Upcoming Performance: January 15

Femme Day of Action at Judson Church
Beyond Visibility: Illuminating & Aligning Femmes in NYC

We’re proud to carve out our take on gender presentation & prescribed notions of femininity with Women I Know (watch an excerpt here).

Sunday, January 15, 2012
7:00 pm
Judson Memorial Church, 239 Thompson St.
(directly below Washington Square Park)
Women I Know, performed by Jessi Patz

More info on Beyond Visibility: beyondvisibility.femme2012.com
Facebook event page: www.facebook.com/femmedayofaction

New MBDance: Stand

During MBDance’s Florida State University residency, two graduate students requested that Maria create a duet for their MFA concert. They began working on the new piece–Stand–at FSU, and Rachel Hunter and Keisha Calderon travel to New York this month to continue the creative process. Their duet  will be the first section of a larger half-evening length Stand that Maria is creating for MBDance.

Stand, creative process at FSU, Rachel & Keisha with MBDance

In light of recent movements–the peaceful demonstrations in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, Occupy Wall Street, and the fight to ratify same-sex marriage–the motivation to stand up and out is palpable. Asserting our humanity and that of our neighbors often begins in the sizzle of internal dialogue and boils over into a physical manifestation–marching, sitting-in, occupying, being present as bodies. Stand is to be a danced exploration of our human impulse to stand up, and of the factors that contribute to our ambivalence.

Creating Stand at FSU

Feedback from Vanguard High School 

MBDance blew my students away in their performance of 50 Ways To Say… Maria so gracefully gifted our students with her ability to deconstruct Sean Bell’s tragic story through the spellbinding narrative she gleans from the body.
I witnessed a deep transformation wash over my students as they got lost in the emotion and movement of the performance.  I am grateful that many of my students experienced her work–there is an urgency within it that is so relevant to the communities of color they come from.
This is how it should be done!!
-Vanguard English teacher, Charan Morris

In December, we were invited to Vanguard to share contemporary dance & examples of black success with the students. Maria Bauman & Kendra Ross offered a lecture-demonstration based on 50 Ways to Say..., and were humbled by the students’ candor and intelligence.

What are the MBDance Collaborators Up to?

The artists who make up MBDance are all amazing and up to excellent work. Catch them in the city–no, in the U.S.–no, around the world!

Maria Bauman, Founder & Choreographer

Maria is happy to collaborate with others outside of her MBDance projects! On January 16th she will perform as part of Jawole Zollar & Liz Lerman’s presentation for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at Symphony Space.
FREE, 6:30pm, symphonyspace.org/mlk
Then, in February, Maria is pleased to re-join the cast of 4 Electric Ghosts touring to North Carolina. The piece was conceived by Mendi + Keith Obadike with lead collaborators Angela’s Pulse. carolinaperformingarts.org

Zoe Rabinowitz, Dancer

Associate Artistic Director of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre, Zoe is gearing up for their upcoming performances at the Joyce SoHo.
January 19-21 at 7:30pm; January 22 at 2pm
Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street
Tickets: $18, Student/Senior $15
Click here to purchase tickets

Ashley Phillips recently collaborated with Chaney Sims & Ganessa James to perform Root.Soul.Music at Dixon Place and Branded Saloon. Currently, Ashley is on the producing team of a monthly QTPOC cabaret called TRANSformation which happens every first Thurs. of the month at WOW Cafe Theatre.

Maresa D'Amore-Morrison, Dancer

Maresa has been working with Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, A Dance Company, preparing for a 12-week US tour. She is also working with Adira Amram & The Experience, spreading glittery magic and making NYC laugh at two monthly shows: Night of the Living with Kurt Braunohler, and The Party Machine. Otherwise, you can find her teaching at the Ailey School, or in the kitchen trying out a new recipe, and “looking forward to the next time I can work with all of the beauties that make up MBDance.”                        

Terre Unité Parker, Dancer

Terre presents Trust Me, an experiment in collective creativity. Inspired by Anna Halprin’s 10 Myths (1967-8), Trust Me invites audiences & performers to meet in a fantastical world and play with new ways of relating with each other and the natural environment.
Haybarn Theater, Goddard College, Plainfield, VT February 3^rd, 2012. Northampton, MA, Spring 2012 (with support from the Northampton Arts Council, Inc.). For more information please email terreunite@gmail.com.

Keith Witty, Composer

Keith’s been working tirelessly on an upcoming record with the international collaborative trio, THIEFS. He is also composing for & rehearsing with the Keith Witty Quintet–show coming up on January 18th at the Cornelia Street Cafe! In addition, he’s still performing & recording with Amel Larrieux and continuing his residency with the NYC Opera’s education department, composing music with 7th graders.

Chioke I'Anson, Audio Engineer

Jessi Patz, Dancer

Kendra Ross, Dancer

Kendra is pleased to announce the premiere of her piece Destruction/Revitalization…Repurpose, co-choreographed with Detroit dancer Maya Cadwell-Stovall in the Midwest Regional Alternative (RAD) festival March 2-4, 2012.  Kendra is currently in Bahia, Brazil for the Roseangela Silvestre Intensive where she is excited to study modern and orixa dances.  In April she will teach a residency at Detroit School of Arts.

Daniel José Older, Composer

Daniel’s short story PHANTOM OVERLOAD appears in this brand new anthology from Crossed Genres Press, a collection of speculative fiction about subverting the system: http://crossedgenres.com/titles/subversion/
He also has a book coming out next summer!