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Chutzpah Dance Presents: VIBRANCE

Greenside Venues, Forest Theater

August 12-17, 2024 at 16:05

1. What Happens Next?
Company: Chutzpah Dance
Choreographer and Dancer: Erica Isakower
Sound: "Zwei Füße Großer Herzog (Two Foot Duke)" by Paul Westfahl (Original score created in collaboration for this work)
Note: This piece is a tap improvisational work that will change each performance!


2. Behind Closed Doors
Company: Extensions Dance Project
Choreographer: Kaitlyn Esposito
Dancers: Kaitlyn Esposito, Josephine Ann Russo, and Samantha Sibilia
Sound: "Eighty-eight" by Savfk
Note: Many of life’s biggest moments and emotions occur behind closed doors. This reimagined excerpt from a larger work that explores the hardships faced when getting older.


3. By a Thread
Choreographer: Marika Brussel
Dancers: Mayuko Suzuki and Ryan Upton
Sound: “By a Thread” by Ryan Cockerham, original music made for the piece
Costumes: Erica Johnston
Note: By a Thread is a contemporary ballet that explores the story between a Callie, a powerful but lonely person, and Oscar, a soldier suffering from PTSD. How can they connect to heal each other?


4. Unrequited Fruitbowl
Company: ERELONG
Choreographer and Dancer: Natalie Long
Music: “Peachperson” by crystalandthomas
Note: Unrequited Fruitbowl explores the wide range of emotions experienced as individuals struggle to make social connections.


5. Excavated
Choreographed by Laura Ardner in collaboration with Melanie Molina
Dancers: Laura Ardner and Melanie Molina
Music: Original score by Andrew Mastalli
Note: This duet is inspired by the two bodies that were discovered embracing together in the Ruins of Pompeii and the ambiguity about how we will never know their stories or relationship prior to a disastrous event freezing them in time forever.


6. Tumbao
Choreographer and Dancer: Nia Pretto
Sound: “Vamos A Tocar Sonero” by Frank Guerrero y Su Grupo Ache
Note: This piece is a beautiful, fun and fast paced female salsa solo. With lots of body movement, styling and fast footwork, Nia is bringing NY salsa to Scotland!


7. The Flowering
Choreographer and Dancer: Jordyn Cherry
Music: “Blurred Landscape” by Glen Fittin & Scott Hogan
Note: The Flowering is a contemporary and floorwork solo that explores the development of phrases through repetition and expansion. The dynamic choreography explores easing into and out of the low space, and shaping and cutting through the high space. Guided by the sounds of drums, bells, and hums, the solo is a display of groundedness and precision through shaping and carving.


8. Mesh
Company: Chutzpah Dance
Choreographer: Erica Isakower
Dancers: Laura Ardner, Natalie Long, and Melanie Molina
Sound: (Ambient) “Fleur” by Kirk Osamayo (Courtesy of Free Music Archive)
Note: This piece explores the intricate dance between individual well-being and the surrounding environment, "Mesh" seeks to unravel the complex web of interconnected factors that impact physical health. The dance aims to convey the fascinating revelation that every choice, circumstance, and external influence is interconnected, and how others can support each other, contributing to a snowball effect that resonates throughout the body in unexpected ways.


9. The 20-Somethings
Choreographer and Dancer: Sky Poole
Sound: "Nocturn Op.9 No.2" by Frédéric Chopin (played by Daniel Barenboim)
Note: The 20-Somethings is a contemporary solo capturing the contrasting emotions of feeling adrift yet liberated in one's twenties, grappling with the exhilaration and trepidation of the journey ahead.


10. Ode to Whoever I Was (Excerpt of "Watch This!")
Choreographer and Dancer: Heather Dutton
Sound: “I Ain’t in a Hurry Anymore” music and lyrics by George Britton
Note: Watch This! is an evening length work that considers themes of gender, body as object, and the power dynamics between audience and performer through a queer lens. Created independently of the work, this solo more specifically considers one's personal relationship to their ever-changing body, especially as a queer or gender non-conforming person. What does it look like when we try to control our bodies? What does it look like when they try to control us? Designed with an eye toward playfulness, this work is inspired by the ways that we are constantly relearning our bodies, grieving them, celebrating them, and trying to shape them, escape them, and fully inhabit them.


