The Return of the Brooklyn Performance Combine!
Norte Maar is psyched to announce the return of its ambitious collaborative event The Brooklyn Performance Combine, a mashup of poets, painters, performers and this time includes aerialists and a meteorologist! The two-hour durational event will take place at The MUSE (350 Moffat Street, Bushwick), on Saturday, June 3, 7-9pm. Tickets are $40 for reserved seating / $20 general / $15 seniors + students / $25 at the door. All proceeds to benefit the collaborative mission of Norte Maar.
Not so unlike the historic Theater Event #1 that took place at Black Mountain College during the summer of 1952, and Norte Maar’s own End of the World performance at English Kills, The Brooklyn Performance Combine Event unites all art forms in a fusion of poetry, sound, dance, and performance in a single cohesive 120-minute event. It will be epic.
A timer will start the countdown for the performance. Each artist will be programmed to begin and end at a time designated through chance operations within the 120-minute interval. At times a poet will be reading while a sound artist is performing. A dancer will enter, perform and depart. Sounds will overlap. There will be silence. Every aspect of the performance will be unrehearsed, live, spontaneous, and uninterrupted. Audiences can come and go as the event clock ticks out of time.
Participating Artists / Poets / Choreographers / Performers
ABCirque Performers from TheMuse Brooklyn
ABCirque is The Muse's in-house professional circus, dance & theater performance company. Under the creative direction of acclaimed choreographer & director Angela Buccinni, ABCirque creates original productions that defy categorization, seamlessly blending circus, dance, music, and more -- which we feature regularly in our venue and in venues across the world. Our team is also available for creative consulting and will work closely with you to translate your creative vision into a dynamic performance that will inspire, wow, and entertain.
Chris Blacker (Singer / Song Writer)
Hailed as “a superb US pop-rock songwriter” by Songwriting Magazine and “a true original” by Audiofuzz, Chris Blacker is a pianist, composer, and singer-songwriter whose work spans jazz, new music, cabaret, and pop/rock. Since moving to New York in 2010, he has appeared at a variety of venues including Rockwood Music Hall, The Cutting Room, Joe’s Pub, The Duplex, The Living Room, The Metropolitan Room, and others, sometimes as a solo artist, sometimes with a band, and sometimes lending his unique style as a musical director. Prior to moving to New York, he spent seven years performing professionally on the West Coast with artists such as the cabaret-noir group Circus Contraption, gypsy-jazz group Pearl Django, classical pianist/composer Amy Rubin, and others. He was a winner of the 2006 ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Awards, and has released one full-length album of instrumental jazz, and two EPs and one LP of original songs. His 2016 album, The Endless Chase, earned praise from magazines and blogs on both sides of the Atlantic. He is thrilled to be a part of this edition of The Brooklyn Performance Combine.
Maria Calandra was born in 1976 in London, England and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She is the artist and writer behind the blog Pencil in the Studio that she started in 2011. In this project she spends the day with other artists in their studios while drawing their space and talking to them about their life and work. In a recent body of work, unrelated to Pencil in the Studio, she is attempting to channel a stream of consciousness through drawing — pulling from both the real and imagined. Objects and aspects of life appear from studios visits, frequented bars, beloved artworks, memorable shapes, and extensive travels. She holds a BFA from Ohio University and received an MFA from Cornell University in 2006. She has shown in both New York City and across the United States previously exhibiting with Andrew Edlin Gallery, Shrine, Romeo, White Columns, Norte Maar, Geoffrey Young Gallery and Sardine.
http://pencilinthestudio.blogspot.com
http://mariacalandra.com/
Maria Chavez (Sound Artist / DJ)
Born in Lima, Peru, Maria Chávez is known as an abstract turntablist, sound artist and DJ. Accidents, coincidence and failures are themes that unite her sound sculptures, installations and other works with her solo turntable performance practice. Routledge Press chose Maria to be on the cover of the latest edition of their Electronic and Experimental textbook that is distributed widely throughout academia. The book is used in Universities and Music programs all over the world as a first year course for students interested in the world of avant garde and electronic sound practice. Maria wrote her first book on her unique approach to abstract turntablism in 2012 titled, OF TECHNIQUE: Chance Procedures on Turntable (currently out of stock), a book of essays and illustrations that guide the novice turntablist to explore the world of needles and vinly through the lens of deterioration, destruction and the unexpected. Maria regularly teaches workshops introducing students to her turntable practice all over the world and has been a research fellow with the Sound Practice Research Department of Goldsmith’s University of London since 2015. She presents lectures on sound art, improvisation, multi-channel speaker installation practice, most recently for Rhode Island School of Design (RISD),Stony Brook University, the Contemporary Arts Museum-Houston, Berklee College-Valencia, Spain and others later in the fall/winter season.
