performa/dance
performa/dance Performa/Dance is a project-based company founded in 2014 by award winning choreographer Jennifer Hart in collaboration with Edward Carr, a company dancer with Ballet Austin. Our mission is to nurture and support new and creative voices in contemporary dance. Based in Austin, Texas, Performa/Dance enriches the local arts community by engaging audiences and exposing them to the connective, transformative, and transcendent power of dance. We create dialogues with artists across geographies and media, inviting them to take risks and cultivate their art, with the aim of fostering cross-cultural understanding and deepening artistic excellence. Performa/Dance serves art, artists, and community, giving a voice to underrepresented artists, including women and minorities. In June 2018, Performa/Dance will present its fourth major production, featuring choreography by women about the female experience. Camille: A Story of Art and Love by Artistic Director Jennifer Hart, which premiered to rave reviews in 2016, returns to the stage with an expanded cast. Guest choreographer Wynne Fricke will present her work Two Fridas, danced by two guest artists originally from Venezuela. Artistic Director Jennifer Hart
past collaborators Uri Sands Uri Sands (Choreographer and Artistic Director of TU Dance) has received national recognition for choreography that is notable for the fusion of classical elegance with edgy contemporary action, for pulsating intensity with poetic lyricism. His original piece Better Left Unsaid was part of our 2017 production MIDSUMMER OFFERINGS: Three Dances, one of Robert Faires' Top 10 Dance and Classical Treasures of 2017. Magdalena Jarkowiec Magdalena Jarkowiec is an Austin choreographer, sculptor, costumer, and dance educator whose choreographic projects rely heavily on her skills as a sculptor and costumer. Magdalena's work centers on the themes of family, nostalgia, and the body, and it always aims to engage and delight. She recently made Jonelle Seitz's Top 10 Thrills (No Frills) in Dance of 2017 with her piece Overseas Phone Call, 1987 which Performa/Dance presented as part of MIDSUMMER OFFERINGS. Nic Lincoln N i c L i n c o l n h a s b e e n s e l f - p r o d u c i n g, d a n c i n g, a n d choreographing his own work for over ten years in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As a dance artist and LGBTQ activist, he has collaborated with the Human Rights Campaign, OutFront MN, and Queertopia. For our second major production, 4x3: Four Works by Three Choreographers, Lincoln reprised t h e S a g e A w a r d n o m i n e e G l i t t e r G a r d e n, choreographed by Larry Keigwin. Better Left Unsaid by Uri Sands Overseas Phone Call, 1987 by Magdalena Jarkowiec Glitter Garden by Larry Keigwin
Camille A Story of Art and Love WINNER: 2016-2017 Austin Critics Table Award for Best Short Work (Dance) For those who have wondered whether ballet is dead, or (as I ve wondered myself on occasion) dead to them, I stand, tearyeyed, hand to heart, and suggest this ballet. -Jonelle Seitz Oren Porterfield as Camille photography by Anne Marie Bloodgood Camille: A Story of Art and Love, first presented in 2016, is based on the dramatic life of early twentieth-century artist Camille Claudel. Claudel, a muse and collaborator of renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin, was a gifted sculptor in her own right, but never received the recognition she sought. She lived a tormented and turbulent life, having a long-term affair with the married Rodin as well as spending her later years in a psychiatric hospital with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Don t miss one of the last times to see Performa/Dance favorite Oren Porterfield on stage, as this second appearance as Camille will be one of her last performances before she retires from the stage.
