Dance Victoria 2023-2024 Season | Gibney Company program insert

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Gibney Company Mixed Repertoire November 17 + 18, 2023 • 7:30 pm Royal Theatre Running time: 98 minutes (including two intermissions)

Photo of Kevin Pajarillaga and Miriam Gittens by Ascaf

The Royal Theatre is located on the traditional lands of the Lekwungen peoples, also known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. We extend our appreciation for the opportunity to live, create, and perform on this territory.

About the Works SARA (13 minutes) SARA (2013) premiered with Gibney Company in 2023 at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv SARA, co-produced with MART Foundation Choreography: Sharon Eyal, Gai Behar Music: From Off to On by Karin Elizabeth Dreijer; Saratan by Ori Lichtik Sound Artist: Ori Lichtik Assistant and Stager: Keren Lurie-Pardes Costume Design: Odelia Arnold and Maayan Goldman Costume Construction: Victoria Bek Lighting Design: Alon Cohen Performers: Friday, November 17: Scott Autry, Eddieomar GonzalezCastillo, Jordan Powell, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, Madi Tanguay, Jacob Thoman, and Jake Tribus.

Saturday, November 18: Graham Feeny, Miriam Gittens, Eleni Loving, Kevin Pajarillaga, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, Jacob Thoman and Jake Tribus.

SARA is like a pearl in a treasure, a box of jewels that smells ancient with the feeling of a new. The box cannot be opened all the way, its charm will fade. White pearl, transparent, leaking colors but always remains a pearl. SARA is minimalist, gentle, emotional and sensitive, hardcore, and old-fashioned at the same time. There’s a sense of restraint and taking advantage of the minimum and the maximum. She is not allowing distance and is getting closer to the heart. She comes from there and leaves into the world as a cloud crumbles into the dust of love.

realize our journeys parallel, intersect, repel or collide with others’ experiences, we begin a new understanding of our own existence that may frighten, challenge and, at the same time, sustain us.

- Intermission -

Bliss (27 minutes) Bliss (2016) premiered with Gibney Company in 2022 at the New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival Choreography: Johan Inger Music: The Köln Concert, Part 1 by Keith Jarrett Staging: Yvan Dubreuil Scenery Design: Johan Inger Costume Design: Johan Inger & Francesca Messori Costume Construction: Victoria Bek Lighting Design: Peter Lundin Lighting Adaptation: Tsubasa Kamei Set Design: Johan Inger Dancers: Scott Autry, Miriam Gittens, Eddieomar GonzalezCastillo, Graham Feeny, Eleni Loving, Jesse Obremski, Kevin Pajarillaga, Jordan Powell, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, Madi Tanguay, Jacob Thoman, and Jake Tribus.

For this large-scale ensemble piece, Swedish choreographer Johan Inger uses the legendary Köln Concert by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett; music that many consider to be the epitome of virtuoso improvisation. Rather than translating the music oneto-one into movement, it is more the feeling of Jarrett’s iconic music—free, soaring and ecstatic—that Inger translates into beautifully crafted dance, sending not only listeners but audience members into a state of bliss.

- Intermission A Measurable Existence premiered at New York Live Arts in 2022 Choreographer: Yue Yin Music: Original score by Rutger Zuydervelt Lighting Design: Asami Morita Lighting Adaptation: Tsubasa Kamei Costume Design: Christine Darch Performers: Friday, November 17: Jake Tribus and Jesse Obremski Saturday, November 18: Jacob Thoman and Kevin Pajarillaga Our existence is often measured, remembered, shared and felt by our interactions with space, time and each other. In A Measurable Existence, Yue Yin delves into how we discover aspects of ourselves by discovering others. The moment we

Photo of Gibney Company by Sharen Bradford

A Measurable Existence (16 minutes)

About Gibney Company Gibney Company, led by Artistic Director Gina Gibney and Director Gilbert T Small II, commissions and performs works by renowned and emerging choreographers from New York and around the world who are committed to exploring connections between the rigorous, often superhuman physicality of contemporary dance alongside responsive, humanistic storytelling. Presenting a broad range of aesthetics and

techniques, Gibney Company has an unrelenting focus on artistic excellence and social integrity.

