White Bird Presents: Abby Z and the New Utility

Photos by Ben McKeown

OHIO/NEW YORK CITY

ABBY Z AND THE NEW UTILITY Artistic Director, Abby Zbikowski

RADIOACTIVE PRACTICE

NOV 16-18

THU-SAT | 7:30PM

Lincoln Hall, Portland State University SHOW SPONSOR WALTER JAFFE & PAUL KING UNCAGED SERIES SPONSOR RONNI LACROUTE

PUSHING BOUNDARIES, PUSHING LIMITS Welcome to the second show of our 2023-24 Uncaged Series, Radioactive Practice performed by Abby Z and the New Utility. Throughout this season’s Uncaged Series, we are highlighting the unique works choreographed by three exceptional women from across the U.S. Radioactive Practice was created to be viewed from all sides, so we have included on-stage seating this weekend. If you are reading this before the show begins and aren’t already on stage, it isn’t too late to ask an usher if you can move your seat. You won’t regret taking the chance to watch this dance in close quarters.

Photo by Jingzi Zhao

Abby Zbikowski founded Abby Z and the New Utility in 2012, together with longtime collaborators and dancers Fiona Lundie and Jennifer Meckley. In just over 10 years since, the group has expanded to include the vast vault of talent you’ll see tonight, and Zbikowski’s choreography has earned praise nationwide for its complexity and extreme physicality. Tonight, you will witness dancers pushing themselves to their physical and mental limit, but what we appreciate even more is their generosity in cheering each other on throughout that ordeal. If you see something that impresses you, or surprises you, please feel free to join the dancers in shouting it out, in whatever way feels natural for you. This is a collective experience.

Radioactive Practice, Zbikowski’s newest evening-length work, is a testament to the breadth of talent represented in Abby Z and the New Utility: street dance, soccer, martial arts, postmodern dance, and weightlifting are just a few of the skills you’ll see throughout the next hour. In Radioactive Practice, as in her previous work, she has combined these seemingly disparate parts with other forms of dance to create a work that highlights their commonalities, rather than their differences. We hope you will leave tonight’s performance with new thoughts on what contemporary dance is, and what it can be.

From all of us at White Bird, have Happy Holidays and a fantastic New Year! Our Uncaged Series will close in 2024 with LED performing Kid Lightning, January 25-27.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a meaningful gift this season, our WE ARE ONE Festival Gift Package of three shows - Black Grace, Music From The Sole, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater - for just $90 is a great way to give the gift of dance to a loved one. Tickets and packages are on sale now at whitebird.org Graham Cole, Executive Director

Board of Directors

Walter Jaffe & Paul King, Co-Presidents Ken Edwards, Vice-President Kim Allchurch Flick, Treasurer Sandra Holmes, Secretary Leroy E. Bynum, Jr. Graham Cole Lisa Mangum Shawn K. Mangum Nancy & George Thorn, Founding Board Members Emereti

White Bird Team

Graham Cole, Executive Director Christopher Carvalho, Director of Patron Services and Communication Noelle Simone, IDEA Director Jeff Forbes, Technical Director Deanna Reeves, Communication Manager Gretchen Westlight, Operations Manager/Executive Assistant Mia Chavez Lysaght, Administrative Assistant Natalie Anthony, Graphic Designer Alexandra Kuhle, Graphic Designer

RADIOACTIVE PRACTICE Choreographer/Director:

Abby Zbikowski

Performers/Collaborators:

Indya Childs, Fiona Lundie, Mya McClellan, Jennifer Meckley, Benjamin Roach, jinsei sato

Rehearsal Directors:

Fiona Lundie, Jennifer Meckley

Dramaturg:

Momar Ndiaye

Lighting Designer:

Jon Harper

Touring Technical Manager:

Sarah Chapin

Original Music:

Matthew Peyton Dixon Note From The Choreographer:

Radioactive Practice is an exhibition demonstrating the infinite ways in which fully dimensional people (simultaneously stellar and flawed) can assemble, disassemble, reassemble, and labor furiously through space and time to find new potentials in their bodies and, in a utopic outlook, the world. And it’s never over. And it’s always messy. We live in messy times with lots of language to describe major themes tied to the current zeitgeist, but little space to address what falls through the cracks and lives beyond the bounds of what is easily put into words. Our minds, bodies and physical senses are disciplined far beyond the clear cut compartmentalized practices we have sought out to pursue, wreaking havoc on our abilities to codify through static systems and immobile infrastructure. Propulsion is needed. Where we are going can’t help but be attached to where we have been. To move forward, resistance is necessary and work is relentless.

