Carolyn Dorfman Dance to Open 2016 Summer Season with Outdoor Performances

Carolyn Dorfman Dance, whose bold and dramatic works connect life and movement, celebrates dance across New York and New Jersey with multiple appearances all summer long. The company kicks off their summer performances, June 21, with the multi-company dance festival KoDaFe. They can also be seen at the 10th Annual Wave Rising Series, June 25-26, as well as SummerStage engagements at Rumsey Playfield with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, July 27, and East River Park, August 13. Dorfman's troupe of ten dancers will conclude their summer season with an appearance at the Dance on the Lawn Festival at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Montclair, New Jersey, September 10.

"When temperatures start to rise," says Carolyn Dorfman, artistic director of Carolyn Dorfman Dance, "people start moving slower. They relax and enjoy being outdoors. This is one of the best times to be a performer because the city offers so many opportunities for audiences to see dance up close, outdoors and under the sun and stars."

Repertory to be performed during the summer season includes many crowd favorites, in order of performance: guest choreographer, Doug Elkin's hilarious Narcoleptic Lovers; Journeys: A Triptych, a collection featuring Dorfman's acclaimed works, My Father's Solo, Hourglass and a solo excerpt from Portrait; WAVES, Dorfman's new, sensation-based exploration of music and dance; and her iconic duet, Keystone.

CAROLYN DORFMAN DANCE SUMMER 2016

June 21 - Korean Dance Festival, "KoDaFe," at Ailey Citigroup Theater, New York

Performing Narcoleptic Lovers

7:30 p.m.

June 25-26 - Wave Rising Series at 92Y Harkness Dance Center, New York

Performing My Father's Solo, Hourglass and an excerpt from, Portrait.

Saturday at 9:00 p.m., Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

July 27 -SummerStage at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park, New York

Opening performance for Complexions Contemporary Ballet, performing WAVES-

accompanied live with music by cellist Jessie Reagen Mann, human beat boxer and vocalist Pete List and recorder player Daphna Mor.

7:00 p.m.

August 13 - SummerStage at East River Park Amphitheater, New York

Performing Narcoleptic Lovers, Keystone, and WAVES

7:00 p.m.

September 10 - Dance on the Lawn Festival, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Montclair, NJ

Performing WAVES

3:00 p.m.

SEASON REPERTORY DETAILS

WAVES (2015)

Choreography: Carolyn Dorfman

Composer: Jessie Reagen Mann, Pete List, Daphna Mor

Costumes: Anna-Alisa Belous

WAVES is a sensation-based exploration of music and dance featuring live music composed by cellist Jessie Reagen Mann, beat boxer and multi-instrumentalist Pete List, and recorder player Daphna Mor. Dorfman uses this eclectic and unusual grouping of artists to create new waves of sonic and movement possibilities.

Narcoleptic Lovers (2012)

Choreography: Doug Elkins, restaged by Fritha Pengelly

Music: Gavin Bryars, Mio Morales, Mozart, Urban Species, and Sinead O'Connor

Costumes: Anna-Alisa Belous

Narcoleptic Lovers is guest choreographer Doug Elkins' electric and oft hilarious, full company work. Using his signature eclectic movement vocabulary, the work draws on modern, hip-hop, ballet and martial arts with an equally broad range of music - Mozart, hip-hop by Urban Species and spoken word and music by Sinead O'Connor and Lenny Bruce.

Hourglass (2012)

Choreography: Carolyn Dorfman

Music: Commissioned score by Jessie Reagen Mann

Soundscape: Bryan Noll

Costumes: Anna-Alisa Belous

Hourglass is a solo revealing a woman's internal journey of wanting, waiting, anticipation, frustration, defeat, and finally, acceptance. It is set to a commissioned score by renowned cellist, Jesse Reagen Mann, with an enveloping electronic soundscape by Bryan Noll.

Keystone (2012)

Choreography: Carolyn Dorfman

Music: Rufus Wainwright, Louis Armstrong, and Jamie Randolph

Costumes: Anna-Alisa Belous

Keystone is a duet that explores the endurance of relationships and the concept of staying power in a world that continues to embrace fast digital communication that is not aligned with the human pulse or true intimacy.

My Father's Solo, excerpt from Mayne Mentshn (2001)

Choreography: Carolyn Dorfman

Music: Composed, Arranged & Adapted by Greg Wall

Costumes: Russell Aubrey

Mayne Mentshn (My People), is a work that resonates from the very depths of Dorfman's soul. Although she feels connected to every dance that she creates, never before has a work connected every facet of her being. With mind, body, spirit, both past and present, the creation of Mayne Mentshn was an inevitability for Dorfman, as she connected the past and present to define her path towards the future.

Portrait (1996)

Choreography: Carolyn Dorfman

Music: Jennifer Giering

Costumes: Russell Aubrey

In Portrait, five women dance the inner life of one woman. With its haunting, yet affirming score, the journey of creating this work reveals an astounding reality: "Balance in life is not a static repose or rest, but rather a shifting equilibrium within acceptable parameters." Such is the life of a woman.