New York Live Arts Presents "Fresh Tracks"
or where we discover the moving artists of tomorrow.
NEW YORK LIVE ARTSpresents
Fresh Tracks
Dec 13 – 15 at 7:30pm
New York, NY, November 15, 2012 – New York Live Arts will present Fresh Tracks, the latest installment of the Fresh Tracks Performance & Residency Program, Dec 13 – 15 at 7:30pm. The 2012-13 Fresh Tracks Artists include Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie, Franklin Diaz, Megan Kendizor, Molly Poerstel-Taylor, Michal Samama and Parul Shah.
Created in 1965 by Dance Theater Workshop and now continued as a signature program of New York Live Arts, the Fresh Tracks Performance and Residency Program selects six early career artists annually to receive comprehensive performance and residency support. The program begins with a showcase performance in New York Live Arts’ Bessie Schönberg Theater. Following the performance, each artist receives a 50-hour creative residency in the New York Live Arts studios for research and development of new work. Additionally, artists receive introductory level professional development workshops in marketing, fundraising and career development. Under the guidance of Artistic Advisor Levi Gonzalez, Fresh Tracks artists participate in dialogue sessions facilitating open discussion about their creative process, as well as one-on-one consultations.
Performances will take place at New York Live Arts’ Bessie Schönberg Theater. Come Early Conversations and Stay Late Discussions will also be featured with two shows (see complete schedule below). Tickets are 0 and 5. Tickets may be purchased online at tickets.newyorklivearts.org, by phone at 212-924-0077 and in person at the box office. Box office hours are Monday to Friday from 1 to 9pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 8pm.
Schedule of Related Events:
Dec 13 at 6:30pm Come Early Conversation: 47 years of Emerging Artists, 2011-12 Fresh Track Artists. Moderated by Levi Gonzalez
Dec 14 Stay Late Mixer: The Fresh Tracks Reunion, 1965 through today.
Listing info:
Fresh Tracks
Dec 13 – 15 at 7:30pm
Bessie Schönberg Theater, New York Live Arts
Tickets: 0, 5
T: 212-924-0077 | www.newyorklivearts.org
219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011
Box Office hours:
Monday-Friday 1 - 9pm | Saturday-Sunday 12 - 8pm
About Past Fresh Tracks Artists
Previous Fresh Tracks artists include: Jeff Duncan (1965), Deborah Jowitt (1968), Wendy Perron (1970), Alice Teirstein (1974), Bill T. Jones (1977), Bebe Miller (1978) Elizabeth Streb (1979), Tere O’Connor (1984), Amy Sue Rosen (1986), Ron Brown (1987), Reggie Wilson (1989), RoseAnne Spradlin (1990), Rosane Chamecki (1991), Maura Ngyuen-Donohue (1995), and more recently, Ivy Baldwin (2000), Jen Rosenblit (2009), and Vanessa Anspaugh (2010).
About the 2012-13 Fresh Tracks Artists
Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie has trained extensively in ballet and modern dance but found her artistic home in breaking, hip hop and house. She began breaking in 2002 under Richard Santiago (aka Breakeasy) and soon after was introduced to house music. She has been greatly influenced by the New York club scene ever since. Asherie has performed and taught throughout the U.S. and Europe, as well as in Peru, South Africa and Israel. She has appeared on NBC, MTV, Comedy Central and at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden and Dance Theater Workshop. Asherie worked on the creation process of the show Magnifico, directed by Andres Heller and choreographed by Pilobolus. She is a regular guest artist with Rennie Harris Puremovement and has worked with Bill Irwin, Buddha Stretch and Cori Olinghouse among others. Her work has been presented at Dixon Place, The Bushwick Starr, The Flea, the Motherlode Theater and the Bendheim Performing Arts Center. Asherie dances with her crew MAWU and is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center, Peridance Center and the Joffrey Ballet School. She has a B.A. in Italian Language (summa cum laude) from Barnard College. Asherie is a NYFA artist and is the recent Swing Space grant recipient from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Next year she will be travelling to Brazil with a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study grant to study how Brazilian cultural and folkloric dances have influenced breaking in Brazil.
