Gibney Presents VIM VIGOR Dance Company September 28-30

Gibney, the New York City based dance and social justice organization, opens the Gibney Presents 2023-2024 Season with the New York City premiere of VIM VIGOR's new work, PUNCHLINE, on September 28-30, 2023. This commission marks the return of VIM to NYC and will be the company's debut appearance at Gibney.

Founded in 2015, VIM VIGOR is a physical dance theater company under the artistic direction of Shannon Gillen and co-choreographer Jason Cianciulli. Conceived as a collaborative think tank by Gillen, VIM  is a platform for gifted artists from around the world to come together to create cutting edge dance theater. Through its creations, VIM seeks to broaden the traditional dance audience with its signature combination of bombastic contemporary movement and theater in cinematic dreamscapes.

You are waiting for the PUNCHLINE... no need to worry, it happens to all of us. Through a prismatic lens of virtuosic movement and radical storytelling, audiences will find themselves embedded in a living landscape where three performers traverse the space between comedy and death. VIM  translates comedic structure into physical form, where the body can relish the electrified euphoria of feeling alive, while it still can. Set against an original electronic sound score by Marshall Chadbourne, PUNCHLINE wrestles with the inevitable, while delighting in the transcendent awareness of limited time.

PUNCHLINE features choreography and performances by Shannon Gillen, Jason Cianciulli and Tzveta Kassabovam and is set to an original electronica sound score by Marshall Chadbourne.

The Gibney Presents 2023-2024 Season was curated by Nigel Campbell, Gibney Center Artistic Director. All artists in this series are provided with financial, residency, and production support. 

VIM VIGOR Dance Company

PUNCHLINE

New York City Premiere

Thursday, September 28-Saturday, September 30, 2023

7:30 PM

Cast and Collaborators

Concept, Direction Original Text: Shannon Gillen

Choreography: Shannon Gillen and Jason Cianciulli

Choreographic Collaborator: Tzveta Kassabova

Performance: Jason Cianciulli, Shannon Gillen, Tzveta Kassabova

Sound Score: Marshall Chadbourne

The Theater at Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center

280 Broadway (enter at 53A Chambers Street)

Ticket prices: $20-$25 

Early Bird: $20 thru September 1

General Admission: $25

Tickets on sale now at gibneydance.org.

Masks are recommended at Gibney Center. Proof of vaccination is no longer required. Gibney encourages all who are eligible to maintain up-to-date vaccination status in accordance with CDC Guidelines.

VIM VIGOR is a physical dance theater company under the artistic direction of Shannon Gillen and co-choreographer Jason Cianiculli. Founded as a collaborative think tank, VIM brings together innovative and profoundly gifted artists from around the world to create original, cutting edge, dance theater creations. Interdisciplinary by nature, VIM's research calls upon whole performers to activate unstable universes where conscious reality collides with dream space and characters rise and fall in virtuosic action, often using cinematic approaches to light, sound, and time to amplify the uncanny experience of each work. Since its founding in 2015, the company has created five evening length shows (SEPARATI, 2016), (FUTURE PERFECT, 2017), (FOREVER, 2019), (TOGETHER IS CLOSE ENOUGH, 2021), (PUNCHLINE, 2023), seven half-evening works, and received over thirty commissions with professional companies and universities across the USA, Canada, Central America, South America and Europe. In tandem with building new works, VIM established an education platform in 2015, dedicated to supporting the professional lives of artists of all ages with ongoing classes, workshops, and annual intensives. In 2023/24 VIM will teach and create new work for the b12 festival and dock 11 in Berlin, Henny Jurriëns in Amsterdam, the Arthur Miller Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the IUA in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Shannon Gillen is the artistic director of VIM VIGOR (us). Her creative work has been commissioned across the USA, Canada, Central America, South America and Europe. Projects include commissions by L.A. Dance Project, dance.films for BAM, fashion label Phelan for NY Fashion Week, Danceworks at the Lobero Theatre, Hubbard Street 2, Gibney Dance Company, over het lj in (NL), Jacob's Pillow Festival, Boston Dance Theater at the ICA in Boston, Ruvuelo (Chile), Mainfranken Theater Würzburg (DE), Arts Umbrella in Vancouver (CA), the International Solo-Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart (DE), the TIF theater in Kassel (DE, de dansers (NL), as a think big choreographer-in-residence at Staatsoper Hannover (DE) and at Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton where she was a choreographer in residence; notable festivals and venues where her work has been seen include Springboard Danse festival in Montreal, New York Live Arts, Prisma Festival in Panama, Judson Church, PULSE art fair/Art Basel, Bryant Park, NYC's River to River festival, Perry Mansfield, and The Joyce. Her latest work PUNCHLINE premiered at Dock 11 in Berlin with the b12 Festival, then toured for its US premiere at The Arthur Miller Theatre, and then was commissioned for its NY premiere at the Agnes Varis Performing Arts Theater with Gibney Presents. In 2024, VIM is commissioned to create new works for the IUA in Reykjavik, Iceland, the b12 Festival in Berlin and Vassar College. Gillen is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Michigan and is establishing Ann Arbor as a midwest hub for contemporary practices with VIM VIGOR open classes and annual winter / summer programming. Gillen is a graduate of The Juilliard School and earned her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

