Take Root performances continue at Green Space with work by Tina Croll + Ani Javian and Benjamin Roach on MAY 10 & 11 at 8PM.

Tina Croll + Company

Ancient Springs is inspired by Federico Fellini’s La Strada and poet Kathleen Raine’s Defending Ancient Springs. Comprised of vignettes— “short stories”— this piece examines abstract and non-narrative methods of storytelling through movement and sound, a little gavotte, a twisted convulsive solo, a stately waltz on some town square. She Rides a Tiger is inspired by the Sanskrit saying” Sanghe Shakti Kalau Yuge” (In this Dark Age Strength is in Unity). Full of intricate spatial patterns and rhythmic contrasts, the work combines the choreographer’s ongoing interest in Eastern European/Asian folkdance forms. “She Rides a Tiger” refers to the Hindu goddess Durga, "The Invincible," the warrior goddess with many arms, each carrying a weapon.

Ani Javian and Benjamin Roach

What are our stories and how did they come to be? When The Sky Separated From The Earth asks questions around fantasy and reality, deception and truth, and duplicity and multiplicity. When The Sky is a playground, gym, town plaza, church, bedroom, stage, and home. It is loud and out-of-bounds; it is against the rules; it is not exactly true, but it isn’t exactly false, either. And it asks, “How can we trust - in ourselves, in others, and in our world?” It works to reveal our humanity – full of faults, but always with the capacity to listen to our own unique truths and the truths of those around us with compassion, goodwill, and heart.

Take Root performances continue at Green Space with work by Tina Croll + Ani Javian and Benjamin Roach on MAY 10 & 11 at 8PM.

Tina Croll + Company

Ancient Springs is inspired by Federico Fellini’s La Strada and poet Kathleen Raine’s Defending Ancient Springs. Comprised of vignettes— “short stories”— this piece examines abstract and non-narrative methods of storytelling through movement and sound, a little gavotte, a twisted convulsive solo, a stately waltz on some town square. She Rides a Tiger is inspired by the Sanskrit saying” Sanghe Shakti Kalau Yuge” (In this Dark Age Strength is in Unity). Full of intricate spatial patterns and rhythmic contrasts, the work combines the choreographer’s ongoing interest in Eastern European/Asian folkdance forms. “She Rides a Tiger” refers to the Hindu goddess Durga, "The Invincible," the warrior goddess with many arms, each carrying a weapon.

Ani Javian and Benjamin Roach

What are our stories and how did they come to be? When The Sky Separated From The Earth asks questions around fantasy and reality, deception and truth, and duplicity and multiplicity. When The Sky is a playground, gym, town plaza, church, bedroom, stage, and home. It is loud and out-of-bounds; it is against the rules; it is not exactly true, but it isn’t exactly false, either. And it asks, “How can we trust - in ourselves, in others, and in our world?” It works to reveal our humanity – full of faults, but always with the capacity to listen to our own unique truths and the truths of those around us with compassion, goodwill, and heart.

We begin with a series of floor exercises designed to awaken the feet, spine, center, and pelvis. Next, standing center work focuses on exercises supported by proper alignment throughout the body. The class culminates in rhythmical, full-bodied movement combinations across the floor.

The Hawkins-based principles emphasized in this class are universally beneficial to dance training at all levels.

Every other Tuesday

Open Level

We begin with a series of floor exercises designed to awaken the feet, spine, center, and pelvis. Next, standing center work focuses on exercises supported by proper alignment throughout the body. The class culminates in rhythmical, full-bodied movement combinations across the floor.

The Hawkins-based principles emphasized in this class are universally beneficial to dance training at all levels.

Every other Tuesday

Open Level

Featuring an amazing lineup of performers and you!

Take Root performances continue at Green Space with work by David Appel and Mar Undag & Elliott Keller on APRIL 12 & 13 at 8PM.

David Appel

David Appel will premiere a new collaborative project with four other dancers, one that dives into and illuminates parallels to how we can more fully and fruitfully co-exist with others, and how an individual’s chosen pursuits can better meet, interact, and mesh with the diverse character of a group. Through an ongoing commitment to orchestrating evolving blends of improvised and set material, he challenges the participating movers to meet the moment: calling upon and honoring each person’s honed and special skills to articulate ever more clearly and vibrantly, while they encounter and tread paths through a combination of remembered signposts and unexpected change, as we do in life itself. The piece will serve as another response to questions around how we can enliven a performance practice that intriguingly models ways of engaging ourselves, each other, and the world through which we move. The dancers’ individual and collective presence will also be seasoned by alternative approaches to situating their moving vis-à-vis the audience, and shaded strategically by segments of various recorded musics and spoken word.

