Kinesis Project dance theatre presents a feature performance of Breathing with Strangers as part of Art Omi's Light Into Night on September 18, 2021 at 4pm at the Sculpture & Architecture Park, 1405 County Route 22, Ghent, NY. Kinesis Project is known in NYC and Seattle for creating large-scale and surprisingly intimate dances in unusual spaces. For more information and to reserve tickets, visit artomi.org/calendar/light-into-night-2021.

 

A site-specific, large-scale outdoor dance performance, Breathing with Strangers is a ragged, sweeping and surprising love song to New York City. Dancers meet, twist, and wind through the pathways of Art Omi's woodland spaces, performers will appear in unlikely and beautiful places all while sharing stories with their audience.

 

Join us for an elegant catered picnic in plein air, art happenings, and an exciting live auction to close out the night. Kids enjoy a fête of their own with the Little Stars Party at the Benenson Center. Light Into Night is not only Art Omi's most fabulous evening of the year, but one of its most important, as funds raised support Art Omi's vital work of bringing world-class contemporary art, artists, and arts education to the Hudson Valley.

 

Tickets

$500 - Picnic for 1

$1,000 - Picnic for 2

$1,750 - Picnic for 4

$3,500 - Picnic for 8

 

Little Stars Party

While adults enjoy the annual Light into Night Fundraiser in the Sculpture and Architecture Park, kids enjoy their own Little Stars Party in the Benenson Center! The Little Stars Party will include arts and crafts, a movie screening and dinner. Children must be at least 5 years old to attend Little Stars.Tickets are $35 per child, or $25 for two or more children, and may be purchased here. 

 

About Art Omi

Situated on one-hundred and twenty acres in the Hudson Valley, Art Omi presents the works of contemporary artists and architects, and offers a range of large-scale works in nature, plus a 1,500 square foot gallery. The Sculpture & Architecture Park currently offers more than 60 works by artists and architects on view, with pieces added or exchanged each year. Art Omi welcomes the public to its events and grounds free of charge and is open daily. Learn more about the Sculpture & Architecture Park at artomi.org/about/about-the-sculpture-architecture-park.

 

Melissa Riker is Artistic Director and Choreographer of Kinesis Project dance theatre. She is a New York City dancer and choreographer who emerged as a strong performance and creative voice as the NYC dance and circus worlds combined during the 90s. Riker's dances and aesthetic layer her training as a classical dancer, martial artist, theatre choreographer and aerial performer. She creates dances on site - and in context. Riker invents large-scale out-door performances and spontaneous moments of dance for individuals and corporate clients. Audiences and critics have called Riker's work "a Marx Brothers' routine with soul," "A movable feast." And from The New York Times, her choreography is: "comically acrobatic, gracefully classical, visually arresting."

 

Kinesis Project is a dance organization that creates dance as public art, facilitates educational programs and produces site-specific performances with diverse communities. A company at the forefront of the international discussion of placemaking, art engagement and the cultural imperative of art in public space, Kinesis Project dance theatre invents large scale, space-changing, breath-taking experiences. 

 

In 2020 Riker kept Kinesis Project working and creating consistently on both coasts thanks in part to COVID Relief Grants from Dance/NYC, the Indie Theatre Fund and generous donors. 

The company live-streamed multiple performances from Riverside Park South presented by Summer on the Hudson and has continued creating and developing new work on both coasts in person throughout 2021, from Vashon Island, to Seattle to NY's Brooklyn Navy Yard.

 

Since 2005, Kinesis Project's work has been experienced in San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Vermont, Florida and in New York City at such venerable venues as Danspace Project, Judson Church, Joyce Soho, The Minskoff Theatre, The Cunningham Studio, West End Theatre and Dixon Place. In 2019, the company's work was experienced in Seattle, Brooklyn, NY, Riverside Park, supported by New York City Parks, and in Snug Harbor Cultural Center on Staten Island. The company dances outside in sculpture gardens, universities, and annually since 2006 in Battery Park's Bosque Gardens and The Cloisters Lawn as well as hosting more than 30 surprise performances all over New York City and the tri-state area as an element of the company's earned income and outreach programming with volunteer populated flash mobs. Residencies include: Earthdance 2006, Omi International Arts Center 2008, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center 2011, TheaterLab 2014, Adelphi University 2014. Ms. Riker is a 2016, 2017 and 2019 CUNY Dance Initiative Residency Fellow, 2015 LMCC Community Arts Fund grantee, 2019 Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Grantee. In 2020 Riker and Kinesis Project received a Dance/NYC COVID Recovery Grant and Indie Theatre Fund Recovery Grant. She has been commissioned by The Brooklyn Botanic Garden for a surprise large-scale work and performances of her work Secrets and Seawalls at Omi International Arts Center, Long House Reserve, Gateway National Park in partnership with Rockaways Artist Alliance. Ms. Riker has received commissions from Carson Fox and the Ephemeral Festival in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 for large-scale outdoor events, NYU in 1998, for an outdoor work long before "flash mob" was coined, 2006 and 2008 grants from the Puffin Foundation for her work Community Movements, a dance work with community volunteers, Fellowships from the Dodge Foundation, Space Grant Residencies from 92nd St Y, The New 42nd St Studio, Gibney Dance Center, and The Joyce Theatre Foundation, and grants from The Bowick Family Trust and John C. Robinson to support the continued work of Kinesis Project dance theatre.

 

Breathing with Strangers, by Melissa Riker/Kinesis Project dance theatre was created and developed between 2018-2020. The creation of Breathing with Strangers was made possible in part by Upper Manhattan Empowerment District and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council with support from New York State Council for the Arts and the NY Department of Cultural Affairs, a CUNY Dance Initiative Residency with Snug Harbor Cultural Center/College of Staten Island, Insitu Dance Festival and generous support from Riverside Park Conservancy/Summer on the Hudson along with Kinesis Project Patreon Patrons and generous individual donors. To learn more about the work and the stories behind it, go to writekind.org