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Norte Maar presents Julie Lemberger: Two Decades of Documenting Dance

April 5th - May 19th 2013

Julie Lemberger: two decades of documenting dance

April 5–May 19, 2013

Opening reception: Friday, April 5, 6–9pm

Norte Maar, 83 Wyckoff Avenue, #1B, Brooklyn
Directions: L train to Brooklyn. Dekalb stop.
Hours: Weekends 1-6pm and by appointment: 646-361-8512

March 13, 2013 — Norte Maar presents Julie Lemberger: two decades of documenting dance, an exhibition of more than 50 photographs from the photographer’s personal archive chronicling twenty years of Lemberger’s interaction and engagement with the New York dance and performance world. The exhibition will open to the public with a reception for the artist on Friday, April 5, 6–9pm and will be on view through Sunday, May 19.

This exhibition, the first of its kind to showcase the dance archive of Brooklyn photographer Julie Lemberger, highlights dance in New York from the early 1990s to today. The show features portraits and documents of works by some of the great dance luminaries including Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham, Mark Morris, Gus Solomons Jr, and Twyla Tharp, as well as those near and dear to New Yorkers like Ann Carlson, Sean Curran, David Dorfman, Doug Elkins, Desmond Richardson, Edisa Weeks, with a rare portrait of UK transplant Christopher Wheeldon. The dance companies featured include Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theater, Ballet Hispanico, Dance Theater of Harlem, Lucinda Childs, Limón Dance Company, and Stephen Petronio Company, among others.

The exhibition not only captures choreographers and dancers but also some of the most notable venues where dances were developed and performed including Merce Cunningham Studio, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, City Center, Joyce SoHo, The Joyce Theater, New York State Theater, and the 92nd Street Y.

From studio portraits to performance images, this selection of photographs offers, through Lemberger’s lens, an intimate and explosive view of dance in New York.

I come to photography as a former dancer, as an artist, and as a historian, grabbing and preserving precious tiny moments of greatness and of grace, of humor and humility, of angst and absurdity. I am in the theater, in the studio, watching and taking, holding time in a frame. I see dance for its lyricism, its pure athleticism, its emotive expression and its intimacy of the human experience. I hope to capture the extreme dedication many choreographers and dancers work so hard to achieve.

I photograph dance as an educated observer with a heightened understanding of its ephemeral nature. It is through photography that dance and the dancers will live beyond the moment.  – Julie Lemberger

Julie Lemberger (b. 1963, Berkeley, CA) has been documenting dance since the early 1990s. She is a photographer focusing on dance and other such passionate and artistic projects in New York City. Having been a dancer herself, she is dedicated to preserving the fleeting moments of concert dance, documenting her vision of dance in New York City at the turn of the 21st century.

Lemberger drew knowledge and insight from mentors who encouraged and challenged her, namely Zvi Lowenthal at The New York Times, the late Gary Parks and KC Patrick at Dance Magazine, Bill Murray and Heidi Riegler, who brought her along on her own professional journey, Paul Ben-Itzak, Olga Serry, Hanne Tierney Wong, Robert D’Allesandro and Virginia Brooks at Brooklyn College where she got a BA in fine art / photography, and, her dance teachers who dug into her soul, Carlos Fittante, Wendy Perron, Grace Doty, David Howard, Graciela Kozak, and many, many others.

Lemberger’s dance photographs have been seen in solo shows at the Micro Museum (2008), Dance Theater Workshop (2007), and The Duke at 42nd Street (2004), as well as in group exhibitions: 75 Years of Dance at the 92nd Street Y, Harkness Dance Center (2004), and Dance on Camera Festival at the Puffin Room (2003).

Lemberger currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband Chris and their daughters, Margot and Rose.