WESTFEST | TOP FLOOR

April 30-May 3, 8PM (Thursday-Sunday). Four shared evenings of dance in the Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune, 11th floor. $20

The starlit Martha Graham Studio at Westbeth offers two performance programs over four nights. All artists will present up to 10 minutes of original dance, in a shared evening format. Estimate run time: 1hr / no intermission

On Thursday, April 30, 2015 and Saturday, May 2, 2015, WestFest Top Floor will feature works by Nathalie Matychak/MATYCHAK, Keith Johnson/Dancers, Sameena Mitta/MeenMoves, Samsam Yung, Carol Nolte, Janis Brenner & Dancers, and Manuel Vignoulle – M/motions.  On Friday, May 1, 2015 and, Sunday, May 3 2015, WestFest Top Floor will feature works by Tina Croll + Company, Sarah Friedland, Shay Bares/Twiin Sister, Beatrice Capote, Carol Mendes & Artists, Matthew Westerby Company, and Amos Pinhasi.  Additionaly, the Guest Artists  Daniel Holt (4/30), Claire Porter (5/1), My Lindblad (5/2), and Youn Puluem (5/3) will open the festival each night. Tickets are $20 for general admission and can be purchased via credit/debit card online at westfestdance.com or with cash at the door.  The Box Office will open at 7:30PM each evening.

WESTFEST is an annual dance festival presented in the historic Westbeth Artists’ Residence building.  The festival includes site-specific performances animating multiple spaces within the iconic building as well as a series of performances in the legendary top floor studio, which was home to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for many years and now houses the Martha Graham Dance Company.  The festival aims to open the Westbeth building to dance artists and audiences and engage the resident artist population with a broader community of artistic stewards of Westbeth and its legacy.The festival has two distinct programs.  WestFest Top Floor at the Martha Graham Theater present visionary artists in a traditional theater setting.  All over Westbeth is the site-specific program showing a variety of unconventional and unique approaches to dance and space. 

CAROL NOLTE/DANCE COLLECTIVE (Artistic Director) founded WestFest 5 years ago as a response to the financial strain of the recession, offering choreographers free or low cost performance opportunities at the Westbeth Artisits’ Residence, her home for the last 26 years.  She has also created over 50 dances for her award-winning company Dance Collective. Recently, her work has been seen at Merce Cunningham Studio, The Kitchen, Joyce SoHo, The 92nd Street Y Fridays at Noon.  She has also co-founded and produced three dance festivals, DanceBLITZ, Taos Dance 2000, and, currently, WestFest.

CAROL MENDES is the artistic director of Carol Mendes & Artists, an emerging NYC based dance company. Native from Brazil, she received her BFA in Dance and her Teaching Certificate from State University of Campinas (Brazil). She also holds a Master’s in Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography from NYU, Tisch School of the Arts. Her work has been presented at Judson Church, Triskilion Arts, at the Wild Project, at Martha Graham Studio Theater, at Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, at Dixon Place, and at The Green Building. Carol is proud to be joining the WestFest team as their Production Manager.

Westfest is made possible in part with public funds from the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Westfest is made possible by a generous grant from NYC Councilmember Corey Johnson.