Dance Now Announces DANCE-MOPOLITAN At Joe's Pub

DANCE NOW will present a one-night-only performance as a preview to the 25th anniversary season of DANCE NOW's signature festival, which kicks off this fall.

The May program, a continuation of DANCE NOW's short-takes format, will feature new and restaged works by Brendan Drake, Jamal Jackson Dance Company, LMnO3 (Deborah Lohse, Cori Marquis, and Donnell Oakley), Ian Berg/Subject: Matter, and Nicole Wolcott. The performance will take place on Saturday, May 2, at 7pm, at Joe's Pub at The Public, 425 Lafayette Street (between East 4th Street and Astor Place), in Manhattan.

"As we approach the 25th anniversary of our annual festival series, we are presenting a special preview performance to celebrate the boundless imaginations of the dance innovators-past, present, and future-DANCE NOW has presented over the last two and a half decades," says Robin Staff, Executive Artistic Director and Producer. "We selected these artists, all of whom are at different stages in their artistic development, for their bold, impassioned, and inspired approaches to their creative processes."

Brendan Drake brings two new works to the series. The first is a new iteration of ROPE, originally choreographed in 2015. Drake will be resetting it on two new dancers, Nic Owens and Carlo Antonio Villenueva. The second piece is a new work for two performers, one of whom will be playing the mandolin live. The general mood for both works is somber with a hint of camp and magical realism.

Jamal Jackson Dance Company will be showing excerpts of a new work, Semantics My N***a. The piece explores the etymology and power of one of the most dangerous words in the English language. The first section is a recorded conversation/debate about the nuances of the word, who can say the word, and if the word can be reclaimed. The second section is set on a plantation and looks at who is in charge of the word.

In addition to hosting the evening, LMnO3 will present an excerpt from Pomp, which began as a love letter to and recontextualization of themes from the work of modern dance icon Pina Bausch, and has evolved into a work of epic proportions. LMnO3 is dreaming bigger than they have ever dreamt before, with cardboard boxes, Grecian wigs, gold silk skirts, endless gratitude logs, and the soundtracks from the blockbuster hits of its member's youth.

Boston-based tap dance company Subject: Matter will present an expanded version of Fear For Your Life, which premiered at the DANCE NOW Festival in 2018. The work is an exploration of Cold War aesthetics and propaganda. The company will also present an excerpt from its evening-length project, Songbook, set to Ahmad Jamal's version of "But Not For Me."

Nicole Wolcott will share two works from past DANCE NOW performances: This Man, performed by Tim Edwards (originally performed at the festival in 2018), and Una Furtiva Abbraccio, a duet that was performed at the 2017 festival. Originally performed by Kristina Diaz and Isaac Spector, this duet will be re-staged on Patrick Ferreri and Wolcott.

Tickets are $25. 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.