Larissa Velez-Jackson's ZAPATOGRAFÍA / SHOEGRAPHY Opens in Brooklyn 9/6

The Bushwick Starr is thrilled to kick off our 2017-18 Season with Larissa Velez-Jackson's new show, Zapatografía / Shoegraphy, which will bring Bushwick community seniors into direct artistic collaboration with one of NYC's most exciting dance artists.

Zapatografía / Shoegraphy is Larissa Velez-Jackson's most conceptual solo dance to date that involves her signature use of humor in its most minimalist form. Created in collaboration with members of the local Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center, Zapatografía / Shoegraphy addresses the dichotomy between the longtime working class residents of Bushwick and its burgeoning arts community. It captures the tenuous nature of language and meaning when objects, words, gestures, costumes, pregnant pauses, song, dance, and diverse cultures are placed next to one another.

Featuring Larissa Velez-Jackson, in collaboration with the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center community. Dramaturgy by Gabriel Rivera, Scenic Design by Gabriel Rivera and Larissa Velez-Jackson, Lighting Design by Lillie De and Larissa Velez-Jackson. Stage management by Martita Abril. Location: The Bushwick Starr theater: 207 Starr Street, Brooklyn, NY [between Irving and Wyckoff]

Directions: Via Subway take the L Train to Jefferson Street, exit at Starr Street, walk against traffic on Starr, and the theater is 3/4 of a block on the right. For detailed driving directions visit: www.thebushwickstarr.org/DIRECTIONS Tickets available at www.thebushwickstarr.org
$20 Wed. - Sat., and pay-what-you-can on Sunday

About Larissa Velez-Jackson: Larissa Velez-Jackson is a choreographer and hybrid artist who uses improvisation as a main tool for research and creation, focusing on personhood and the dancing/sound-making body. She employs a deep humor to grant audiences universal access to contemporary art's critical discourse. Velez-Jackson's works have been performed widely in New York City, including The Chocolate Factory, Roulette, Museum of Art and Design, Danspace Project, New Museum, American Realness Festival at Abrons Arts Center, and the Martin E Segal Theater. She teaches mind/body wellness and fitness classes specializing in the older adult population, and she is also the Artistic Director of the LVJ Performance Co. Velez-Jackson's tenth year of making experimental dance fulfilled the famous Martha Graham adage "it takes ten years to make a dancer," or in this case a choreographer. In 2016, LVJ was awarded the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Art's "Grant to Artists" award, a Gibney Dance Center DIP residency, a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Process Space residency, a Mount Tremper Arts Watershed residency, and was nominated for a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer. She has most recently been selected as a choreographic AIR at the historic Harkness Dance Center at 92Y 2017-18.

The Bushwick Starr is an Obie Award winning non profit theater that presents an annual Season of new performance work. We are an organization defined by both our artists and our community, and since 2007, we have grown into a thriving theatrical venue, a vital neighborhood arts center, and a destination for exciting and engaging performance. We provide a springboard for emerging professional artists to make career-defining leaps, and we are a sanctuary where established performance companies come to experiment and innovate. Our past Seasons have included new work from groundbreaking artists such as The Mad Ones, Clare Barron, Dave Malloy, The Debate Society, the TEAM, and Half Straddle. "The work they program is boldly experimental. It's also a lot of fun... a bright spot on the Off Off Broadway map" - New York Times.

To post a comment, you must register and login.