The WORLD PREMIERE of ZviDance's newest work, Escher/Bacon/Rothko, will run for a limited engagement at New York Live Arts (219 W. 19th Street, NYC) from June 24 – 27, 2015 with an Opening Night on Wednesday, June 24, 2015. Performances: Wednesday – Friday at 7:30pm and Saturday at 2:00pm & 7:30pm. Tickets are available via New York Live Arts’ Ticket Services: (212) 924-0077 or by visiting http://newyorklivearts.org/event/zvi_dance_2015

 

Set in three parts, Escher/Bacon/Rothko is an evening-length dance piece inspired by the work of M.C. Escher, Francis Bacon and Mark Rothko. Virtuosic in form and versatile in style, Gotheiner’s stirring choreography pulsates with each artist’s startling notion of modernity. Cast includes: Chelsea Ainsworth, Todd Allen, Alex Beigelson, Kuan Hui Chew, Alison Clancy, Derek Ege, Samantha Harvey, David Nosworthy, Ying Ying Shiau, and Robert M. Valdez Jr.

 

TICKETING INFORMATION

An exclusive ticket pre-sale to ZviDance’s Opening Night Benefit is available to ZviDance patrons and may be purchased by emailing tickets@zvidance.com or by visiting http://www.zvidance.com/tickets. (Opening Night Celebration Tickets - $150)

 

Single tickets for the production are available at New York Live Arts Ticket Services (212) 924-0077 or by visiting http://newyorklivearts.org/event/zvi_dance_2015 (Evening performances - $35/adults; $28/seniors/students/NYLA Members; Matinee performance - $25/adults; $20/seniors/students/NYLA Members

 

 

About ZviDance

 

"One does not just watch a dance by Zvi Gotheiner. One enters a world with its own internal logic, a sensual, organic world of movement, language, and images where one is pulled along by currents unseen and inevitable." [Dance Magazine]

 

ZviDance brings its audiences a passionate vision of community in a modern age. A collaborative alliance among artists, the company's stirring work celebrates diversity by melding movement genres into the distinct dance vocabulary which is provocative both in form and in subject matter. Led by Israeli-born Artistic Director Zvi Gotheiner and Executive Director, Nikki Chalas, the company is shaped by a synergistic model of creation, involving the ensemble and designers from the initial research phase, pushing the methodology and ethics of a creation process within an interdisciplinary format. 

 

“Zvi Gotheiner’s choreography suggests that he is as much sociologist as dance-maker.”

[Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times]

 

In the last 24 years of existence, ZviDance has received critical praise and stable funding for its artistic projects. Recently, one of the company’s signature works, DABKE, was recognized by the New York Times as one of Alastair Macaulay’s TOP TEN DANCE FAVORITES OF 2013. The company performs frequently at home in such New York venues as the Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. ZviDance has toured across North America to festivals such as Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and The American Dance Festival, and abroad to Germany, Poland, Russia, Israel, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Japan.

 

BIOGRAPHIES

 

ZVI GOTHEINER (Artistic Director) Born and raised in a kibbutz in northern Israel, Zvi began his artistic career as a gifted violinist with the Young Kibbutzim Orchestra, where he attained the rank of soloist and Concertmaster at age 15.  He began dancing at 17, and soon after, formed his first performance group.  Zvi arrived in New York in 1978 on a dance scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and danced with the Joyce Trisler Dance Company, Feld Ballets/NY and Bat-Sheva Dance Company.  After directing Tamar Ramle and the Jerusalem Tamar Dance Companies in Israel and the Israeli Chamber Dance Company in New York, he founded ZviDance.

 

NIKKI CHALAS (Executive Director) is a New York City-based creative producer and arts executive who celebrates the pulse of today's culture. She began her career as a dancer with performing in many New York City-based productions and international tours, and helping create movement for Nickelodeon movies, Broadway and off-Broadway shows. Nikki was the General Manager of the U.S. operation of The Aluminum Show, where she also served as Production Manager and Creative Supervisor, leading the show on major tours throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Russia. Other experience includes: Breaking Surface – Flying Dance Theatre Over Water (Associate Producer, Artistic Consultant), GALOIS (Associate Producer). Nikki earned her BFA in Dance from The Ohio State University and was one of NYFA’s 2014 Emerging Leaders. She is also currently a candidate for her MFA in Theater Management and Producing at Columbia University, where Nikki is also a recipient of the Shubert Presidential Fellowship.  This is Nikki’s second season with ZviDance.

 

SCOTT KILLIAN (Composer) Since 1997 Scott has created over 20 works with Zvi, including the most recent--ZOOM (2011). Other on-going collaborators include Joanie Smith (Shapiro and Smith Dance) and Cherylyn Lavagnino. In addition to his extensive work in dance, Scott’s music and sound design has been heard in many NYC and regional theatres, including Manhattan Theatre Club, Red Bull heatre, MCC (Manhattan Class Co.), Berkshire Theatre Festival (Resident Composer since 1997), Shakespeare and Company, George Street Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre-Wash. D.C., Westport Playhouse, Theatre Calgary, Vancouver Playhouse, Seattle Rep, and The Huntington Theatre.

 

MARK LONDON (Lighting Designer) continues to value his longstanding collaboration with ZviDance where he can free himself from the confines of broadcast lighting and return to his joy for lighting dance. Some of Mark’s international collaborations include Noche Flamenca De Madrid, Stars of the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet, the Chinese Opera of Taipei and the Pokrovsky Russian folk ensemble. NY-based companies have included Jeanette Stoner, Muna Tseng, Colloquium Dance, 40Up and ISO Dance as well as theatre productions at the Public Theater and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) among countless “more intimate” venues. Some of Mark’s notable work in broadcast includes the design of lighting systems for WNET, WNYC, CNN, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Fox and Reuters as well as overseeing production of the broadcast lighting for four of the last five Olympic Games.

 

MARY JO MECCA (Costume Design) recently designed for Laura Peterson’s FOREVER at The Kennedy Center. New York City companies and choreographers for which she has designed include: Rashaun Mitchell Interface at Baryshnikov Arts Center and Nox at Danspace Project; Rebecca Laziers’ Coming Together/Attica (2012/2013) at the Invisible Dog and I Just Like This Music, Terminal  (2009); Zvi Gotheiner’s Sky and Water at the MUSA! Festival; Jody Sperling’s Time Lapse-Fantasty at Danspace Project; Laura Peterson Dance: Atomic Orbital and traceroute; Barkin / Sellisen Project;s Differential Cohomology (2011); Susan Marchsall’s Atelier project (2010); Brian Brooks’ Landing; Deganit Shemy’s Narrowline; Jill Johnson’s Folding Articulation; Graham Lustig’s Vault; Raja Kelly’s Basic Instructions Before LEaving Earth. Ms. Mecca has designed for the Theatre and Dance Programs at Princeton University since 2009. She studied Couture Design with Miss Alice Sapho of Paris and New York.

 

For more information, visit www.zvidance.com.

 

ZviDance’s presentation of Escher/Bacon/Rothko at New York Live Arts is made possible through New York Live Arts’ Theater Access Program. The Theater Access Program is a comprehensive subsidized rental program benefiting a diverse group of dance and theater companies and producing organizations.

 

The creation of Escher/Bacon/Rothko is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governer Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. This project is also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The company's creative process benefited greatly from a space grant at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and also from a NYSCA's Long-Term creative residency at Kaatsbaan International Dance Center.

 

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