Spring 2024 Season Brochure

SPRING

2024 SEASON

INFORMATION Tickets can be purchased at newyorklivearts.org or by calling the box office at 212.924.0077 Hours: Monday–Friday: 3pm–9pm Saturday & Sunday: 11am–9pm Ticket pricing is on a variable scale, with a minimum of $15 made possible by Con-Edison. We offer a standard ticket price, as well as options to pay more or less.

Live Core artists, Students and Seniors receive 20% off select tickets. Limited $10 student rush tickets day of the show, pending availability.

219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011 (Between 7th & 8th Aves) Subway: 1 to 18th Street, 2/3, F, M, L and A/C/E to 14th Street.

Live Arts' entrances are located on the street level, as is the main entrance to the theater.

Box Office staff is available for assistance at either the single revolving door or pair of push bar doors. The elevator provides access to theater seating at the front of the audience, administrative offices, and the studios. Studios and bathroom entrances have ADA push button swing doors.

CART captioning and audio description offered for various presentations.

We acknowledge and pay respect to Lenape people past, present, and coming in the future. We acknowledge and offer deep gratitude to Lenapehoking where our theater sits - the land, the waters of the Lenape homeland.

Cover: MX Oops, photo by Sekou Luke

SPRING 2024 CALENDAR Live Artery 2024 JAN 9-20 JAN 27 & 28 2PM Ellen Robbins JAN 27 730PM Dances by Very Young Choreographers Bill Chats: John McWhorter FEB 7 6PM In/Between: NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring MAR 6 Program Exhibition 530PM

Ford Foundation Live Gallery Opening Reception

MAR 28-30 730PM

Lacina Coulibaly | Compagnie Artistique Hakilisi Sigi Until the Lion Tells the Story …

APR 11 530PM APR 19 & 20 730PM APR 25 730PM APR 26-27 9PM MAY 17 & 18 730PM MAY 20 6PM JUN 13-15 8PM JUN 30

MX Oops [Nonfatal_Error] Ford Foundation Live Gallery Opening Reception Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company @ Harlem Stage MX Oops [Nonfatal_Error] UnFiNiShEd aNiMaL Fresh Tracks New Works Live Ideas Gala Ashley R.T. Yergens SURROGATE Live Arts Pride New York Live Arts

View the season online:

@nylivearts @NewYorkLiveArts 1

Welcome!

The Spring season brings a rich variety of events that includes Live Artery, a Bill Chats with John McWhorter, the provocative linguist and New York Times columnist, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s return to Harlem Stage, premieres by Live Feed Residency Artists Lacina Coulibaly, MX Oops, Ashley R. T. Yergens, and more. We are particularly excited to present an expanded Live Artery this January. Live Artery has been providing visibility and opportunities for artists in contemporary performance since its inception. It coincides with the two performing arts conferences, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) and the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), and has become a hub for exciting and boundary pushing new work. We recognize the crucial role it plays in the performing arts ecosystem and the need for its expansion, but we have been limited by space and time, and of course funding. Well, we are expanding this January, through partnerships with Under the Radar, The Chocolate Factory, Collapsable Hole and Gibney Presents. This Live Artery will be our biggest one yet.

See you soon.

Bill & Janet

Bill T. Jones, Artistic Director Janet Wong, Associate Artistic Director Photo by Maria Baranova 2

Live Artery is a dynamic festival featuring new and recent works by resident commissioned artists and curated guests. For the first time, the 2024 festival includes co-presentations with partner Under the Radar, and off-site performances at The Chocolate Factory, Gibney and The Collapsable Hole. Live Artery provides a space for artists to network and share their work with presenters from around the world, which has led to commissions, tours and the building of long-term relationships.

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“an enthralling, epically adventurous work” - New York Times

Photo: Maria Baranova

FAYE DRISCOLL Weathering

JAN 9-12, 7PM; JAN 13, 3PM Driscoll’s newest work Weathering is a multi-sensory flesh and breath sculpture made of bodies, sounds, scents, liquids and objects. Ten performers enact a glacially morphing tableau vivant on a mobile raftlike stage surging through the Anthropocene. Their voices generate a score that crescendos and resonates as they clutch, careen and cleave, in a space too small to contain them, spilling off the edges. The audience embanks the performers, close enough to smell the sweat and feel the steam of the central, spiraling scenes in this symphonically active, luminously living work.

