Gotham Arts Exchange presents Emerging Artist Showcase at DTW 1/5-6, 2011

Gotham Arts Exchange presents the Emerging Artist Showcase, a shared evening of dance works by emerging choreographers John-Mark Owen, Jessica Gaynor and Adam Barruch (with guest performer Margie Gillis) on Wednesday, January 5 and Thursday, January 6 at 7:30pm at Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, NYC. Tickets are $20 and are available at www.dtw.org or by phone at (212) 924-0077.

Adam Barruch Dance will present three pieces. The Worst Pies in London (2008), a fast-paced solo performed by Adam Barruch, is set to Angela Lansbury's opening number in Stephen Sondheim's musical thriller Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Performed with just a table, the work relies purely on movement and gesture to convey the story and accentuate the brilliant dynamics of the score. International solo-artist Margie Gillis will perform Chalice (2010), set to the Bach aria "Erbarme Dich" from The St. Matthew Passion. The work portrays a woman drinking of her own tears in a desperate attempt to transcend her sorrow. Costume Design by Margie Gills, Set Design by Adam Barruch. Wane, a World Premiere, is a highly physical piece for seven dancers set to a pulsing electronic score by Loscil. Wane is performed by Adam Barruch, Hollis Bartlett, Chelsea Bonosky, Matthew Branham, Brooke Broussard, Frances Chiaverini and Delphina Parenti with Costume Design by Jesse Dunham.

Jessica Gaynor Dance presents excerpts of three pieces. Theory of Games (2009), danced by Jonathan Ciccarelli and Angel Vasquez and set to J.S. Bach's Musical Offering, offers variations on a same theme. Echoing the music, the choreography uses puzzles and game structures to express a metaphor for the complex truths behind human relationships. Through intense physicality, Unfurling (2000), danced by Jordan Risdon, plays with the dichotomy between emotional stagnation and intellectual progression. (x,y,z) (2010) plays with dance as a multi-dimensional form. The overarching sense of space both contracts and expands, ranging from cramped, restrictive forms to open, expansive landscapes. The piece examines moments of isolation, juxtaposed with group unity and beyond that, an encroachment of personal space. Featuring Jonathan Ciccarelli, Ashlie Kittleson, Jake Laub, Blythe Proffitt, Jordan Risdon, Julia Sabangan, Angel Vasquez. Original Music by Devin Maxwell. Lighting Design by Andrew Dickerson. Costume Design by Anjia Jalac. Set Designby David Gaynor.

Salve, the newest piece by John-Mark Owen, is inspired by the paintings of the medieval and renaissance periods and is set to sacred motets by Guillaume Bouzignac. Mr. Owen delves into the canvases of these periods to bring their naive and raw beauty to life through moving imagery. The natural state of man versus the learned state of man is explored through angularity and fluidity. Featuring Selina Chau, Josh Christopher, Kerry Shea. Costume Design by Candice Thompson.

The Emerging Artists program is part of the Mentorship Program of Gotham Arts Exchange, and has been generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Gotham Arts Exchange's presentation of the Emerging Artist Showcase at Dance Theater Workshop is made possible through Dance Theater Workshop's Guest Artist Series. The Guest Artist Series is a comprehensive rental program benefiting a diverse group of dance and theater companies and producing organizations interested in self-producing their work at Dance Theater Workshop.

For more information, visit www.gothamarts.org

Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, NYC
January 5 - 6, 2011 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20
www.dancetheaterworkshop.org

