Film Screening and Artist Talk with Stefanie Batten Bland at Southampton Arts Center
Company:
Stefanie Batten Bland x Southampton Arts Center
Southampton Arts Center will present a special screening of Stefanie Batten Bland’s award-winning short film Kolonial, followed by a moderated conversation with Batten Bland on Friday, September 22, at 7pm.
Commissioned by Baryshnikov Arts Center, Kolonial (2021) is the final product of a three-year research project between installation artist Conrad Quesen and Stefanie Batten Bland. An installation-based dance-cinematic work, Kolonial is centered inside performative transparent spaces—cages that reveal colonial foundations and mythology. Inspired by the ethnic exposition parks primarily of Europe, North America, and the colonial Caribbean during the 1810s to1940s, this dance-cinema piece examines how we create definitions to justify systems that exploit and oppress. The film’s physical posturing and gestures interrogate identities suppressed through human zoos and how that relates to our viral cages of today.
“Kolonial is beautifully conceived, filmed, and performed…” (The Dance Enthusiast)
Kolonial has received seven US and international film awards.
Direction and Choreography: Stefanie Batten Bland
Direction and Cinematography: Jean Claude Dhien
Scenic Installation: Conrad Quesen
Installation Assistant: Anthony Quesen
Costume Design: Shane Ballard
Hair and Makeup: Damian Monzillo
Musical Composition: Grant Cutler
Performers: Miguel Anaya, Stefanie Batten Bland, Yeman Brown, Rachel Watson-Jih, Jennifer Payán, Paul Singh, Latra A. Wilson
Montage: Victoria Roseburgh
First Assistant AD: Victoria Roseburgh
Production Manager: Emma Rivera
Run time: 20 minutes
Link to trailer: Kolonial
The event will take place at Southampton Arts Center, 25 Jobs Lane, Southampton, NY 11968. Tickets are $10 / Free for SAC members. For tickets and more information, visit: www.southamptonartscenter.org.
About Stefanie Batten Bland
2023 Creative Capital awardee, Stefanie Batten Bland was destined for a future in the arts. The child of a jazz composer/producer father and writer mother, and raised in SoHo when it was still led by artists, Batten Bland exhibits a unique blend of African American flamboyance and European sensibility. As a global artist, she situates her work at the intersection of dance-theatre, film, and installation, with a focus on the interrogation of symbols in contemporary and historical culture. The emotional content of Batten Bland’s choreography is undeterred by convention yet directly accessible; its social and philosophical message is visceral.
The artistic director of Company SBB, Batten Bland established the company in France in 2008 while positioned as head choreographer at the Paris Opéra Comique. Upon returning to New York City, she received the support of Mikhail Baryshnikov as a part of the esteemed residency program at Baryshnikov Arts Center, where she continues to present work. Before establishing her own company, Batten Bland danced for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Tanztheater Wüppertal Pina Bausch, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, Hungarian dancer Pal Frenák, and Ivorian creator Georges Momboye.
Known for her unique visual and movement aesthetic, Batten Bland served as movement director for Eve’s Song at the Public Theater (Forbes, 2018 Best Theater) and is currently casting and movement director for Emursive Productions, as well as their performance and identity consultant for Sleep No More. She has created for fashion and lifestyle partners Louis Vuitton, Van Cleef & Arpels, Hermès, and Guerlain. Her choreography is currently in active repertory at American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey II, Transitions Dance Company (UK), and Frontier Danceland (Singapore). Her work has been presented at BAM Next Wave, Lincoln Center Restart Stages, Bates Dance Festival, The Yard at Martha’s Vineyard, Duke Performances, PEAK Performances, La MaMa Experimental Theatre, and internationally at the Spoleto Festival (Italy), Danse à Lille (France), and Tanztendenzen (Germany). She has been featured in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Dance Magazine, Marie Claire, and Dance Europe.
Batten Bland has created 14 dance-cinema films that have been shown in international festivals from South Africa and Buenos Aires to Greece and Germany. Her latest dance film, Kolonial, has received seven US and international film awards, and was nominated for three Bessie Awards. Other awards and funding support include a New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project Production Grant, Jerome Robbins Award, Dance Advance, New Music USA, Bessie Schönberg Fellowship at The Yard, and Toulmin Creator at NYU Center for Ballet Arts.
Batten Bland received her MFA in interdisciplinary arts from Goddard College, and is currently an assistant professor at Montclair State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance.
About Southampton Arts Center
Southampton Arts Center (SAC) is committed to community building through the arts. The organization presents and produces inspiring, inclusive, and socially and regionally relevant programs across all disciplines—welcoming, connecting, and collaborating with the diverse members of New York’s East End community and beyond. SAC is a not for profit 501(c)(3) organization.
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