Brandon Collwes (Dancer / Choreographer / Painter)
Trained at the Pittsburgh CLO in musical theater and jazz dance, at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater when he studied George Balanchine technique, the Creative and Performing Arts High School of Pittsburgh where he started making his own choreography, and the Juilliard School and SUNY Purchase for some college. He became a member of the CDF Repertory Understudy Group in 2003 where he work closely and was trained by Merce Cunningham and Robert Swinston. He joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in January 2006 where he danced up until the close of the Company in 2011 in the finale Legacy World Tour. He is currently principle dancer of the Liz Gerring Dance Company, Sally Slivers and Dancers and continues to teach dance across the globe while developing and performing his own work. Brandon is also a self taught abstract painter inspired by natural movement and the street working mostly with acrylic paint, canvas and salt.
Douglas Dunn (Choreographer)
Douglas Dunn is a New York based dancer and choreographer working internationally since 1968. In 1976 he formed Douglas Dunn + Dancers and in 1980 set Stravinsky's Pulcinella on the Paris Opera Ballet. In 1998 he was awarded a New York Dance & Performance Award for Sustained Achievement, and in 2008 was honored by the French government as Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His recent piece, Antipodes, a collaboration with Mimi Gross, Steven Taylor, and Carol Mullins, showed at Danspace Project, NYC in February 2017. His book Dancer Out of Sight is available at Amazon.com.
Kate Elizabeth (Musician)
Kate is an 11-year-old harpist. At the age of 5, she began study with Harpist Kristi Shade. Kate has played in numerous recitals and talent shows. She has studied music theory at Lucy Moses. Kate is also a pianist and since 2014 studying with classical pianist Elena Baksht. Kate won a contest earning her a piano performance at Carnegie Hall last year. Kate loves music and while she studies classical, she loves to learn the melodies of her favorite artists Taylor Swift and Adele and plays them by ear. She has three brothers. She is earning her first Karate belt and just got her braces off!
Cassandra Estelle (Aerialist / ABCirque)
Cassandra is a contemporary ballet aerialist and burlesque performer. Her training began with classical ballet in programs such as ABT, Kirov Ballet, Cecchetti Council of America and Makhateli Ballet. Along wtih ballet she has trained in Graham and Limon modern dance techniques and began aerial training with the Waikiki Acrobats. She graduated from UH Manoa and the London Contemporary Dance School in 2012 where she was the first student to choreograph and aerial dance piece for her senior piece. She has performed all over the country with companies such as: ABCirque, Arch Contemporary Ballet, Grounded Aerial, On The Fly Productions, Ghost Robot Productions, Keiko Fujii Dance Company, The Poetry Brothel, Prisma Dance and Speakeasy Dollhouse. Now based in NYC, she has been showcased in venues such as The Box, Strand, The Bell House, House of YES and The Muse Brooklyn to name a few. Cassandra spends her days designing websites, training and performing!
Kira Fath (Aerialist / ABCirque)
Kira Fath got her start dancing in Lake Bluff, IL and found herself right at home in circus community upon entering Oberlin College in 2009. She threw herself immediately into aerial arts, acrobatics, and contortion. When not in school, Kira continued her training at Seattle's SANCA, NYC's Circus Warehouse, and Circus Edge Studios. She graduated from Oberlin with a B.A. in East Asian History 2013 and attended NECCA's Professional Training Program in Brattleboro, VT that same year. Since NECCA, Kira has gone on to teach and work with with French Woods Festival, ABCirque, Circus Harmony Dixon Place, On The Fly, Cedar Faire, and the Slipper Room. She is currently rooted in NYC and spends her time training, teaching, and performing in the city.
Molissa Fenley (Choreographer / Dancer)
Molissa Fenley founded Molissa Fenley and Company in 1977 and has since created over 85 dance works during her continuing career. She grew up in Ibadan, Nigeria traveling there with her family in 1961, completing all of her early education there in International Schools and her last two years of high school in Spain. She returned to the US in 1971 to study dance at Mills College in Oakland, California. In 1975, she moved to New York with her company Molissa Fenley and Company. Her work has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, the Dia Art Foundation, Jacob’s Pillow, the Joyce Theater, The Kitchen, Lincoln Center, the New National Theater of Tokyo, The National Institute of Performing Arts in Seoul, and by Dance Theater Workshop/New York Live Arts. Both Cenotaph and State of Darkness were awarded a Bessie for Choreography in 1985 and 1988, respectively. Molissa has also created many works on ballet and contemporary dance companies, most recently for Barnard College Columbia University, Oakland Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Robert Moses' Kin and the Seattle Dance Project. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, has enjoyed residencies at the Baryshnikov Art Center, the Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, Italy, Djerassi, TopazArts and Yaddo, is the recipient of two Asian Cultural Council residencies in Japan and a Master Artist of the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Molissa is the Danforth Professor of Dance at Mills College, in residence in the spring semesters, and often teaches choreographic workshops at other universities, most recently at Barnard College Columbia University, Hunter College and the Experimental Theater Lab of New York University.
