XYZ NYC Returns to The Tank with Olympics-Themed Show Tonight

Sochi? More like So-xyz. The challenge-based, topically-themed dance series known as xyz nyc returns to The Tank next week for the first round of its spring 2014 cycle. The theme? The Olympics.

The parameters of xyz nyc are rigorous: four choreographers are randomly assigned a group of dancers and given a theme, a challenge, and one week to create a new work. They show the work in a culminating performance. A guest judge gives feedback on the spot, illuminating aspects of the creative and critical process; audience members vote and write notes on ballots. The votes are tallied and the winning choreographer proceeds to the championship round, where he or she stands to earn a two-night run at The Tank. Every choreographer receives valuable feedback and experience.

This month's contestants are Jesse Factor, Kristen Klein, Julia Smith-Eppsteiner, and Kit Stanley. Factor, who has performed with the Martha Graham Dance Company, hails from Pennsylvania; Connecticut-born Klein is the founder and Artistic Director of Inclined Dance Project; Smith-Eppsteiner, originally from California, will be featured in Triskelion Arts' 5th Annual Comedy in Dance Festival this April; Stanley moved from her native Wisconsin to New York in 2011 and recently helped turn a Coldstone Creamery into an art gallery. Each of these four was blindly selected from a group of registrants for this round of xyz nyc.

Award-winning performance artist Michael Burke joins The Tank as the evening's guest judge, and will give a special performance of his current project. Burke's solo performance works have been presented throughout NYC and nationally at venues including Dixon Place, HERE Arts Center, New Dance Alliance's Performance Mix Series/The Joyce Soho, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The National Gay & Lesbian Theatre Festival (Columbus, OH), Chashama, The SEEN+HEARD Festival (Atlanta, GA), Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and many more.

Founded in 2003, The Tank is a Manhattan-based non-profit arts presenter. Curating across disciplines, The Tank provides an artistic home to both new and established artists who are engaged in the pursuit of new ideas. Combining free performance space, subsidized rehearsal space, discounted ticket prices, and promotional support, the Tank brings exceptional programming to new audiences through presenting live performance, encouraging civic discourse, and supporting the work of emerging artists.

PERFORMANCE AND TICKET INFORMATION:

Date & time: February 20, 2014 at 9pm

Tickets: $10 at the door or online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/563967

The Tank is located on the 8th floor at 151 W. 46th St. between 6th and 7th Aves.

By subway: N, R, or Q to 49th Street; B, D, F, or M to Rockefeller Center.

For more information on xyz nyc and other Tank programs, visit thetanknyc.org.