Dance New Amsterdam Presents HERKIMER DIAMONDS 9/30-10/3

As part of a captivating Fall Season, Dance New Amsterdam (DNA) will present the world premiere of Herkimer Diamonds by Artist in Residence, Katie Workum. Workum and three dancers will take to the stage in DNA's state-of-the-art 130-seat theater September 30 - October 3, 2010. Workum's choreographic style investigates moments and pockets of time; rutting out feelings and sensations to forge scenes, places and instances in which the dancer and viewer can communicate a shared feeling, sensation or stirring of a private memory. Herkimer Diamonds is a microcosm of evolving organic moments, structures, and connections that subtly transform and reform into something new.

"My work is fundamentally about the humanness of humans. I do not aim to manipulate emotions, but rather arrange a platform for which the viewer can take a look inside a little world created by the four dancers and choreographer," says Katie Workum. "This is the first piece made entirely with my new daughter, either in incubation or out in the world, and while the piece is not about her or birth or motherhood, her arrival has refocused my energies and vision considerably. Charged with a new awareness of autonomy versus responsibility, I was moved to create Herkimer Diamonds and reached out to DNA to support the development of the work."

Herkimer Diamonds was created in part during a 2010 residency at DNA as part of the organization's Artist in Residence (AIR) program along with additional support through a creative development residency and a works in progress showing at Mount Tremper Arts Food for the Arts Barbecue evening.

"Katie exemplifies what DNA looks for in our Artists in Residence. She is committed to digging deep into the conceptual and pushing herself and her performers beyond the expected to convey the multiplicity of our lives and create an emotional connection with the audience," says Catherine Peila, Executive Director. "We commissioned the hard-hitting thought-provoking premiere of Carlisle in Fall 2008 and are proud to support her further artistic development with this new endeavor."

Katie Workum began making work in 1997. In the last year she has been developing this piece, with showings at La Mama, BRINK at Dixon Place, and Movement Research at Judson Church. Her last full-length piece was Carlisle, commissioned by Dance New Amsterdam with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. She has received a First Light/Bessie Schönberg commission from Dance Theater Workshop with Will Rawls, has been an Artist in Residence at The Tribeca Performing Arts Center, participated in Dance in Progress at The Kitchen and many other New York dance related events. She has shown work at PS 122 as well as co-hosted the popular dance variety show DANCEOFF! there from 2003-2007. DANCEOFF! toured uptown to Lincoln Center Out of Doors and across the pond to Tanz im August in Berlin.

Katie works as a dancer in the experimental performance world as well. She has worked for, and has learned a great deal from: Ivy Baldwin (currently), David Neumann, Stacy Dawson, Ken Ninzel, Elizabeth Streb, Sarah East Johnson, Jenny Seastone Stern, Julia Jonas and most recently Young Jean Lee in CHURCH, at PS122, The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival and the Walker Center in Minneapolis. Last year she made her film debut in Alan Brown's Superheroes, winner of the Feature Filmmaker's Award at the 2007 Avignon/New York Film Festival. Workum holds a masters in Dance Education from NYU.

Dance New Amsterdam will also present Nicole Wolcott as an Artist in Residence for the Fall 2010 Season.