Lang Dance Spring Production 2024 - Program

LANG DANCE

photo: Frank Mullaney

Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues,

Tonight we are thrilled to present work from two esteemed guest artists: Beth Gill, through our Guest Artist Residency, and Jordan Demetrius Lloyd. These widely admired dance artists worked intensively with students in semester-long performance courses. It has been an honor to have these adventurous and generous artists join us for the semester.

We also are proud to present student-created work that was devised this semester in Rebecca Stenn’s Transmedia: Process & Point of View course, along with a solo dance created and performed by a graduating senior, Cassie Brey.

Together these dances demonstrate varied approaches to choreographic research and performance, in keeping with the spirit of our program.

These performances would not have been possible without the exceptional work of our lighting designer, Kathy Kaufman, and stage manager, Meredith Belis.

We would like to thank the Lang dance faculty for their expert and thoughtful teaching. Lastly, we would like to thank our Dean, Christoph Cox, the magnificent Rafael Muñoz, Associate Director of The Arts, and Ariana Guerra, Production Manager for Lang Arts.Thank you for your support and enthusiasm for the arts at Lang College.

We hope you enjoy the performance.

- Danielle Goldman, Chair of the Arts

- Neil Greenberg, Dance Program Director

P R O G R A M

Lighting Design by Kathy Kaufman

Stage Management by Meredith Belis

Allswhere

Choreographed by: Jordan Demetrius Lloyd in collaboration with the performers

Sound Design by: Jordan Demetrius Lloyd

Sound samples by: Ryan Wolfe, Drums (2021), Heartbeat (2021), Space (2023), Minnesota (2023), 3 (2023), Repri (2023), NJT 9 (2024), 6 (2024); Francisco Meirino and Bruno Deplane, Dedans (2018); AACSCS, AE.CSCS (VIII), Vol. 1 (2023); Richard Chartier, Activité (2002); Celer, Volcanic Institutions (2018)

Costumes by: The Performers

Performed by: Okailey Afroso, Aidan Bason-Mitchell, Cassie Brey, Marianna Cenci, Layla Greene, Ella Kuether, Bella Lynch, Juliannie Mateo, Ruby Perez, Nills Roman, Aja Wells, Helen Zhang

Equipoise

Created and performed by: Rebecca Stenn’s Transmedia: Process and Point of View* course

Music by: John Cage, Sonata and Interlude; Zilong Chen, Original compositions

Video by: Helen Jiayu Zhang, from images created by the cast

Text: The cast

Performed by: Okailey Afroso, Aidan Bason-Mitchell, Eliza Blutt, Rebecca Chang, Zilong Chen, Sienna Elgueseba, Tess Driscoll-Gannon, Bella Lynch, Nills Alexis Roman, Isaiah Westbrook, Helen Jiayu Zhang

*My new course, “Transmedia: Process and Point of View,” functioned primarily as an art-making work group in which students were encouraged to approach choreography, visual art and the written word as mediums for research and discovery Students worked within these three distinct media, creating, revising and sharing their projects in class throughout the semester. Our art-making practice was complemented with reading and writing assignments, utilizing each form of discourse to further examine and interrogate form, texture, meaning making, intent, point of view, voice, and compositional strategies. What you will see this evening reflects that process; students have worked to combine these studies into one collaborative piece. Each has contributed movement, text and visual art to this collective effort to form an ensemble that prizes exploration and a generosity of spirit. - Rebecca

To Tilt the Slipping Plane

Choreographed and Performed by: Cassie Brey

Music by: David Bowie, Time; Prince, I Would Die 4 U, Rone, Human

A third place, a liminal ether, and a box purchased at a now-shuttered Van Heusen. This piece asks what, if anything, separates body and object? It is also an homage to the modern shopping mall’s creator, Victor Gruen, and a nod to what might exist beyond the labyrinth of capitalism - the third place Gruen originally envisioned.

New York City Serenade

Choreographed by: Beth Gill

Music by: Bruce Springsteen

Performed by: Ava Baldassari, Keb Barshack, Aida Bauer, Mikaela Cadenhead, Rebecca Chang, Tess

Driscoll-Gannon, Iris Katorri, Ali Keledjian, K Lightman, Noelle Nations, Aja Wells, Xingyu Yuan

BIOGRAPHIES

Beth Gill (Choreographer, Guest Artist Residency) is an award-winning choreographer, based in New York City since 2005. Her multidisciplinary works are captivating, cinematic timescapes, the product of long-term collaborations with celebrated artists. Gill is the proud recipient of the Herb Alpert, Doris Duke Impact, Foundation for Contemporary Art and two “Bessie” awards. She has produced eight commissioned evening-length works met with critical acclaim. She has toured nationally and internationally and been honored with (among others): Guggenheim Fellowship, NEFA’s National Dance Project grant, Princeton’s Hodder Fellowship and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Artist in Residence.