Two Fridas In 1944, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo wrote in her diary I am disintegration. Some of her paintings express the physical pain she endured throughout her life after an accident left her spine and pelvis severely fractured. In her painting, The Two Fridas, she depicts two versions of herself seated on a bench holding hands. One Frida is bleeding with the heart shredded and exposed, while the other s heart is intact. Two Fridas, the choreography, is a contemporary work for two women inspired by Kahlo s painting and spirit. First commissioned in 2000 by Minnesota Dance Theater with original music by Carl Witt, the dance abstractly explores an embattled relationship with pain and with one s self. The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas) by Frida Kahlo Introducing Guest Choreographer Wynne Fricke Presenting her piece Two Fridas Minnesota-based choreographer Wynn Fricke, recipient of seven McKnight Fellowships in Choreography and Performance. Wynn danced with Zenon Dance Company from 1992 to 2001 and since 1998 has created eight original works for the company including her most recent work, The Mourning Tree, which premiered in 2015 with live traditional Bulgarian Folk music performed by Mila Vocal Ensemble. In 2016, Wynn traveled with Zenon to Havana, Cuba where her choreography, My Very Empty Mouth, was presented at the historic Jose Marti Theater. Wynn served as Choreographer-in- Residence with Minnesota Dance Theatre from 2005-2007, and in 2008, she was the Dayton-Hudson Distinguished Visiting Artist at Carleton College. She has had choreographic residences at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC, at The Yard in Chilmark, MA, and in Yarlslavl, Russia. She is the recipient of grants from the Jerome Foundation, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the American Composers Forum, and Arts International and the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and has been honored with two Minnesota SAGE Awards for Dance in the category of Outstanding Performance. Wynn has created work for additional companies including James Sewell Ballet, Ballet Arts Minnesota, Ragamala Dance, Frank Theatre, Minnesota Ballet, and Borrowed Bones Dance Theatre. Wynn is Assistant Professor and director of the dance program at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN where she has taught since 2008.
Introducing Guest Performer (Venezuela) Anais Di Filippo Performing Two Fridas with Performa/Dance June 2018 Anais Di Filippo was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. Ms. Di Filippo began her study of classical ballet with the renowned former prima ballerina/ director of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Sra. Nina Novak. Under the direction of Sra. Novak, Di Filippo danced the full classical repertory including, Swan Lake, Paquita, and Don Quixote. At age 18, Anais dream to become a full-time professional dancer came true when she joined the Ballet de Teresa Carreño, Venezuela s most important dance company. In Teresa Carreño, Ms. Di Fillipo was able to expand her contemporary repertoire dancing in some of the most celebrated choreographies of the times. Anais is extremely grateful for the opportunity to dance with Performa/Dance and show a USA audience that with all the political strive affecting her country at the moment,dance is a unifying force through out the world. In her own words Ms. DiFilippo s passion and perseverance are clear when she says we have to fight so hard as Latin Americans to demonstrate on stage a passion that connects us with the audience we love and want to please. So much energy is needed to achieve our dreams that we give everything we have, leaving our souls on the stage. Introducing Guest Performer (U.S.A) Francesca Dugarte Performing Two Fridas with Performa/Dance June 2018 Francesca Dugarte of Caracas, Venezuela, is in her fifth season with The Washington Ballet. Dugarte trained at Academia de Ballet Clasico Nina Novak and La Scala Theatre Ballet School. Before joining TWB, she was a principal dancer at Teatro Teresa Carreno, a demi-soloist at Zurich Ballet, a principal dancer at Victor Ullate Ballet and a guest artist at Slovakia National Ballet. In 2011, Dugarte was a contestant on the reality show, Amici di Maria de Fillippi in Rome. She is the winner of numerous awards including second place in the Youth America Grand Prix. In 2007, she won First Place in Korea s International Ballet Competition and in 2010, she was the winner of the Presidential Sponsorship Award at Korea s International Ballet Competition. Dugarte has danced a variety of repertoire including Coppélia, The Sleeping Beauty, Le Corsaire, La Sylphide, Swan Lake, Diana & Acteon, Paquita, Esmeralda, Flames of Paris, Napoli, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Balanchine's Serenade, Graduation Ball, Carmen, Balanchine's Theme and Variations, Firebird, 27'52", In the Upper Room, Samsara and Jaleos.
Mark your calendars and join Performa/Dance for our second annual fundraiser: Performa/Tango March 3, 2018 7-9pm Esquina Tango 209 Pedernales Street Austin, TX 78702 Spend a fun-filled evening with Performa/Dance; meet the artists, catch a live performance, enjoy complimentary drinks and bites, participate in our silent auction, dance some tango (lessons provided), and preview works we are presenting June 1 & 2, 2018. Artistic Director Jennifer Hart (right) in Two Fridas, a piece she performed multiple times in her career. contact us performadance.org performadance@gmail.com Jennifer Hart - 512.529.0116