Parsons Dance presents a Summer Performance at MMAC June 1

Parsons Dance - praised around the world for its virtuosity, exceptional theatricality, athleticism, energy and accessibility - presents a special summer performance on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 7pm. The one act program includes David Parsons' stroboscopic masterwork Caught and takes place at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, 248 W. 60th Street between Amsterdam and West End avenues. Tickets are $30 general admission ($20 for students) and are available at www.manhattanmovement.com or 646-385-8493.

Parsons Dance will present four works spanning more than twenty years of David Parsons' choreography, including The Envelope (1986), a farcical and hysterical romp where the dancers are pitted against a renegade piece of stationery. Slow Dance (2003) is a piece created for three couples, performed in 12x12 inches of light. Each dancer employs beautiful, geometric shapes enhanced by the haunting and romantic score. This work is sultry and smoky, full of intricate manipulations of bodies from the sky to the floor. Caught (1982) is an internationally renowned stroboscopic dance masterpiece that features a solo dancer performing more than 100 leaps in less than six minutes. Each leap is "caught" by the flash of a strobe light, to create a breathtaking illusion of flight. Caught has been performed thousands of times, worldwide, for more than 27 years. An exuberant tribute to the Brazilian spirit and to the music of guitarist Milton Nascimento, who created the score as a gift after seeing Parsons Dance perform, Nascimento (1990)moves spaciously, floating on waves of seductive samba rhythms. Couples fly across the stage in sophisticated spatial patterns, abandoning themselves to the uninhibited thrill of dancing. A bright rainbow of colorful costumes, music, and lights, this inventive, imaginative, and uplifting piece proves to be a celebration of life, music, and dance.

Parsons Dance creates American works of extraordinary artistry that are engaging and uplifting to audiences throughout the world. It is the goal of Parsons Dance to make contemporary dance accessible to the widest possible audiences. In addition to choreography and performance, Parsons Dance positively impacts children, students, and communities through student performances, lecture-demonstrations, master classes, post-show discussions and more. Parsons Dance has a company of eleven full-time dancers and maintains a repertory of more than 70 works choreographed by David Parsons, twenty of which feature originally commissioned scores by leading composers and musicians, including Dave Matthews, Michael Gordon and Milton Nascimento. Parsons Dance has collaborated with many other leading artists, including Julie Taymor, William Ivey Long, Annie Leibovitz, Donna Karan and Alex Katz (to name a few). The New York Times called David Parsons "one of the great movers of modern dance." New York Magazine referred to him as "one of modern dance's great living dance-makers."

"Parsons' movement vocabulary is perky, quirky, bustling, and witty. Out of this buoyant lexicon he conjures pieces that are intricate, expressive, and engaging." - Lisa Jo Sagolla, Back Stage, January 27, 2011

Dancers: Eric Bourne, Sarah Braverman, Emily Daly, Christina Ilisije, Jason MacDonald, Miguel Quinones, Ian Spring, Melissa Ullom, and Steven Vaughn

ABOUT PARSONS DANCE
Parsons Dance is committed to building new audiences for contemporary dance by creating American works of extraordinary artistry that are engaging and uplifting to audiences throughout the world. The company tours regionally, nationally and internationally. Since 1985, Parsons Dance has toured an average of 32 weeks per year, to a total more than 235 cities, 30 countries, six continents and millions of audience members. Many others have seen Parsons Dance on PBS, Bravo, A&E Network, and the Discovery Channel. Millions watched Parsons Dance perform live in Times Square as part of the internationally broadcast, 24-hour Millennium New Year's Eve celebration. In New York City, Parsons Dance has been featured at The Joyce Theater, City Center, New Victory Theater, Central Park Summerstage, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and The World Trade Center. For more information, visit parsonsdance.org.

Parsons Dance receives support from the Cowles Charitable Trust, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Friars Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, the New York Community Trust, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, Nina W. Werblow Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation.