Events – Danspace Project
Nicole Mannarino. Photo: Al Foote III; Taylor Stanley. Photo: Gioncarlo Valentine. ms. z tye. Photo: Sara Lorusso.

DraftWork: Nicole Mannarino + Taylor Stanley + ms. z tye

Saturday, September 23 | 3PM

Danspace Project’s DraftWork series hosts free, informal showings of new works in varying stages of development.

Showings are followed by a reception, conversation, and Q&A between the artists and DraftWork curator, Ishmael Houston-Jones.


RSVP HERE


Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Nicole Mannarino is a choreographer, performer, and holistic fitness coach based in New York City. She has presented her collaborative work at The Jam Handy (Detroit, Michigan), The Invisible Dog Art Center (NYC), and Lincoln Center’s Hearst Plaza for REUNIONS, curated by Kyle Abraham (NYC). She produced her first and second choreographic works at Central Park, Squibb Park, Washington Hall Park, and Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6 (NYC). Her latest in-process work, -The Dance-, was presented by Movement Research at the Judson Church in April 2023. Nicole received a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” award for her performance in Sarah Michelson’s Devotion Study #1—The American Dancer, honored with the Bucksbaum Award at the 2012 Whitney Biennial. Nicole also received a “Full Production Bessie” award for Kyle Abraham’s The Radio Show in 2010. Through her work with Kyle Abraham, Moriah Evans, Beth Gill, Juliana F. May, Sarah Michelson, and others, she has performed at The Chocolate Factory, Danspace Project, The Kitchen, MOMA, MOMA PS1, On the Boards, PS122, PICA, The Walker Arts Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Yale Union; and internationally at Rockbund Museum (Shanghai, China) and Dance Umbrella (London, United Kingdom).

Taylor Stanley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began their dance training at the age of three at The Rock School in Pennsylvania. They attended summer programs at Miami City Ballet in 2006 and 2007 and at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, during the summer of 2008 before enrolling full-time at SAB in the fall of that same year. In September 2009, Taylor became an Apprentice with New York City Ballet, and joined the Company as a member of the Corps de Ballet in September 2010. They were promoted to Soloist in February 2013 and to Principal Dancer in May 2016. Taylor received the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise in 2009 and was the 2011-2012 recipient of the Janice Levin Award. Since joining New York City Ballet, Taylor has originated roles in multiple works by Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon, along with having danced featured roles in classic works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Outside of the company, Taylor has danced with New York City Ballet Soloist Troy Schumacher’s BalletCollective, and has collaborated with various choreographers including Jodi Melnick, Andrea Miller, Kyle Abraham, Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa, Liz Gerring, Pam Tanowitz, Kim Brandstrup, Christopher Williams, Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Reiner, and Omar Roman de Jesus. Nurturing their own movement interests outside of the classical realm, Taylor has participated in workshops with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Nederlands Dans Theater, and Batsheva Dance Company. They received a Bessie Award for “Outstanding Performance” in Kyle Abraham’s The Runaway choreographed at New York City Ballet, and have performed in several works as a guest artist with Andrea Miller’s company GALLIM. In July 2022, Taylor performed in an evening-length program of their own curation titled Dichotomous Being: An Evening of Taylor Stanley as part of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival’s 90th anniversary season. Taylor currently serves on the SAB Alumni Advisory Committee on Diversity & Inclusion. They have also been a guest teaching artist at various dance schools nationwide including The Rock School in Philadelphia, PA, Coupe Dance Theatre in Nanuet, NY, Willow Dance Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, and Neighborhood Ballet in Atlanta, GA.

ms. z tye is a Brooklyn based artist who explores concepts through ancestral praise. She is intrigued with somatic relations and how they associate with emotional connectivity. These works are intended to serve as queer offerings to LGBTQIA-BIPOC communities. ms. z continues to research the kinesthetic body with instinctual energy to fulfill her curiosity. She has been included in exhibitions with Bronx Museum of Arts, Volta/Armory Art Fair, The Living Gallery, Long Gallery Harlem, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Postmasters Gallery, Fridman Gallery, Art in Buildings, and Participant INC. Choreographic work has been commissioned by The Shed, BMW, BOFFO, Lotto Royale, Papi Juice, Jack, Gibney, Movement Research, and Dance Canvas ATL.

Photo courtesy of Leslie Parker.

Leslie Parker Dance Project’s Divination Tools: imagine home

Thursday, October 5 | 7:30PM
Friday, October 6 | 7:30PM
Saturday, October 7 | 7:30PM

 

Divination Tools: imagine home is the latest iteration of NYC & Twin Cities-based artist Leslie Parker’s multi-year project, Call to Remember. Divination Tools: imagine home brings together a powerful collective of Black visual artists, musicians, and femme dance artists to explore improvisation through storytelling, music, film, movement, visual art, Black divinity/lineage, and contemporary experience. The collective work cultivates space for conjuring and building community through remembrance. Performers include Parker, Tenisha George, and Paloma McGregor as well as musicians Nioka Workman, Dameun Strange, and Michael Wimberly.

Parker researched and developed this work, in part, at Danspace Project during a Creative Residency in 2022. Parker’s time at Danspace Project included an exploration of the organization and its relationship to Black Dance Improvisation – through the archives, artist and Church community networks, and its physical location over the decades. 

*On Friday, October 6, at 7PM, Leslie Parker and Black Gotham Experience will host a pre-show procession (approximately 20 minutes of walking) that will take place near Danspace Project’s location. Ticket-buyers for this evening will receive information on the meeting place a day in advance. Participation in the procession is optional.

