The Joyce Theater Presents Second Annual AMERICAN DANCE PLATFORM

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc. (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) is pleased to present the second annual American Dance Platform, a showcase of eight companies over one week, made possible by a grant from The Harkness Foundation for Dance and dedicated to the memory of Theodore S. Bartwink, from January 3-8. This year's festival, curated by Alicia B. Adams, VP of International Programming and Dance at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, features an eclectic roster of artists and companies, including Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre, RAWdance, Ragamala Dance Company, Company | E, Lucky Plush Productions, Davalois Fearon Dance, Dallas Black Dance Theatre and CONTRA-TIEMPO, with each company performing twice throughout a week of double bills at The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street.

The Companies and Programs of The Joyce Theater's 2017 American Dance Platform*

Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre (Brooklyn, NY)

Middlegame by Dušan Týnek

Company | E (Washington, D.C.)

Inside It's Raining by Rachel Erdos

Falling by Paul Gordon Emerson

Dialogue of a Portrait by Robert J. Priore

CONTRA-TIEMPO (Los Angeles, CA)

Agua Furiosa by Ana Maria Alvarez

RAWdance (San Francisco, CA)

Double Exposure by Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, Joe Goode, KT Nelson, Holly Johnston, Tahni Holt, Kate Wallich, David Roussève (with video by Cari Ann Shim Sham), Ann Carlson, and Amy Seiwert

Ragamala Dance Company (Minneapolis, MN)

Kírana by Ranee Ramaswamy, Aparna Ramaswamy and Ashwini Ramaswamy

Davalois Fearon Dance (New York, NY)

Consider Water by Davalois Fearon

Dallas Black Dance Theatre (Dallas)

Furtherance by Kirven Douthit-Boyd

Tribute by Matthew Rushing

Lucky Plush Productions (Chicago, IL)

Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip by Julia Rhoads

*Subject to change

The Joyce Theater's American Dance Platform, featuring eight diverse companies, will run from January 3-8 at The Joyce Theater. Tickets for each performance range in price from $10-$40 and can be purchased through JoyceCharge at www.Joyce.org, or by calling 212-242-0800.

Tuesday, January 3 at 7:30pm; Sunday, January 8 at 7:30pm

Company|E

Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre

Wednesday, January 4 at 7:30pm; Sunday, January 8 at 2pm

CONTRA-TIEMPO

RAWdance

Thursday, January 5 at 8pm; Saturday, January 7 at 8pm

Ragamala Dance Company

Davalois Fearon Dance

Friday, January 6 at 8pm; Saturday, January 7 at 2pm

Dallas Black Dance Theatre

Lucky Plush Productions

Company | E performed and taught on five continents in 30 countries in its first five years Washington, DC's. The Company partners with the Diplomatic Missions of the world and the U.S. Department of State creating programs for, among others, Israel, the West Bank of the Palestinian Territories, Spain, Poland and, in 2017-2018, Colombia and Cuba to build its art. In all its work, Company | E builds in deep education programming, from University residencies to broad outreach programs at home and around the world. In 2016 and 2017 the company adds two new works to its diverse programming repertoire with commissions by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The first, a program for young audiences, is a collaboration with the National Symphony Orchestra, based on The Four Seasons. The second is an evening length work for the Centennial Celebration of President Kennedy with a site-specific program utilizing the entire Grand Foyer of the Kennedy Center, including both Millennium stages simultaneously. In 2015, Company | E became the first American Dance Troupe to travel to Cuba through the support of the new U.S. Embassy and returned in October 2016, extending its partnerships and traveling to regions where no Americans have performed since the Revolution. Garnering praise from publications like Haaretz in Israel as "a company deserving of its reputation as one of America's finest," Company | E also spearheads "Broadway Bound" for the U.S. Department of State, bringing the Broadway experience around the world in an evening-length revue which highlights local performers, often featuring casts of up to 200 local artists.

