Performance Space New York Presents Wet Noise 12-hour Dance-a-thon

Performance Space New York partners with East Village-based queer funk dance party WET NOISE for a celebratory 12-Hour DANCE-A-THON (May 5, 12pm-12am), a fundraising event that couldn't be further from expectations of what a "fundraising event" entails. The DANCE-A-THON revels in filthy funk music, endless dancing, community building, and inclusivity across age, race, gender, sexuality, and class. DJs tag team in sets as a dynamic give-and-take, throughout the night; they include founding DJ Amber Martin along with Patrick Johnson, Ana Matronic (Scissor Sisters), Seth Kirby (Joshua Light Show), Thomas Campbell, and DatKat (O.E.A.).

The DANCE-A-THON turns fundraising-so often formalized and treated as removed from an organization's general vibe-into a source of vitality and revelry that parallels Performance Space New York's support of various forms of radical expression. The money earned-with a funding goal of $75,000-will directly fund another boundary-pushing Fall season at Performance Space New York. The confirmed host committee includes Matthew Placek, Jonah Bokaer, Candystore, Raúl de Nieves, Hayden Dunham, Jack Ferver, Vinson Fraley, Desi Santiago, Jim Hodges, Jesse Kovarsky, Shari Loeffler, Marilyn Minter, Parker Posey, Saada (Everyday People), Silvia Prada, Rob Roth, JD Samson, Stella Schnabel and Kate Wallich.

The beloved dance party was founded by multimedia artist Matthew Placek-whose work, very much including Wet Noise, is connected by a commitment to capturing presence, whether as a sense of place, the passage of time, and/or the relationships between people. Placek says, "With WET NOISE, we exude positivity in the music we play and the message we put out; everyone is welcome, and we found it important to reach out to different communities, new and old, in the area, to engage them to contribute and participate-not just with giving money, but by dancing. As with other fundraising marathons, dancers will reach out to those in their communities for sponsorship. Clubbing is a community building activity whether it happens at 12noon or 1AM. Dancing is maintenance. It is not a luxury"

Cocktails provided by Milagro Tequila.

Like all WET NOISE parties, in its emphasis on being in the moment, the DANCE-A-THON features a no phone, no photo (and no attitude) policy.

The WET NOISE 12-Hour DANCE-A-THON begins at 12pm and continues through 12am, May 5 at Performance Space New York (150 1st Avenue, 4th Floor). General admission tickets will be available at performancespacenewyork.org from April 19. To fundraise as a dancer at the event, send a head shot and brief bio to pati@performancespacenewyork.org to create your personal fundraising page. Applications are open now.

Founded as Performance Space 122, in 1980, from an explosion of radical self-expression amidst the intensifying American culture wars, Performance Space New York is the birthplace of contemporary performance as it is known today. The early acts that defined the organization's unique role in New York cultural history asserted themselves as living, fleeting, and crucially affordable alternatives to mainstream art and culture of the 1980s and early 90s. Emboldened by the inclusive haven of a tight knit group of artists, performers like Penny Arcade, Ron Athey, Ethyl Eichelberger, Karen Finley, Spalding Gray, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Holly Hughes, John Kelly, John Leguizamo, Tim Miller, and Carmelita Tropicana, among many others, engaged in radical experimentation and created hybrid works that existed somewhere between dance, theater, poetry, ritual, film, technology and music.

With the renovation and reimagining of its original abandoned public-school building in the East Village completed, Performance Space New York is entering a new, bracing chapter. Under the leadership of recently appointed Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, and with state-of-the-art, column-free, high-ceilinged performance spaces, the organization is poised to make a case for the cultural vitality and relevance of performance for the 21st century. Schlenzka brings the idea of themed series to Performance Space New York. As part of a larger multidimensional whole, individual works are juxtaposed to evoke further meaning and push audiences to engage with our contemporary world in illuminating ways.

Returning to a rapidly changing neighborhood during a time marked by divisive and oppressive politics, Performance Space New York builds on its own traditions of integration, political involvement and vehement interdisciplinarity, embodied by artists like niv Acosta, BRUJAS, Annie Dorsen, Tim Etchells, Maria Hassabi, Mette Ingvartsen, Emily Johnson, Young Jean Lee, Taylor Mac, Richard Maxwell, Bjarne Melgaard, Sarah Michelson, Rabih Mroué, Okwui Okpokwasili, Reggie Watts, and Adrienne Truscott.

Performance Space New York's lasting presence from the pre-gentrification East Village neighborhood fervently aims to create an open environment for artists and audiences, and thus foster community through performance and discourse-to be a countering force to the often-exclusionary nature of urban development.

In September 2018, Jenny Schlenzka appointed five Associate Artists-Sarah Schulman, Angela Dimayuga, Emily Johnson, Sarah Ortmeyer, and Gillian Walsh-who will actively contribute to programming and administrative decision making in the years to come, returning Performance Space New York to the spirit of its very beginnings as an institution run by artists. The Associate Artists bring an intergenerational range of perspectives, with vastly varied practices (and, for most, deep ties to Performance Space New York), to the organization.

Performance Space New York pays respect to the Lenape ancestors past, present, and future. We acknowledge that the work of Performance Space is situated on the Lenape island of Manhahtaan (Mannahatta) and more broadly in Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland.

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