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Molissa Fenley and Company in a One-night-only Performance

Molissa Fenley and Company in a One-night-only Performance

Company:

Molissa Fenley and Company

Location:

Judson Memorial Church: 55 Washington Square South (between Thompson and Sullivan Streets), NYC

Dates:

Tuesday, September 16, 2014 - 7:30pm

Tickets:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/733956

Company:
Molissa Fenley and Company

Molissa Fenley and Company to present a one-night-only performance

September 16, 2014, at Judson Memorial Church

 

New York, NY, July 22, 2014 a€• Molissa Fenley and Company will present three ensemble works on a single evening program, Tuesday, September 16, at 7:30pm, at Judson Memorial Church. The program features the New York premiere of Redwood Park, set to an original percussion score by Joan Jeanrenaud; Fenley’s 1985 work Esperanto, with original music by Ryuichi Sakamoto; and Dance an Impossible Space (2013).                                                                                                         

Fenley’s most recent work, Redwood Park, was inspired by her long walks in the Oakland Hills experiencing the park’s constantly changing views. It was commissioned by Oakland Ballet and premiered as part of its “Oakland-esque Program” in May 2014. The remounting of Esperanto continues Fenley’s recent interest in reprising dances created early in her career. As suggested by its title, the progressive idea of a universal language was a starting point for Fenley in a work noted for its shifting dynamics and complex rhythmic and spatial designs. In 1987 the Durham Morning Herald described the work saying, "Molissa Fenley and Company conversed with us in a haunting, mysterious, yet bold open language that blended movement, music, gesture and environment in a strange and beautiful way." The program also includes...

Dance an Impossible Space, created while Fenley was in residency at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy this past December. Originally choreographed in a small dance studio, the piece explores a trajectory of motion within tight constraints. Fenley and company dancers Christiana Axelsen and Rebecca Chaleff will be joined by Evan Flood and Matthew Roberts, both dancers with the Oakland Ballet, for the Judson performance.

Tickets are $25 and are available at the door (cash or check only), or in advance through Brown Paper Tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/733956. Judson Memorial Church is located at 55 Washington Square South, between Thompson and Sullivan Streets in Manhattan.

 

Molissa Fenley is a New York-based choreographer and performer. She founded Molissa Fenley and Company in 1977 and has since created over 75 dance works during her continuing career. She grew up in Ibadan, Nigeria traveling there with her family in 1961, completing all of her early education there in international schools. She returned to the US in 1971 to study dance at Mills College in Oakland, California. Upon graduation in 1975, she moved to New York and has lived there ever since. With her company, Molissa Fenley and Company, and as a soloist working in collaboration with visual artists and composers, she has performed throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Her work has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, Dance Theater Workshop, the Dia Art Foundation, Jacob’s Pillow, The Joyce Theater, The Kitchen, Lincoln Center, The National Institute of Performing Arts in Seoul, the New National Theater of Tokyo, New York Live Arts and many others. Her works Cenotaph and State of Darkness were awarded a “Bessie” for choreography in 1985 and 1988 respectively. Fenley has also created many works on ballet and contemporary dance companies, most recently for the Oakland Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Robert Moses’ Kin, and the Seattle Dance Project. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a Fellow of the Bogliasco Foundation, and a Master Artist of the Atlantic Center of the Arts. Fenley is the Danforth Professor of Dance at Mills College, in residence each spring semester.

Recent performances of Fenley’s work include the premiere of Found Object, a work with text contributed by writers John Guare and Rudy Wurlitzer and poet Joy Harjo, commissioned by New York Live Arts (October 2013). Also featured during this season were the reconstructions of Energizer (1980), Witches' Float (1993), performed by Holley Farmer, and The Floor Dances (1989). Other recent performances include the remounting of State of Darkness by the Pacific Northwest Ballet (March 2014), the remounting of Desert Sea by the Repertory Dance Theater, Salt Lake City (April 2014), and the premiere of Beams with composer Alvin Curran at the Mills Art Museum (April 2014). Rhythm Field: The Dance of Molissa Fenley, a book of essays written by Fenley and invited colleagues, will be published by Seagull Press in December 2014.

For more information about the Molissa Fenley and Company, visit www.molissafenley.com

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