The Joyce Theater to Host Second Annual Joyce UNLEASHED in NYC

The Joyce Theater, under the executive direction of Linda Shelton, announces the second installment of Joyce UNLEASHED, a collection of cutting-edge performances presented outside its historic Chelsea home, taking place this March at New York Live Arts (219 West 19th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues). On March 17, choreographers Netta Yerushalmy and Hillel Kogan will each present acclaimed works, and on March 20 and 21, the program will be an award-winning piece by Yossi Berg and Oded Graf. Tickets are $20 and are available at tickets.newyorklivearts.org or by calling (212) 924-0077.

MARCH 17 at 7:30pm
Helga And The Three Sailors
By Netta Yerushalmy

Following a successful run last year at Danspace Project, choreographer Netta Yerushalmy brings back her mesmerizing Helga And The Three Sailors for one performance only. Featuring music composed and performed live by Judith Berkson, Yerushalmy and her dancers Marc Crousillat, Amanda Kmett'Pendry and Sarah Lifson build on layers of time, color, shape and space to present a work that is both inspired by and a challenge to the choreographer's personal history.

We Love Arabs
By Hillel Kogan

We Love Arabs is a satirical dance theater piece that explores the ethnic divide between Arabs and Jews living in Israel. Telling the story of a Jewish choreographer (Hillel Kogan) and an Arab dancer (Adi Boutros) working together to create a piece with a message of co-existence and peace, this award-winning duet uses everything from humor to hummus to address the anxiety, fear and prejudice fostered by decades of conflict.

March 20 and 21 at 7:30pm
Heroes
By Yossi Berg and Oded Graf

The first work created by Yossi Berg and Oded Graf, Heroes has been remounted for the company's 10th anniversary. This award-winning duet addresses the desire for intimacy and communication in an alienated world. The need to be liked, to be loved, and to cope with reality becomes a source of inspiration for surprising movement. Accompanied by the music of David Bowie, two men play a game whose rules change from one moment to the next as they attempt to free themselves from old habits and escape into fantasy.

Netta Yerushalmy's work aims to engage with audiences by imparting the sensation of things as they are perceived, not as they are known, and to challenge how meaning is attributed and constructed. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Jerome Robbins Bogliasco Fellowship, an NYFA Fellowship, and a Six Points Fellowship. She was awarded residencies through Djerassi (2015), LMCC/Process Space (2014), DiP/Gibney Dance Center, ICI Berlin (2013), and Baryshnikov Arts Center (2012). Netta's work has been presented in reputable venues around New York City and she is regularly commissioned by repertory companies thought the USA. The American Dance Festival commission and presented her work PICTOGRAMS in 2014. Abroad, her work has been presented by venues such as Curtain-Up (Tel Aviv) and HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin). Netta danced with Doug Varone and Dancers and currently performs with choreographers Joanna Kotze and Karinne Keithley Syers. She has been/will be a guest artist at University of the Arts (Philadelphia), New York University, University of Utah, and HaMaslool (Tel Aviv). She holds a BFA in Dance with Honors from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Hillel Kogan studied at the Bat-Dor school of dance in Tel Aviv and the Merce Cunningham Trust in New York. He is also a dancer and director at Israel's famous Batsheva Ensemble of modern dance, and has collaborated with the Switzerland's Nomades ensemble and Portugal's Gulbenkian Ballet. Heralded by The Jerusalem Post as "a bundle of talent oozing from each of his pores," Kogan is tirelessly engaged in establishing himself as a universal artist: a dancer, performer, actor, author and dramaturg, collaborating with Israel's most famous contemporary choreographers. Since 1998, he collaborated as a dancer, teacher and choreographer within the Israeli and international dance scenes. Since 2005, following the invitation of Ohad Naharin, he took the post of rehearsal director of the Batsheva Ensemble. In 2009 he won the Israeli prestigious Teva Prize for dance artists. In 2010, he won the Yair Shapira Foundation Prize for his work in the Israeli dance field as choreographer, dancer and teacher. In 2013 Kogan was awarded "Outstanding Creator" by the Israeli Dance Critics Circle for his work We Love Arabs.

Yossi Berg and Oded Graf started collaborating in 2005, and they have since built a reputation for work that is supremely physical, sometimes provocative, and by turns poignant and witty. Having performed with world-renowned troupes ranging from Batsheva Dance Company and DV8 Physical Theatre to others, they mix their masterful physicality with their dynamic research of theater, text, and voice, responding to the social and political realities of contemporary life. Besides performing regularly at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv, Yossi and Oded have toured their works to prestigious festivals and theaters including Montpellier Danse, the American Dance Festival, Madrid En Danza, Stockholm's Kultur Festival, and the Place Theater in London, among others. Yossi and Oded's compelling choreography has garnered them numerous honors at home and abroad, including Israel's Ministry of Culture Award for Outstanding Choreographers in 2013.

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences for three decades. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce Theater is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant home for more than 320 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 2009, The Joyce opened Dance Art New York (DANY) Studios to provide affordable studios for rehearsals, auditions, classes, and workshops for independent choreographers, non-profit dance companies, and the dance/theater communities. New York City public school students and teachers annually benefit from The Joyce's Dance Education Program, and adult audiences get closer to dance through informative Dance Talks, and post-performance Dance Chat discussions. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000.

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