DANSPACE PROJECT PRESENTS
Symara Sarai: The LOVE piece
Thursday, October 16 | 7:30PM
Friday, October 17 | 7:30PM
Saturday, October 18 | 7:30PM
Choreographer/Concept/Performer: Symara Sarai
Sound Design/Production: Keyanna Hutchinson
Lighting Designer: Tuće Yasak
Set Designer: Matt Shalzi
Wardrobe Design Concept & Styling: Ashley Abtahie
Wardrobe Technical Design: Lauren Evans
Wellness Coach: Bennalldra Williams
Graphic Design: Angel Acuña
Production Manager: Niko Tsocanos
Production Coordinator: Kristen Paige
Stagehand: Kentoria Earle
American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation provided on Thursday, October 16 by ASL Artist Brandon Kazen-Maddox in collaboration with SignNexus.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Symara Sarai, a Portland, Oregon native currently residing in Brooklyn, has immersed herself in interdisciplinary and choreographic studies globally with deep recognition. Named Dance Magazines’ 2025 “Top 25 to Watch,” a 2023 Bessie Winner for Breakout Choreographer, and a recipient of the Dai Ailian Foundation Scholarship based in Trinidad and Tobago, she is known to be a courageously committed performer and maker. The Dai Ailian Foundation scholarship led her to Beijing, China where she spent two years gaining an associate degree in modern choreography at the Beijing Dance Academy. Sarai is a 2019 graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance Program. She was a BOFFO 2025 commissioned artist, a resident artist for Bearnstow, Gibney 6.2 Work Up, Gallim’s 2022 Moving Artist’s Residency, BAX’s Fall 2022 Space Grant Program, Center for Performance Research’s 2022 AIR Program, New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks Artist 23/24 as well as a 23/24 Women in Motion Commissioned artist. They are currently a 24-26 Movement Research Artist in Residence and a 24-26 Abrons Arts Center Performance AIRspace Resident. Their work as a performer and maker has been reviewed and featured in the NY Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Dance Enthusiast, Fjord, as well as promoted through Forbes. She has had multiple film works commissioned by Berlin-based choreographer Christoph Winkler. They have presented work at New York Live Arts, The Clarice at UMD, The LGBT Center in NY, Judson Church, BAAD, Kestrels, and other venues throughout the United States, China, and Germany. She was an Urban Bush Women company member for 3 years and has also notably worked with Jasmine Hearn, Ogemdi Ude, Pioneers Go East Collective, Kevin Wynn, Joanna Kotze, Nattie Trogdon+Hollis Bartlett, and Slowdanger, among others
Keyanna Hutchinson (she/they/them) is multi instrumentalist, composer, and producer from Brooklyn, NY whose multi-valued influences can be traced to her Caribbean lineage, a love for popular and underground music, conservatory training, as well as a remarkable musical career supporting performers in the fields of R&B, jazz, and other experimental genres. She has graced stages as a guitarist with notable artists such as H.E.R, Cynthia Erivio, Jazmine Sullivan, A.S.A.P Ferg and many more.
Tuçe Yasak has been following light in NYC since 2008, creating over 100 site-specific light installations for performance in the US and abroad. Yasak received the 2018 BESSIE (…Memoirs of a… Unicorn by Marjani Forte-Saunders at Collapsable Hole and NYLA) and 2019 BESSIE (Oba Qween Baba King Baba by Ni’Ja Whitson at Danspace) for Outstanding Visual Design with her lighting design.She has ongoing collaborations with Raja Feather Kelly / the Feath3r, Ana Maria Alvarez / Contra Tiempo, Ni’Ja Whitson, Nia Witherspoon, Justin Hicks. Among her recent collaborations Hysteria by Raja Feather Kelly at New york Live Arts, The Bridge Called My Ass by Miguel Gutierrez (The Chocolate Factory/NY, Montpellier Dance Festival/France, The Walker Center/Minneapolis, PICA/Portland) Skinfolk: An American Show written by Jillian Walker/ directed by Mei Ann Teo (The Bushwick Starr, NYC), We’re Gonna Die written by Young Jean Lee, directed by Raja Feather Kelly (2nd Stage Theater/NYC) -all three have recently been reviewed on New York Times-, M—ER by Autumn Knight (On The Boards), JoyUS JustUS by Contra Tiempo (national tour), Patch the Sky with 5 Color Stonesby Daria Fain at the Chocolate Factory among many others. Light, movement and architecture intertwine in Yasak’s work to support space-making and story-telling.