Radioactive Practice is our way of cross-training for those inevitable combustible circumstances.

FUNDING CREDITS The creation of Radioactive Practice was supported in part by a commission from New York Live Arts’ Live Feed Residency program with additional support from the Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council with special thanks to Council Member Corey Johnson, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, and the Shubert Foundation.

Radioactive Practice is a National Performance Network/Visual Artist Network (NPN/VAN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by New York Live Arts, Dance Place, American Dance Festival, Wexner Center for the Performing Arts and NPN/VAN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org.

Radioactive Practice is commissioned by ADF with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Works. Additional commissioning funds provided by the Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence Program at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, Dance Umbrella’s Four by Four program, United States Artists Fellowship, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the Wexner Center for the Arts.

ABOUT THE COMPANY Choreographer Abby Zbikowski created Abby Z and the New Utility in 2012 with dancers Fiona Lundie and Jennifer Meckley to experiment with the potential and choreographic possibility of the body being pushed beyond perceived limits, creating a new movement lexicon that triangulates dancing/moving bodies across multiple cultural value systems simultaneously. In 2016, Abby expanded the company to nine performer/collaborators for her first evening-length commission, as Fiona and Jenn took on the additional roles of rehearsal directors within the company structure and Fiona took on the role of company manager. “abandoned playground” premiered to a sold-out run at the Abrons Arts Center in New York in April 2017, leading to Zbikowski being honored with the Juried Bessie Award and was awarded the inaugural Caroline Hearst Artist in Residence at Princeton University, along with commissions from national and international organizations. Abby Z and the New Utility have been presented at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Boston ICA, 92nd St Y, Movement Research at Danspace Project, Gibney Dance Center, Bard College, New York Live Arts, and the Fusebox Festival in Austin, TX, among others. In 2021 the company was granted residency support at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OH to rebuild work post a year long pandemic shutdown.

Currently, they are working out of Columbus and New York City with collaborators locally, nationally, and internationally.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ABBY ZBIKOWSKI (she/her) is a choreographer creating contemporary dance works that pay homage to the effort of living, tactics of survival, and the aesthetics produced as a result, utilizing the physical aspects and psycheemotional experience of her rigorous training in African and Afro-diasporic forms, playing sports, and performing manual labor. She founded Abby Z and the New Utility in 2012 and received the 2017 Juried Bessie Award for her “unique and utterly authentic movement vocabulary in complex and demanding structures to create works of great energy, intensity, surprise, and danger.” In 2018 she received a “Choreographer of the Future” commission from Dance Umbrella UK and in 2020 a United States Artists Fellowship. She is an inaugural Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, and current artist-in-residence at New York Live Arts. Abby has had past residencies at the Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics, and the Wexner Center for the Arts. She is currently an Associate Professor of Dance at The Ohio State University, formerly at the University of Illinois, and on faculty at the American Dance Festival. She has taught at the Academy of Culture in Riga, Latvia; at Festival Un Pas Vers L’Avant in Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and studied at Germaine Acogny’s L’École de Sables in Senegal. Zbikowski has created commissioned work for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, as well as universities across the country.

DANCER BIOS FIONA LUNDIE (she/her) is a movement artist and cognitive scientist interested in what is vital about how and why we move: what form it takes and how it shapes our perspective.

She has explored movement on land, air, fluid water, and frozen water all her life through dance from 3, skiing from 5, synchronized swimming from 8, flying trapeze, springboard diving and snowboarding. Lundie holds a BA in Cognitive Science (Dartmouth College) and MFA in Dance (The Ohio State University). She’s a founding member of Abby Z and the New Utility and performed with the STREB Extreme Action Company.

