THE DAISY THEATRE and More Set for Baryshnikov Arts Center's 10th Anniversary Season

2015 marks Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC)'s first decade of providing a creative home for performing artists to develop and showcase work in New York City, where artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov's vision for a performing arts center has become a thriving reality. The organization continues celebrating its tenth anniversary this fall with a performance and residency series running September 17 to December 12. Fall programs include support and performance opportunities for international artists demonstrating innovation and collaboration across disciplines, including two premieres by artists who developed their works while in residence at BAC.

A highlight of BAC's fall season is the New York Premiere of The Daisy Theatre, performed by Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes, which will be the featured program of BAC's Fall Fête and 10th Anniversary Celebration on September 28, followed by eight performances, September 30-October 10, in the Jerome Robbins Theater. The Daisy Theatre is an improvisation-based performance by Canadian puppet master and maker, Ronnie Burkett, who manipulates and voices a dynamic cast of forty marionette characters in a variety of acts, monologues, and musical numbers. Premiered in 2013 at the Luminato Festival, The Daisy Theatre's New York Premiere at BAC is presented in association with Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA.

Bookending the fall season are premieres in the Howard Gilman Performance Space by two BAC Resident Artists. They are among a growing roster of those who have developed works in residence at BAC that are then performed on our stages. First, from September 17-19, choreographer/dancer Joanna Kotze will perform the New York Premiere of FIND YOURSELF HERE. Kotze began development of the work during a BAC residency in 2013, the same year she was awarded a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer. FIND YOURSELF HERE is a collaboration among three dancers, three visual artists, and a composer/sound designer, using movement to explore the potential for hybridity across disciplines.

Then, from December 9-12, Daniel Fish, a writer and director of theater, opera, and film, will present the World Premiere of a new work inspired by Chekhov's Three Sisters. Fish's collaboration with visual artist/mathematician J.B. Michel and designer Jim Findlay, performed by three female actors whose ages span seven decades, is a work he developed at BAC during residencies in 2012 and 2014. Fish and Kotze both reflect BAC's mission to support artists at various phases of their creative development and, in many cases, help them to bring a work from its early stages in the studio to full production.

BAC's music series, which comprised five concerts during the spring season, will continue into the fall as a special component of BAC's anniversary year. A concert on December 2 in the Jerome Robbins Theater entitled Masked Ball will feature accomplished baritone Tyler Duncan and an instrumental ensemble performing Francis Poulenc's boisterous Le Bal Masqué, along with music by Igor Stravinsky, George Antheil, and spoken texts by Erik Satie. Additional fall 2015 music programs will be announced by September 1.

October 22-24, BAC partners once again with Lincoln Center's White Light Festival, this year co-presenting British choreographer/dancer Aakash Odedra performing the U.S. Premieres of two solos rooted in personal experience. In Inked, inspired by his grandmother's tattoos and choreographed by Damien Jalet, a Laurence Olivier award-winner, Odedra explores ideas of transformation. Murmur is Odedra's collaboration with Australian choreographer Lewis Major, portraying Odedra's experience of being dyslexic.

At the core of BAC's mission is the Residency Program, which provides time, space, and resources for creative experimentation and artistic freedom. This fall, BAC hosts six residencies, which will take place November 2-20 during BAC Space: an intensive residency period during which artists will work concurrently in all of BAC's studios and theaters, in a format designed to encourage peer exchange. BAC Space Fall 2015 will include a series of public events to be announced by October 1.

BAC Space Fall 2015 Resident Artists include New York-based artists John Jasperse (Dance), Pontus Lidberg (Dance / Multimedia), Erin Markey (Theater / Music), and Somi (Music); and Brokentalkers of Dublin, Ireland (Theater), and Zsuzsa Rózsavölgyi of Budapest, Hungary (Dance).

Tickets for BAC Presents will be on sale June 1 and can be purchased online or by phone. Visit BACNYC.ORG or call 866 811 4111. A complete schedule of BAC Presents Fall 2015 Presentations follows.

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BAC PRESENTS FALL 2015:

DANCE

Joanna Kotze

FIND YOURSELF HERE (N.Y. Premiere)

September 17-19 (Thursday through Saturday at 7:30PM)

Howard Gilman Performance Space

Tickets: $20

Choreographer Joanna Kotze's FIND YOURSELF HERE is a work for three dancers, three visual artists, and a composer/sound designer who utilize movement to examine the potential for hybridity across disciplines. Creating dialogue along a spectrum of tension and harmony, isolation and togetherness, the performers explore boundaries and shared concerns of visual art and live performance, and the forums for presenting each.

FIND YOURSELF HERE is performed by dancers Joanna Kotze, Stuart Singer, and Netta Yerushalmy; and visual artists Jonathan Allen, Zachary Fabri, and Asuka Goto; with composer/sound designer Ryan Seaton, who mixes sound live for each performance.

