Dance Now Announces Lineup for Festival Encore

DANCE NOW announces the lineup for the 2018 Festival ENCORE! The one-night-only performance will feature the 10 choreographers/companies selected by the DANCE NOW producers for having most successfully met the DANCE NOW Challenge: to create a clear and complete artistic statement in five minutes or less for the specifics of the stage at Joe's Pub. This year's Challenge winner is Brendan Drake. As the Challenge winner, Drake will receive a $1,500 stipend and a weeklong creative residency at DANCE NOW Silo on Kirkland Farm in Bucks County, PA.

The encore performance will take place on Thursday, September 27, at 7pm, at Joe's Pub. ENCORE! tickets are $25 in advance / $30 at the door. Tickets can be purchased by phone at 212-967-7555, online at joespub.com, and in person at the Public Theater box office from 2pm to 6pm. Joe's Pub at The Public is located at 425 Lafayette Street (between East 4th Street and Astor Place).

The 2018 ENCORE! Program:

Chelsea Ainsworth + Doron Perk

Two is You (Excerpt), 2016

Choreographed and performed by Chelsea Ainsworth and Doron Perk

Tsiambwom M. Akuchu

Every Man (Alright), 2017

Choreographed and performed by Tsiambwom M. Akuchu

binbinFactory /Satoshi Haga & Rie Fukuzawa

Untitled, Premiere

Choreographed and performed by Satoshi Haga and Rie Fukuzawa

Brendan Drake

This is Desire Part II, Premiere

Choreographed by Brendan Drake

Performed by Quentin Burley, Brendan Drake, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, and Shannon Nash

Jamal Jackson Dance Company

Norman, 2017

Choreographed and performed by Jamal Jackson

Loni Landon Dance Project

Teenage Dream, Premiere

Choreographed by Loni Landon

Performed by Amanda Krische

Claire Porter/PORTABLES

Lipstick, 2017

Choreographed and performed by Claire Porter

Subject: Matter

We Fear For Your Life, 2017

Choreographed by Ian Berg

Performed by Ian Berg, Jackson Clayton, Samantha Emmond, and April Nieves

Kate Weare Company

Bridge of Sighs (Excerpt), 2008

Choreographed by Kate Weare

Performed by Douglas Gillespie and Nicole Vaughn-Diaz

Nicole Wolcott

This Man, Premiere

Choreographed by Nicole Wolcott in collaboration with Timothy L. Edwards

Performed by Timothy L. Edwards

DANCE NOW is produced by directors Robin Staff, Sydney Skybetter, and Tamara Greenfield.

For 23 years DANCE NOW has bent the rules to offer all-inclusive destination events that reveal the bustling energy and innovation of New York City dance makers. Created in 1995 as a program of the Downtown Arts Festival, DANCE NOW launched in 1996 as an independent festival. Without a performance venue, DANCE NOW learned to embrace limitation as a powerful source for creativity. Seeking creative ways to bring dance and community together, DANCE NOW developed partnerships to connect new audiences to innovative dance makers. Presenting dance in venues both traditional and not, DANCE NOW designed all-inclusive destination events for drained swimming pools, firehouses, galleries, and Joe's Pub, where, in 2003 DANCE NOW introduced the Dance-mopolitan series. In 2005, DANCE NOW furthered its "less is more" mantra, creating a challenge initiative to encourage work marked by brevity, clarity, and effect. This inspired the commissioning of full-evening works specifically for the Pub, and the merging of all DANCE NOW programs to the Pub in 2011.

DANCE NOW's programming at Joe's Pub has defied the standard and encouraged artists to think outside the box and utilize the unique space, creating an inspiring new platform for dance. In the last decade, DANCE NOW has produced numerous critically acclaimed works at Joe's Pub including Doug Elkins's Fräulein Maria, David Parker's ShowDown, Misters and Sisters, and Head Over Heels, Nicholas Leichter's The Whiz and 20/20, Kyle Abraham's Heartbreaks and Homies, Nicole Wolcott and Vanessa Walters's Alley of the Dolls, Camille Brown's One Second Past the Future, Monica Bill Barnes's Snow Globes, Takehiro Ueyama's Somewhere Familiar Melodies, Claire Porter's Sent-ence, Mark Dendy's NEWYORKnewyork@Astor Place, Ellis Wood's The Juggler of Our Ladies, Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott's Places Please!, and, most recently, Megan Williams's One Woman Show.

From a small festival series to four distinct programs, from NYC to Pennsylvania, DANCE NOW presents young innovators and emerging and maturing artists side by side, building relationships at varying stages of development and providing comprehensive assistance to advance creativity and new career paths. DANCE NOW Joe's Pub challenges artists to investigate new directions. DANCE NOW Raw funnels new artists into its programs. DANCE NOW Silo and DANCE NOW SteelStacks provide paid teaching, residencies, and commissioning and performing opportunities through partnerships with DeSales University, Muhlenberg College, Lehigh Valley Charter School, and ArtsQuest at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, PA.

DANCE NOW is supported, in part, with funds from the Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

Press contact:

Janet Stapleton - 212-633-0016 / stapleton.janet@gmail.com?

Digital photos are available upon request.

-- Janet Stapleton 212-633-0016 (office) 347-452-1627 (cell) stapleton.janet@gmail.com