American Dance Guild Festival Returns To Ailey Citigroup This Month

The AMERICAN DANCE GUILD PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL will return to the Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street (NYC), February 22 through February 25 with Leaps Beyond Bounds, a four-night program celebrating the Guild's 68th anniversary.

Thirty new and historical dance works will be shown, with this year's honors celebrating the late choreographer Joan Miller (Lifetime Achievement Award), Ron K. Brown/Evidence (Lifetime Achievement Award), and Celia Ipiotis/Eye on Dance (Distinguished Service in Dance - Lifetime Achievement Award).

Opening night, February 22, features all three ADG honorees and includes an awards ceremony and reception. Joan Miller, known for her bold and sometimes political statements will be represented by three solo works, courtesy of Sheila Kaminsky. Ron K. Brown will show work with his company Evidence on opening night and on Sunday; Celia Ipiotis will share her rich innovative history of bringing dance to television and other media. Each honoree will show their work more than once over the Festival weekend. *Full lineup below.

The ADG Festival participating artists represent a wide variety of aesthetic and cultural voices, reflecting the broad spectrum of American dance life and the diverse character of dance today. Works by both mature and emerging artists will be shown, including veterans Claire Porter, Chen Dance Theater, Douglas Dunn, and recent Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Awards) winner Young Soon Kim. 

“This year's Festival is looking at this leap year with a fresh jump into the relevant work of dancers. Politics, women's rights, personal issues, men's ability to relate to each other… the production will run the gamut. A special highlight is the Sunday 3pm Commemorative Event for Stephen Vendola, and the 7pm performance of Mary Anthony's “Threnody” in Steve's honor,” said Gloria McLean, ADG President. “The 2024 Festival program offers a vibrant blend of old and new.”

ABOUT THE AMERICAN DANCE GUILD:

The American Dance Guild has served the dance field in many capacities for more than 60 years, including sponsoring conferences, festivals & publications. The yearly Performance Festival continues the Guild tradition of bringing together artists from across the nation and internationally for performances and master classes.  ADG offers performance opportunities that range from gala productions to bare-bones choreography showcases.  In June 2014, ADG participated in Jacob's Pillow's Inside/Out program. In addition, ADG provides scholarly resources through its New Dance Group Gala Video and its publications such as Branching Out: Oral Histories of Six National Dance Organizations and Dance Scope.

The American Dance Guild offers an annual summer scholarship to Jacob's Pillow in Becket, MA. ADG supports one-half of the tuition for a gifted young dancer to attend this renowned summer festival. Congratulations to Matthew McCray, the 2024 American Dance Guild |Jacob's Pillow Scholarship awardee.

HONOREE BIOS:

RONALD K. BROWN was raised in Brooklyn, NY, founded EVIDENCE, A Dance Company in 1985. He has worked with Mary Anthony Dance Theater, Jennifer Muller/The Works, as well as other choreographers and artists. Brown has set works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Jeune Ballet d'Afrique Noire, Ko-Thi Dance Company, Philadanco, Muntu Dance Theater of Chicago, Ballet Hispánico, TU Dance, and Malpaso Dance Company. He has collaborated with such artists as composer/designer Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya, the late writer Craig G. Harris, director Ernie McClintock's Jazz Actors Theater, choreographers Patricia Hoffbauer and Rokiya Kone, and composers Jason Moran, Arturo O'Farrill, Meshell Ndegeocello, Robert Een, Oliver Lake, Bernadette Speech, David Simons, and Don Meissner.

Brown is the recipient of the 2020 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award. His other awards and recognitions include the AUDELCO Award for his choreography in Regina Taylor's award-winning play Crowns, received two Black Theater Alliance Awards, and a Fred & Adele Astaire Award for Outstanding Choreography in the Tony Award winning Broadway and national touring production of The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, adapted by Suzan Lori Parks, arrangement by Diedre Murray and directed by Diane Paulus.

Brown was named Def Dance Jam Workshop 2000 Mentor of the Year and has received; the Doris Duke Artist Award, NYC City Center Fellowship, Scripps/ADF Award, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Choreographers Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, United States Artists Fellowship, a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, Dance Magazine Award, and The Ailey Apex Award.

Brown is Co-Artistic Director of RestorationART Youth Arts Academy Pre-Professional Training Program / Restoration Dance Youth Ensemble, and a member of Stage Directors & Choreographers Society

JOAN MILLER learned her craft in ballet from Anthony Tudor, Leon Danielian and Margaret Black: in modern dance from Jose Limon, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Louis Horst, and in "avant-garde" from James Waring and Rudy Perez. Miller performed with the companies of Jose Limon and Anna Sokolow as a member of Lincoln Center's American Dance Theatre Company, in addition, Ms. Miller performed in the companies of Ruth Currier, Rod Rodgers, Rudy Perez and the Judson Dance Theatre.

Miller's choreography and work with JMDP has been supported by grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Bronx Council on the Arts, the City University of New York, and Lehman College CUNY. She has been honored with awards and citations, from New York City Mayor David Dinkins and Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, the Thelma Hill Dance Award and she is a recipient of a Living Legend Award from Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company.

A native New Yorker of Jamaican and St. Lucian parentage, Miller has a B.A. in dance from Brooklyn College, an M.A. from Teachers College Columbia, and a Professional Diploma from Juilliard where her study was awarded a John Hay Whitney Fellowship. She founded and directed the Dance Program at Lehman College from which she retired after more than three decades of teaching and leadership.

CELIA IPIOTIS is creator, producer, and moderator of the nationally recognized educational TV series EYE ON DANCE (EOD) produced by the nonprofit organization Arts Resources in Collaboration, Inc. (ARC). Ipiotis directs ARC and oversees restoration of the primary source EOD Legacy Archive designated an irreplaceable national dance treasure by the Dance Heritage Coalition.  A professional dancer, choreographer, director, and videographer, Ipiotis is the recipient of scholarly fellowships, as well as video and choreography awards. She received a BFA in Dance from Ohio State University and an MA in Media Studies from New School for Social Research. Singled out for her expertise, Ms. Ipiotis serves on college faculties, sits on arts selection panels, leads arts forums, and advises dance TV projects. She also contributes cultural commentary to various media channels and produces the EYE ON THE ARTS (www.eyeondance.org) cultural journal.

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