11. Telophase
Choreographers and Dancers: Josephine Brunner and Will Pettigrew
Sound: Original Music by Georgia Dahill-Fuchel
Note: Telophase is an abstract duet exploring a series of shifts in atmosphere between space, audience, and performer. As we shift through environments we act symbiotically in many forms, to show the effort it takes to split and come together again. As you watch we hope you’re transported to the deepest recesses of your mind, or maybe another planet, or maybe nowhere.


12. In the Meantime
Choreographer and Dancer: Hannah Owens
Sound: Kenny Raw, arranged by Hannah Owens
Note: This piece explores my experience of living with grief and how that changes throughout each day.


13. At the Center
Choreographer and Dancer: Amanda Alves
Sound: “Funky Jazz Cafe” by Big Band Serenade
Note: At the Center is a solo which blends contemporary jazz techniques set to 20s jazz inspired music. It is representative of the desire everyone has to be seen and what one does with attention.


14. How Far We Go
Company: Chutzpah Dance
Choreographer: Erica Isakower
Dancers: Laura Ardner, Natalie Long, and Melanie Molina
Sound: Original score created in collaboration for this work by CMPT (Daniel Valdes)
Note: This piece abstractly explores relationships within a community. The dancers investigate and explore the push and pull of relationships and their impact, as one dancer makes personal discoveries coming into her own.


                                                         

                                                                         About the Artists:

Chutzpah Dance is a female, neurodivergent, Jewish led project-based dance company founded by Erica Isakower. Often told she had a lot of chutzpah in both positive and negative contexts, she allowed her nerve to drive her forward in her passion for dance to create an inclusive company that has the audacity to take up space. The mission of Chutzpah Dance is to push the boundaries of dance through layering movement into a web of creation while emphasizing innovation and inclusion. Come dance as you are. We believe in building dance works that are as dynamic, dense, and diverse as the world in which we live. You matter. Your art matters. Have chutzpah!

Erica Isakower’s movement is athletic, dynamic, and floorwork-based. She utilizes all bodies through varying tales in a book of short stories. Never staying too long on one spiel, however, words crammed to fit the page. Loquacious. Each fleeing vignette is a prismatic kaleidoscope of ideas radiating and bouncing to the edge of sight with no return. Her work is a constant “Newton’s cradle” of innate rhythm and energy swinging back and forth–energetically juxtaposed in many strata of nature. Though inviting and interactive, my choreography puts the audiences' natural curiosity to work as they view a hidden world peeled open that invests in the audiences' desire to learn more. Turning the page, pushing the vines aside uncovers the encapsulated world as they absorb the thrust of spiraling and hypnotizing movement hurled their way. The contrasting sharp, pounding, angular shapes and the rushing waves of circular flow entice engaged eyes as they discover the circus train approaching. Browsing through heads and tails and tales, she constantly plays with facings, phrase layering, and phrase manipulation, cutting and pasting throughout the creative process to create a thousand-layer cake in a cartoon illustration, slowly drooping to one side–irregular yet pleasing, silly, and joyful.

Erica Isakower (choreographer of What Happens Next?, Mesh, and How Far We Go) is a neurodiverse choreographer, educator, and dancer from New Jersey, USA. Erica aims to push the boundaries of dance through layering movement, creating work that reflects life’s dynamic and complex experience. She is currently an MFA in Dance candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after earning her BFA from Hofstra University. Erica is the artistic director, choreographer, and dancer for Chutzpah Dance, presenting her work in prominent cities throughout the United States such as New York City, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Detroit, various cities throughout New Jersey, and is ecstatic to be making her international choreographic debut. After curating two dance showcases for emerging artists in NYC that prioritized women artists, LGBTQAI+, artists of the global majority, and disabled artists, she has curated this showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, following her mission as founder and Artistic Director of Chutzpah Dance to create opportunities for marginalized artists and break barriers of accessibility. Erica was a guest artist at Bucks County Community College (PA) and in residence at Broward College (FL). She also taught and presented work at Nazareth University's MAD festival (NY). Erica danced with Hanna Q Dance Company, Equilibrium Dance Company, and Allegory Dance Theatre, and at Dorney Park, contributing to the rehearsal processes. During her time at Hofstra University, she had the privilege of performing in works by Larry Keigwin, Anita Feldman, Luiza Karnas, and José Limón. Sharing her knowledge and nurturing the next generation of dancers is a vital part of Erica's artistic journey. She teaches at multiple dance studios in New Jersey and her commitment to education extends beyond local boundaries, as she taught workshops abroad in Panama as part of the Movement Exchange Organization in 2019. In 2021, Erica was awarded the South Jersey Artist & History Professional COVID Relief Grant award, recognizing her commitment as a choreographer, dancer, and dance educator within the community. www.chutzpahdance.com | @chutzpahdance