JENNIFER MECKLEY (she/they) attempts to emphasize the benefits of training in African American vernacular dance techniques through performing, teaching, and choreography.

Moreover, her identity as a gay gender non-conforming person motivates the content for her work. Meckley obtained a BA in Dance from Slippery Rock University and an MFA in Dance from The Ohio State University. She served as faculty at West Chester University, Cuyahoga Community College, Northampton Community College, and the University of Dayton. Meckley is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at Ball State University and is a founding member of Abby Z and the New Utility.

BENJAMIN ROACH (he/him/she/her) is a movement artist and educator from Gallipolis, Ohio. In 2018 he received a B.F.A. in Dance from Ohio University. Following graduation, Benjamin completed an Artist internship with The Yard. She performed for the internal company Dance the Yard as well as Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre. In 2019 alongside Caitlin Morgan, Benjamin co-founded the multidisciplinary duo Piug Dance Theatre. The two have presented their comedic duets at various NYC venues. In addition to working with Abby Z and the New Utility, Benjamin is in collaboration with Ani Javian. Benjamin is currently on fellowship at The Ohio State University.

JINSEI SATO (he/they/she) Jinsei was born in Japan and grew up in Taiwan. They participated in summer intensives at Backhaus Dance, ADF (2014, 2019), Jose Limón Dance, White Mountain Summer Dance Festival, and Peggy Baker Dance Projects. In 2016, Jinsei was awarded the Director’s Talent Scholarship Award to attend the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She attended Camping at Centre National de la Danse in France and worked with Damien Jalet and João Fiadeiro. They have since finished a BFA in Dance and have performed works by Jesse Zaritt, Sidra Bell, Bobbi Jene Smith, Kaneza Schaal, Doug Varone, and Juel D Lane.

INDYA CHILDS (she/her) is an emerging choreographer and dancer from Atlanta, Georgia. Her dance training began at the Price Performing Arts Center and The Atlanta Ballet. Later, she completed her B.A. in Dance from Kennesaw State University.

In 2015, Dance Magazine recognized her as one of their “25 to Watch.” Indya has also performed with professional dance companies such as Ballethnic Dance Company, T. Lang Dance, and Abby Z and the New Utility. She is the Operations Manager at the Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, ME.

MYA MCCLELLAN (she/her) is a versatile Chicago-based artist. She received a BFA in dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2021. McClellan has made her mark in diverse productions including works by Common Conservatory, Symbiosis Arts, Loud Bodies, and Peckish Rhodes Performing Arts Society. Her prowess extends to dance film, having been a resident artist at the Films that Move festival in 2018, 2021, and 2023. Notably, one of her projects earned selection at the 50th Annual Dance on Camera Festival. Today, Mya is an improviser, collaborator, and choreographer.

CREATIVE TEAM BIOS MOMAR NDIAYE (he/him) is an international performer, choreographer, teacher, and videographer from Senegal. In 2017, he received his MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois and the Bruno Nettl Award for excellence in choreography. Ndiaye has created and toured staged dance performances and choreographed for music videos with his company “Cadanses” since 2004 and was a full-time dancer in the international dance company “Premier Temp” (2008-2014). Currently Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University, Ndiaye’s research focuses on the effects of Negritude, interculturalism, globalization, and colonialism on the “performance of daily life” in Senegal and Africa at large and its subsequent impact on traditional patrimonial dances and staged dance. This is Ndiaye’s second project with Abby Z and the New Utility.

JON HARPER (he/they) is a NYC-based lighting designer and also the Chief Operating Officer of the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan. They have toured in the past as the lighting supervisor for Pilobolus, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, PS122, and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. He is married to the inimitable Madeline Best, a lighting designer herself and Director of Operations at the Chocolate Factory Theater in Queens, with whom he shares a love for the dance community, and the distinct joy of parenting two amazing kiddos, Davey and Orson.

SARAH CHAPIN (she/her) fuses her technical expertise, dance training, and passion for organizing systems with an expansive can-do attitude to support artists making a more just and thoughtful world. She works as a stage manager, production manager, theatrical electrician, carpenter, educator, and all-around technician for dance artists and arts organizations, including past work with Bennington College, Joy of Motion Dance Center, Dance Place, Christopher K. Morgan and Artists, Gesel Mason Performance Projects, Coyaba Dance Theater, and Extreme Lengths Productions. An avid social dancer, she helps to run a Lindy Hop organization in her home city of DC.