Weathering is commissioned and produced by New York Live Arts as part of the New York Live Arts Randjelović/ Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist Program, and co-commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Joyce Theater Foundation’s Artist Residency Center made possible by lead funding from The Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Dancers’ Workshop in Jackson Hole, WY, Wexner Center for the Arts, Theater der Welt 2023 in Frankfurt – Offenbach, and Julidans Amsterdam.

Additional support provided by members of Faye Driscoll’s Commissioners Circle, New York State Council on the Arts, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and developed with residency support from Dancers’ Workshop in Jackson Hole, WY, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University, and the Pillow Lab at Jacob’s Pillow.

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“someone with a special, sacred magnetism..”

- New York Times

Photo: Sanele Thusi

ALBERT IBOKWE KHOZA

The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu JAN 11-13, 8PM

The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu is an immersive, live offering

by Albert Ibokwe Khoza in collaboration with African Entertainers. It exposes the violent and shameful legacy of ethnological expositions (such as human zoos and exhibitions) that were popular in Western society between the 1870s and 1960s. Khoza investigates the effect of the imperial and colonial gaze on Black bodies, and how it sits within Black bodies today. Examining the ongoing pain of historical and persistent racism, Khoza creates a space for collective healing and an opportunity for dignity to be reclaimed.

Presented in partnership with Under the Radar Presented as part of a North American tour with Boom Arts in Portland, OR and San José State University.

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“As fluent as their bodies are, though, the heartbeat of their work has always been more about excavating an inner landscape, one that considers the objectification of women”.

- The New York Times Photo: Julieta Cervantes

MOLLY LIEBER AND ELEANOR SMITH Zero Station JAN 13, 5PM

Zero Station works out shame, citing a felt understanding as part of the experience of abjection. Confronting hypersexualization as the limp white feminine byproduct of capitalism, Lieber and Smith present movements derived from pregnancy, lactation, mental illness, physical illness, surgery, and aging, and then segment, otherize, and disappear these forms in trash. Through trauma we are greatly affected, and our capacity to be affected, to understand how we may affect one another, is heightened. Within this gained fluidity is potential to think beyond ourselves.

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“Outrageously smart, grotesque and innovative.”

- The New Yorker

Photo: Walter Wlodarczyk

DYNASTY HANDBAG Titanic Depression

JAN 14-15 & 18-20, 730PM Dynasty Handbag’s Titanic Depression sends up James Cameron’s 1997 Hollywood hit, reimagining it as a hilariously bleak parable of human arrogance in today’s era of runaway, consumerism-driven climate change. More so a live multimedia event than solely performance, Titanic Depression combines animation, video, soundscapes and improvisation into a story about how a ship advertised as unsinkable strikes an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sinks. The disaster became a potent symbol of the haves versus the have nots.

Presented in partnership with Under the Radar JAN 19 CART captioning and audio description available Titanic Depression was commissioned by Pioneer Works and curated by David Everitt Howe. It was co-presented

by New York Live Arts as part of Live Ideas 2023: Planet Justice. The performance is made possible with support from Creative Capital, The Guggenheim Foundation, Ballroom Marfa, Center for Performance Research, Chorus Foundation, and MacDowell.

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OFF-SITE JULIANA F. MAY

Family Happiness JAN 11-13, 7PM JAN 14, 3PM

Co-presented @ The Chocolate Factory 38-33 24th Street, Long Island City, NY

Photo: Maria Baranova

RODERICK GEORGE | kNonAme Artist JAN 11-13, 730PM Co-presented @ Gibney 280 Broadway, NY, NY This presentation is part of Gibney Presents DoublePlus: Dual Rivet and Roderick George | kNoname Artist Mentor / Curator: Kyle Abraham

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Photo: Richard Termine

LISA FAGAN & LENA ENGELSTEIN Deepe Darknesse JAN 12, 830PM JAN 13, 6PM JAN 14, 5PM JAN 15, 4PM & 8PM Co-presented @ The Collapsable Hole 155 Bank St, NY, NY

Photo: Maria Baranova

ARTIST SALON

Beth Gill Benjamin Akio Kimitch Jaamil Olawale Kosoko Derek Lee McPhatter Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born | Sweat Variant JAN 14, 11AM-1230PM

New York Live Arts Lobby | INVITATION ONLY An informal gathering to share recently premiered works with short presentations, conversations and light refreshments.