Running Time: 60 Minutes

FIND YOURSELF HERE was developed during a 2013 Martha Duffy Residency at BAC.

THEATER / PUPPETRY

Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes

The Daisy Theatre (N.Y. Premiere)

September 30, October 1-3 & 7-10 (Wednesday through Saturday at 8PM)

Jerome Robbins Theater

Tickets: $25

The Daisy Theatre is puppeteer Ronnie Burkett, who manipulates and voices a dynamic entourage of marionettes in a variety of acts ranging from opera to cabaret, and vaudeville to Vegas. A rotating cast of forty characters includes singer Rosemary Focaccia, marionette ventriloquist Meyer Lemon, chanteuse Jolie Jolie, and the beloved fairy child Schnitzel. With ever-changing content and nightly improvisation performed in an intimate setting, the tender, outrageous antics of The Daisy Theatre are a theatrical experience to be seen more than once.

Running Time: Between 90-120 Minutes

Presented by Baryshnikov Arts Center in association with Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA.

DANCE

Aakash Odedra Company

Inked + Murmur (U.S. Premieres)

October 22-24 (Thursday through Saturday at 8PM)

Jerome Robbins Theater

Tickets: $25 Balcony / $30 Orchestra

On Sale September 1: BACNYC.ORG / 212-721-6500

Drawing from the classical dance forms Kathak and Bharat Natyam, choreographer/dancer Aakash Odedra performs two solos in his distinctive style of movement story telling. In Inked, choreographed by Damien Jalet, Odedra examines the body as a place of transformation, and tattoos and other markings as a reflection of identity and experience. Murmur, a collaboration with choreographer Lewis Major and Ars Electronica Futurelab, delves into the idea of warped and exaggerated realities, exploring how misconceptions of dyslexia can be revealed through visual design, light, sound, and movement.

Running Time: 90 Minutes

Co-presented by Baryshnikov Arts Center and Lincoln Center's White Light Festival.

MUSIC

Masked Ball

December 2 (Wednesday at 8PM)

Jerome Robbins Theater

Tickets: $25

Acclaimed baritone Tyler Duncan headlines an evening inspired by a 1932 "spectacle-concert" commissioned by renowned arts patrons Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Noailles, featuring Francis Poulenc's boisterous Le Bal Masqué for voice and an instrumental group. In a 21st century reimagining of this event, the program also includes music by Igor Stravinsky and George Antheil, and spoken texts by Erik Satie, in a joyful celebration of surrealism.

Running Time: 60 Minutes

Leadership support for music programming in 2015 provided by the J.C. Flowers Foundation and the Thompson Family Foundation.

THEATER

Daniel Fish

A New Work Inspired by Chekhov's Three Sisters (World Premiere)

December 9-12 (Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30PM)

Howard Gilman Performance Space

Tickets: $20

Writer and director Daniel Fish teams up with visual artist/mathematician J.B. Michel and designer Jim Findlay in a new theater work inspired by Anton Chekhov's play, Three Sisters. A cast of female performers, whose ages span seven decades, explore the dehumanized character of big data, and the intimate emotions felt by real people at different stages of their lives.

Running Time: 70 Minutes

This production was developed during two residencies at BAC, in 2012 and 2014.

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BAC PRESENTS ARTISTS:

Ronnie Burkett has been captivated by puppetry since the age of seven, and began touring his shows around Alberta at the age of fourteen. Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes was formed in 1986, continuously playing on Canada's major stages, and as a guest company on numerous tours abroad. Ronnie received the 2009 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, The Herbert Whittaker Drama Bench Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Theatre, a Village Voice OBIE Award, and four Citations of Excellence from the American Center of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette. The Daisy Theatre is the thirteenth production from the Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes, following the international successes Penny Plain, Billy Twinkle, 10 Days on Earth, Provenance, and the "Memory Dress Trilogy:" Tinka's New Dress, Street of Blood, and Happy.

Canadian baritone Tyler Duncan recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Huntsman in Dvorák's Rusalka. At the Spoleto Festival he debuted as Mr. Friendly in the 18th-century ballad opera Flora, returning the next season as the Speaker in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Other appearances have included the role of Raymondo in Handel's Almira with the Boston Early Music Festival, Dandini in Rossini's La cenerentola with Pacific Opera Victoria; and Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Princeton Festival. Tyler has performed masterworks by Mahler, Bach, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Handel, Beethoven, and Haydn, with orchestras and symphonies including American Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, and New York Philharmonic, among others. He has also performed at Germany's Halle Händel Festival, Verbier Festival, Vancouver Early Music Festival, Montreal Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Lanaudière Festival, Stratford Festival, Berkshire Choral Festival, and New York's Carnegie Hall. Tyler has received prizes from the Naumburg, London's Wigmore Hall, and Munich's ARD competitions, and won the 2010 Joy in Singing competition, 2008 New York Oratorio Society Competition, 2007 Prix International Pro Musicis Award, and Bernard Diamant Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. He holds music degrees from the University of British Columbia, Germany's Hochschule für Musik (Augsburg), and Hochschule für Musik und Theater (Munich). He is a founding member on the faculty of the Vancouver International Song Institute.