Matt Shalzi is an artist based in Queens, New York. He makes performances and sculptures. Matt also works with other artists as a set/prop designer, carpenter, and performer.
Ashley Abtahie is a New York-based stylist who works primarily with vintage collections. Her perspective is guided by her lifelong obsession with film and music. She collaborates with artists across mediums and dreams of one day opening a DVD lounge downtown.
Lauren E. Evans is an artist and fashion designer based in New York City. She earned degrees in Fine Arts and Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Lauren began her career as a pattern maker in Midtown Manhattan, working with several well-known designers. She later taught sewing to children before launching her own independent fashion line, Elia James. Based in Lower Manhattan, the brand features one-of-a-kind garments designed and handmade by Lauren, as well as original jewelry pieces she sculpts and casts in bronze, silver, and aluminum.
Bennalldra Williams is an Integrative Movement Coach who believes that the way we move is the perfect synthesis of our thoughts and emotions made possible through biomechanics. Drawing from her extensive experience as a professional dancer and touring artist, Bennalldra has combined her BFA in Dance and Exercise Science with certifications in Gyrotonic, Pilates, the Franklin Method, and the Neurology of Movement to help artists cultivate longevity and artistic excellence. Her vision for everyone to be Balanced, Optimized, Vibrant, and Expressive inspired her to create Bové—a wellness initiative that explores the intersectionality of movement science, education, art, and activism. She is currently the Movement Coach for Urban Bush Women and many artists.
Angel Acuña is a dancer and graphic designer from San Diego, California. Drawing on childhood memories from Zacatecas, México, and his Mexican-American upbringing in Southern California, Angel seeks to capture a sensibility informed by the alternative. He actively engages in collaborative environments that purposefully challenge rigid power structures. Valuing diverse perspectives and co-creation, Angel is fascinated by the expansive possibilities of digital media to manifest new worlds rooted in the magnetism of movement. He currently is a designer with FAILSPACE NYC.“I dance with the person I am. I live with the wisdom dance lends.”
Kentoria Earle- Kentoria Earle was raised in Winter Haven, Florida, and is the proud daughter of Kent Earle and Victoria Wilson. She graduated in 2019 from The Florida State University where she obtained her Master of Arts in Dance/ Studio Related Studies. Since graduating, she has had the opportunity to work with choreographers/ companies such as Renegade Performance Group, Abigail Levine, Symara Sarai, and Urban Bush Women as a 2022 New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow, and is now a company member. Kentoria is a Brooklyn-based performing artist and collaborator who works to build an artistic process that looks at solo/improvisational practices as a way to tap into ancestry and lineage-based movement exploration. She believes these practices support and open up pathways for artists to be fully present for holistic & sustainable approaches to our healing, individually and collectively.
SUPPORT FOR THIS WORK
Support for Symara Sarai’s The LOVE piece is made possible, in part, by the Jerome Foundation and the Danspace Project-New York State DanceForce (NYSDF) Residency (funded by New York State Council on the Arts) with special thanks to partners Sadhana Studio (Hudson, NY), Elena Mosley, and Sondra Loring.
Danspace Project pays respect to Lenape peoples. We acknowledge that this work is situated on the Lenape island of Manhattan (Mannahatta) in Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland. We pay respect to Lenape land, water, and ancestors past, present and future.
ABOUT DANSPACE PROJECT
Danspace Project presents new work in dance, supports a diverse range of choreographers in developing their work, encourages experimentation, and connects artists to audiences. For 50 years, Danspace Project has supported a vital community of contemporary dance artists in an environment unlike any other in the United States. Located in the historic St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, Danspace shares its facility with the Church, The Poetry Project, and New York Theatre Ballet. Danspace Project’s Commissioning Initiative has commissioned nearly 600 new works since its inception in 1994. More about our staff, our mission, and values For information on our funders, visit danspaceproject.org/support FOLLOW US @danspaceproject danspaceproject.org