Photos by Maria Baranova

MATTHEW PEYTON DIXON (he/him) has been performing and writing music professionally since 16, first playing percussion with the Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps. Matthew received a B.A. in Percussion Performance at the University of North Texas in 2009. He has accompanied and composed for dance at the University of North Texas (2007-2016), Texas Woman’s University (2010-2016), Denison University (since 2016), American Dance Festival (since 2016) and The Ohio State University (since 2018). Dixon tours extensively and has composed over 40 works for dance, has 7 solo albums, many album recordings with bands, and 4 volumes of poetry. This is his first collaboration with Abby Z and the New Utility.

SPECIAL THANKS

Photos by Maria Baranova

This list can’t nearly cover all of the humans that have aided in the creation and then needed recreation of this work in response to the pandemic. Fiona, Jenn, Ben, Alex, Kashia, jinsei–you have successfully obliterated my expectations for what dance can be, and your trust to build into the unknown with me is something I can never repay you all for. Indya and Mya - thank you for throwing your whole selves into this wild work; your dedication and hardwork are inspiring. Thank you to all the collaborators who have worked on this project over its now 6 year journey.

Thank you to Lane Czaplinski and everyone at the Wexner Center for the Arts for giving us a home-base to work from in Columbus, OH this past year. Thank you to Princeton for the additional residency support, rockstar Jodee at ADF, everyone past and present at Dance Place, and Dance Umbrella UK for working with us through all the uncertainty. A special thank you to my partner and dramaturg for the work, Momar Ndiaye, for always reminding me to see things in a new and evershifting light. My work is better as a result of your probing questions, nuanced eye, level-headedness and deep respect for the craft of making dances. And one last thank you again to dancer and company manager extraordinaire, Fiona Lundie.

You have been my rock for keeping the dream of making a group work alive. Your abilities as a human are unmatched and I am truly forever grateful for what you do to make this work possible.

DISCOVER OUR FLOCK OF HEROES

A Tribute to Those Who Soar with Us!

Our Flock List includes gifts made between August 13, 2022, and October 13, 2023. Those with total gifts of $100 or more are honored online (linked through the QR code to the right), and those giving $250 or more are listed below. For questions or changes regarding our Flock List, please contact Executive Director, Graham Cole at graham@whitebird.org TITANIUM PATRONS ($10,000+) Anonymous Terry Bean Joan Cirillo & Roger Cooke The J and J Foundation Walter Jaffe & Paul King Ronni S. Lacroute Fund of Oregon Community Foundation Lisa & Shawn K. Mangum James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation Oregon Arts Commission Regional Arts & Culture Council, including support from the City of Portland, Multnomah County, and the Arts Education & Access Fund George & Nancy Thorn Ellen Walkley DIAMOND PATRONS ($5,000+) Carole Alexander Janet Roberts & Ed Clark Michael Curry & Julia Hannegan Ken & Ann Edwards Robert & Mercedes Eichholz Foundation Jamey Hampton & Ashley Roland Dr. Norm Kalbfleisch & Dr. Neil Matteucci George Eighmey & Peter Livingston Maryanne & David Holman Jackson Foundation David Magilke & Butch Williams Morel Ink Angela Roach Technology and Society, Inc. Herbert A. Templeton Foundation Edyth Willard GOLD PATRONS ($2,500+) Mariana Crawford Kim and Greg Flick Carol Streeter and Harold Goldstein Mark Holloway & David Kahl Peter Kost Sandra & Stephen Holmes Christopher Johnson & Rex Bills Joanne & Steven Rizzo Marian & Elihu Schott Family Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation Jaymi & Francis Sladen

