New York Live Arts presents Netta Yerushalmy's PARAMODERNITIES

New York Live Arts (Live Arts) to present the New York premiere of Netta Yerushalmy's Paramodernities, March 14-17, 2019, having commissioned the work as part of the Live Feed Residency Program. The complete six-part encyclopedic series is a multidisciplinary work that weaves theory and performance into a four-hour-long hybrid event. Yerushalmy and a cast of 20 dancers and scholars, ranging in age from 20 to 68, perform deconstructed installments of Nijinsky's "Sacre" (1913), Graham's "Night Journey" (1947), Ailey's "Revelations" (1960), a mix of Cunningham works "Rainforest," "Sounddance", "Points in Space", "Beach Birds", and "Ocean" (1968-1990), dance numbers from the 1969 Fosse's film "Sweet Charity", and a response to Balanchine's "Agon" (1957) that includes none of the original choreography.

Paramodernities boasts a radical and undefinable rethinking of the canon, involving virtually no music. Each section was created as an independent unit with a distinct creative process that features text, read live, by scholars and writers from various fields who place the dances within a larger context. The cast joins Yerushalmy in generating questions about the different paths taken by the modern tradition in dance and beyond. Within each installment, fundamental tenets of modernism are explored, such as sovereignty, spectacle, race, feminism and ableism.

The performances at New York Live Arts theater feature dancers Michael Blake, Gerald Casel, Marc Crousillat, Brittany Engel-Adams, Joyce Edwards, Stanley Gambucci, Taryn Griggs, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Nicholas Leichter, Jeremy Jae Neal, Hsiao-Jou Tang, Megan Williams, Netta Yerushalmy; and scholars/writers Thomas F. DeFrantz, Julia Foulkes, Georgina Kleege, David Kishik, Carol Ockman, Mara Mills, Claudia La Rocco, with lighting by Tim Cryan and costumes by Jarkowiec.

The pioneering, inclusive March 16th performance will feature audio description for visually impaired audience members executed live throughout the entirety of the 4 hour event.

Performances of Paramodernities take place at New York Live Arts (219 West 19th St New York, NY 10011) March 14, 15, 16 at 7:00pm, and March 17 at 3:00pm. Tickets start at $30 and can be purchased here. The running time is approximately 4 hours, including two intermissions with refreshments.

The Live Feed creative residency program is a laboratory for the development of new commissioned work directed toward the Live Arts theater. The Live Feed program is supported in part by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and Partners for New Performance.

PARAMODERNITIES is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. PARAMODERNITIES is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project, commissioned by Jacob's Pillow in partnership with New York Live Arts, HMD's Bridge Project, and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency).

For more information: www.npnweb.org.

PARAMODERNITIES is also commissioned by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and developed as part of LMCC's Extended Life Dance Development program made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (LMCC.net).

The development of PARAMODERNITIES was made possible in part by NCCAkron, the National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron. Additional support came from LMCC's Creative Engagement Fund and residencies at Trinity College, Williams College, the Arts Research Institute and the Department of Theater Arts at University of California Santa Cruz, BAC Space Residency at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, The Watermill Center - a laboratory for performance, Madison Square Park Conservancy, Harkness Dance Center's Artist-in-Residence Program at 92Y, Movement Research Artist-in-Residence Program, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Paramodernities #1 was Produced by Hebbel am Ufer as part of Tanz über Gräben: 100 Years of Le Sacre du Printemps, supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Photo: Hayim Heron; courtesy of Jacob's Pillow, August 2018