Dusan Tynek Dance Theatre - (DT)2 is known for its striking blend of theatricality and musicality in formally structured modern dance. Its choreographer has been called "an undoubted talent" by The New York Times. Since its 2003 inception, (DT)2's 8-member company has held 9 critically-acclaimed seasons in New York City (BAM, The Kitchen, Joyce SoHo, DTW, Ailey, Tribeca PAC, NYLA), one of which was named 1 of New York City's top five dance highlights of the year by The New York Times. It is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from the Kaatsbaan International Center for Dance, Windhover PAC, Hillsborough Community College, BAC, Mount Tremper Arts, UNCW, and the Ringling Artist Residency. The company has toured and participated in festivals around the US and in Europe and Russia. In addition to stage work, the company has been garnering reputation for site-specific dances at outdoor and museum locations. Just in the past year, (DT)2 has created a site-specific piece at James Turrell's light installation Joseph's Coat at the Ringling Museum (Sarasota, Florida) and created original work for the Metropolitan Museum's Museum Mile Festival and for Quarry Dance 5 at a flooded quarry in Rockport, M.A. In February, the company will perform an original piece at J. Turrell's Twilight Epiphany at the Rice University, Houston, Texas.

RAWDance is an award-winning contemporary Dance Company, known for transforming theaters and public spaces with intellectually and emotionally layered performance. Through the unique partnership of Co-Artistic Directors Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, the company has earned a reputation for its visually striking, kinetically charged works that consistently push into exciting territory. SF Weekly dubbed the company's work "edgy, sexy inventive fare designed to speak to audiences." Critical Dance has described it as "experimental work done brilliantly." And the San Francisco Chronicle heralded the Artistic Directors' "genuine partnership, one of the more thrilling in Bay Area dance." A resident company of ODC Theater, RAWdance has been supported through residencies at Ucross, Marble House Project, Djerassi, and CounterPULSE. The company has performed through commissions and festivals in Asia and across the U.S. RAWdance's 2013 short dance film since you went has been screened at festivals in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. In addition to theatrical performances, Smith and Rein are committed to bringing dance directly into the public sphere, increasing access to the art. The company has performed throughout San Francisco's art galleries, UN Plaza, Union Square, Yerba Buena Gardens, City Hall, and San Francisco's Westfield Mall, among other venues. Furthering efforts to engage the community, RAWdance launched the biannual CONCEPT series, an informal and intimate salon of contemporary dance. Named "Best Way to Sample S.F.'s Contemporary Dance Scene" by SF Weekly, the CONCEPT series has presented the work of 83 artists to date.

CONTRA-TIEMPO is a bold, multilingual Los Angeles-based Dance Company, founded by Ana Maria Alvarez in 2005, creating physically intense and politically astute performance work that moves audiences to imagine what is possible. They create a new physical, visual, and sonic vocabulary that collages Salsa, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, and contemporary dance with theater, text, and original music to bring dynamic multi-modal experiences to the concert stage. While their performances are consistently electrifying, what sets the company apart most is their unique relationship to their own community. CONTRA-TIEMPO takes an uncompromisingly radical approach to the ways in which artists function within communities and create their work. They intentionally engage diverse audiences, cultivate dancer leaders, and center stories not traditionally heard on the concert stage, using their engagement process to inform and continuously re-fuel their creative process, and vice-versa.

The Company's work has been seen across the world, touring North America, Central America, and South America, as well as being represented abroad in Europe and Asia. In 2014, CONTRA-TIEMPO was selected to tour Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador, representing American dance abroad as part of the DanceMotion USA, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State, produced by BAM (Brooklyn Academy Of Music).

Ranee and Aparna Ramawswamy (Choreographers/Dancers), Artistic Directors of Ragamala, create dance landscapes that dwell in opposition-secular and spiritual life, inner and outer worlds, the human and the natural, rhythm and stillness-to find the transcendence that lies in between. As mother and daughter, the rich traditions and deep philosophical roots of India meet and merge with their hybridic perspectives as Indian-American artists. Their decades of training in Bharatanatyam under the legendary Alarmél Valli (Chennai, India) is the bedrock of their creative aesthetic. Hailed by The New York Times as, "soulful, imaginative and rhythmically contagious," their work has been supported by NEA, National Dance Project, MAP Fund, McKnight Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, New Music/USA, USArtists International, and Japan Foundation; commissioned by Walker Art Center, Lincoln Center, Krannert Center, Clarice Smith Center, and Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (UAE); developed in residence at MANCC, NYU Abu Dhabi, and The Yard; and presented by Kennedy Center, American Dance Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Int'l Festival of Arts & Ideas, Just Festival (U.K.), Bali Arts Festival, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (India), and National Centre for Performing Arts (India), among others.

Ranee currently serves on the National Council on the Arts, appointed by President Obama. She is a recipient of a 2014 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, USA Fellowship, and McKnight Distinguished Artist Award, among others.

Aparna is a recipient of a 2016 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and 2016 Joyce Award, among others, and was one of Dance Magazine's 25 to Watch for 2010. Her solo work, presented with live music, has toured the U.S. and India supported by NDP and USAI. Aparna is an empaneled artist with the Indian Council on Cultural Relations and serves on the Board of Dance/USA.

Ashwini Ramaswamy (Choreographer and Dancer) has studied with Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy since age five, and now studies under Bharatanatyam legend Alarmél Valli. She is a McKnight Artist Fellow for Dance, and recipient of grants from Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Jerome Foundation, and USArtists International. As a dancer, she has toured extensively with Ragamala in the U.S. and abroad. Ashwini's choreographic work has been presented by Augsburg College, Ritz Theater, Red Eye Theater (Minneapolis), and Triskelion Arts (Brooklyn). She was choreographic associate on Ragamala's acclaimed Written in Water (2016). Ashwini serves on the Board of Arts Midwest.

Davalois Fearon Dance was just recently founded by artist and director Davalois Fearon, whose choreography has been presented throughout New York City, including at the E-Moves 17 dance series, the Dance Enthusiast's "Moving Caribbean in New York City," the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Roulette, and the Inception to Exhibition Dance Festival, as well as in Berkeley (CA), Portland (OR), Tampa (FL), and Kingston, Jamaica. Fearon has collaborated with artist including internationally renowned poet Patricia Smith, multi-reedist Mike McGinnis, fashion photographer Nigel HoSang, and interdisciplinary artists Andre Zachery and Deborah Castillo. She has received awards for new work from the Bronx Council on the Arts and Groundwork Hudson Valley, and was recently commissioned by Harlem Stage to create Water, Thirst, and Storm.

Lucky Plush Productions is a Chicago-based dance theater company led by founder and Artistic Director Julia Rhoads. Lucky Plush is committed to provoking and supporting an immediacy of presence - a palpable liveness - shared by performers in real-time with audiences. A unique hybrid of high-level dance and theater, Lucky Plush's work is recognized for its layered choreography, moving content, surprising humor, and socially relevant storytelling. Since 2000, Lucky Plush has created 30 original dance-theater works including 14 evening-length productions. The company has presented work in over 40 US cities from Maine to Hawaii, and its international partners span from New Zealand to Cuba. Presenting venues include Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (MA), Spoleto Festival/USA (SC), Portland Ovations (ME), ODC (CA), Maui Arts and Cultural Center (HI), Skirball Center (NYC), and NC State LIVE (NC), among others. Commissioning presenters include Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at University of Illinois, The Yard (MA), Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (MD), Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (VT), and Links Hall Chicago. Lucky Plush is the first and only Dance Company to receive the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, a recognition of the company's exceptional creativity and impact. Lucky Plush has also received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, NEFA's National Dance Project, National Performance Network, Illinois Arts Council, Metlife Foundation, and the Lester and Hope Abelson Fund. Exclusive touring representation by David Lieberman/Artists Representatives.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre celebrates its 40th Anniversary Season as the oldest, continuously operating professional Dance Company in Dallas. Founded in 1976 by Ann M. Williams, the mission of DBDT is to create and produce contemporary modern dance at its highest level of artistic excellence through performances and educational programs that bridge cultures and reach diverse communities. The company of 12 professional, full-time dancers performs a mixed repertory of modern, ballet, jazz, and ethnic works by nationally and internationally known choreographers. DBDT has performed for 4 million arts patrons and 2.6 million children worldwide (40,000 annually youth grades K-12).

Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

Photo credit: Cheryl Mann