Colin Gee & Angie Smalis Set for Abrons Arts Center's Travelogues Series, 5/6-8

Abrons Arts Center presents Colin Gee and Angie Smalis in Chaplet of Roses and They Go Out in Joy, two works developed from fragments of the past. In the case of Chaplet of Roses, it is a 15th-century tapestry; in They Go Out in Joy, it is a collection of photos of Irish emigrants. The performance is part of Abrons' Travelogues dance series, curated by Laurie Uprichard. Performances will take place Friday and Saturday, May 6 and 7, at 7:30pm, and Sunday, May 8, at 3pm, at Abrons Arts Center's Experimental Theater. Promotional support provided by Irish Arts Center.

Chaplet of Roses (2014), a dance work for video, and live performance, is inspired by a 15th-century fragmentary tapestry, "Honor Making a Chaplet of Roses," featuring an allegory of courtly love told through the simultaneous action of four characters. Created in Limerick, Ireland, with Gee and Smalis performing the four parts, the work explores a contemporary interpretation of the allegory as a notion of individual and community morality by framing shifts between public and private life.

They Go Out in Joy (2016) is a series of performance portraits drawn from photographs of Irish emigrants taken just prior to their departure from Cobh, Ireland in the 1920s, when the town was a major port of emigration. Set against the background of present-day Cobh, Gee and Smalis again portray all the roles, shifting between the public and private lives of each persona at a single paused moment imagining what has just happened or is about to happen. They Go Out in Joy features music by Erin Gee.

Travelogues introduces Abrons' audiences to new works by choreographers Laurie Uprichard has come across in her travels and whose work she believes should be seen in New York City. Uprichard met Gee when he performed with Iréne Hultman at Danspace Project in 2000. She has since seen his performances as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival. Uprichard first saw Smalis as a dancer in Limerick's Daghdha Dance Company. Uprichard presented her work, The Lightly Fragranced Solo, as part of the Re-Presenting Ireland showcase at Dublin Dance Festival in 2010.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased through Abrons Arts Center's box office at 212-352-3101, or online at www.abronsartscenter.org. Abrons Arts Center is located at 466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street) in Manhattan.

Colin Gee has created works for film, performance, and opera. He was the founding Whitney Live artist-in-residence at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the 2009 visiting artist-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. His object-theater work Objective Suspense (2008) was commissioned by the Whitney and performed there over 500 times as part of the exhibition Alexander Calder: The Paris Years. Frequently working in collaboration with composer Erin Gee, his sister, he provided the libretto for her opera SLEEP (2009), which premiered at the Zurich Opera House. Their concert/opera Mouthpiece XII, Mathilde of Loci, Part I was presented by the American Composer's Orchestra at Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall. In 2011 Gee was awarded the 2012 Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome. His work Two Satires (2012), a musical character study composed by Martin Brody, was performed with the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic at the American Academy in Rome. The Fabulist (2011), an evening-length work on the Fables of Jean de la Fontaine was commissioned by, and premiered at, the French Institute Alliance Française in New York.

Gee was born in California and trained as an actor at the Dell' Arte School of Physical Theater (1991-1992) and the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris (1994-1996). In 1998 he became co-artistic director of The Flying Machine Theater Company. He was a member of Iréne Hultman Dance Company (1999-2001). From 2001 to 2004, Gee was a principal clown for the Cirque du Soleil touring production Dralion, performing 1,000 shows in North America, Mexico, and Europe. colingee.com

Angie Smalis trained and worked professionally as a dance artist in Athens, Greece before moving to Vienna, Austria in 2001 to join the Viennese Opera (Volks Oper Wien). She relocated to Limerick in 2003 to join Daghdha Dance Company. Smalis is an independent contemporary dance artist, leads Limerick Youth Dance, is artistic director of Limerick Youth Theatre, and is also founder and director of Patterns Dance Collective, a group of dance artists with intellectual disabilities. Smalis wishes to thanks Limerick City and County Council for their support of They Go Out in Joy.

Erin Gee was cited by Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, as a member of the short list of the most influential composer-vocalists of the 21st century. Composition awards include the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Bogliasco Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Radcliffe Fellowship, the 2008 Rome Prize, and Zürich Opera House's Teatro Minimo Prize. Major commissions include the Zurich Opera House, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group under Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Klangforum Wien. Gee has also worked with the Latvian Radio Chamber Choir, Ensemble Surplus, I.C.E, Alter Ego, Either/Or Ensemble, Wet Ink, Metropolis Ensemble, Repertorio Zero, and many others. Gee (Ph.D.) currently teaches composition at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. erin-gee.com

Laurie Uprichard(Travelogues Curator) is executive director of the Stephen Petronio Company as well as an independent curator and producer. She was the director of the Dublin Dance Festival in Ireland (2007-2011) and executive director of Danspace Project in New York (1992-2007). Travelogues introduces Abrons' audiences to new dance works by choreographers Uprichard has come across in her frequent travels.