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STUDIO SHOWINGS

Kimberly Bartosik/daela Photo: Mark Duggan

Jasmine Hearn

Photo courtesy of the feath3r theory

Shamel Pitts | TRIBE

Photo: Maria Baranova

Photo: Jeremy Lawson courtesy of MCA Chicago

Miguel Gutierrez

Troy Anthony | Fire Ensemble

Photo: Amelia Golden

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company

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Raja Feather Kelly | the feath3r theory

Photo: Christopher Duggan

A.I.M by Kyle Abraham

Photo: Maria Baranova

Photo: Christopher Duggan

Wally Cardona

Wanjiru Kamuyu | WKcollective Photo: Pierre Planchenault

Photo courtesy of the artist

LIVE ARTERY 2024 CALENDAR JAN 9-12 7PM Theater Faye Driscoll: Weathering JAN 13 3PM Juliana F. May: Family Happiness OFF JAN 11-14 (see pg 8 for times)

JAN 11-13 730PM JAN 11-13 8PM JAN 12-15

(see pg 9 for times)

JAN 13 12PM JAN 13 2PM JAN 13 5PM JAN 14 11AM JAN 14 1PM JAN 14 3PM JAN 14 6PM

SITE

OFF SITE Studio

Co-presented @ The Chocolate Factory

Roderick George | kNonAme Artist Co-presented @ Gibney

Albert Ibokwe Khoza: The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu

Presented in partnership with Under the Radar OFF SITE

Lisa Fagan & Lena Engelstein: Deepe Darknesse

Studio

A.I.M by Kyle Abraham Invitation Only

Studio

Shamel Pitts | TRIBE

Studio

Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith: Zero Station

Lobby

Artist Salon Invitation Only

Studio

Jasmine Hearn

Studio

Miguel Gutierrez Invitation Only

Studio

JAN 14-15, Theater 18-20 730PM JAN 14 9PM Studio JAN 15 12PM Studio Studio JAN 15 2PM Studio JAN 15 5PM Studio JAN 15 7PM

Co-presented @ The Collapsable Hole

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company Invitation Only Dynasty Handbag: Titanic Depression

Presented in partnership with Under the Radar

Raja Feather Kelly | the feath3r theory Wally Cardona Troy Anthony | Fire Ensemble Wanjiru Kamuyu | WKcollective Kimberly Bartosik/daela

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Photo: Oli Ren

ELLEN ROBBINS

Dances by Very Young Choreographers JAN 27 & 28, 2PM ALUMNI CONCERT: JAN 27, 730PM

Dances by Very Young Choreographers showcases the choreography of the students of Ellen Robbins, ages 8 – 18. It is devised to give a young audience exposure to the variety of theater experiences that modern dance affords. It includes dances that are humorous, narrative, minimal, lyrical, and visually conceptual. The music selections, chosen by the choreographers, range from classical to contemporary, including folk, jazz, pop, and the spoken word. Children in the audience will have an opportunity to come onstage for a brief, structured improvisation for the fun of dancing an idea.

Following the matinee on January 27th, there will be an evening concert by the Alumni of Dances by Very Young Choreographers, which presents work by dancers who studied with Ellen as early as 1982 to 2016. The alumni artists are: Marina Chan, Lina Azalea Dahbour, Maia Sage Ermansons, Saskia Globig, Krista Jansen, Amelia Sanders, Rakhel Shapiro, and Lou Sydel.