Mar Undag & Elliott Keller

The work will be a contemporary dance that explores the interplay between movement, music, and cinematography. The dancers, cinematographer, and music will work collaboratively to create a seamless and immersive experience for the audience. The first section explores the chaotic and conflicting emotions that arises internally. The second movement explores the theme of connection and empathy. The final part explores the theme of reflection and resolution. The projections will include both pre-filmed and real-time footage of the movements, displayed on a screen or surface.

Take Root performances continue at Green Space with work by David Appel and Mar Undag & Elliott Keller on APRIL 12 & 13 at 8PM.

David Appel

David Appel will premiere a new collaborative project with four other dancers, one that dives into and illuminates parallels to how we can more fully and fruitfully co-exist with others, and how an individual’s chosen pursuits can better meet, interact, and mesh with the diverse character of a group. Through an ongoing commitment to orchestrating evolving blends of improvised and set material, he challenges the participating movers to meet the moment: calling upon and honoring each person’s honed and special skills to articulate ever more clearly and vibrantly, while they encounter and tread paths through a combination of remembered signposts and unexpected change, as we do in life itself. The piece will serve as another response to questions around how we can enliven a performance practice that intriguingly models ways of engaging ourselves, each other, and the world through which we move. The dancers’ individual and collective presence will also be seasoned by alternative approaches to situating their moving vis-à-vis the audience, and shaded strategically by segments of various recorded musics and spoken word.

Mar Undag & Elliott Keller

The work will be a contemporary dance that explores the interplay between movement, music, and cinematography. The dancers, cinematographer, and music will work collaboratively to create a seamless and immersive experience for the audience. The first section explores the chaotic and conflicting emotions that arises internally. The second movement explores the theme of connection and empathy. The final part explores the theme of reflection and resolution. The projections will include both pre-filmed and real-time footage of the movements, displayed on a screen or surface.

We begin with a series of floor exercises designed to awaken the feet, spine, center, and pelvis. Next, standing center work focuses on exercises supported by proper alignment throughout the body. The class culminates in rhythmical, full-bodied movement combinations across the floor.

The Hawkins-based principles emphasized in this class are universally beneficial to dance training at all levels.

Every other Tuesday

Open Level

We begin with a series of floor exercises designed to awaken the feet, spine, center, and pelvis. Next, standing center work focuses on exercises supported by proper alignment throughout the body. The class culminates in rhythmical, full-bodied movement combinations across the floor.

The Hawkins-based principles emphasized in this class are universally beneficial to dance training at all levels.

Every other Tuesday

Open Level

Featuring an amazing lineup of our D.I.G. residents and you!

Take Root performances continue at Green Space with work by Grant Jacoby & Dancers and Althea Dance Company on MARCH 8 & 9 at 8PM.

Grant Jacoby & Dancers

The impetus for softshell was built out of the acknowledgment, and acceptance, of the aging dancing body. In particular, navigating a “post”-pandemic world has created a strange space where deferred dreaming permeates beneath a simmering surface. softshell takes that notion and filters it through the lens of embodied trauma. Sliding the liminal space between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, the work is a quiet, queer experiment that seeks no solution. Dancers cohabitate a universal, yet individualized landscape of symbiotically shared movement language where by design, no intentional crescendos can be found. Instead, softshell asks the viewer to slow down alongside it, embracing its current stasis of intimacy, and preparing for the inevitable mess that has yet to materialize.

softshell is performed by Tori Breen, Grant Jacoby, Sarah Liebau, Arielle Ridley, and Anne Tantuico. Music is by Michael Wall. The work was made possible thanks to support from the Monira Foundation, Dance Local, Center for Dance Arts, and Morven Museum & Garden.

Althea Dance Company

Lazar is a duet choreographed by Thea Bautista based on an extract from a novel written by the French author Olivier Benyahya. While the music was composed using the text, the movement is inspired by the words and plays with the musicality and the rhythm the text creates. The novel becomes a visual and sound experience in which words translate into movements.
The work was partly created in 2017 and 2019 during two residencies in Oaxaca and was composed of dance and literature.
Thanks to the support of the cultural center “Antigua Estación del Ferrocarril” in Oaxaca, Mexico, the piece turned into a 40 min piece that was premiered in Oaxaca on the 17th of March 2019.

