HOW HIGH IS THE CEILING IN MY GLASS CASTLE? Dance Series Set for Triskelion Arts

Guest curator Stefanie Nelson's selection of works by six international movement artists speaks to the "soft bigotry of low expectations," exploring various microcosms of individual "glass castles" each of us inhabits in "How high is the ceiling in my glass castle? (and other perceived limitations)," running Thursdays thru Saturdays, June 1-3 & 8-10, 2017, at 8pm at Triskelion Arts.

Christine Bonansea, BOB, Michelle DuVall, Jonathan Gonzalez, Cristina Planas Leitão, and Antonello Tudisco will each present an original dance dealing with the subjects of perceived limitations and how they are socially- or self-imposed.

The series runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, June 1-3 and 8-10 at Triskelion Arts' Muriel Schulman Theater (106 Calyer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222 - entrance on Bank Street.) Tickets are $16 in advance (available at www.eventbrite.com) or $20 at the door.

SERIES LINE-UP:

Thu-Fri, June 1-2

Lyric Baby by Jonathan Gonzalez; OnlyHuman by Christine Bonansea

Sat, June 3 Bear Me by Cristina Planas Leitão; OnlyHuman by Christine Bonansea

Thu-Fri, June 8-9 To Be or Body by Antonello Tudisco

Sat, June 10 Kitchen Floor by Michelle DuVall; Miscellaneous Of Thee by BOB

PROGRAM INFORMATION:

Jonathan Gonzalez's Lyric Baby interrogates the belief into that which is lost through "lyric queerness" - a term introduced by AIDS-related performance and poetry. It proposes a passage of aspirations and ethos from one author to its affiliates, departing from the singular into a shared body and memoryscape.

Christine Bonansea's OnlyHuman is a solo inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's aphoristic volume Human, All Too Human. The performer/ choreographer is investigating the contradiction between our race's capacity for freedom and beauty against its most destructive and illogical behaviors. This highly kinetic and virtuosic dance is a meditation on bodily images and stereotypes of self in the context of the environment - geography, emotions, social structure. Created in collaboration with visual artists Robert Flynt and Yoann Trellu, and composer Nicole Carroll.

Cristina Planas Leitão's duet Bear Me explores the concept of relationships - between Me and You, the Performer and the Audience, Individual and Society. A body emerges distorted and incomplete from a metaphorical journey of vulnerability and exposure. Leitano introduces also a private, secluded space for the audience, a place "in between" where ambivalence, loneliness, and intimacy existing between two characters can be explored - and also their relationship to the third, hybrid body they create together.
Antonello Tudisco's To Be or Body probes the relationship between body and society. Its point of departure is the photographic oeuvre of Robert Mapplethorpe whose art triggers investigation into the concept of "beautiful" as a synonym of "real," and not of "ephemeral". Individual bodies tell unique stories and lead one-of-the-kind lives that shape their movement and the actions they carry out in their daily lives. A baggage of experiences, emotions, and relationships which inescapably shape their physicality.
Michelle Duvall's Kitchen Floor is a window into a familiar place, where private language develops and deteriorates.

BOB's Miscellaneous Of Thee is about measuring and echolocating oneself in relation to physical and perceived spaces. It deals with finding the rhythm of 'I' in relation to ourselves and to 'you' - the other, audience, perceiver, assumer, witness.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Series Curator Stefanie Nelson is the Artistic Director of Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup, a New York City-based contemporary performance ensemble producing original work in close creative partnership with performers, visual artists, and composers. Her work distills deeply personal ideas into highly kinetic, expressive, and provocative works that are rooted in cross-media collaboration with artists working in music, video, and visual arts. Described as "instinctual, untamed, and edgy," her work has been presented at some of the foremost contemporary performance venues in the United States, including Joyce SoHo, Dance Theater Workshop, LaMama Moves!, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and Jacob's Pillow, and internationally in Canada, Mexico, and Italy at Fabbrica Europa; and Florence Winter Dance Festival at the historic Teatro Goldoni; among others. Nelson is an accomplished teacher as well as the founder and artistic director of DANCE ITALIA, an annual summer dance intensive held in the cities of Agropoli and Lucca, Italy. She recently served as a Choreography panelist for New York Foundation for the Arts Artists' Fellowships. How high is the ceiling in my glass castle? (and other perceived limitations) is her first curatorial endeavor in NYC.www.sndancegroup.org