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Photo: Maria Baranova

Photo courtesy of the artist

BILL CHATS

Bill T. Jones in conversation with John McWhorter FEB 7, 6PM

For the Spring edition of Bill Chats, Artistic Director Bill T. Jones will be in conversation with John McWhorter, a Linguistics professor, New York Times columnist, and author of over twenty books who has openly disagreed with the way the cultural left has been talking about race and racism.

Bill Chats is an intimate and accessible series of conversations with theater makers, authors, scholars, and more. Esteemed guests have included Elizabeth Alexander, Oskar Eustis, Fran Lebowitz, Wynton Marsalis, Claudia Rankine and Tracy K. Smith, Salman Rushdie, among others.

Bill Chats is supported in part by Partners for New Performance

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LACINA COULIBALY | COMPAGNIE ARTISTIQUE HAKILISI SIGI Until the Lion Tells the Story…

MAR 28-30, 730PM

Until the Lion Tells the Story… is a heartfelt tribute from Coulibaly to the remarkable African scholars who have ignited a fire in him. It is an attempt and desire of the Burkina Faso artist to envision an African Renaissance, a different Africa that is rooted in its own indigenous knowledge, drawing inspiration from its cultural diversity, from ancient Egypt to the Mali Empire. The work is an invitation to embrace the wisdom and knowledge of Africa as an essential part of being in the world, and a reminder that the journey towards renaissance and transformation begins with building one’s inner pyramid.

Mar 29 Stay Late Discussion moderated by Charmaine Warren The Live Feed creative residency program is supported in part by Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Partners for New Performance.

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Photo courtesy Photo by of Joshua the artist Kohl 15

“An emphatically queer Black space encompassed by phantasmagoric shifting sounds, imagery, and gender presentations becomes the grounding conceit of the performance, shifting gently from butch to femme, bodybuilding to voguing, demonstrations of dancing to intimate conversations barely perceptible to the theatre audience.”

- Thomas F DeFrantz Photo: Leandro Justen 16

MX OOPS [NONFATAL_ERROR] UnFiNiShEd aNiMaL

APRIL 25, 730PM; 26 & 27, 9PM UnFiNiShEd aNiMaL is a party and multimedia performance that uses the vibrant aesthetics of queer nightlife culture to reveal how cognitive bias connects us all. This is a journey toward wholeness, through bass, bars, and ecstatic bodies in motion. UnFiNiShEd aNiMaL tells the story of humanity coming to grips with our collective inheritance, a ramshackle meshwork of cognitive processes evolved to survive, not for self-awareness. An interdisciplinary approach invites the audience to meditate on what might be unfinished about human cognition and how these biases keep us from building a better world together.

Ford Foundation Live Gallery Installation OPENING RECEPTION: APR 11, 530PM ON VIEW: APR 11 - MAY, 2024

The Live Feed creative residency program is supported in part by Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Partners for New Performance. UnFiNiShEd aNiMaL is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by New York Live Arts, Dance Place, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and 651 Arts.

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FRESH TRACKS MAY 17 & 18, 730PM

This season’s Fresh Tracks artists present their new work in a shared evening in the theater. Fresh Tracks Residency & Performance program is a season-long residency for emerging movement-based artists in support of new work creation and professional development. This season marks the 59th year of Fresh Tracks, which was a signature program of Dance Theater Workshop to bring new choreographic artistry to the forefront.

The Fresh Tracks Residency & Performance program is supported in part by Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Partners for New Performance.

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Julia Antinozzi

Vinson Fraley

Photo: Ricardo Cid

Photo courtesy of the artist

Liony Garcia

Symara Sarai

Photo courtesy of the artist

Photo courtesy of the artist

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Photo: Maria Baranova

APRIL 19 & 20 730PM with guest artist Roderick George | kNonAme Artist @ Harlem Stage E-Moves The company returns to Harlem Stage to present a dynamic program of works that includes a revisiting of Degga (1995), the legendary collaboration between Bill T. Jones, Max Roach, and Toni Morrison coinciding with the centennial celebration of Roach, the late jazz drummer and composer. The evening also includes the work of Roderick George, as well as a new work by the company.

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MONDAY, MAY 20, 2024 Bill T. Jones, the Board of Directors, and all of us at New York Live Arts invite you to save the date!