Kaitlyn Esposito (choreographer of Behind Closed Doors) is the Founder and Artistic Director of Extensions Dance Project, a company for dancers to continue their passion outside of their professions. Kaitlyn currently works as a full-time public relations professional. Kaitlyn completed her Bachelor's Degree in Communication with a concentration in Public Relations and minors in Dance and Sustainability Management and earned a Masters in Communication, all at Fairleigh Dickinson University. At FDU, she was the Founder and former Artistic Director of Fairleigh Dance Project, a social issues dance company, where she choreographed, taught classes, and coordinated dance concerts. Outside of Extensions Dance Project, she has performed with Continuum Dance Company and Terpsichore Dance Company.

Marika Brussel (choreographer of By a Thread) is a contemporary ballet choreographer, currently creating internationally across the UK and USA. Her work reshapes narratives through ballet, showing our interconnectedness and equity, bringing ballet firmly into the 21st Century. Her ballets have explored myths, plays, and personal stories. As someone very connected to the narrative form, she has choreographed ballets about key topics of our times, including ballets that explore climate change, divorce, and forgiveness. Often the works reframe old stories-- exploring new views on Shakespeare, Greek mythology, and biblical tales. Among the companies that have recently commissioned her work are: Kansas City Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Hudson Ballet Theatre (NYC), ARC Dance (Seattle) and Peninsula Ballet Theatre. She has also independently choreographed and produced From Shadows, an evening-length ballet about homelessness, which sold out the house in San Francisco, and a dance film, House of Names, made during the pandemic.

Natalie Long (choreographer of Unrequited Fruitbowl) grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina and received a BA in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of South Carolina. She has danced professionally with Yuhas & Dancers, Moving Body Dance Company, STEME DANCE NYC and Laura Ardner Choreography. Currently based in NYC, Natalie is dancing with Chutzpah Dance and crystalandthomas, and is also the director of ERELONG. Created in 2022 to house Natalie’s choreographic works, ERELONG has participated in 18 performances across 3 states. Highlights include unKEMpT, We Move: Love Moves and 7MPR’s Midnight Performances. Natalie is also a co-founder of 5$Movement, a community-centric improvisation collective.

Laura Ardner (choreographer of Excavated) is from York, Pennsylvania, and she earned her BFA in Dance from Slippery Rock University in 2021. She has presented her work at festivals such as Spark Theater Festival, Spring for Spring, Koresh Artist Showcase, and 92Y Mobile Dance Film Festival. She was also a part of the Digging in Group choreographic residency program at Green Space this year. Additionally, Laura completed Broadway Dance Center’s Independent Training Program in fall 2022. Currently, she is dancing for NYC-based companies Chutzpah Dance and DanceKerr & Dancers, and she is also a teaching artist for Notes in Motion through Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre.

Melanie Molina (collaborator of Excavated) received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Montclair State University. She is a graduate of LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and was a scholarship student at The Ailey School. She has also completed the Professional Semester at Broadway Dance Center and has attended training programs at Steps on Broadway, Peridance, and The Joffrey Ballet School. She is currently a dancer with Chutzpah Dance and an instructor at Elements Barre Fit. Over the years she has performed works by Alwin Nikolais, Stacey Tookey, Earl Mosley, Max Stone and various others. Some of her regional theater credits include The Music Man, Gypsy, and The King and I. She has also performed with WellBeing Dance and Velvet City Dance.

Nia Pretto (choreographer of Tumbao) is a recent graduate of Towson University with a Bachelors of Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography as well as a Bachelors of Science in Exercise Science. Last year, Nia had the amazing opportunity to have an arts administration internship with the Bates Dance Festival. Nia’s passion is in learning and educating social dances such as Samba, Lindy Hop, Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba, and Zouk dance and she hopes to bring these dance forms into concert dance spaces as many forms of the African Diaspora are not given the true recognition deserved. Recently, Nia’s works, “Feminine Soul” and “Égaré”, were performed at the Baltimore Black ChoreographersFestival and the Platform Dance Festival. Currently, Nia is dancing in New York City with Huracan Salsa Dance company and Chutzpah Dance. Nia is so grateful for the opportunity to be performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Jordyn Cherry (choreographer of The Flowering) is a New Jersey, USA based artist that is a graduate of Montclair State University, where she attained a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Communication Studies. She has performed work by Brice Mousset, Winston Dynamite Brown, Urban Bush Women, Stefanie Batten Bland, Paul Taylor, Larry Keigwin, Kathleen Kelley, and Jessie DiMauro Marks. Jordyn also is an aspiring choreographer debuting work at Montclair State, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD), and Modern Moves. Jordyn is developing as a director through her production Modern Moves, a performance series giving emerging choreographers a platform to present and perform.

