Garnet Henderson's SOLACE Will Have World Premiere at Inwood Hill Park

Garnet Henderson, NYC-based choreographer, performer, and journalist, is producing and performing in an unconventional, immersive dance experience utilizing Inwood Hill Park as the performance space. The new work, SOLACE, celebrates the beauty and relief found in our city's green spaces, particularly in upper Manhattan. Henderson will be joined by four other professional dancers for performances at 2:00 P.M. on Saturday, June 18, and Sunday, June 26.

The world premiere of SOLACE is Henderson's first full-length work. The piece utilizes the ecology and community of Inwood Hill Park. The site-specific dance will be performed without recorded music. Instead, the dancers will move to the natural soundscape created by their own bodies and the park itself. In a high-traffic public space, SOLACE will be viewable from various vantage points, and the ensemble will need to be spontaneous and adaptable, creating a unique performance in the exact moment of time.

"In the early days of the pandemic, when I heard sirens day and night, and every dance space in the city shut down, I took comfort in long walks in Inwood Hill Park. Eventually, I started dancing there, too. I wouldn't have survived without it," says Garnet Henderson. "SOLACE is a celebration of this beautiful park and how it sustained my neighbors and me during a difficult time."

SOLACE honors New Yorkers in the Inwood community and the place that brought and continues to bring respite throughout the continuous isolation of the pandemic. Additionally, throughout the pandemic, Henderson worked with other artists to advocate for equitable and sustainable changes in the dance field. As such, she has worked diligently to compensate her dancers as employees rather than as contractors.

SOLACE is funded, in part, through a Seed Fund for Dance grant from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, thanks to the support of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

SOLACE performances take place at 2:00 P.M. Saturday, June 18, and 2:00 P.M. Sunday, June 26, 2022. Performances are FREE (not ticketed), but donations are welcome: https://gofund.me/4719a4e9

SOLACE will begin at the 218th Street and Indian Road entrance to Inwood Hill Park. The park is accessible from the 215 Street 1 train and the 207 Street A train subway lines. There is a City Bike station at the corner of 218 Street and the Indian Hill intersection. A map of the performance area is accessible here.

Garnet Henderson is a Wyoming-born, New York-based dancer and choreographer. Her choreographic work has been presented at Arts on Site, the EstroGenius Festival, the Flea Theater, HERE Arts, the West End Theater, the 92nd Street Y, Triskelion Arts, Gibney Dance, and more. She was a Women in Motion 2017-2018 commissioned artist. Garnet holds a BA cum laude in Dance and English Literature from Columbia University and has performed in works by Ori Flomin, Kyle Abraham, David Parker, Larry Keigwin, Reggie Wilson, Colleen Thomas, Heidi Henderson, Faye Driscoll, Mark Dendy, and Jordan Morley. Garnet is also a freelance journalist and regular contributor to Dance Magazine.

Vanessa Knouse (performer) is a dancer and teacher in New York City. Originally from Santa Fe, NM, Vanessa trained at the School of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet before earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts at The University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Vanessa has worked with the Merce Cunningham Trust, Cornfield Dance, Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Co., Douglas Dunn + Dancers, Kimberly Bartosik/Daela, Susan Marshall and Company, and Jody Oberfelder Projects, and Ian Spencer Bell.

Melanie Munoz (performer) is a dance artist moved by the authenticity and freedom of modern and contemporary dance. Melanie is a native of Manhattan, New York but raised in Winter Haven, Florida where she attended Harrison School for the Visual and Performing Arts. She later obtained her B.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography with a minor in Psychology from Palm Beach Atlantic University. During her time at PBA she was a company member with Dancing Waters Co, a Non-profit Dance company based in contemporary modern and non-traditional partnering. Melanie spent her recent summer & winter breaks training with Dancing Waters Co, Inlet Dance Theatre and Dance Italia.

Kelsey Kincaid (performer) was born and raised in Houston, TX. She began her professional career in 2013 when she found Hope Stone Dance and had her love of dance reignited. She continued to dance with Jane Weiner's company the following 6 years before making her move to NYC. Within those years she had the pleasure of freelancing with various Houston-based artists and companies as well Houston's Theater Under the Stars and multiple productions with the Houston Grand Opera. Aside from performing, Kelsey has also taught outreach dance within the Houston Independent School District through Hope Stone Inc. as well as teaching Creative Movement at the Houston Ballet Academy.

Jessica Autumn Ziegler (performer) is a Brooklyn-based artist, Chicago native, and recent graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her BFA in Dance with highest honors and her 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training Certification under the direction of Linda Lehovec. While in college, she was fortunate to extensively study with and perform in works by Abby Zbikowski, Jennifer Monson, and Kaitlin Fox, among many others. Since moving to New York in September, Ziegler has had the pleasure of being in process with nia love as an apprentice for love's g1(host):underCURRENTS, performing with Jennifer Monson/iLAND as a part of Monson's move thing, and now working with Garnet Henderson on Henderson's project SOLACE.