and the next generation of talent.”

Menzies spent much of his high school and middle school years pursuing choir and solo singing. Meanwhile, a strong interest in sample-based music and electronic production fueled a self-taught approach to Pro Tools and other audio softwares. After relocating to the east coast and spending a brief stint at the City College of New York's Sonic Arts Program, Menzies became immersed in the bubbling DIY arts scene of mid-2000's Brooklyn. During this time, he began experimenting with processing his vocals through various guitar pedals and loop stations; recording and rerecording his voice on microcassette dictaphones; and stretching, distorting and layering vocal samples on the computer. From these early experiments, Menzies developed his unique approach as a composer during myriad collaborations with choreographers, writers, theatre artists, game developers, and filmmakers, culminating in his debut solo release: 2015's Shapes.
 
Menzies has released four solo albums to date on his own Coup de Glotte label. In a recent profile, Musicworks Magazine described his recorded output as “a consistently compelling collection... Menzies has developed his own take on this rich sonic stream, emphasizing his own voice as the primary signal for processing.” In addition to performing and recording, Menzies has created scores for contemporary dance, performance and installation, as well as content for games, television and film, with work appearing in the New Museum, the Kitchen, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Tribeca Film Festival, IFC Films, VICE Media, the American Dance Institute, the Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Danspace Project, the Watermill Center, the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, and many others.
 
Stephen Petronio’s Bud is a sinuous duet set to Rufus Wainwright’s Oh What a World. It has not been performed by the company in NYC since 2015. 10HL is the only company aside from Petronio’s to have been granted the rights to perform it.
 
Yin Yue’s So It Goes is a vigorous trio in three sections set to the music of Anenzephalia; Ezio Bosso; Christopher Ferreira; Olafur Arnalds. It evokes martial arts gestures and features exceptional partnering.
 
On Saturday, June 29 10 Hairy Legs honors Founding Board Members Dorothy Bitetto, Ruth Clark and David Rogoff for their Arts Advocacy. Tickets for the Benefit Performance and Champagne Reception are $150/Gold and $100/Silver and include one ticket to the performance, premium seating and the post-performance reception. New York Live Arts Box Office: 212-924-0077. A portion of each ticket is a tax-deductible contribution to the company’s New Works Fund. New York Live Arts house ticketing and membership policies may not apply. Patron tickets for $25/$20 for Groups of 10 or more are available for the Benefit Evening with seating outside the premium area.
 
10 Hairy Legs is fully committed to ensuring the accessibility guidelines and requirements as set forth by the federal government are implemented in as timely and efficient a manner as possible. New York Live Arts is handicapped accessible.

Randy James, founding Artistic Director of 10 Hairy Legs, has had a significant impact on the field of dance for more than three decades locally, regionally, nationally and internationally as a highly regarded dancer, choreographer, teacher, guest lecturer, panelist and staunch advocate of the arts.  In 2010 the The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation cited him as “The Patron Saint of New Jersey dance.” As a choreographer, James has created more than 40 works on his own companies and on 16 other professional companies throughout the United States, garnering positive reviews from The New York Times and The Village Voice. The New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State honored him three times with Choreography Fellowships in 1995, 2002 and 2014 in recognition of his artistic excellence and named him "Distinguished Teaching Artist."

 

Celebrating the Artistry of the Male Dancer

10 Hairy Legs is a male repertory dance company performing newly commissioned and curated works. Since our founding in 2012 the company has commissioned 14 works from choreographers Doug Varone, Doug Elkins, Tiffany Mills, Manuel Vignoulle, Julie Bour, Megan Williams, Al Blackstone, Raja Feather Kelly, Nicholas Sciscione and Yin Yue. We have served more than 80,000 patrons, students, artists and educators throughout the NY/NJ region; nationally and internationally in The Cayman Islands and Cape Town, South Africa. Broadcasts have included NJTV’s State of the Arts, The Meredith Vieira Show and Nick Cannon’s Red Nose Dancathon. Dance Education is an important part of our mission and we provide a wide range of programs for all ages exemplifying the many facets of maleness expressed through dance to more than 4,500 students and educators each year.

 

 “…Gotta hand it to them: 10 Hairy Legs shows what modern dance should be…” – Demetrius Klein, Palm Beach Daily News 2018

 

Our Artistic Collaborators are choreographers Adam Barruch, Al Blackstone, Julie Bour, Seàn Curran, David Dorfman, Dan Froot, Doug Elkins, Larry Keigwin, Raja Feather Kelly, Heidi Latsky, Cleo Mack, Tiffany Mills, David Parker, Stephen Petronio, Claire Porter, Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor, Doug Varone, Manuel Vignoulle, Christopher Williams, Megan Williams, Nicholas Sciscione and Yin Yue; musicians/composers Tigger Benford, Sarah Biber, Jane Chung, Lachlan Glen, Kyle Olson, Robert Maggio, Ofer Pelz, Bryan Strimpel, Michael Wall, Dorian Wallace and Peter Whitehead; and designers Abraham Cruz, Oana Botez, Cindy Capraro, Benjamin Heller, Jason Flamos, John Lasiter, Naomi Luppescu, Mary Kokie McNaugher, Dennis O’Leary-Gullo, Lauren Parrish, Amanda Ringger, Amanda Shafran, Ken Tabatchnik, Olivier Theyskens, Asa Thornton and Tuce Yasak. In addition to their work with 10 Hairy Legs, our company members are currently featured artists with The Bang Group, Stephen Petronio Company, Lucinda Childs Dance Company and Zvi Dance, among others.  

Leadership funding for the company has been provided by The Geraldine R. Dodge, Frank & Lydia Bergen, Blanche and Irving Laurie, The O'Donnell Green Music & Dance, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels, Mertz Gilmore, Magyar Bank and Hyde & Watson Foundations, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Johnson & Johnson, American Dance Abroad’s Rapid Response, New Music USA, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Dept. of State, receiving a Citation of Excellence in 2018 and 2019, the generous contributors to the Rita & Philip Levy New Works Fund and The Constance Poster Trust for New Choreography.

 

 

Mike Esperanza. Photo Credit: Rachel Neville.