PRESSING EMPTY
Company:
KINESIS PROJECT
PRESSING EMPTY
decisions, panic and lots and lots of tulle…
PRESSING EMPTY is a character-based physical, contemporary dance theatre work that uses marriage to examine choice, emptiness and awkward timing. The work follows five brides through a physical and eccentric evening of playful dresses and real panic. Choreographer Melissa Riker continues her fascination with moments in time and decision in an edgy, riveting, and accessible evening of wedding gowns, tuxedos, and blue feathers. PRESSING EMPTY premiered in 2010 at Judson Memorial Church to sweeping accolades and was described as “Incredibly engaging” (Criticaldance.com). In Riker’s words, “(Pressing Empty) plays, trips and rebounds through all of our beautiful moments of emptiness - Now is the time to dive in, but when did you make the decision?”
PRESSING EMPTY is performed by dancers James E. Becton, Zoe Bowick, Hilary Brown, Madeline Hoak, Jun Lee, Benjamin Oyzon, ACONTACT _Con-3B39DF861F Rebecca Patek and Melissa Riker with musical score by Katie Down.
WHERE St Marks Church In the Bowery
131 East 10th Street
New York, NY 10003
WHEN June 14-16, 2012 @ 8pm
TICKETS 18 (2 students/seniors)
· Approximate run time: 70 minutes. Purchase tickets at http://danspaceproject.org/calendarandtickets/
KINESIS PROJECT is a dance organization that produces dance concerts, facilitates educational programs and creates site specific performances with diverse communities. Kinesis Project produces work designed to make the soul dance and the feet fly. They are pushing the boundaries of what changes space and people by placing movement and stillness in unusual and inspiring places.
Melissa Riker is a freelance modern dancer, aerialist, choreographer and the Artistic Director of Kinesis Project. Dancing and choreographing in New York City since 1996, Ms. Riker has performed nationally and internationally in companies that excel in modern dance, partnering, martial arts, circus, moving meditation and Sufi-inspired spinning. Her movement has been called “athletic” and “serpentine,” with The New York Times calling her choreography “sometimes comically acrobatic, sometimes gracefully classical – Visually arresting.”
Ms. Riker has been a founder of multiple collaborative arts organizations including the Movement Salon on 3rd Avenue and 17th St in NYC and Manhattan Theatre Source in the West Village of NYC. She has been a resident of the Dance Omi International Art Center as one of three American choreographers and a Ford Foundation Fellow. She received grant awards from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, and was a Puffin Foundation Recipient in 2006 and 2008.
Riker’s blog, A Choreographer’s Blog, tracking her choreographic process, was named one of the 2010 top 50 blogs to be read by dance students, and was #1 in the “Written by Choreographers” Category. For more information, please visit http://www.kinesisproject.com/.
