Brooklyn College Welcomes Australia's Expressions Dance 1/10

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College welcomes Australia's Expressions Dance Company, performing the New York City premiere of their multimedia dance theater piece, Score!, on Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 8pm. This performance is the second of four international dance performances that make up Brooklyn Center's World of Dance series.

Score!, a new multimedia dance-theatre piece, takes its inspiration from Mikhail Fokine's ballet Petrushka and reality television. The fairground puppeteer is transformed into a slick, Ryan Seacrest-esque TV host with his dancing puppets now contestants in a glitzy reality TV competition. The ultimate prize is a partner for life, the ballerina. Packed with striking physicality, Maggi Sietsma's choreography is enhanced by live footage, video projections, and spoken word to create a unique world that is both uproariously funny and devastatingly tragic.

About the piece, Ms. Sietsma commented, "Being famous is suddenly something we are being told anybody is capable of achieving. This modern lie is promoted by marketing companies, and the very fabric of our society is changing as we become puppets of the marketing industry. Score! is set in the world of reality TV - a world where, according to the TV marketing gurus, if you aren't famous, you're a failure. I have created parallels with the story of Petrushka through the characters of Petrushka, the Ballerina, the Blackamoor and the Puppetmaster."

The performance will be followed by a discussion with Artistic Director Maggi Sietsma and members of the company.

Expressions Dance Company was founded in 1984 by Maggi Sietsma and Abel Valls. Queensland's leading contemporary dance company, Expressions is acclaimed for its high caliber and compelling brand of dance theatre. Expressions pushes the boundaries of dance and theatre, creating meaning with powerful imagery and movement by combining dance, dialogue, and visual media. The Company has toured to over 15 countries, and was the recipient of the Sidney Myer Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts, and two Drovers - Australia's touring awards, for Tour Innovation and Management Excellence. It had achieved national and international recognition through its extensive touring program, and has performed in the United States,Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland,China, Japan, Mexico, and New Caledonia. www.expressions.org.au

As founder, director, and choreographer, Maggi Sietsma has created over thirty works for Expressions Dance Company including the highly successful and internationally acclaimed Alone Together, Vanities Crossing, and Virtually Richard. Ms. Sietsma was awarded an Asialink fellowship to choreograph and teach for the Beijing Modern Dance Company and the Beijing Dance Academy in China, and was also awarded a Centenary Medal for her work with dance and society. General Manager, Abel Valls has created original scores for many of the Company's works.

The artistic team for Score! includes Maggi Sietsma (choreographer), Jennifer Flowers (drama consultant), Tanja Beer (set & costume design), Nick Tomlin (lighting design), and Abel Valls (sound track).

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' 2008-09 World of Dance series also includes Argentina's Estampas Porteñas performing Tango Fire, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, and Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada performing the New York premiere of their new, full-length ballet Don Juan.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts continues its New Work/New York initiative for 2008-2009, presenting multi-disciplinary New York and world premiere performances at affordable prices to Brooklyn audiences. Introduced last year, New Work/New York includes, but is not limited to, the commissioning and development of new works, thereby also supporting the artistic community. For 2008-2009, Brooklyn Center's New Work / New York initiatives include the New York premieres of L.A. Theatre Works' The Lost World, Expressions Dance Company's Score!, The Male Choir of St. Petersburg, and Ballet-théâtre atlantique du Canada's Don Juan.

Founded in 1954, the mission of Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts is to present outstanding performing arts and arts education programs, reflective of Brooklyn's diverse communities, at affordable prices. Brooklyn Center's presentations explore both the classical traditions and the boldest contemporary performances, embracing the world culture that defines Brooklyn. Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts welcomes over 70,000 people to the 2,400 seat Walt Whitman Theatre each season, and boasts one of the largest arts education programs in the borough, serving schoolchildren from over 225 schools annually.

Expressions Dance Company at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Walt Whitman Theatre at BrooklynCollege, 2900 Campus Road, Brooklyn
Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 8pm; Tickets: $25

Online orders: BrooklynCenterOnline.org
Box Office: (718) 951-4500, Tuesday - Saturday, 1PM - 6PM
Groups of 15 or more: (718) 951-4600, ext. 22

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' programs are made possible in part with public funding from the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding for Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' 2008-2009 season is provided by: Target; JP Morgan Chase; Independence Community Foundation; Con Edison; National Grid; Citi Foundation; Macy's; The Harkness Foundation for Dance; the TD Charitable Foundation; Air Jamaica; the Carnegie Corporation of New York; and the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund, established in the New York Community Trust by founders of The Reader's Digest Association. Additional support provided by the Best Western Gregory Hotel, Courier-Life Publications, The Brooklyn Eagle, and The Brooklyn Paper.

Brooklyn Center gratefully acknowledges the support of the Brooklyn Delegation of the New York State Assembly: Assemblymembers William F. Boyland, William Colton, Steven Cymbrowitz, Diane Gordon, Janele Hyer-Spencer, Rhoda Jacobs, Alan Maisel, Joan Millman, Felix Ortiz, N. Nick Perry, Sheldon Silver, Darryl C. Towns, Helene E. Weinstein; and members of the Brooklyn Delegation of the New York State Senate: Senators Eric Adams, Martin Golden, Kevin Parker and John L. Sampson. Brooklyn Center thanks the New York City Council: Councilmembers Simcha Felder, Domenic M. Recchia Jr., Kendall B. Stewart, and Albert Vann, Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, and Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin.