Wild Card- A collection of mostly solos - one night only!

Wild Card

Tues June 18 at 8 PM

A collection of mostly solos - one night only!

GINA BONATI writes, “I was born into the arts and have made art most of my life with a couple of failed attempts at conventional existence. Presently, I am experimenting with my writing toward music works that lend themselves to sound scores for dance and theater works. I am a dancer, painter, singer and poet who writes libretto, essays, stage and screen plays and most recently, short story. I use poems as jumping blocks for making larger works for dance, theater and music. I love the collaborative process after the work is on the page and ready for others to disrupt what is on paper. I find fulfillment in a combination of privacy in writing and the beautiful anarchic contribution that collaboration with performers brings to production even if the performer is simply myself turned from desk to stage, from private to public.” Following intermission, Bonati will present a 30-minute work of literature and choreography, “Fireful.” There is a long story being told that is interrupted by sounds, dancing and behavior. “Fireful” will use elements of “I Think He’s Hurting Me Now,” “Baby Mice” and a new work, “The Liquid Collection.”

CARLY CERASUOLO writes, “I am a current resident in New York City, originally from Rochester, NY. I am a current company member for a modern dance company Time Lapse Dance under the direction of Jody Sperling. I have performed her work all over the United States and have worked alongside many choreographers in both New York and the Philadelphia area. I am a graduate from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA with a BFA in dance performance. I come home often and eventually would love to continue my dance career and bring what I’ve learned over my last few years in New York back to my hometown. For this piece, I want to work with the idea of having something so close to you that is no longer there. I want to play with the illusion of having things, people or places very near and dear to your heart that no longer exist. This is a feeling that many of us have at least one time in our lives in different ways and I want to bring that feeling to life, so that we can feel it together.”

ANN DIAMOND studied modern dance at SUNY Brockport, graduating many moons ago:), in 1986. Her piece has a feeling for her, of being off balance.

JAMES HANSEN’s choreography has been described as ““a wonderful example of how much the human body can communicate” in Backstage NY, “a standout” by the Richmond Times Dispatch, and “A thoughtful meditation on group dynamics” by the NY Times. He has been commissioned to create dances for several companies and universities including Pennsylvania Dance Theater, Cuerpo Escrito in Santiago Chile, Moving Currents in Tampa, Thread Meddle in Chicago, Ohio University, and University of Washington. He has been produced by several prestigious dance festivals including two summers at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the National ACDFA at the Kennedy Center. Simultaneously quirky and oddly romantic, "Bird on a Wire" provides a character-based dance of a person acknowledging their life choices without overt sentimentality. The music plays at odds against the movement in this short, slice-of-life, vignette. Performed by HEATHER ROFFE.

Originally from Texas, NANCY HUGHES has been kicking up her heels in Buffalo for eight years. Hughes is an educator, performer, choreographer and event organizer and has been awarded grants from NYS DanceForce, A.S.I., Northampton Arts Council and KeyBank. Her work has been performed across the U.S. as well as in France and Canada. Hughes choreographed for the plays “The Full Monty” and “Furies of Mother Jones” and she is the director of Center Dance. Through interdisciplinary performance, movement training, community outreach and the presentation of learning opportunities Center Dance strives to increase Buffalo’s gravity as a hub for creative exchange between artists. “This piece is built on the premise of asking, "Why Be a Woman?" This question demanded that we create room for all responses from each individual artist represented. Originally conceived by Courtney Barrow, Nancy Hughes, and Sophia Roberts, "Why Be a Woman?" has continually grown and evolved over the course of performance, workshop, and community-based endeavors. Our rotating and ever-changing group of performance artists represent a dynamic range of ages, abilities, backgrounds, and identities. Each member represents differing ideologies in how we navigate through gender identification as well as cultural existence. As the piece has adapted to these various walks of life, our question soon became, "If we choose to be a woman, why would we?" During the course of the piece, we bring an openness and vulnerability to our improvised score so the viewer may become curious about their own gender identity and ask themselves the question, "Why Be a Woman?"”

LAURIE MACFARLANE has performed her choreography and improvisations throughout the US, in Canada and Mexico; in theaters, storefront windows, cafes, and even a garage in Ypsilanti. She is delighted to be presenting new work at MuCCC this evening.

MOLLY NAEF and JESSICA DESALVIA are both dancers and choreographers from Syracuse, New York. Naef studied modern and African Diasporic dance at Hobart and William Smith. She is currently an owner of Spark Contemporary Art Space and directs the movement studio with Jessica DeSalvia, who received her BFA in Dance from Brockport University. DeSalvia creates and teaches modern dance at the Spark Studio. “Attenuation (of Light)” was originally created for the 2018 Vision of Sound concert and is fully in response to the music, “River” by Sally McCune. The work of Martha Graham, Ruth St. Dennis, Isadora Duncan, and Paul Taylor heavily influenced the creation process. The choreographers were interested in the exotic, ornate, and statuesque shapes and poses of these choreographers, as well as the deliberate, ritualistic and ethereal characterization and performance in their work. The otherworldly and celestial essence portrayed by these classic choreographers paired with planetary orbits and the Fibonacci spiral shaped the dynamic, pathways, and relationships of this piece.

RUBEN T. ORNELAS has done this, that, and the other, and is currently working on something unimaginable. He has been dancing and making dances for a minute.

ZOE WALDERS is a dancer and choreographer from Rochester, NY. She holds a BA in Dance from SUNY Potsdam. She has trained in ballet, modern, contemporary, tap, musical theater, and jazz. Most recently, she presented her piece, “Fern Dair” at The Outlet Dance Project’s Day of Dance Festival and Marie Christine Giordano’s Artist Salon in NYC. She is currently a company member with PUSH Physical Theater. As a choreographer, she is interested in the play between intuition and analysis. Her work is highly detailed and gestural and is often generated from improvisation practices. Her piece is a solo created collaboratively and in conversation with cellist and Rochester-native, RACHEL MILLS. The choreography reflects the music itself, how it informs the musician, and her response to playing and interpreting it. The movement vocabulary is created through conversation between dancer and musician about characteristics of each section of the music. Is this section about momentum? Is this moment of silence a rest or is it building to something? By discussing and embodying questions like these and a live musician, the piece is a fully body, immersive experience into the music.

Tickets $10 in advance, $10 students and seniors, $12 at the door

https://www.facebook.com/events/1169657379861442/

Contact dancesatmuccc@yahoo.com for further information

All programs subject to change.

This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts.

Support is also provided by the Gouvernet Arts Fund at the Rochester Area Community Foundation.

Photo by Arthur Elgort, courtesy of Gina Bonati.