 

Divination Tools: imagine home is co-commissioned by Walker Art Center (MN), Pillsbury House Theatre (MN), Pangea World Theater (MN), Danspace Project (NYC), and Counterpulse (SF). 


BUY TICKETS HERE


Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Leslie Parker is a dance artist, director, improviser, and performer born in the traditional homeland of the Dakhóta, Anishinaabe people also known as Twin Cities, MN. Her upbringing in the neighborhood known as the Rondo community led to cultivating multiple home art bases in Brooklyn, NY and St. Paul, MN while holding a BFA from Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance, and a MFA in Dance from Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and The Dresden Frankfurt Company in Frankfurt, Germany. As a dance creative, she highlights unique individual contributions, digs into collective memory to engage with the world more imaginatively and embodies an aesthetic that encompasses an organic physical/movement hybrid influenced by the Black and African Diaspora: Traditional W. African, Black/African American vernacular/social dance, Improvisation, and Contemporary/Modern technique derived from and exchanged across multiple continents. She has received a 2017 Bessie award for Outstanding performer as part of Skeleton Architecture, a  2022 McKnight Fellowship for Choreographers, and is a Jerome Artist Fellow 2019 – 2021. Parker initiated Leslie Parker Dance Project, LLC as a means to experience dance art more intuitively. As an educator, she led and facilitated classes as a guest assistant professor at Carleton College, a lecturer at University of Minnesota and as a guest artist instructor at various institutions in the US. Her most recent multi-year work, Call to Remember, is rooted, researched, and performed through residencies, stage performances and workshops across the US, including, Minneapolis, MN, at Walker Art Center, Pillsbury House Theatre, and Pangea World Theatre, San Francisco, CA, at CounterPulse, New York, New York at Danspace Project, Tallahassee, FL, at Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, and Philadelphia, PA, at BOOM. Call to Remember and latest iteration, Divination Tools: imagine home is funded by National Dance Project/nefa, National Performance Network Creation Fund, National Performance Development Fund and National Performance Network Community Engagement Fund, Minnesota Regional Arts Council and Minnesota State Arts Board.

For more detailed information, go to www.leslieparkerdance.com.

Image courtesy of Gillian Walsh.

Gillian Walsh: Wilderness

Thursday, October 19 | 6PM
Friday, October 20 | 6PM
Saturday, October 21 | 6PM


I was led into the wilderness. I was alone but longing and celestial love stayed. I waited.
After a long period of stillness movement emerged from the groundswell. God spoke through my body.

 

Wilderness is co-produced by New York City Players.


BUY TICKETS HERE


Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Gillian Walsh is a choreographer and performer from NY. Her work has been presented by Gropius Bau, The Watermill Center, Performance Space New York, The Kitchen, Performa and others.

A double exposed photo of Wendell jumping in two different positions. A woman in motion holds her arms overhead and has a large sheet of paper stuffed into her mouth.
Wendell Gray II. Photo: Malcolm-x Betts; Anna Sperber. Photo: Whitney Browne.

DraftWork: Wendell Gray II + Anna Sperber

Saturday, October 28 | 3PM

Danspace Project’s DraftWork series hosts free, informal showings of new works in varying stages of development.

Showings are followed by a reception, conversation, and Q&A between the artists and DraftWork curator, Ishmael Houston-Jones.


RSVP HERE


Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Wendell Gray II is a dance artist, choreographer, and educator currently based in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been presented at Coffey Street Studios, Kinosaito Arts Center, Gibney, University of the Arts, Movement Research at Judson Church, Center for Performance Research, Chez Bushwick, and Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. Most recently, he presented “The People Show” as a part of Sighlines Dance Festival in late Spring 2023. Additionally, he was a STUFFED Artist in Residence in 2021 at Judson Church as well as a Work Up 6.0 Artist in 2020 at Gibney. Wendell has also set work on companies such as Michiyaya Dance, Pennsylvania Ballet II + Philadanco II, and Periapsis Music and Dance. As a performer, Wendell has worked with choreographers such as Tere O’Connor, Joanna Kotze, Pavel Zustiak, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Maria Bauman, Jonah Bokaer, I-Ling Liu, Christal Brown, Esther Baker- Tarpaga, Janeill Cooper, and J Bouey. He is a BFA graduate of the University of the Arts (15’) under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield was raised in Atlanta, GA. More info at wenings.com

Anna Sperber is a Brooklyn-based choreographer and performer. Her work has been described by The New York Times as “immediately compelling” and “wonderfully strange” with “moments of theatrical magic.” Sperber received a 2022 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” award for Outstanding Choreographer / Creator for Bow Echo (2021). Her work has been presented and commissioned by The Kitchen, The Joyce Theater UNLEASHED, The Chocolate Factory, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Roulette, Gibney Dance, and Dance Theater Workshop in New York City, as well as by the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. Sperber has received fellowships and residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Bogliasco Foundation in Bogliasco Italy, the Marble House Project, as a Schonberg Fellow at Dance The Yard, Center for Performance Research, Gibney Dance DiP (Dance in Process), Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council on Governors Island, and Movement Research. Her interdisciplinary collaborations with esteemed experimental composers and live musicians as well as visual designers are crucial to the integration of visual and sonic landscapes with the moving body in her work. Sperber was a co-founder of classclassclass, designed to nurture new dance teachers while offering reduced class rates, and was a co-curator of the 2008 Movement Research Spring Festival. She has taught as a guest artist at American Dance Festival, Movement Research, Gibney Dance, Hunter College, George Washington University, and Wayne State University. Sperber founded and ran BRAZIL, a studio and intimate performance space in Bushwick, Brooklyn from 2004 to 2014 and Sunset Space from 2019-2020.

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