Jordan Demetrius Lloyd (Guest Choreographer) is a dance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He graduated from The College at Brockport and grew up in Albany, NY. He has collaborated with and performed for Beth Gill, Netta Yerushalmy, Tere O’Connor, Jonathan Gonzalez, Karl Rogers, David Dorfman Dance, Monica Bill Barnes, and more. He is currently on faculty at The American Dance Festival, and has taught at The New School, Rutgers University, New York University, University of the Arts, and Sarah Lawrence College. His work has been produced by: Danspace Project, New York Live Arts, BRIC, ISSUE Project Room, BAAD!, Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church and The Center for Performance Research. He received the 2021-23 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and was listed on Dance Magazine’s ‘25 to Watch’ list for 2023. For more, head to jordandlloyd.com

Rebecca Stenn (Instructor, Transmedia: Process and Point of View), Rebecca Stenn, dancer, choreographer, educator, writer, painter has been hailed in The New York Times as an artist who possesses “wit, concision and gutsy passion.” Stenn’s dance company, Rebecca Stenn Company, has performed nationally and internationally

including such venues as The Edinburgh Festival, The Joyce Theater, BAM Fisher, Danspace Project and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival among others. As a principal dancer with MOMIX, Stenn performed in over 30 countries and appeared in films for Italian, Spanish and French television. Stenn is a founding member of the company Pilobolus Too, with whom she toured throughout the world. Stenn is currently on faculty at The New School, where she has just received a 2024 Distinguished Teaching Award, and Princeton University and is Choreographer-in-Residence at Dartmouth College. Recently, Stenn embarked on a visual arts practice as a painter, and is currently represented by Agora Gallery in NYC. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in New York City, London, Milan, Venice and Lisbon and at art fairs in Miami, NYC and South Hampton. She holds a BFA from The Juilliard School and MFA from The University of Wisconsin. Stenn is the proud mother of Jonah and Elie Weissman.

Meredith Belis (Stage Manager) has worked with artists including Meredith Monk, Wendy Whelan, Neil Greenberg, Dean Moss, James Whiteside, and Maria Kotchetokova. She is very passionate about her work with dancers and musicians. She is a graduate of Bennington College and was the Production Manager for the dance department at Sarah Lawrence College from 2016-2019. She is currently the Production Stage Manager with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham. When not working, she is busy raising her 8 year old daughter, Ramona.

Kathy Kaufmann (Lighting Designer) is a New York City native, and two time Bessie recipient. She is resident designer at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, and has toured extensively throughout the world. She designs regularly for Dorrance Dance, Joanna Kotze, The Bang Group, Mariana Valencia, NDI, Rebecca Stenn, Ephrat Asherie Dance, Vicky Shick, and Music From The Sole.

THANKS

From Beth:

Thank you to Neil Greenberg and Danielle Goldman for having me at Lang Dance this semester! Big congratulations and thank you to my amazing cast for their focus, commitment and heart!

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From Rebecca:

Thank you to the smart, adventurous, beautiful and incredibly committed group of dancers I have had the pleasure of working with, to create The Pond. It has been a joy. Thank you to Neil and Danielle, for creating such a wonderful environment in the dance program at Lang, where we are encouraged to try things out, take risks and stretch the boundaries of what we thought might be possible. Thank you to Meredith for guiding us all in these productions with such strength and certainty, thank you to everyone at NYLA, and thank you to Kathy, for creating worlds of light that we can truly come alive in.

Dance at Lang

Situated in the Arts major at Eugene Lang College, the Dance program offers a unique undergraduate dance curriculum centered on recent developments in the field, combining intensive practice and performance opportunities with a rigorous liberal arts education. Students at Lang explore dance through varied modes of analysis—verbal, textual and physical—through a curriculum that emphasizes research and experimentation. Conversation is fostered across artistic genres and students are encouraged to think about dance in social, historical, and cultural contexts, through a variety of disciplinary lenses. This approach stimulates aspiring dancers and choreographers to think about their roles in society and to consider multiple ways of engaging a public through dance.

www.langdance.com

Lang Dance Faculty 2023-2024

luciana achugar

Ana “Rokafella” Garcia

Beth Gill

Danielle Goldman

Neil Greenberg

Nia Love

Jordan Demetrius Lloyd

Juliette Mapp

Katy Pyle

Rebecca Stenn

Pavan Thimmaiah

Ogemdi Ude

Mariana Valencia

Sasha Welsh

Katie Workum