Ara Fitzgerald (Dance Theater Performance)
Ara Fitzgerald creates dance theatre as a choreographer, writer, improviser, performer and professor. She was an early explorer of choreography with original text. Current repertory includes: Slow Dancing Is Easy, Heavenly Display, Everything I Know About Astrology: A Short Dance, On Looking Back (Eurydice’s point of view), Words for Music Perhaps (poetry by WB Yeats, music by Wall Matthews. Life of a Flower and Conversations With An Ant- historic reconstructions of compositions by Lotte Goslar. In addition to her own company, she was a member of Daniel Nagrin’s seminal, The Workgroup and The Entourage Music and Theatre Ensemble. She has choreographed on and off Broadway and taught at Connecticut College, The National Theatre Institute, Trinity Square Conservatory, and served as Director of Dance and Theatre at Manhattanville College.
Roy Fowler earned a BFA from the University of CA in Santa Barbara in 1976 and moved to New York City later that year. His first solo show was at the Anne Plumb Gallery in 1985. His latest was at Fort Gansevoort Gallery in 2016. He has received awards from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. (1999), The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation (1997), and the Artist’s Space (1989). His work is included in the Broad Collection, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, the J.P. Morgan collection, among others.
Amy Freeze (Meteorologist)
Amy is one of only a few women in the world who has earned the prestigious Certified Broadcast Meteorologist accreditation from the American Meteorological Society. She also holds Seals of Approval from both the AMS and the National Weather Association. Amy joined Channel 7's Eyewitness News Weather Team in 2011, after serving as Chief Meteorologist for Fox News in Chicago. Before that she was a meteorologist at Philadelphia's WCAU-TV, was morning meteorologist at KMGH-TV in Denver and worked on KPTV's local morning news program "Good Day Oregon" in Portland. Her work has earned her five Emmy Awards, including for "Best Weathercaster," "Outstanding Host" and for her weather special, "Surviving Severe Weather." Amy holds a Master Degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her B.A. in Communications from Brigham Young University, with an emphasis on Broadcast Journalism. She also has a B.S. in Geosciences from Mississippi State University, with an emphasis on Severe Weather and Forecasting. An avid runner, Amy is planning her 10th marathon in November. She's also a certified SCUBA diver and has taken a swim with the dozen or so 300lb sharks that reside at the New Jersey State Aquarium, whales at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, and various sea life at the Disney Aquarium. She has reported on movies and entertainment, covered the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and Atlanta, and was the first female sideline reporter for Major League Soccer. Amy gives time to her community speaking to school children about weather and supporting charitable causes. She has emceed the Miss Illinois/Miss America Pageant in Chicago, the Miles to Fight Melanoma Race and won Chicago's "Dancing with the Stars" contest benefiting the March of Dimes. She lives on the Upper West Side with her four children. And yes, "Freeze" is her real name!
Julia K. Gleich (Choreographer)
Julia K. Gleich is a choreographer, teacher, scholar and mathematics aficionado. She is interested in collaboration, illuminating the relationships between the traditional and the contemporary, and scrapping aesthetic labels. In 1996 she founded Gleich Dances. In 2004 she co-founded Norte Maar with curator Jason Andrew. She produces CounterPointe annually. She is Head of Choreography at London Studio Centre BA, faculty at Trinity Laban, and is a 2014 Distinguish Alumna of University of Utah College of Fine Arts. Her extended work Martha (The Searchers) in collaboration with Guggenheim Fellow Elana Herzog, will premiere in New York in October.
Mimi Gross is a painter, set-and-costume designer for dance, and maker of interior and exterior installations. She has had several international exhibitions, including work at the Salander O’ Reilly Galleries, and the Ruth Siegel Gallery, New York City, the Inax Gallery, in Ginza, Tokyo, and Galerie Lara Vincey, in Paris. She has also shown work at the Municipal Art Society and at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York. Her anatomically-themed art-work is on permanent display, courtesy the New York City Parks Department, at the Robert Venable Park in East New York. Her work is included in numerous public collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Brooklyn Museum, the Jewish Museum, le Musee des Art Decoratifs in Paris, the Nagoya Museum of Art, the Onasch Collection in Berlin and the Lannon Foundation, as well as the Fukuoko Bank in Japan and New York’s Bellevue Hospital.