Live Ideas is New York Live Arts’ signature interdisciplinary humanities festival.

6:00 pm Cocktails 7:00 pm Dinner Program Dance Party to follow!

Festive Attire.

Honorees and special guests to be announced!

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Photo: Fred Attenborough 22

ASHLEY R.T. YERGENS SURROGATE

JUN 13-15, 8PM SURROGATE is a premature birthday celebration for a frozen embryo and an extremely loose re-imagination of Oprah Winfrey’s 2008 interview with Thomas Beatie, the “Pregnant man.”

Jun 14 Stay Late Discussion The Live Feed creative residency program is supported in part by Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Partners for New Performance.

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Geena Rocero and Machine Dazzle at Pride 2023 Photo: Santiago Felipe

LIVE ARTS PRIDE JUN 30

Live Arts’ Pride is an epic LGBTQIA+ pride extravaganza! NYC’s queer nightlife and art scene come together under one roof to serve up the city’s most colorful and fierce performance, music, queer marketplace, installations and more for a multi-space, nonstop celebration for the ages.

Past artist collectives include Body Hack, Bubble_T, Double Dutch Dreamz Jumping for Justice, Legends of Drag, Papi Juice, Ragga NYC, Switch n’ Play, The House of Transcendence, and Yas Mama.

2024 programming to be announced.

Pride is supported in part by Partners for New Performance.

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Photo: Maria Baranova

FORD FOUNDATION LIVE GALLERY In/Between: NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program Exhibition OPENING RECEPTION: MAR 6, 530PM ON VIEW: MAR 6-31, 2024

New York Live Arts, in partnership with New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), presents the 5th In/Between exhibition, featuring works by artists in the Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program.

Curated by artist Yanira Castro, Martita Abril, and Zahra Banyamerian, the exhibition will be on view at the Ford Foundation Gallery located in the Live Arts lobby.

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Photo: Walter Wlodarczyk

LIVE CORE Are you an artist working to connect with larger audiences and raise funds to support your work?

Enrollment in Live Core is $100 for a full year of unlimited access to the program’s offerings, including the Fiscal Sponsorship Program, discounts on tickets and workshops, professional development services, and more!

For more information on joining Live Core, please visit newyorklivearts.org or contact Community Engagement & Education Manager, Bianca Bailey at bbailey@newyorklivearts.org.

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Photo: Maria Baranova

DONATE Artists play a distinct role in our communities, especially in times of upheaval and change. We are honored to play a small part in ensuring artists are supported, seen, and heard. Live Arts is sustained by the generosity of individuals, and your presence and participation is vital to our ability to continue the important work ahead of us.

Your tax-deductible donation of any amount provides vital resources to artists at every career stage in the form of commissioning funds, residencies, studio space, and professional services.

We thank our Trustees, Partners in Creation, Partners for New Performance, Patrons Circle, and Donors for their generous support.

To learn about ways to support New York Live Arts and the artists we serve please visit newyorklivearts.org/support.

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SUPPORT Support for New York Live Arts is provided by the Arnhold Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ed Bradley Family Foundation, The Brant Foundation, Inc., Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Dance/NYC, Ford Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Marta Heflin Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Alex Katz Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Alice Lawrence Foundation, Samuel M. Levy Family Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Muriel Pollia Foundation, National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts, NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund in the New York Community Trust, One World Fund, The Poss Family Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, The Semel Charitable Foundation, Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Tides Foundation Corporate support for New York Live Arts includes Con Edison, Google, Tito’s Handmade Vodka.

Public support for New York Live Arts is from Humanities New York, National Endowment for the Arts, and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Special thanks to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature Dance/NYC’s New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by Mellon Foundation.

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The creation of new work by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is made possible in part by the company’s Partners in Creation: Anonymous (2), Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Suzanne Karpas, Ellen Poss, Jane Bovingdon Semel, in memory of Linda G. Shapiro, Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker.

We thank our Partners for New Performance for supporting Live Feed, Fresh Tracks, Live Ideas, Bill Chats, and humanities programming: Alexes Hazen, Linda Hirschson, Julie Orlando, Andrea Rosen, Nina Stricker, Robyn Trani.

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