Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker Will Return to The Joyce in February

In their first return engagement since 2002, Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker will play The Joyce Theater from February 4-9. The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) presents the Brazilian company's Cão Sem Plumas (Dog Without Feathers) following its win at the 2018 Benois de la Danse. Tickets, ranging in price from $10-$55, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

Based on João Cabral de Melo Neto's poem of the same name, Cão Sem Plumas (Dog Without Feathers) is a unique blend of contemporary dance, poetry, and film from the stunningly athletic and shape-shifting dancers of Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker. Exploring the Capbaribe River region of Northeast Brazil, the dust-covered dancers embody the surrounding dry land and the riverbed dwellers to which the river gives the gift of life. Colker's powerful meditation on inequity and resilience inherent in the region's impoverished population, Cão Sem Plumas (Dog Without Feathers) is a striking visual representation of the invincible and anonymous force behind life in the mangrove.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker first took the stage in 1994 on a shared bill with MOMIX in Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Theater for the inaugural edition of O Globo em Movimento (The Globe in Movement). The following year, the company attracted 55,000 audience members over six months with Velox, followed by an exclusive sponsorship by Petrobras and their own studio in 1996. The same year, the company had its first world premiere on the international stage at the prestigious Lyon Dance Biennial with Mix. In 2001, the Society of London Theatre awarded the company a Laurence Olivier Award for Oustanding Achievement in Dance, the first Brazilian artist or group to receive the distinction. Since then, the company has toured four continents, performing on some of the most important stages in the world, including The John F. Kennedy Center, The Joyce Theater, Barbican Centre (London), Maison de La Dance (Lyon, France), Centro Cultural de Belem (Lisbon), Esplanade Theatre (Singapore), Tel Aviv Opera House, St. James Theatre (Wellington, New Zealand), and Kanagawa Arts Centre (Tokyo), among many others. In 2006, FIFA commissioned the company to create a piece for the World Cup, resulting in Maracaña, later incorporated into the repertoire under the title Dinamo. The company recently was recognized with top prize at the 2018 Prix Benoise de la Danse for Cão Sem Plumas (Dog Without Feathers).

ABOUT The Joyce Theater

The Joyce Theater Foundation ("The Joyce," Executive Director, Linda Shelton), a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community for over three decades. Under the direction of founders Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, Ballet Tech Foundation acquired and The Joyce renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea. Opening as The Joyce Theater in 1982, it was 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. Ownership was secured by The Joyce in 2015. The theater is one of the only theaters built by dancers for dance and has provided an intimate and elegant home for over 400 U.S.-based and international companies. The Joyce has also expanded its reach beyond its Chelsea home through off-site presentations at venues ranging in scope from Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater, to Brooklyn's Invisible Dog Art Center, and to outdoor programming in spaces such as Hudson River Park. To further support the creation of new work, The Joyce maintains longstanding commissioning and residency programs. Local students and teachers (K-12th grade) benefit from its school program, and family and adult audiences get closer to dance with access to artists. The Joyce's annual season of about 48 weeks of dance now includes over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 150,000.

The Joyce Theater presents Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker in Cão Sem Plumas (Dog Without Feathers) from February 4-9. The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm; Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm; and Sunday at 2pm. A Curtain Chat, a free post-performance talkback with members of the company, will take place on Wednesday, February 5. Tickets, ranging in price from $10-$55, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.