Just Announced at City Center: Homo Veritas Dance Theatre

Homo Veritas Dance Theatre, a company committed to creating works immersed in the spirit of storytelling, hosts its inaugural full-evening performance at New York City Center Studios on August 5 and 6, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. Under the artistic and executive direction of company founder and New York native Matthew S. Berenbaum, nine versatile dancers will present sixteen new works, fusing together the styles and disciplines of ballet, jazz, modern and contemporary dance.

"Integrity is our guiding philosophy," explains Mr. Berenbaum. "Our aim is to be true to ourselves in the work we create, and to tell stories that examine the various aspects of the human condition thoughtfully and respectfully, without exaggeration or idealism."

Works set to a wide range of musical artists, including Alex Lifeson, the Beatles, Celtic Thunder, DVBBS and Borgeous, Matthew Entwistle, Mia Longenecker, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, each bring their own unique components to an evening of many moods, stories and generations.

The nine dancers who will be performing with Homo Veritas Dance Theatre at this world premiere event are: Laura DeLaurentis, Matthew Ortiz, Lindsey Osteen, Barbara Samille de Lima Lins, Analia Farfan, Alejandro Aristizabal, Chris Loeschner, Dafni Mari and Kara Cooper.

The performances will take place on August 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m. in studio 4 at New York City Center, located at 130 W 56th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues. The venue is accessible by the 1, A, B, C, D, N, Q, R and W trains. Admission is $20 at the door only.

All's Fair (2010)

Composer: The Who

Length: 6 minutes

The first piece ever choreographed by Director Matthew S. Berenbaum, All's Fair is a study in love - how it can bring to some people so much happiness, and to others only false hope and despair.

Atrium (World Premiere)

Composer: Lostprophets, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (after RUSH)

Length: 14 minutes

One of Mr. Berenbaum's most personal pieces, Atrium is a memorial to a family friend, lost to cancer much too soon, and is dedicated to her children.

Born and Raised (2011)

Composer: Spread the Rumor

Length: 3 minutes

A somewhat-autobiographical solo to a somewhat-autobiographical song, and an attempt to convey the feeling of feeling trapped in one's hometown, yet knowing escape, and all the potential it brings, is only a matter of time.

danses d'un dimanche matin (World Premiere)

Composer: Mia Longenecker

Length: 15 minutes

A five-part reflection on the many different faces of love, and the many ways people approach relationships. The title translates as "sunday morning dances," and the piece is meant to have a carefree air about it.

Declaration of Independence (World Premiere)

Composer: The Beatles

Length: 4 minutes

The story of a young woman who quietly leaves home one morning to begin a life of her own, not realizing that though here parents are no longer children, the restlessness of childhood is not unfamiliar to them.

Denial (World Premiere)

Composer: Evanescence

Length: 4 minutes

An excerpt from a series on the way people deal with death, exploring the almost-universal initial reaction to the unthinkable.

End Act I (World Premiere)

Composer: Matthew Entwistle

Length: 4 minutes

Conceived a few months before Mr. Berenbaum's graduation from NYU, and intended as a gift to composer Matthew Entwistle on the occasion of his own graduation from NYU, End Act I presents a young man, soon to graduate from college, observing his younger schoolmates, fondly reminiscing about times gone by, and preparing to enter adulthood.

Gain of e (2015)

Composer: Loess

Length: 4 minutes

The first piece ever performed by Homo Veritas Dance Theatre, and Mr. Berenbaum's first real experiment with abstract and truly contemporary work, Gain of e is a study in smoothness - an attempt to match the flow of the human body with the flow of the ocean's calmest waves.

Here We Are (World Premiere)

Composer: Blue October

Length: 5 minutes

A sweet, tender portrait of the happiness that true romance can bring and the moments so pure that you can't believe they're happening to you.

Ingvar's Funeral (World Premiere)

Composer: Turisas

Length: 2 minutes

An excerpt from a planned full-length ballet, showing a group of soldiers in mourning for their commander, who has recently been slain in battle. Grief and rage blend in and out of each other in a powerful display of raw emotion.

One More for the Road (World Premiere)

Composer: Boz Scaggs

Length: 4 minutes

A celebration of freedom and of living life to the fullest.

Relentless (World Premiere)

Composer: DVBBS and Borgeous

Length: 4 minutes

A study in urgency, with the dancers constantly spurred on by the driving beats of the music.

So It Begins (World Premiere)

Composer: The xx

Length: 2 minutes

A study in accents and in contrasting sharpness and smoothness, originally choreographed as a high school audition solo.

The Inbetween Time (2012)

Composer: Kasabian

Length: 1 minute

A meditation on transitions, and on how the path from A to B is not always as straight as we'd like it to be.

What's in a Name? (World Premiere)

Composer: Alex Lifeson

Length: 2 minutes

A solo conveying a sense of optimism and a belief that things can always get better ("hope springs eternal"). Choreographed to an instrumental entitled "Hope," What's in a Name? was originally choreographed for a young woman named Hope, and it is to this fact, more than the Shakespearean line, that the title is meant to refer.

Where Fancy is Free (World Premiere)

Composer: Celtic Thunder

Length: 4 minutes

An imagining of love as a temporary transportation to a sort of paradise on earth, where everything is beautiful and there is nothing to do but enjoy it.

Matthew S. Berenbaum began his dance training at the age of ten. He is a graduate of the School of the Staten Island Ballet, the Dance Department of LaGuardia High School, and the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. At Gallatin, he wrote a paper on the physics of ballet which he hopes to expand on and publish in the future. He has appeared with Dances Patrelle in several demi-soloist roles.

He was first inspired to become a choreographer by a Pink Floyd song on the Staten Island Ferry early one morning during his high school years, and continued to conceive and develop choreographic ideas while in college. Shortly after graduation, he began renting rehearsal space and gathered a few friends together with the simple aim of bringing some of his ideas to life. These few friends soon became the founding members, and that rehearsal space soon became the birthplace, of Homo Veritas Dance Theatre.

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