Since its expansion, the Company has commissioned eight new works from a wide range of choreographers including Rena Butler, Alan Lucien Øyen, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Sonya Tayeh, Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond (Out Innerspace), and Yue Yin; and performed acclaimed repertory

by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, Johan Inger and Ohad Naharin.

Biographies

Photo of Gina Gibney by Stephanie Diani; photo of Gilbert T Small II by Whitney Browne

ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP GINA GIBNEY (FOUNDER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, & CEO)

GILBERT T SMALL II (COMPANY DIRECTOR)

Gina Gibney is a choreographer, director, entrepreneur, and Founder, Artistic Director and CEO of Gibney. She founded Gibney in 1991 as an arts organization dedicated to social action, and today the organization has rapidly emerged as a cultural leader operating 23 studios across two Lower Manhattan facilities.

With the mission of tapping into the vast potential of movement, creativity, and performance to effect social change and personal transformation, Gibney works through three interrelated fields of activity—Company, the acclaimed resident dance ensemble; Center, two beautiful spaces at 890 and 280 Broadway; and Community, highly respected and impactful social action programs. Considered a pioneer in connecting the arts with the broader community, she was inducted into the Vanity Fair Hall of Fame for “making art and taking action” in 2008. Gibney is serving her second term as a Trustee of Dance/USA and has received the organization’s Ernie Award, given annually to a changemaker in the field.

Gibney was a Founding Member of Dance/NYC’s Board of Directors and continues to serve today. She was included in Dance Magazine’s 2017 list of The Most Influential People in Dance Today and named to the Out100 2016 list of influential members of the LGBT community. Gibney is a frequent panellist and speaker on topics of dance, entrepreneurship, and arts-community partnerships. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts from Case Western Reserve University where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.In 2018, she received the University’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Gilbert T Small II joined Gibney Company in 2020 as Curatorial Director of Training and Company Rehearsal Director and was promoted to Company Director in 2022. He is a mentor to many emerging artists in New York and abroad and serves as guest faculty for institutions internationally, cultivating relationships and connections across many demographics and communities. Previously, Small was a leading artist with the internationally acclaimed Ballet British Columbia under the leadership of Emily Molnar. During his ten years with the company, he worked with choreographers William Forsythe, Crystal Pite, Medhi Walerski, Emily Molnar, and Cayetano Soto, and others, and took on the role of Rehearsal Director for the company’s fall 2017 season. He received a Bachelor of Fine Art from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance in 2009. While at Purchase, he studied abroad at Codarts in Rotterdam, an opportunity that shifted his perspective, pushing him to investigate and explore the multifaceted nature of the art form. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Small began his formal training at the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Biographies THE COMPANY

Scott Autry

Miriam Gittens

Eddieomar Gonzalez-Castillo

Graham Feeny

Eleni Loving

Jesse Obremski

Kevin Pajarillaga

Jordan Powell

Jie-Hung Connie Shiau

Madi Tanguay

Jacob Thoman

Jake Tribus

GIBNEY 890 Broadway Ave. New York, NY 10003 212-677-8560 http://gibneydance.org Instagram: @gibneydance Facebook: @gibney Artistic Director & CEO Gina Gibney Gibney Company Director Gilbert T Small II

(Above) Photos of Gibney Company by Amy J Gardner; (left) photo of Jesse Obremski and Jake Tribus by Joseph DiGiovanna

Read the dancers’ full biographies by scanning this QR code with your smartphone’s camera:

(Top) Photo of Zui Gomez and Alicia Delgadillo by Sharen Bradford. (Bottom left to right); photo of Jake Tribus and Jesse Obremski by Joseph DiGiovanna; photo of Gibney Company by Ascaf

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