Jason Rodriguez. Courtesy the artist.

Food for Thought. Curated by Jason Rodriguez

Friday, March 1 | 7:30PM
Dahlia Khair, Rinor Zymberi, Jason Rodriguez

Saturday, March 2 | 7:30PM
Dahlia Khair, Rinor Zymberi, Jose Lapaz Rodriguez

Admission: $5 + 2 cans of food OR $10.
**CASH ONLY!**

Danspace’s Food for Thought series returns!

Part food-drive, part performance, Food For Thought collects canned food donations to support local food distribution programs. Food will be donated to Metropolitan Community Church of New York : a church of LGBTQI people and allies.

This installment of the beloved series will be guest-curated by Jason Rodriguez (aka Slim 007). A dancer, choreographer, teacher, and regular in the Golden Globe nominated Pose, Rodriguez has taught Vogue around the world and currently teaches at various schools and institutions throughout New York City, where he was born and raised.

Rodriguez will host two evenings of improvisation across multiple dance forms with Jose Lapaz Rodriguez, Dahlia Khair, Rinor Zymberi, and Rodriguez himself.

RSVP

Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Jason Anthony Rodriguez is a Dominican-American actor/dancer. Born and raised from Washington Heights in New York City. Went to SUNY Purchase where he received a BA in Arts Management while also studying dance. Found voguing through Benny Ninja and began training under him. He also received mentorship from Dorit Koppel and Kevin Wynn. Trained at Susan Batson Studio in New York City.

‍He was a Series Regular in Ryan Murphy’s Emmy and Golden Globe -nominated series Pose as “Lamar”. He was Movement Coach for all 3 seasons of Pose and choreographed for season 2. He guest-starred in the Season Finale of The Deuce on HBO as “Enrico”.

‍He has been featured in the NY Times 5 times by Siobhan Burke, Gia Kourlas and Illise S. Carter.

“Mr. Rodriguez is a subtle scene stealer as Lamar on the FX show “Pose,”- Gia Kourlas NY TimesHe has taught vogue in various institutions throughout the states. He has taught internationally in Dominican Republic, Vienna and Japan.

‍Recently co-founded Arraygency with Ricardo Sebastian which supports in managing BIPOC Queer & Trans folks and brings them to the forefront of all creative industries.

Photo: Rachel Keane.

Movement Research Festival 2024: nasa4nasa

Thursday, March 7 | 7:30pm
nasa4nasa (Egypt)
NO MERCY

*RSVP is at capacity. A waitlist will be taken at the door starting at 6:45pm!*

The Movement Research Festival returns for the first time since 2019 with events happening over two weeks in late February/early March 2024, including three evenings of performances at Danspace Project.

The 2024 festival is curated by Marýa Wethers, Director of the GPS/Global Practice Sharing program at Movement Research, with a focus on the artists and partnerships developed through the GPS MENA Exchange program since 2019. The Festival events will include GPS Chats, workshops, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Studies Project, and performances at Danspace Project.

The program on Thursday, March 7, features nasa4nasa (Egypt). NO MERCY by nasa4nasa navigates their daily virtual and non-virtual modes of feelings. During this 45-minute DJ set, nasa4nasa explores the limits of sensuality and desire and its interplay with violence. The two female bodies navigate the gaze, referencing their repertoires of body image, pop, rage and intimacy. nasa4nasa will lure you in, disarm you and in the process unravel in their own drama.

To read the Festival Curator’s Statement and for the full schedule of events please visit movementresearch.org

RSVP HERE

VIEW THE PERFORMANCE PROGRAM HERE

The GPS/Global Practice Sharing program provides a platform for the international exchange of ideas, processes and reflective practices surrounding dance and movement based forms between the U.S. and independent performing arts communities internationally. GPS posits that dialogue across differences necessarily catalyzes the generation of new knowledge and creative innovation. By investing in the mobility of artists, curators and cultural workers, GPS advances cross-cultural understanding and the development of the contemporary arts field at large. Officially established in 2016, GPS consists of an informal network of partners currently supporting exchange projects in Eastern and Central Europe (ECE) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions.

The GPS/Global Practice Sharing program is directed by Marýa Wethers and has received support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund.

Accessibility: Danspace Project is committed to increasing the accessibility of our space and programs. If our space or a particular event is not accessible to you for any reason, if you have accessibility questions or accessibility needs that haven’t been addressed, please email seta@danspaceproject.org.

Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Other performances

Charlie Prince (1991) is a Lebanese dance & performance artist. His interests are rooted in the intersection of the political and the poetic body, and the many profound resonances this may create. His trandisciplinary choreographic work and installations have been presented in several major festivals and theatres– including Impulstanz (AU) SPRING Festival(NL), Dansmakers Amsterdam (NL), Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (FR), Vancouver International Dance Festival (CA), Oktoberdans (NO), Fabricca Europa (IT) and BIPOD (LB). Charlie holds a Bachelor of Music from McGill University in Montréal and continues to engage as a composer in his artistic practice. In 2018 he received the Boghossian Foundation Prize for Dance and Performance awarded by Villa Empain in Brussels and Beirut. He was also an apap 2020 artist supported by European Union Commision for Culture from 2017-2020.

Movement Research, founded in 1978, is one of the world’s leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. Valuing the individual artist, their creative process and their vital role within society, Movement Research is dedicated to the creation and implementation of free and low-cost programs that nurture and instigate discourse and experimentation. Movement Research strives to reflect the cultural, political and economic diversity of its moving community, including artists and audiences alike. movementresearch.org

Photo: Ian Douglas.

Movement Research Festival 2024: Sahar Damoni

Friday, March 8 | 7:30pm

Sahar Damoni (Palestine)
Eat Banana and Drink Pills

*RSVP is currently at capacity. We’ll take a waitlist at the door starting at 6:45pm!*

The Movement Research Festival returns for the first time since 2019 with events happening over two weeks in late February/early March 2024, including three evenings of performances at Danspace Project.

The 2024 festival is curated by Marýa Wethers, Director of the GPS/Global Practice Sharing program at Movement Research, with a focus on the artists and partnerships developed through the GPS MENA Exchange program since 2019. The Festival events will include GPS Chats, workshops, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Studies Project, and performances at Danspace Project.

The program on Friday, March 8, features Sahar Damoni (Palestine). Eat Banana and Drink Pills is a contemporary dance performance about abortion among single Arab Palestinian women. The work focuses on the physical and emotional experience, and the social dimensions for this experience. The work analyzes ramifications of this choice and the stigma, trauma, and social violence it carries.

“The traumatic moment engraved in the psyche is translated into an uninhibited immersion of the choreographer in the body, in a way that merges the past with the present into an unfiltered “now,” and only at the end does the understanding sharpen that this shared and exposed time with the audience holds the possibility of healing.” (Idit Suslik, Writer, The Contemporary Eye)

To read the Festival Curator’s Statement and for the full schedule of events please visit movementresearch.org

RSVP HERE

VIEW THE PERFORMANCE PROGRAM HERE

The GPS/Global Practice Sharing program provides a platform for the international exchange of ideas, processes and reflective practices surrounding dance and movement based forms between the U.S. and independent performing arts communities internationally. GPS posits that dialogue across differences necessarily catalyzes the generation of new knowledge and creative innovation. By investing in the mobility of artists, curators and cultural workers, GPS advances cross-cultural understanding and the development of the contemporary arts field at large. Officially established in 2016, GPS consists of an informal network of partners currently supporting exchange projects in Eastern and Central Europe (ECE) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions.

The GPS/Global Practice Sharing program is directed by Marýa Wethers and has received support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund.

Accessibility: Danspace Project is committed to increasing the accessibility of our space and programs. If our space or a particular event is not accessible to you for any reason, if you have accessibility questions or accessibility needs that haven’t been addressed, please email seta@danspaceproject.org.

Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Other performances

Movement Research, founded in 1978, is one of the world’s leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. Valuing the individual artist, their creative process and their vital role within society, Movement Research is dedicated to the creation and implementation of free and low-cost programs that nurture and instigate discourse and experimentation. Movement Research strives to reflect the cultural, political and economic diversity of its moving community, including artists and audiences alike. movementresearch.org