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Adam Barruch, choreographer/composer/performer, began his career as a young actor, performing professionally on Broadway and in film and television, working with such prominent figures as Tony Bennett, Jerry Herman and Susan Stroman. He later began his formal dance training at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts. After three years, he graduated early and was accepted into the dance department at The Juilliard School. As a dancer he has performed the works of Ji?í Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Susan Marshall, José Limónand Daniele Desnoyers. As a choreographer, Adam's work has been presented at the Juilliard School, Cunningham Studio, Ailey-Citigroup Theater, Purchase College, New York University, Cedar Lake Theater and Theatre Usine C in Montreal. In March 2009, he self-produced a full evening of original dance/theater works at The Baryshnikov Arts Center, with his company Adam Barruch Dance. He has presented work in the 2008 and 2009 Reverb Dance Festivals, 2009 Bushwick SITE Festival and the 2010 Dancer's Responding to Aids benefit: Dance From the Heart Men. Adam was selected as an Emerging Collaborator for Springboard Danse in Montreal in 2009, where his mentor was Margie Gillis. Adam was selected as a Movement and Dance Artist-in-Residence at the Stella Adler Acting Studio, where he collaborated with solo-performance artist Lauren Marie Albert. Adam has also created four works for the students of the Ailey School and has created three works for the Senior Dance Students at LaGuardia High School, where he also served as guest artist in the modern dance program. He most recently set a new work for the Ailey/Fordham BFA Senior Concert and a work at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He was also selected to take part in a choreographic residency at SUNY Purchase to create a work for the Reverb Festival 2010 at the Ailey-Citigroup Theater. He is currently collaborating with Margie Gillis at the Stella Adler Acting Studio.

John-Mark Owen began his ballet training in 1994 under the direction of Jean Evans Weaver in Macon, GA. He received a full scholarship in 1997 to the Chautauqua Institute where he studied with Jean-Pierre Bonnefueax, Patricia McBride, and Violette Verdy. From there he attended Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts before he was invited to join Nashville Ballet as a trainee in 1998, and performed in the works of Paul Vasterling, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, and Trey McIntyre. He joined Ohio Ballet in 2000 and toured the US performing ballets by Laura Dean, Heinz Poll, Alonzo King and Anne-Marie D'Angelo to name a few. After working with Peter Powlous and Zanne Colton at the Augusta Ballet he joined American Repertory Ballet under the direction of Graham Lustig. He danced with Ballet NY for four seasons performing the work of Balanchine, Stanton Welch, Alan Hineline, Toni Pimble, and others. He has worked with Dances Patrelle for five seasons, dancing many leading roles, most recently in Mr. Patrelle's newest work "212" set to music by Robert Sirota. Choreographically he has created several original pieces for the Middle Georgia Youth Ballet, The Nashville Ballet's Trainee program, Ballet Builders Previews Series, Panoply Choreographic Competition, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and various summer programs. "Canzonette" a trio exploring the various states of passion premiered at the Grand Opera House in Macon, GA. "Vespers" was shown in the Dance Sampler Evening at Symphony Space in New York. He recently receive his MFA in Choreography from NYU /Tisch School of the Arts, where he was also a fellow in sound production. His work has also been presented by Dance Gotham, NYU/Tisch Alumni Choreographic Festival, Ballet Builders/New Choreographers on Point and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival's Inside/Out.

Jessica Gaynor earned an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from California Institute of the Arts in 2002. After years of training as a gymnast, Jessica began studying dance at the Fieldston School with Alice Teirstein and continued at Brown University under the direction of Julie Strandberg and Michelle Bach-Coulibaly. She received the Weston Award for her contributions to the Brown Dance Department as a choreographer as well as a member of both the Repertory Company and New Works/World Traditions African Dance Company. She formed Jessica Gaynor Dance in 2003. The company's work has been presented at Triskelion Arts, DanceSpace, Williamsburg Arts Nexus, Jennifer Muller/The Works HATCH series, The Kitchen, The Hudson Guild Theater, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Merce Cunningham Studio, DancenOw/NYC, Brown University and the Fieldston School. Jessica is a co-founder of ThisThat Dance Collective, through which she produced two New York dance seasons. She was the repertory guest choreographer at the Fieldston School in 2005, and artist-in-residence at Brown University in 2006. She currently teaches dance at The Brearley School, and is the Assistant Director of Young Dancemakers Company, a tuition-free summer dance program open to students from New York City public high schools.