Periapsis Music and Dance Presents UNBEKNOWNST at Mark Morris Dance Center in May

Periapsis Music and Dance's tenth season culminates in UNBEKNOWNST, a program of five new works by our resident and guest choreographers, in collaboration with our resident composers. All works are performed by our ensemble of dancers and musicians, with two prestigious guest musicians joining the program. Two performances, May 21 at 7 PM and May 22 at 3 PM at the Mark Morris Dance Center, 3 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.

Resident choreographer Rohan Bhargava and guest choreographer Da' Von Doane are both collaborating with composer Annie Nikunen. Resident choreographer Evita Zacharioglou and guest choreographers PeiJu Chien-Pott and Gabrielle Lamb are collaborating with composer and artistic director Jonathan Howard Katz. Cellist Jeffrey Zeigler and pianist Eleonor Sandresky will appear as guest performers.

Artistic director Jonathan Howard Katz, who co-founded the organization and is also currently a guest pianist with New York City Ballet, says of this program, "This is a culmination of the past decade of our work, but it also represents new beginnings. We have five new dancers this season, which is basically half the company, so we're rediscovering and redefining our ensemble's voice and direction. And Rohan and Evita, our resident choreographers, are also fairly new to the company, so we're just beginning to explore together how they'll shape our work over the long term. And our guest choreographers, all outstanding artists, come from very different movement backgrounds and aesthetics, which allows us to broaden our influences and grow substantially as a versatile repertoire company."

Unbeknownst, the program's title work, will be Gabrielle Lamb's second commissioned work for Periapsis Music and Dance, the first being last year's Equipoise, also a collaboration with Katz. This one will be a larger work, for four dancers, viola, and piano, and is based on a short story by Ben Loory.

Da' Von Doane's choreography appeared on a Periapsis program in 2014, but this is his first commissioned work on the company. It will be a duet for two male dancers, setting an existing piece for piano 4-hands by composer Annie Nikunen, which was inspired in part by the Cage-Cunningham love letters.

This will be PeiJu Chien-Pott's first commissioned work for Periapsis Music and Dance.

The key component of Periapsis Music and Dance's output since the beginning has been the composer/choreographer collaboration, which has resulted in unique creation processes and works that sometimes blur the line between genres, and between dancers and musicians. Until last year, Katz had been the only composer in the company, though other composers were commissioned. In 2021, Annie Nikunen joined as a second composer-in-residence (as well as flutist, dancer, and choreographer), introducing a new dynamic in the relationship of music to dance. Says Katz, "Annie's artistic voice is incredibly distinct and imaginative, growing naturally out of her unusual interdisciplinary background and confluence of interests. Her music is entirely different from mine, so it's exciting and refreshing to have such a vibrant, new musical presence in the ensemble. Not to mention somebody who so effortlessly straddles the music-dance divide within her own practice."

Unbeknownst and the new work by Rohan Bhargava and Annie Nikunen are supported, in part, by a commissioning grant from the O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation.

Unbeknownst was supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual support and/or endowment gifts from Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, New York State Council on the Arts, Helen F. Whitaker Fund, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

The new work by PeiJu Chien-Pott and Jonathan Howard Katz is supported, in part, by a generous gift from Deborah and Charles Adelman.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Tickets: $30 general admission; $18 student/artist

Available at https://periapsismusicanddance.org/calendar/

(there is no box office at the theater, so tickets must be purchased in advance)

(proof of vaccination is required for entry and the audience must remain masked)