Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre Announces 2011 Season, Begins 2/26/2011

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre announces its 2011 Season, featuring the benefit gala White Night on Saturday, February 26, 2011 from 7-11pm at Space on White at 81 White Street (between Lafayette and Broadway) and the evening-length World Premiere of Five Minutes from June 23-25, 2011 at 7:30pm at Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th Street, NYC.

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre and Notes in Motion Outreach Dance Theatre present White Night - a Movable Performance Soiree on Saturday, February 26, 2011 beginning at 7pm. Guests will tour the 11 spaces at Space on White, creating their own experiences for the eyes, ears, palates, and spirits. As party-goers weave from room to room on the three leveled space, they will discover live music, ongoing dance performance previewing Selwyn's developing work Five Minutes, video installation, a silent auction, gambling, a sampling of Notes in Motion arts-in-education programs with children dancing and learning, flowing cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, costume exhibits, and giveaways. Proceeds from this Gala Extravaganza will support Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre's Eleventh Annual Performance Season, featuring the world premiere Five Minutes at Dance Theater Workshop in June 2011 and Notes in Motion Outreach Dance Theatre's arts-in-education programs in the NYC Public Schools. Tickets for White Night are $100 in advance and $125 at the door. Tickets may be purchased by emailing amanda@notesinmotion.org or calling (212) 995-9446. The required attire is black and white.

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre presents the World Premiere of Five Minutes from June 23-25, 2011 at 7:30pm at Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th Street, NYC. Tickets are $20 ($15 for DTW members, students, and seniors) and are available at www.dtw.org or by phone at (212) 924-0077.

An evening-length work, Five Minutes will take audiences through a series of contrasting emotional and physical paradigms set in five minute intervals. The piece will ask: What does it mean to wait for five minutes? To fill five minutes? How is time measured differently by our experiences and expectations? The movements will speak to these questions in extended limbs, physical risk, desire, energy, release, touch, and balance.

"The choreography [in Five Minutes] will seek out spontaneous discoveries, raw and uninterrupted, to let movement flow from momentum and physical sensation. The work will include an oversized clock that will re-set every five minutes. As the clock runs down, the movement will build within each specific environment. When the clock goes to zero, the world on-stage will renew itself into a different place and time," said Amanda Selwyn, artistic director of Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre.

Dancers: Christopher Coates, Aidan Feldman, Jenny Gillan, Ashleigh Gurtler, Joori Jung, Louie Marin.

Sound Design for Five Minutes is by Joel Wilhelmi. Costume Design is by Anna-Alisa Belous. Lighting Design is by Dan Ozminkowski. Projection Design is by C. Andrew Bauer. Scenic Design is by Alicia Wargo. Stage Manger: Tiffany Tabatchnick.

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre productions engage audiences in original and dynamic dance theatre that at raises questions, challenges social norms and values, and magnifies humanity through dance. Productions pivot around core themes and through interplay between athletic and pedestrian motion, activate emotional expression, character, and narrative in a rich and abstract collage. Amanda Selwyn's collaborative choreographic process nurtures our own network of artists while actively engaging the community at large.

Funding provided by the Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Development Fund.

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre's presentation of Five Minutes 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.amandaselwyndance.org.