Sky Poole (choreographer of The 20-Somethings) is an emerging contemporary and classically trained dancer earning a Bachelor of Arts in Dance at the University of Georgia. Originally from Augusta, GA, she trained at Colton Ballet School and attended intensives at A&A Ballet, Vail Valley Dance Intensive, Sarasota Ballet, and Carmel Dance Festival 2024. In college, she has enjoyed performing and choreographing in the Young Choreographer’s Series, as well as performing in Colton Ballet’s “Becoming," UGA Dance Company, and the Contemporary Dance Choreography Festival. Sky loves a challenge, and she appreciates the mechanism of movement as a means to explore and discuss sensitive and underrepresented topics.

Heather Dutton (choreographer of Ode to Whoever I Was) is a Brooklyn, NY based performance artist, dancer, and educator. She has presented her choreography at Here Arts Center, Dixon Place, the Tank, Spark Theater Festival, the Koresh Come Together Dance Festival, The Craft NYC, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, the American College Dance Association, and more. She has performed for a variety of NYC and Philadelphia based choreographers, and currently teaches dance in NYC public schools with the National Dance Institute. In addition to her formal modern dance training, she has a background in theatre, comedy, and gender studies, all of which inform her choreographic aesthetic. Her creative process is steered by the ambition of making emotionally accessible work for her audiences. As a queer and gender fluid person, Dutton is particularly interested in a layered and thorough exploration of queerness, gender identity, and unconventional emotional relationships.

Josephine Brunner, she/her, (co-choreographer of Telophase) is a New York-based dancer and choreographer originally from Baltimore, Maryland. As a recent graduate from George Mason University with a BFA in Dance, Josephine has been fortunate to have trained under the mentorship of teachers including Christina Robson, Shaun Boyle D’Arcy, and Susan Shields and perform works by Doug Varone, Rafael Bonachela, Darell Grand Moultrie, and Stephanie Martinez. In addition to dancing professionally with artists like Larry Kiegwin, Laura Halzack, and Shane Larson, Josephine is currently creating work throughout New York that centers around themes of queerness, gender, and the abstract.

Will Pettigrew, they/them, (co-choreographer of Telophase) is a dancer and choreographer from Maplewood NJ, currently based in the NYC area. Growing up as a competitive gymnast fostered a love for movement that has only grown with dance training. Will has trained with teaching artists such as Nancy Turano, Susan Shields, Roger Jeffrey and Elizabeth Koeppen. As a professional they have danced with choreographers like Hari Krishnan and Elizabeth Streb while pursuing their own choreographic goals. In 2022, Will graduated with a BFA in dance and a choreographic excellence award from George Mason University. Their choreography focuses on heightening the beauty and comedy of the mundane through extreme physical exertion.

Hannah Owens (choreographer of In the Meantime) is a dancer, creator, and lifelong learner based in Brooklyn, NY. She has recently debuted two new works in New York City, 3-in-1, and Your Favorite Double Act. Hannah has performed in pieces by Laura Smyth, Michele Miller, Wade Madson, Alice Gosti, Catriona Urquhart, and Anna Caffarelli, in addition to being in her own works. She has recently participated in WADE: Dance Hub Barcelona where she conducted choreographic research with other emerging choreographers. Hannah is a graduate from Cornish College of the Arts with a BFA in Dance. If you’d like to see more from her, please check out her Instagram: @handapandaowens.

Amanda Alves (choreographer of At the Center) is a Massachusetts based dancer and choreographer. She graduated with a BA in Dance from Hofstra University in New York, USA. Since then, she has danced and choreographed in prominent cities including New York and Boston as a freelance artist. Her choreography has been presented at WaxWorks and Movement festivals. In addition, she is shooting a dance short film in the Boston area this year with KJI Film and TV Entertainment. She continues to develop work and hopes to continue to create in the future.
 

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