Asherie’s work for the 2012 Fresh Tracks Performance Series, In 3 Movements, fuses breaking and house with more traditional styles, reflecting on the universal journey of life.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Franklin Diaz’s future was decided from the early age of four. Falling in love with movement and sound, he taught himself to dance. He is the product of a musical family composed of instrumentalists and vocalists, nurtured by music of his culture. His passion for dance and complex musical structures was further broadened and challenged with his exposure to Flamenco, an art form of Southern Spain associated with the Spanish Gypsies. Diaz is well versed in various dance forms including Salsa, Afrocuban, Ballet, Modern and Flamenco. He creates a pelau, una ensalada, a salsa of unique flavors. He moves to music, transforming his body into an extraordinary instrument. Diaz has been defined as a force of nature, “un mito.”
He has had the honor and pleasure of training under the watchful eyes of Jose Molina, Jose Maya and Alfonso Losa (Flamenco), studied modern and ballet at The Ailey School and salsa with Victor Pacheco and Eddie Torres. He has traveled the world, nationally and internationally sharing the stage with renowned artists such as Celia Cruz, Tito Puentes and Fania All Stars. His signature performance style is sought after by promoters from China, to Argentina, to Tunis Africa and Morocco. As he receives accolades from peers, fans, dance enthusiasts and the general public, he continues to impress with his ever evolving style.
His respect for his craft, his talent and his blessings are strongly linked with his spiritual life. He continues to foster his growth at every opportunity, always striving for excellence. Diaz’s work for the 2012 Fresh Tracks Performance Series will feature a combination of flamenco and contemporary movement vocabularies, Afro influences and Cuban sounds. His work explores the inner struggle he has faced throughout his artistic career, looking at where he has come from and where he is going.
Megan Kendizor is a New York based choreographer, performer, educator and administrator. She hails from Sarasota, Florida and received a B.F.A. in dance from the University of Florida. She has been influenced by experiences at the American Dance Festival (North Carolina), the Impulstanz International Dance Festival (Vienna), Kibbutz Ga'aton (Israel), the Bates Dance Festival (Maine) and the American College Dance Festival. Her work has been shown throughout Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, Washington, Israel and New York, most recently through the Draftwork series at Danspace Project. In 2010, she won the Outstanding Student Choreographer award from Dance Magazine/ACDFA for the performance of her work, Witness, at The Kennedy Center (D.C.). She recently founded the Red Lodge Dance Experience, a week-long dance intensive in Montana and will co-direct the Our Children's Dance Xchange this Fall in Harlem. Kendizor has worked as an intern for Movement Research, Dance New Amsterdam and as an assistant at the American Dance Festival. She currently works as an administrator for Jennifer Monson/iLAND, Wally Cardona, Neta Pulvermacher and Anna Sperber. She is honored to be part of the 2012 Fresh Tracks Performance Series.
In Rift, Kendizor investigates the relationship between a man and a woman through moments of tender alliance, stark isolation and palpable disturbance.
Molly Poerstel-Taylor is a downtown dance artist who has been active in the New York City dance community for the past twelve years. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University on a Dean of the Arts Scholarship in 2000, and within this time has worked with many artists as a physical and theatrical collaborator. Such artists include: David Grenke, Mark Jarecke, Jeanine Durning, David Dorfman Dance Company, Susan Rethorst, Alex Escalante, Hilary Clark, Larissa Valez, Roseanne Spradlin and Ivy Baldwin Dance. Poerstel-Taylor has been called “a voluptuous, earthy dancer with a mastery of tension” by The New York Times.
She has studied anatomy with Irene Dowd, Body Mind Centering with Roseanne Spradlin and the Grotovsky Method with Raina Von Waldenburg. Poerstel-Taylor has taught at Dance New Amsterdam, 100 Grand, CLASSCLASSCLASS, The Open Look Dance Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia and The Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Currently she is an adjunct professor at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance and is on faculty at the Dalton School. Porstel-Taylor’s work for the 2012 Fresh Tracks Performance Series, Do Beast, challenges her ability to create a delivery system which ignites dancers’ imaginations, sourcing sensations associated with painful memories, instinctual impulses, props, imagined landscapes, humility and sexuality, and exploring the contrast of these elements when set in a structural framework.
