Paul J. Botelho, Brice Brown, Douglas Dunn, and Steve Gibson to present BODY / SHADOW at Judson Church
Company:
Paul J. Botelho, Brice Brown, Douglas Dunn, and Steve Gibson
COMPOSER PAUL J. BOTELHO, VISUAL ARTIST BRICE BROWN,
CHOREOGRAPHER DOUGLAS DUNN, AND MEDIA DESIGNER STEVE GIBSON
PRESENT THE PREMIERE OF BODY / SHADOW
OCTOBER 27 and 28, 2023, AT JUDSON MEMORIAL CHURCH
New York, NY (August 15, 2023) – This fall, Paul J. Botelho, Brice Brown, Douglas Dunn, and Steve Gibson will present BODY / SHADOW, a new experimental opera featuring 16 dancers. Performances are Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28, at 8pm, at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South (between Thompson and Sullivan Streets), in Manhattan. Tickets for BODY / SHADOW are $25 and will be available on Eventbrite and at DouglasDunnDance.com beginning September 15.
BODY / SHADOW is an experimental opera with music by Paul J. Botelho, images, set design, and text by Brice Brown, choreography by Douglas Dunn, and visual media design by Steve Gibson. Presented in the round, the work features 16 dancers who perform a series of nonlinear, one-minute acts. Dunn conducts the dancers in real time, improvising the sequencing of each act. As the dancers move throughout the space, they activate a five-channel video that is projected onto dancer-handled screens. Simultaneously, Botelho circulates among the dancers, performing vocal improvisations to an electro-acoustic score. This layered multimedia-based opera calls into question the coherence of the human body, highlighting its vulnerability and doubleness.
BODY / SHADOW will be performed by Jules Bakshi, Cemiyon Barber, Jay Beardsley, Alexandra Berger, Dwayne Brown, Janet Charleston, Savannah Jade Dobbs, Steph Jacco, Vanessa Knouse, Corinne Lohner, Emily Pope, Deniz Sancak, Jin Ju Song-Begin, Mac Twining, Timothy Ward, and Arthur “Trace” Yeames.
This performance-based BODY / SHADOW is accompanied by a limited edition hardbound publication of the same name featuring text, images, and a CD. More information at: https://www.bodyshadowopera.com/publication.
About the Artists
Paul J. Botelho is an Azorean American composer and performer. His work includes acoustic and electro-acoustic music, multimedia installation pieces, visual artworks, vocal improvisation, and several one-act operas. He performs as a vocalist (countertenor) worldwide primarily through extended vocal techniques. His recent work explores vocal responses to composed and prerecorded sonic environments and includes In Moscow We Marched (Moscow, Russia; 2019–20), Visby Project (Visby, Sweden; 2017–18), and Walmart 3 AM (Lewisburg, PA; 2016). His work has been performed, presented, and exhibited in concerts, festivals, galleries, and museums across the Americas, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. Botelho received a PhD and MFA in music composition from Princeton University, an A.M. in electro-acoustic music from Dartmouth College, and a BFA in contemporary music performance and composition from the College of Santa Fe. Botelho has taught at Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans. He currently teaches music composition at Bucknell University, where he is Associate Professor of Music.
Brice Brown is an artist and writer living in New York City. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and reviewed in the New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, NPR, and The Village Voice, among others. He has held residencies at Yaddo, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center, and has been a visiting artist/lecturer at Bucknell University, Dartmouth College, Carnegie Mellon University, Williams College, and Drew University. Brown’s work is held in public collections including the Speed Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Swope Art Museum, and Yale University. Brown was a regular art critic for the New York Sun (2006–2009) and for City Arts (2009–2010). He founded Milton Art Bank (2017), a museum and publishing house located in a converted bank building, and has launched two arts journals, The Sienese Shredder (2006–2010), and Tether (2015–2018), both with Trevor Winkfield. He received a BA from Dartmouth College and an MFA from Pratt Institute and has studied at the Chautauqua Institute School of Art.
Douglas Dunn is a New York-based dancer and choreographer working since 1971. He was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1969 to 1973, and a founding member of Grand Union, the non-rehearsing troupe that rollicked from 1970 to 1976. Following his own duet, solo, and film work in the 1970s, he formed Douglas Dunn + Dancers in 1978, and in 1980 set Stravinsky’s Pulcinella on the Paris Opera Ballet. He is Board Member Emeritus of the New York City presenting organization Danspace Project. He likes to collaborate with poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, composers, and playwrights to offer a multifaceted theatrical experience. In 1998 he was awarded a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for Sustained Achievement, and in 2008 was honored by the French government as Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. While continuing to lead Douglas Dunn + Dancers, he teaches Open Structures at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and presents salons at his studio at 541 Broadway in Manhattan. His book of collected writings, Dancer Out of Sight, is available at amazon.com.
Steve Gibson is the founder of Creature/Feature Design. He has been creating large-scale art and making monsters and fantasy characters out of paint, clay, latex, silicone, and foam for more than 30 years. As a self-taught artist, Gibson enjoys sharing his knowledge with anyone wishing to gain a broader approach to their own personal style. In 2016 he founded The Arts Underground in Lewisburg, PA, a unique collaborative space for local artists. In 2021 he created Art Academy of Milton, which serves the Central PA Valley in all things art, theater performance, and music. He has taught classes in sculpting, painting, graphite, mural creation, and portraiture. His award-winning video work can be seen in the feature films The Feed (2010) and The Lost Within (2017), as well as in numerous shorts, music videos, and commercial projects. Clients include Transitions of PA, Campus Theatre LTD, Habitat for Humanity, Bucknell University, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, and dozens of retail, online, corporate, government, and independent agencies. Gibson is a published writer, cinematographer, producer, director, audio designer, and editor who also happens to dabble in fine art photography.
About Judson Memorial Church
Judson Arts continues the long tradition of arts ministry at Judson Memorial Church, a spiritual force in Greenwich Village for more than 120 years devoted to creative freedom, social justice, and progressive faith. From the acclaimed Judson Poets Theater and Judson Dance Theater to today’s Judson Arts Wednesdays (JAW) programming, Judson embraces the necessity of art in our lives and nurtures an uncensored environment for innovative expression.
For more information, including dancer bios, visit https://www.bodyshadowopera.com/people.
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