SN Charitable Foundation in Honor of Tahni Holt and DeeAnn Nelson WESTAF TourWest SILVER PATRONS ($1,000+) Anonymous (2) Sherrie Barr & Philip Lewin Chris & Audry Bond Natalie Butler Leroy Bynum Jed Cohen & Paul Lance Roberta Davis Justin WB Dune Leslye Epstein & Herman Taylor Marco Escalante and Dongni Li Donna & Bill Fishbein Marnie Frank Andrea & Fred Charles & Kyle Fuchs Ann & Edward Galen Christine & Bob Gilmore Valarie Grudier Connie Guist Karen Hinsdale & Michael Preisz In Memory of Beth Hyams Leslie S. Homer Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation for SW Washington Nancy Goodwin & Albert Horn Bob & Jill Jaffe Murray Koodish Robert & Larissa Lodzinski Candace Lounsbury Barb & Randy Lovre Robert & Larissa Lodzinski Candace Lounsbury Barb & Randy Lovre Mana Mahaffey Steven Odum & Eileen O’Neill Odum OnPoint Community Credit Union Ron and Shirley Pausig Janet L. & Frank Phillips Jenice Powell Dean Richardson Marti & John Rosenthal Carol Schnitzer Lewis Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation Sarabelle Hitchner & Tom Snell

Bob Speltz Minh Tran & Gary Nelson Robyn Williams BRONZE PATRONS ($500+) Anonymous Carl Andreen Laurie Balmuth Mary and Joseph Bernert Tracy Brophy Denise Carty and Roger Brown Family Fund Marvin & Abby Dawson Dennis Deming & Corky Cortright Ann & Ron Emmerson Pat Evenson-Brady Brian Ferriso, Portland Art Museum Barbara Fishleder & John Wolfe Fong Family Fund of Oregon Community Foundation Lucile Gauger Chris Gauger & Lee Leighton Corrina Hall Karen Henell & Gregg McCarty Ava & Charlie Hoover Allan & Toby Jaffe Heather & Loren Jenkins Dennis Johnson Donor Advised Fund of the Pride Foundation Virginia Johnson Marge & Stephen Kafoury Jim Kalvelage Anna S. King Peter Kokopeli Gloria Kondrup & Justin Rattner Carol & Marshall Martin Erin Mboup Ellen F Rosenblum and Richard H Meeker Kathleen & James Meyer VeAnna Morgan & Pam Town Steven Clark Neighorn John Eric Noran Mary O’Connor Marthel Porter Judith E Posey & Edward J Doyle Rosenberg/Lippman Fund of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation Selby Artists Mgmt.

Stephen W. Seifert Kathy Taylor Brian & Nikki Weaver Brian Yellin

ANGELS ($250+) Anonymous Elizabeth Arch Kregg Arntson & Theodore Fettig Bill & Michele Bader Lynne Barnes, MD Brent Barton & Liz Fuller Sean Berry Janet Bowersox Kay Bristow Marcia & Richard Bushnell Margery Cohn Amy & Gary Cole Danièle Colonna & Steve Jacobson Barbara & Tom Cooney Maryanne Deffenbaugh Amber DiLoreto Annie Dudley Debra Dutkiewicz & Timothy Evans Sara Elgee Stuart Farmer Liz Fuller & Kara Swadley Ivy Gibson & Joe FitzPatrick Evelyn Hamann Thyra Hartshorn Carol Ihlenburg Lynda Jackson Alan & Sharon Jones Wendy Kahn Paula Kanarek & Ross Kaplan Carol & Jeffrey Kilmer Joanna Langdale David E. Lapin Bonnie and Mike Leiser Jennie Leslie & Bradley Taylor Jenni Lipscomb Sarah Logan Edward Maurina III Kelli May Alison Nimura Stan and Susanne Penkin The PDX Roes Leslie Rose Sarah Rosenberg and Don Caniparoli Janet and Tom Schmitt Anne Senters Donna Shu & Tom Kane Donna Silverberg & Charles Wiggins Steven Smith Barbara & Dani Steinfeld Christine Tell & Jeff Davis Teresa Tse Beth Kaplan Westbrook Renae Williams Niles Rhiannon Wood Rambus Foundation

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White Bird’s 2023-24 season is supported in part by the Regional Arts and Culture Council, the Western States Arts Foundation, and the James F. and Marion. L Miller Foundation.