Marshall Chadbourne, based in Portland, Maine, is a Producer and Composer with a focus on electronic compositions and sound design. After graduating from Berklee in 2023, Marshall's love for the collaborative process of turning ideas into auditory experiences has led him to noteworthy achievements. His compositions include original scores for Vim Vigor's “Mother's Love" and “Punchline" for the B12 festival in Berlin, “Size of Darkness" for Power Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Kiley Dolaway's creations for Staatstheater Kassel. Additionally, Marshall recently scored season 3 of the "Gone South" podcast for Cadence 13 productions. Blending technical abilities with a fresh vision, Marshall's approach to music and technology is inspired by both experimental works and commercial productions alike.

Jason Reese C. is a Psycho-Physical Theatre Artist whose research is grounded in Floorwork, Partnering and Physical Theatre Methodology. He is a co-choreographer with VIM VIGOR and an MFA candidate at the University of Michigan. After receiving his BFA at SUNY Purchase Jason returned to the school to teach as an Adjunct Professor. Through VIM he has taught at various institutions including The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, the University of Michigan, Barnard College and Columbia University. Additionally he has collaborated with Shannon Gillen on creations for LA Dance Project, Gibney Dance Company, Boston Dance Theater and Springboard Danse Montreal. Jason previously was a Performer and Rehearsal Director with Sleep No More NYC.

Tzveta Kassabova is a Bulgarian-born choreographer, performer, costume designer, and installation artist named one of the '25 to watch' in 2012 by Dance Magazine. At different times she has been a gymnast, physicist, and meteorologist. Her work has been presented in the US, Europe and Asia. Tzveta has received multiple awards for her performance and choreography. She deeply values collaboration and has worked with composers, visual artists, theater directors, video artists, dramaturges, and even engineers. Tzveta is thrilled to be teaching at the University of Michigan and cherishes the new direction in her artistic and pedagogical efforts applied to the realm of theater. She has always been fascinated by the concept of space, and is consistently trying to address it in her choreography and design.

Founded by Gina Gibney in 1991, Gibney is a New York City-based performing arts and social justice organization that taps into the vast potential of movement, creativity, and performance to effect social change and personal transformation. Gibney deploys resources through three strategic and interwoven program areas: Gibney Center, a meeting ground for New York City's artistic community comprising 23 studios and 5 performance spaces that provide critical space for training, rehearsal, professional development, performances, and convenings; Gibney Community, programs that use movement to help address a range of social issues with a focus on gender-based violence and its prevention; and Gibney Company, the organization's resident dance ensemble. Gibney supports movement-based artists in every aspect of their creative development: classes, residencies, low-cost rental space, entrepreneurial training and incubation, presentation opportunities, commissioning, and operating a professional dance company. 

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