Company SBB invites community members to join in the creation and performance of Bienvenue. Participants must be at least 16 years of age and able to move freely, sit and stand. No previous dance or performance experience is necessary.

>> FREE with RSVP (space is limited)

Bienvenue is choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland’s reaction as global artist and citizen to the present political climate in which walls have become synonymous with barriers separating people and places. A dance-theatre collaboration between Stefanie Batten Bland (2019 NYU Center for The Ballet Arts Fellow and a 2019 American Ballet Theatre Women’s Movement Initiative Choreographer), visual artist Benjamin Heller and composer Paul Damian Hogan, BienvenueWelcome... approaches graffiti-decorated walls as communal canvases that express the past and present of its people.

Class One (March 25, 10a-12p): Intro to Company SBB via a beginner level dance-theatre class. This includes theatre and movement exercises that blend into the subject of the piece. Participants will explore dynamic decision-making, both physically and vocally.

Class Two (March 26, 10a-12p): We explore parts of the piece intimately and focus on making a human wall that separates participants from one another. We start with the question, “When did you or your family first arrive here?” This question is interpreted in drawings, writings, and other forms of visual expression. BienvenueWelcome… reuses cardboard boxes to create a conversation surrounding the current definition of walls, what they mean in neighborhood gentrification, how they are employed as cultural barriers and either invite or prevent access to borders. Alongside Company SBB members, participants will create a mural that reflects the unique community of BMCC, Tribeca, and the CUNY Dance Initiative. What is made together will be fully integrated into the piece.

At the conclusion of the second workshop, some participants will be invited to join Company SBB for performances on March 29 and 30.

To sign up for one or both workshops, please click here!

Watch an excerpt video from a performance here!

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jerome Robbins Awardee Stefanie Batten Bland founded Company SBB in 2008 while she was head choreographer at the Paris Opéra Comique in France under the direction of Jérôme Savary. Her pieces are made in passionate response to global issues, commenting on what is and what could be, with an optimistic belief in human community.

Batten Bland’s work has been seen in the United States, Europe and Asia. Commissions include: TU Dance (Minneapolis/St Paul), Second Avenue Dance Company (New York City), Modlin Center for the Arts (Richmond, VA), Zenon Dance Company (Minneapolis, MN), Transitions Dance Company (London), Alvin Ailey ll Company (New York City), and Frontier Danceland (Singapore). Batten Bland has also created nine films that have been seen in international festivals in Europe, South America, the United States and South Africa, and choreographed for galas, publicity, and industrials such as Guerlain Perfumes, Van Cleef & Arpels, Louis Vuitton, SYTYCD-Poland, and a French Presidential Gala.

Recent creative scholarship and academic residencies include: NYU Tisch School of The Arts, Indiana University, Oakland University, Wayne State University, Spelman College, Santa Fe College, University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, Ohio University, Middle Tennessee State University, guest faculty at Ithaca College, and Rutgers University. She just completed her MFA in interdisciplinary arts with a concentration in performance creation at Goddard College in Vermont. She is a 2019 American Ballet Theatre Women’s Movement Initiative Choreographer and a 2019 NYU Center For The Ballet Arts Fellow.

Company Stefanie Batten Bland's residency and performances are part of the CUNY Dance Initiative, which receives major support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the SHS Foundation, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, and Dance/NYC’s New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.