DANSPACE PROJECT PRESENTS DraftWork Martita Abril + Jade Manns + Glenn Potter-Takata Saturday, April 6 | 3PM Join us after the performances for food & drinks and a conversation between the artists and DraftWork curator Ishmael Houston-Jones.
Martita Abril Interlude a las tres This work was made possible, in part, through The Movement Research Artist In-Residence Program, funded, in part, by a Mertz Gilmore Foundation Martita Abril is from the border city of Tijuana, México. She has collaborated with artists including Lux Boreal, Kim Brandt, Yanira Castro, Yoshiko Chuma, Milka Djordjevich, Tess Dworman, Rebecca Davis, Devynn Emory, Simone Forti, Daria Fain and Robert Kocik, Kat Galasso, Allyson Green, Abigail Levine, Mina Nishimura, Cori Olinghouse, Okwui Okpokwasili, Will Rawls, and Larissa Velez-Jackson. Martita was part of the Fresh Tracks Residency at New York Live Arts, Dance and Process at The Kitchen and currently an Artist-in-Residence at Movement Research. Martita has served as a mentor for the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Immigrant Artist Program and co-curates In/Between, the yearly exhibition for Immigrant Artists originally created in 2019 by artists Yanira Castro, Martita, and Poppy DeltaDawn. This annual immigrant artist group exhibition is at New York Live Arts in partnership with NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. She currently resides at the border of Bushwick and Greenpoint, Brooklyn with her partner and 35 plants, most of which are alive.
Jade Manns Choreography: Jade Manns Sound: Derek Baron Performance: Michael Miles, Kalliope Piersol, Owen Prum, Noa Rui-Piin Weiss, Isa Spector Jade Manns is a dancer, choreographer and co-founder of the artist-run performance space PAGEANT in New York. Her work has been shown at Movement Research at Judson Church (NYC), Sundays on Broadway at Weis Acres (NYC), The Brooklyn Rail, Singing in Unison (NYC), New Dance Alliance Performance Mix Festival (NYC), The Provincetown Dance Festival (MA) and PAGEANT (NYC).
Glenn Potter-Takata Jizō in the woods Glenn Potter-Takata is a Bronx-based media designer and artist working in performance. His work has been presented in dance and gallery contexts around NYC as part of programs with Center for Performance Research, Abrons Art Center, Movement Research at Judson Church, Mabou Mines, WestFest, New Dance Alliance’s Performance Mix, Pioneers Go East’s Crossroads Series, Amanda + James’ Summer Happenings Series, Green Space, Triskelion Arts, Mizuma & Kips Wada Art, and Trotter&Sholer. His first solo gallery exhibition opened at Rogers Studio Gallery in Las Vegas in January of 2023. Glenn has been awarded residencies with Movement Research, CUNY Dance Initiative/Lehman College, Gibney Dance Center (Work Up 6.1), and Rogers Art Loft (Las Vegas, NV). Glenn is a 2023 Bronx Cultural Visions Fund Awardee, a 2022 MAP Fund Awardee, a 2022 Bronx Dance Fund Awardee, and a 2022 Mabou Mines SUITE/Space Fellow. As a performer, Glenn has worked with artists like Mina Nishimura, Kathy Westwater, Maho Ogawa, and Kestutis Nakas. Glenn received his MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, where he is currently a teacher of Sound Design and Video Design.
Ishmael Houston-Jones (DraftWork curator) is an award winning choreographer, author, performer, teacher, and curator. His improvised dance and text work has been performed in New York, across the US, and in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Latin America. Drawn to collaborations as a way to move beyond boundaries and the known, Houston-Jones celebrates the political aspect of cooperation. Houston-Jones and Fred Holland shared a 1984 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for Cowboys, Dreams and Ladders, which reintroduced the erased narrative of the Black cowboy back into the mythology of the American west. He was awarded his second “Bessie” Award for the 2010 revival of THEM, his 1985/86 collaboration with writer Dennis Cooper and composer Chris Cochrane. In 2017 he received a third “Bessie” for Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and other Works by John Bernd presented by Danspace Project. In 2020 he received a fourth “Bessie” for Service to the Field of Dance. Houston-Jones is the DraftWork curator for works-in-progress at Danspace Project in New York. He has curated Platform 2012: Parallels which focused on choreographers from the African diaspora and postmodernism and co-curated with Will Rawls Platform 2016: Lost & Found, Dance, New York, HIV/AIDS, Then and Now both at Danspace Project. As an author Houston-Jones’ essays, fiction, interviews, and performance texts have been published in several anthologies and in numerous journals and magazines. His FAT and Other Stories: Some Writing About Sex was published in June 2018 by Yonkers International Press.
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. FUNDING FOR DRAFTWORK DraftWork is presented, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
For information on our funders, visit danspaceproject.org/support
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 FOLLOW US @danspaceproject danspaceproject.org