Michal Samama is a New York based choreographer and performance artist. During the last ten years Samama has created works in dance, theater and performance art and she is now focusing on the research and creation of movement based solo performances, involving video, photography and site-specific practices. Samama is a 'Movement Research' 2011-2013 Artist-in-Residence. She recently gained a ‘LiftOff residency’ at New Dance Alliance and has been a ‘The Field’ Artist-in-Residence (Fall 2010). Since arriving to NYC in 2010, her work has been presented at Dixon Place, Movement Research at Judson Church, Joyce Soho, Chez Bushwich, Priska C. Juschka Gallery, First Street Green at First Park, Vaudeville Park (in a work by Yoni Niv) and the 92nd Street Y, where she also curated an interdisciplinary art event in January 2012. In Berlin she created two solo works as part of 'Extension' PAStudies and performed there at the Home Sweet Home Festival, Werkstatt der Kulturen and the Grimmuseum. In Israel her work has been shown at Suzanne Dellal Center, Tmuna Theater, Tzavta Theater and more. Her play which she wrote and performed in was presented at ‘Act 2 Festival’ (Haifa, 2009). Samama studied dance and choreography at ‘Ha-kibbutzim’ Teachers College and then theater, writing and performance art at 'Search Engine', an Interdisciplinary Art Program, founded by Yasmeen Godder and Itzik Giuli. She has taught choreography in various schools in Israel and she is now teaching dance at the 92nd Street Y.
The Chicken Memorial explores the ability to commemorate something so forgettable and unremarkable as a chicken.
Parul Shah is an internationally acclaimed Kathak dancer and choreographer whose work is expanding the classical medium beyond cultural boundaries. With a dedication to excellence, Shah preserves the form’s aesthetic integrity while developing a unique and powerful vocabulary.
Behind Shah’s work is decades of rigorous Kathak training under the world-renowned guru and choreographer, Padmashree Kumudini Lakhia at the Kadamb Center for Dance and Music in Ahmedabad, India. Lakhia’s pioneering work revitalized the form for 20th century audiences, and her training has produced forward-thinking Kathak artists with original voices. As one of her top students, Shah has internalized Lakia’s vision and focused on the importance of revealing Kathak’s beauty and possibilities. By remaining within the Kathak tradition, Shah’s repertoire challenges stereotypes about classical Indian dance and illustrates the dynamic nature of the form. Her work strives to create awareness of social and political issues that are relevant today through compelling contemporary group choreographies.
Shah’s New York studio is home to both the recently established Parul Shah Dance Company and her training facility. With an M.A. in Dance Education from Columbia University specializing in Indian Classical Movement, Shah has been teaching Kathak in the pure form for over 10 years in an effort to promote Kathak appreciation in the metro area. She has presented her solo and group works at major venues around the world, including City Center’s first Fall for Dance Festival in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Asia Society in New York, Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts and at the Japan Forum Foundation in Japan. She has collaborated on numerous international projects and presented in Asia, Europe and North America.
“A young Indian Classical dancer whose strong edge and respect for tradition add up to an exciting appeal with a difference. Rarely has the idea of tradition as a springboard for innovation been presented so persuasively.” Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times.
Shah’s work for the 2012 Fresh Tracks Performance Series focuses on the acceptance of physical hardship that women and girls endure in many third world nations, from toiling in arid fields to enduring violence as a natural cultural phenomenon.
Levi Gonzalez is a NYC based dance artist. His work has been presented by Movement Research, Dixon Place, Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, Danspace Project, Thirdbird Philadelphia (among others), and internationally in Arhus, Denmark and Bucharest, Romania. He was a 2010-12 Brooklyn Arts Exchange Artist in Residence (and is currently their Artist Advisor), a 2003-04 Movement Research Artist in Residence, and received numerous space grants and residencies for the development of his work. He was a 2006 Choreography Fellow at New York Foundation for the Arts. As a performer and collaborator, he worked extensively with luciana achugar, Donna Uchizono, John Jasperse, Juliette Mapp, ChameckiLerner, Daria Faïn and Michael Laub’s Remote Control Productions. He was a founding editor of Critical Correspondence, an online publication of Movement Research, and he currently serves as Programming Advisor for that organization. He is also Artistic Advisor for New York Live Arts’ Fresh Tracks Residency Program, a position he helped institute and develop over the past six years. He teaches technique and composition regularly for Movement Research, and also teaches nationally and internationally.
New York Live Arts is a reserved seating house.
FEE-FREE tickets are available for purchase by calling the box office at 212-924-0077
and will be available online at newyorklivearts.org.
New York Live Arts Members, Associated Artists, Students, and Seniors are eligible for
20% discounts to theater performances.
Box Office hours:
Monday – Friday 1 - 9pm and Saturday-Sunday 12 - 8pm.
Unless otherwise noted, performances take place at New York Live Arts located at
219 West 19th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues.