Bob Holman is a NYC poet, founder of the Bowery Poetry Club. The author of 16 poetry collections, including Sing This One Back to Me (Coffee House Press), and A Couple of Ways of Doing Something (Aperture, a collaboration with Chuck Close), Bob Holman has taught at Columbia, NYU, Bard, and The New School. As the original Slam Master and a director of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, creator of the world's first spoken word poetry record label, Mouth Almighty/Mercury, and the founder/proprietor of the Bowery Poetry Club, Holman has played a central role in the spoken word and slam poetry movements of the last several decades. A co-founder and co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, Holman's study of hip-hop and West African oral traditions led to his current work with endangered languages. Holman is the producer and host of various films, including "The United States of Poetry" and "On the Road with Bob Holman." His most recent film, "Language Matters with Bob Holman," winner of the Berkeley Film Festival's 2015 Documentary of the Year award, was produced by David Grubin and aired nationally on PBS. Holman worked with language revitalization centers across Alaska and Hawaii in 2016, sponsored by the Ford Foundation. He lives in New York City, where he is currently Creative Consultant at LINES Ballet in San Francisco, and will teach at Princeton fall 2017. He loves collaborating with Molissa and other dancers; his work with endangered languages inspired the recent Alonzo King LINES Ballet, "Figures of Speech." He will be performing his own poetry in the Ukrainian-American play 1917-2017 at LaMama, June 8-25
Max Kanowitz (Musician)
Max Kanowitz, also known as Prana Rising, is a Manhattan based performer, composer and music educator. A 2015 graduate from the Eastman School of Music, Max has developed a unique multi-instrumental and improvisatory style - fusing influences from western classical music, world music traditions and Pop culture. He has had the privilege of traveling around the United States, Europe and Africa, performing with innovative and visionary artists that include: Lebanese-American musician, Adam Maalouf, Dutch-Ukrainian percussionist Konstantyn Napolov, newly founded dance company, konverjdans, and Ghanaian Gyle virtuoso, Bernard Woma. As a recording artist, Max recently released an EP with Anatomy of a Phoenix - a band he co-founded with Brooklyn based guitarist, Julia Egan. Max Kanowitz, being an advocate for social justice, is a founder of Semillas Art + Justice + Healing. Through this organization, Max wrote and produced the soundtrack for the award winning dance film, “They Tried to Bury Us, They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds” - a social justice dance film aimed at exposing Mexico’s ever growing human rights crisis.
konverjdans (Dance Company)
konverjdans is dedicated to celebrating the convergence of different art forms, backgrounds, and experiences by always creating dance in collaboration with other artists - musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, and others; to always performing with live music and highlighting the importance of musical collaboration in dance; and to performing in a wide variety of spaces, making dance accessible to diverse audiences. konverjdans, co-founded by artistic directors Amy Saunder, Jordan Miller and Tiffany Mangulabnan, aims to eventually expand and conduct outreach programs in the United States, Zimbabwe and the Philippines.
Dara Mandle earned her BA in English from Yale, where she was awarded the Clapp Poetry Prize, and her MFA in poetry from Columbia. Her poems have appeared on E-Verse Radio and in Brooklyn Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Harpur Palate, among other journals. Her collaborative chapbook of poems with artist Brece Honeycutt, Tobacco Hour, was published by Norte Maar in 2015. She maintains a blog of her work at www.daramandle.com.
Racoco Productions (Performance Company)
With special guest Leighton Edmondson: o.g. bklyn diy beat; professional lighting person / photographer/ forager/ chef; committed to the life of the mind. Racoco fuses absurdist visuals, quixotic choreography, and raw materials, frequently collaborating with visual artists and composers. Rachel Cohen founded Racoco in 2003. The company has worked with flour, clay, taffy, gum, and paper, among other materials. The New York Times listed our "If the Shoe Fits" among 2005's NYC dance highlights. We've toured to Virginia Beach, Baltimore, MD, and Plattsburgh, NY, in the US, and to Czech Republic, Poland, France, England, and India, and performed in all five NYC boroughs. The company has created nine full-evening productions. We were company in residence at Galapagos Art Space and CAVE in Brooklyn, and have received grants from NYC DCA, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Fund, The Field Dance Fund, NYFA, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation US Arts International, Meet the Composer's Creative Connections; and American Music Center's Live Music for Dance. Racoco is always pleased to be part of a Norte Maar happening. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