Daniel Fish is a director who works in theater, opera and film. He draws on a broad range of forms and subject matter, including plays, film scripts, contemporary fiction, essays, and found audio. His work has been seen at theaters and festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe, including BAM Next Wave Festival, Noorderzon Festival, Festival Transamerique, The Chocolate Factory, The Public Theater's Under The Radar, Opera Philadelphia/Curtis Opera Theater, American Repertory Theater, Richard B. Fisher Center at Bard College, Yale Repertory Theater, McCarter Theater, Signature Theater, The Shakespeare Theater Company, The Juilliard School, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Staatstheater Braunschweig, and The Royal Shakespeare Company. Residencies and commissions include The MacDowell Colony, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Chocolate Factory, LMCC/Governor's Island, and The Bushwick Starr. Daniel has taught at The Juilliard School, The Yale School of Drama, Bard College, and Princeton University. He received his B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University.

Joanna Kotze received the 2013 "Bessie" Award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer. Her choreography has been presented at American Dance Institute, Danspace Project, Bard College, Jacob's Pillow, NYLA Studio Series, DNA, Movement Research at Judson Church, and other venues and galleries. Joanna has received support from the Jerome Foundation, NYFA BUILD, Brooklyn Arts Council, Yellowhouse, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. Recent residencies include Jacob's Pillow, LMCC's Process Space, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Djerassi, and the Bogliasco Foundation. She has a fall 2015 residency at the Camargo Foundation in France and upcoming commissions from Zenon Dance Company in Minneapolis, Toronto Dance Theatre, and Ririe-Woodbury in Salt Lake City. This year, she has created new works on James Sewell Ballet in Minneapolis and students at The New School, Barnard, and Purchase College. Joanna danced with Wally Cardona from 2000-10 and has also worked extensively with Kimberly Bartosik/daela, Netta Yerushalmy, and Sam Kim. Joanna is on faculty at Movement Research and Gibney Dance and has taught at Eugene Lang College-The New School, Long Island University, the American Dance Festival, and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She is originally from South Africa and has a B.A. in Architecture from Miami University ('98).

Aakash Odedra is an award-winning contemporary British dancer. He trained in Kathak with Nilima Devi (Leicester) and Bharat Natyam with Chitraleka Bolar (Birmingham), and later in India with Asha Joglekar and Chhaya Kantaveh. In 2009, Aakash performed a solo choreographed by Kumudini Lakhia, Maati Re, at the Svapngata Festival at Sadler's Wells curated by Akram Khan. In 2010, he took part in the European Network of Performing Arts 2010 ChoreoLab in Serbia through Dance Umbrella. That year he performed a duet with Sanjukta Sinha choreographed by Kumudini Lakhia, Tatha. Aakash Odedra Company was formed in 2011. The Company's debut project was a collaboration with celebrated choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Russell Maliphant, and Aakash's mentor, Akram Khan, culminating in an evening-length work entitled Rising. Recent works range from large-scale classical evenings to contemporary works and opera, such as the Theatre Freiburg production of God's Little Soldier (2013). He worked with the Apollo Theatre in New York on Get on the Good Foot (2013), an evening of work that celebrated the life and work of James Brown. His work Ecstasy earned rave reviews in North America. Aakash has received numerous awards and bursaries, most recently the Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer in New York (2014), the Danza&Danza award for best new interpretation in Italy (2013), Best Male Dance Performance (Dora Award, Toronto), and Best Performance (Dance week festival, Zagreb, Croatia). In 2013 Aakash was also awarded a Sky Academy Arts Scholarship for the development of Murmur. In May 2014, Aakash Odedra Company presented Murmur (with Lewis Major and Ars Electronica Futurelab) and Inked (by Damien Jalet) at the International Dance Festival Birmingham.

ABOUT BARYSHNIKOV ARTS CENTER (BAC) - BAC is the realization of a long-held vision by artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov to build an arts center in Manhattan that would serve as a gathering place for artists from all disciplines. BAC's opening in 2005 heralded the launch of this mission, establishing a thriving creative laboratory and performance space for artists from around the world. BAC's activities encompass a robust residency program augmented by a range of professional services, including commissions of new work, as well as the presentation of performances by artists at varying stages of their careers. In tandem with its commitment to supporting artists, BAC is dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary, innovative work at affordable ticket prices. For more information, visit www.bacnyc.org.