Jonathan Gonzalez is a movement artist interested in redefinition of choreography through multidisciplinary collaboration who shares his time between his native New York and Europe. Results of his artistic efforts have formalized as performance, sound compositions, and fiction writing. He has been a fellow with New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks Residency Program, Brooklyn Arts Exchange/Dancing While Black, Rema Hort Mann Foundation nominee, Diebold Awardee for Distinction in Choreography and Performance, as well as a POSSE and Bessie Schonberg Scholar. He has collaborated with artists such as Ligia Lewis, Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Cynthia Oliver, Isabel Lewis, NON Collective, Wu Tsang, Fred Moten, and Jomama Jones.

Christine Bonansea is a New York-based dancer and choreographer with over 15 years of international experience in conceiving, directing/choreographing, and performing movement-based works. She creates performances, installations, and films. She is the Artistic Director of Christine Bonansea Company, founded in 2010. Defined by expressive, virtuosic, improvisation-driven movement, her work inhabits an experimental, interdisciplinary, and collaborative environment in which other media - theater, video, visual art and design, spoken word, and music- play an important and integral part. She has had the pleasure to collaborate and perform with such artists as Catherine Galasso, Katie Duck, Sara Shelton Mann, Faustin Linyekula, Tino Sehgal, and Yoshiko Chuma. In New York City, Bonansea's work has been presented by Danspace Project, Dixon Place, and Movement Research at Judson Church. Her dances have also been developed in art residencies and commissioned by numerous venues and festivals in the U.S. and worldwide. www.christinebonansea.com

Portuguese-born Cristina Planas Leitão has studied dance and worked extensively as a performer with David Zambrano and cooperated with many international artists, including Dutch choreographer Gabriella Maiorino and German dancemaker Isabelle Schad. Cristina has been choreographing and performing her own original work since 2014. Her work has been presented internationally at venues and festivals in Portugal, Slovenia, the Netherlands, and the UK. cristinaplanasleitao.com

Antonello Tudisco is a dancer/choreographer and an art history scholar based in Italy. He is the Artistic Director and founder of Collettivo Nada and Neo Dance Network. As a performer, he has worked with such artists as Simona Bucci, Antonella Bertoni, Susanne Linke, Simone Sandroni, Ivan Wolfe, Bruno Collinet, Enzo Moscato, Yoshi Oida, David Zambrano, Antonio Latella, Heidi Strauss, Julian Hamilton, Gregor Lustek, and Wim Vandekeybus. He teaches contemporary dance and improvisation at various dance centers in Italy and abroad. www.collettivonada.com

Michelle DuVall is the Artistic Director of Michelle DuVall Dance Company. As a dancer, she has performed with Brian Sander's JUNK, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theater, kerPlunk dance, and areaDance at venues and festivals nationwide, including the Alvin Ailey Theater, Dixon Place, Jacob's Pillow, as well as abroad. This upcoming season, Michelle is excited to show new work at National Choreography Month in New York, Movement Research Open Performance, ETC Series in Philadelphia, and return to Triskelion Arts for WaxWorks. www.michelleduvall.com

BOB is an idea about anonymity of the movement maker/director/artist. They prefer their work to be seen free from the confines of gender, race, sexuality, religion, height assumptions, hair color, eye color, favorite food, etc.... BOB is an experiment in assumption-less presentation / perception.

For more information, visit www.triskelionarts.org.

Photo by Robert Flynt