Mark DeGarmo Dance (MDD) will conclude its 13th annual Virtual Salon Performance Series for Social Change (SPS) 2023 featuring Global, U.S., New York City and State Emerging and Established Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Latino, and Other; LGBTQIA+, Seniors, and Women Performing Artists on Thursday, May 4, 2023 at 7 PM ET on a Live Online Interactive Zoom Broadcast*.  

MDD’s SPS is an audience- and artist-acclaimed sharing of works-in-progress with a facilitated audience response curated and facilitated by Mark DeGarmo. MDD’s May 4 salon features Marianna Koytsan (New York City) Emilee Lord (New York City), Kathy Luo (Lexington, KY), and sarAika Movement Collective (New York City) on Thursday, May 4 at 7 PM ET. 

Tickets are by self-selected  donation with $25 the suggested donation. 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mdds-virtual-salon-performance-series-for-social-change-may-4th-2023-tickets-478092757307?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb 

*Zoom Link will be sent to attendees by 5:00 PM ET the day of the performance from info@markdegarmodance.org. If a donation for tickets is made after that time, the MDD staff will send the link via email as soon as possible. Contact info@markdegarmodance to communicate regarding ticket status.

About MDD’s Salon Performance Series for Social Change

Founded in 2010, MDD's Salon Performance Series for Social Change supports under-represented and under-resourced performing artists in New York City & State, USA, and globally. SPS provides a curated opportunity for the general public to view, engage with, and demystify the creation of original dance and movement works-in-progress of emerging, mid-career, and established artists. The program began in 2010 when choreographer and director Mark DeGarmo sought innovative ways to create via ongoing public sharings his 60-minute Las Fridas: A Movement Installation and Offering, invited to the Mexico City International Contemporary Dance Festival in October 2023. 

From October of 2020 to March 2023, MDD produced and presented 21 salons, including 2 Virtual International Arts Festivals featuring 367 Artists from 18 states: California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky. Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin; & 30 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, England, France, Germany, Haiti, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Trinidad, Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, & USA.

About the Artists

Marianna Koytsan is originally from Murmansk, Russia. In 2012 she moved to New York City to continue her pursuit of dance in House/Hip Hop and Freestyle/Improvisation.

Emilee Lord is a visual and performing artist based in Brooklyn. Her visual art, dances, lectures, and reflections investigate the multiple ways through which a drawing can be made, performed, and defined. Her work has been performed and exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto, Reggio Emilia, and Reykjavik. She earned a BA from Bennington College and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. 

Kathy Luo currently serves as Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kentucky. She earned a MFA in Dance and a Dance Artist Teaching Certificate from Arizona State University. Kathy's dance research focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration in the immersive dance production, site-specific dance, contemporary issues around the world, as well as Asian Diasporic dance studies.

sarAika is a movement collective based in New York since 2021, founded by Aika Takeshima and Sara Pizzi. Their art is a form of activism based on contemporary dance, partnering, floorwork, improvisation skills, story telling, conceptual art and street style influences.

About Mark DeGarmo Dance

Mark DeGarmo Dance, founded in 1987 and celebrating its 36th Anniversary in 2023, is a leading New York City nonprofit dance organization located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side at NYC-owned The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center (The Clemente). President Barack Obama commended DeGarmo and MDD for “your service to your community and the nation.” MDD’s 13 programs support its tri-part mission integrating education, performance, and intercultural community-building. MDD annually instructs over 1,000 NYC under-resourced and disenfranchised elementary public school students of Color with over 100 school teachers and administrators across NYC’s 5 boroughs. Its evidence-based Partnerships in Literacy through Dance & Creativity© program was deemed “a national model” by the National Endowment for the Arts.

About VSPS Curator & Facilitator Mark DeGarmo 

Mark DeGarmo is a transcultural transdisciplinary dancer, choreographer, writer, researcher and Mark DeGarmo Dance’s Founder, Executive & Artistic Director. DeGarmo believes in dance’s power to transform human consciousness. The NYC press reflected that he is “a gladiator in various arenas.”

https://markdegarmodance.org

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature and 

the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.