Sahar Damoni is a Palestinian, Arab, Christian dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher from Shafa-amer in Galilee in the Middle East, whose body of work deals with the challenges she faces as a woman in an Arab and Palestinian society. Sahar holds a Bachelor of Dance and Movement for Practicing Teachers from Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and Arts. She danced with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and participated in many more projects concerning dance, choreography, Dramaturgy and acting in theatres with Directors abroad before she began making her own work. Her work has been presented around the globe: Movement Research at the Judson Church (NYC), Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival, Internationale Solo-Tanz-Theater Festival Stuttgart, Echo Dance Festival of Northern Ireland, HANGARTFEST (Italy), Postsdame Tanztage (Germany), and Curtain Up, International Exposure and InitimaDance (Tel Aviv), among others. She has been invited to lecture about her work at Tel Aviv University, Sapir College, Kibbutzim College, Ben Gurion University, and University of the Arts, Philadelphia. In 2018 Sahar attended Ponderosa in Germany and participated in “Translucent Borders,” a project exploring ways that dancers and musicians act as catalysts for creative engagement across geographic, cultural, and economic borders, sponsored by New York University and Jacob’s Pillow. In 2019 Sahar was invited to participate in Un/Controlled Gestures, a seminar on dance and body politic, organized by the Goethe Institute, Morocco. She was invited by Movement Research, NYC, for a month-long residency and performance at Movement Research at the Judson Church as part of GPS/Global Practice Sharing. In 2020 Sahar performed in Virtual Performances including La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, SATURDAY MORNING LIVE – Dead End | Tehran/Ankara/Palestine; and Festival de Danza Contemporánea, Mexico City and was chosen to take part i in the Dramaturgy Online Open Forumtook , Onassis Stegi Cultural Center. In 2021 , Sahar was commissioned to create a Sadim for Staatstheater Kassel in Germany. She participated in the IIAC Residency and Moving Arts Lab, NYC, 2022. In 2023 Sahar was part of the Deeper Lectures series by Gibney Dance Center in NYC, and at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf,and at Tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf, Germany to lectured about her work. Lately Sahar had a residency for her new creation work at PACT Zollverein in Essen, Germany , South East Dance, Uk and at Fabrik Potsdam, Germany. ‏In February 2024 Sahar will premiere her new creation ‘’Nawa’’ at the Holland Dance Festival in Den Hague, in Dresden, Germany, and in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Photo by Sebastian Bauer.

Movement Research Festival 2024: Charlie Prince

Saturday, March 9 | 7:30pm

Charlie Prince (Lebanon)
Cosmic A*

The Movement Research Festival returns for the first time since 2019 with events happening over two weeks in late February/early March 2024, including three evenings of performances at Danspace Project.

The 2024 festival is curated by Marýa Wethers, Director of the GPS/Global Practice Sharing program at Movement Research, with a focus on the artists and partnerships developed through the GPS MENA Exchange program since 2019. The Festival events will include GPS Chats, workshops, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Studies Project, and performances at Danspace Project.

The program on Saturday, March 9, features Charlie Prince (Lebanon). Cosmic A* (2021), created and performed by Charlie Prince, is a 45 minute solo work that observes the body as an archaeological space, and engages this body in rituals of excavation – revealing new and unbound mythologies – allowing for a limitless agency of self-representation and rootedness.

In this new version created for the MR Festival, Charlie reflects on the last three years, looking back and looking in as a transposition of the work for a different context and time period. Digging into his training as a musician, Charlie will bring elements of live sound he creates as the performer. Exploring his internal artistic update and projecting images of archival footage of Beirut.

To read the Festival Curator’s Statement and for the full schedule of events please visit movementresearch.org

RSVP HERE

VIEW THE PERFORMANCE PROGRAM HERE

The GPS/Global Practice Sharing program provides a platform for the international exchange of ideas, processes and reflective practices surrounding dance and movement based forms between the U.S. and independent performing arts communities internationally. GPS posits that dialogue across differences necessarily catalyzes the generation of new knowledge and creative innovation. By investing in the mobility of artists, curators and cultural workers, GPS advances cross-cultural understanding and the development of the contemporary arts field at large. Officially established in 2016, GPS consists of an informal network of partners currently supporting exchange projects in Eastern and Central Europe (ECE) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions.

The GPS/Global Practice Sharing program is directed by Marýa Wethers and has received support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund.

Accessibility: Danspace Project is committed to increasing the accessibility of our space and programs. If our space or a particular event is not accessible to you for any reason, if you have accessibility questions or accessibility needs that haven’t been addressed, please email seta@danspaceproject.org.

Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Other performances

nasa4nasa is a dance collective based in Cairo co-founded by dancers Noura Seif Hassanein and Salma AbdelSalam in 2016. Housed primarily on Instagram, the collective’s work explores image-making and online presence as their ongoing dance practice. nasa4nasa’s debut performance SUASH premiered in Next Festival and MDT (2018), later performed in Maadi Sporting Club (2019), Impulstanz [8:tension] Young Choreographer Series (2019), and Festival de Marseille (2021). In February 2019, the duo performed their “End of Times” at Gypsum Gallery, later adapted for Judson (2022). In addition, they exhibited a series of images “untitled” as part of the group exhibition “Codes of Coupling,” curated by Mahmoud Khaled (2019) at Gypsum Gallery. nasa4nasa participated in Gwangju Biennale’s Live Organs online commission with their work “Promises b2b” (2020). In 2021 they choreographed the playlist “Jete out of the Window ” with the graduating students of the Place. Finally, in June 2022, nasa4nasa debuted “NO MERCY ” in Rawabet Cairo, later performed as part of the DCaf festival (2022), Zuricher Theater Spektakel (2023), Fondazione Fertinelli (2023). nasa4nasa is the recipient of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (2020), Mophradat’s Consortium Fund (2018), and the GPS Global Practice Sharing | Movement Research Residency (2022). They were most recently awarded the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture for their latest work Sham3edan (2023). nasa4nasa uses static imagery to research notions of form, aesthetic and value. nasa4nasa uses chance, and repetition to examine failure, affect, vanity, boredom. nasa4nasa seeks to foreshadow alternative spaces as occupied stages nasa4nasa is housed in social media, to actively interact with and sometimes interject with daily virtual mass consumption. nasa4nasa can be taken lightly or seriously, it is meant to do both. nasa4nasa does not seek to find meaning in everything it does. nasa4nasa fucks with dance.

Movement Research, founded in 1978, is one of the world’s leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. Valuing the individual artist, their creative process and their vital role within society, Movement Research is dedicated to the creation and implementation of free and low-cost programs that nurture and instigate discourse and experimentation. Movement Research strives to reflect the cultural, political and economic diversity of its moving community, including artists and audiences alike. movementresearch.org

Hsiao-jou Tang, Stacy Spence, Tim Bendernagel. Photo: Myssi Robinson.

Stacy Matthew Spence: I am, here; Here with us; Where we find ourselves

Thursday, March 21 | 7:30PM
Friday, March 22 | 7:30PM
Saturday, March 23 | 7:30PM

Open Dress Rehearsal*:
Tuesday, March 19 | 7:30pm
CLICK HERE TO RSVP FOR OPEN DRES S REHEARSAL

Stacy Spence’s dance work often explores the exchange between person and environment. This involves playful interactions and movement generated in response to the places he finds himself – studio, home, and in public spaces. Presently, he brings his attention to the internal space of “me”– as a personal environment to be outwardly created, expressed, occupied, and shared.

His new dance in triptych form, I am, here (a solo), Here with us (a duet), Where we find ourselves (a quartet), created in collaboration with dance artists Tim Bendernagel, Joanna Kotze, Hsiao-jou Tang, singer/musician Charlotte Jacobs, percussionist Raf Vertessen, and costumer Athena Kokoronis, explores ideas of self, impulse, and sharing.

How do we find ourselves? How do we find our place? How do we find each other?

*About Open Dress Rehearsal: Tuesday evening’s dress rehearsal will be free with RSVP and open to the public at limited-capacity. Open dress rehearsals are a mask-required, community-minded program prioritizing our immunocompromised and low-income audiences. Staff and audiences will be required to wear masks (N95 or KN95) and performing artists (if unmasked) will be required to test for COVID-19 (rapid tests provided by Danspace Project). RSVP here.

BUY TICKETS

View the digital program

Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

This project was supported, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and with support from Gibney’s Dance in Process Residency Program with generous support from the Mellon Foundation and support from the A M Foundation.

Stacy Matthew Spence is a New York City based choreographer, dancer, and teacher. Stacyʼs choreography has been commissioned by The High Line in collaboration with visual artist Ronny Quevedo, Danspace Project, The New School, Ishmael Houston-Jones’s Platform 2012: Parallels for Danspace Project, Tisch School of the Arts and London Contemporary Dance School. Stacy has been honored to perform in co/motion directed by Margaret Peak as part of Jason Moranʼs Whitney Biennial: Bleed, Deborah Hayʼs Blues as part of Ralph Lemonʼs One Fine Day at The Museum of Modern Art NY and Joanna Kotze’s BIG BEATS.

Stacy had the pleasure of dancing with The Trisha Brown Dance Company from 1997-2006, was Education Director 2018-2020 and continues collaborating with the company through teaching and re-staging Trisha’s work. He has taught nationally and internationally at institutions such as The New School, Juilliard, Barnard College, Movement Research, Tisch School of the Arts, Manhattan Marymount College, London Contemporary Dance School and Centre National de Danse Contemporaine.

Stacy’s work has been supported through Gibney Dance in Process (DiP) Resident Artist 2022-23, Movement Research Artist Parent Residency; Movement Research Artist-in-Residence, Workspace Artist-in-Residence, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council NY; Manhattan Community Fund, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY; New York Live Arts Studio Series Residency; Artist Residency at Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers, France.

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