Take Root performances continue at Green Space with work by Grant Jacoby & Dancers and Althea Dance Company on MARCH 8 & 9 at 8PM.

Grant Jacoby & Dancers

The impetus for softshell was built out of the acknowledgment, and acceptance, of the aging dancing body. In particular, navigating a “post”-pandemic world has created a strange space where deferred dreaming permeates beneath a simmering surface. softshell takes that notion and filters it through the lens of embodied trauma. Sliding the liminal space between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, the work is a quiet, queer experiment that seeks no solution. Dancers cohabitate a universal, yet individualized landscape of symbiotically shared movement language where by design, no intentional crescendos can be found. Instead, softshell asks the viewer to slow down alongside it, embracing its current stasis of intimacy, and preparing for the inevitable mess that has yet to materialize.

softshell is performed by Tori Breen, Grant Jacoby, Sarah Liebau, Arielle Ridley, and Anne Tantuico. Music is by Michael Wall. The work was made possible thanks to support from the Monira Foundation, Dance Local, Center for Dance Arts, and Morven Museum & Garden.

Althea Dance Company

Lazar is a duet choreographed by Thea Bautista based on an extract from a novel written by the French author Olivier Benyahya. While the music was composed using the text, the movement is inspired by the words and plays with the musicality and the rhythm the text creates. The novel becomes a visual and sound experience in which words translate into movements.
The work was partly created in 2017 and 2019 during two residencies in Oaxaca and was composed of dance and literature.
Thanks to the support of the cultural center “Antigua Estación del Ferrocarril” in Oaxaca, Mexico, the piece turned into a 40 min piece that was premiered in Oaxaca on the 17th of March 2019.

We begin with a series of floor exercises designed to awaken the feet, spine, center, and pelvis. Next, standing center work focuses on exercises supported by proper alignment throughout the body. The class culminates in rhythmical, full-bodied movement combinations across the floor.

The Hawkins-based principles emphasized in this class are universally beneficial to dance training at all levels.

Every other Tuesday

Open Level

D.I.G. will provide 7 local choreographers an excellent opportunity to develop and share new work together during 8 sessions, ending in a culminating Fertile Ground performance exclusive to their cohort.

Each 2-hour session will be moderated by a rotating member of the Green Space Advisory Board. During these  sessions choreographers will present their work at various stages to their cohort, followed by a moderated peer discussion, enabling choreographers to receive informative feedback in a supportive environment. 

D.I.G. is about building relationships with fellow artists and creating the opportunity to network with fellow NYC choreographers/dancers, all while creating new opportunities to grow within one’s own choreographic process.

We begin with a series of floor exercises designed to awaken the feet, spine, center, and pelvis. Next, standing center work focuses on exercises supported by proper alignment throughout the body. The class culminates in rhythmical, full-bodied movement combinations across the floor.

The Hawkins-based principles emphasized in this class are universally beneficial to dance training at all levels.

Every other Tuesday

Open Level

Featuring an amazing lineup of performers and you!

Take Root performances continue at Green Space with work by Melanie Holm and Jeeno Joseph Nadanam Collective on FEBRUARY 9 & 10 at 8PM.

Melanie Holm

Eve Song, a song cycle by American composer Jake Heggie with texts by Philip Littell, is a contemporary retelling of the creation story from Eve’s perspective. Heggie’s music blends classical, jazz, and musical theater idioms together to create a unique contemporary soundscape that highlights Eve’s emotionally charged journey. Her story is alive and well, in every being who seeks knowledge over comfort, justice over blind ignorance, and in every human being who has been shunned for seeking truth over blind ignorance. Despite continued attempts to shame her into silence, Eve’s legacy lives on, continually creating, evolving, and growing.

Melanie uses song and dance both to reframe standard opera repertory through a female-driven lens, and to collaborate with living composers on new works that challenge systemic norms within classical music. Recently, Melanie collaborated with multimedia artist ONOH as SEED Residency Artists with [nueBOX] a Phoenix-based arts organization providing resources to emerging creatives across all artistic disciplines. With support from [nueBOX] and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, ONOH and Melanie arranged and produced the finale to Mozart’s Don Giovanni for soprano, violin, electronics, and dance, using only female identifying artists for all aspects of the production. Melanie’s 2021-2022 projects include a choreographed adaptation of Jake Heggie’s Eve Song with pianist Karey Miles, a new work premiere with composer Ashlee Busch and soprano Micaela Rebb with the Arizona Women’s Collaborative, and joining the Teaching Artist Training Program with Mark Morris Dance Group. Melanie holds degrees from Arizona State University (DMA/Voice & MM/Opera Performance), and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (BM/Voice with a Dance Minor).

Jeeno Joseph Nadanam Collective

Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is an art form which heavily utilizes various Indian languages such as Tamil from Tamil Nadu, Kannada from Karnataka, Telugu from Andhra Pradesh, and Hindi from Northern India as well as their respective musical compositions and texts. As a first generation Malayali - American born to parents who emigrated from Kerala to New York, I’ve often felt a lack of representation for the Malayalam language within the Bharatanatyam repertoire. Through this work I hope to explore the beauty of Malayalam musical compositions, poetry, culture and rhythms through the traditional Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam.

D.I.G. will provide 7 local choreographers an excellent opportunity to develop and share new work together during 8 sessions, ending in a culminating Fertile Ground performance exclusive to their cohort.

Each 2-hour session will be moderated by a rotating member of the Green Space Advisory Board. During these  sessions choreographers will present their work at various stages to their cohort, followed by a moderated peer discussion, enabling choreographers to receive informative feedback in a supportive environment. 

D.I.G. is about building relationships with fellow artists and creating the opportunity to network with fellow NYC choreographers/dancers, all while creating new opportunities to grow within one’s own choreographic process.

Take Root performances continue at Green Space with work by Melanie Holm and Jeeno Joseph Nadanam Collective on FEBRUARY 9 & 10 at 8PM.

Melanie Holm

Eve Song, a song cycle by American composer Jake Heggie with texts by Philip Littell, is a contemporary retelling of the creation story from Eve’s perspective. Heggie’s music blends classical, jazz, and musical theater idioms together to create a unique contemporary soundscape that highlights Eve’s emotionally charged journey. Her story is alive and well, in every being who seeks knowledge over comfort, justice over blind ignorance, and in every human being who has been shunned for seeking truth over blind ignorance. Despite continued attempts to shame her into silence, Eve’s legacy lives on, continually creating, evolving, and growing.

Melanie uses song and dance both to reframe standard opera repertory through a female-driven lens, and to collaborate with living composers on new works that challenge systemic norms within classical music. Recently, Melanie collaborated with multimedia artist ONOH as SEED Residency Artists with [nueBOX] a Phoenix-based arts organization providing resources to emerging creatives across all artistic disciplines. With support from [nueBOX] and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, ONOH and Melanie arranged and produced the finale to Mozart’s Don Giovanni for soprano, violin, electronics, and dance, using only female identifying artists for all aspects of the production. Melanie’s 2021-2022 projects include a choreographed adaptation of Jake Heggie’s Eve Song with pianist Karey Miles, a new work premiere with composer Ashlee Busch and soprano Micaela Rebb with the Arizona Women’s Collaborative, and joining the Teaching Artist Training Program with Mark Morris Dance Group. Melanie holds degrees from Arizona State University (DMA/Voice & MM/Opera Performance), and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (BM/Voice with a Dance Minor).

Jeeno Joseph Nadanam Collective

Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is an art form which heavily utilizes various Indian languages such as Tamil from Tamil Nadu, Kannada from Karnataka, Telugu from Andhra Pradesh, and Hindi from Northern India as well as their respective musical compositions and texts. As a first generation Malayali - American born to parents who emigrated from Kerala to New York, I’ve often felt a lack of representation for the Malayalam language within the Bharatanatyam repertoire. Through this work I hope to explore the beauty of Malayalam musical compositions, poetry, culture and rhythms through the traditional Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam.

We begin with a series of floor exercises designed to awaken the feet, spine, center, and pelvis. Next, standing center work focuses on exercises supported by proper alignment throughout the body. The class culminates in rhythmical, full-bodied movement combinations across the floor.

The Hawkins-based principles emphasized in this class are universally beneficial to dance training at all levels.

Every other Tuesday

Open Level

D.I.G. will provide 7 local choreographers an excellent opportunity to develop and share new work together during 8 sessions, ending in a culminating Fertile Ground performance exclusive to their cohort.

Each 2-hour session will be moderated by a rotating member of the Green Space Advisory Board. During these  sessions choreographers will present their work at various stages to their cohort, followed by a moderated peer discussion, enabling choreographers to receive informative feedback in a supportive environment. 

D.I.G. is about building relationships with fellow artists and creating the opportunity to network with fellow NYC choreographers/dancers, all while creating new opportunities to grow within one’s own choreographic process.

Featuring an amazing lineup of performers and you!