bigdancetheater

GIRL GROUP PERFORMANCE at @stormkingartcenter This was Arlene Shechet x Annie-B Parson’s first collaboration 💥 Thank you to everyone that made the trip and @stormkingartcenter incredible team! Choreography by Annie-B Parson in collaboration with the dancers: Cecily Campbell, Elizabeth DeMent, Natalie Green, Kashia Kancey, Brooke Ashley Rucker, and Jin Ju Song-Begin. Costumes by Arlene Shechet. Costume fabrication by Liv Rigdon @oh_livyeah Sound Design by Tei Blow @selectall. Sound Supervisor September performances @binnie_musa Kwamina Binnie Stage Manager: Sara Procopio. Produced by Storm King Art Center and Big Dance Theater. July 18 & 19 + September 27 & 28 📷 Photos by Erin Baiano @erinbaiano

We are proud to announce the release of: “Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study,” a groundbreaking exploration of dance history, authored by mayfield brooks, thomas f. defrantz, maura nguyễn donohue, Keith Hennessy, Bebe Miller, Okwui Okpokwasili, Eiko Otake, Annie-B Parson, Javier Stell-Frésquez, Ogemdi Ude, Mariana Valencia, and Andros Zins-Browne. • Please join us on October 2, 7 PM for our book launch at @chocolatefactorytheater Thank you to co-editors, Annie-B Parson and Thomas F. DeFrantz, all ⭐️authors, our co-publishers Wesleyan Press and Dancing Foxes Press and finally to Alice Chung @omnivoreland for the beautiful and colorful design! @anniebparson @thomas.defrantz @mayfieldbrookz @mauranguyendonohue @keithhennessysf @bebemillerco @sweatvariant @eiko_otake @jfresquez @gemgemdi @mmmarianavvvalencia @andorandora Project Director: Sara Pereira da Silva Managing Editors: Karen Kelly and Barbara Shroeder @dancing_foxes Design @omnivoreland Press contact: Stephanie Elliott Prieto selliott@wesleyan.edu @weslpress 📸: by Jack Lazar

GIRL GROUP PERFORMANCE premieres next week at @stormkingartcenter - come UP and join us for Arlene Shechet x Annie-B Parson’s first collaboration 💥 A group of six women gather to dance at dusk in the midst of Arlene Shechet’s “Girl Group.” Dance as sculpture: sculpture as dance. Friday, July 19 and Saturday, July 20 6:45—8:45PM 🎫 For tickets: visit the link in bio and choose your performance date. Choreography by Annie-B Parson in collaboration with the dancers: Cecily Campbell, Elizabeth DeMent, Natalie Green, Kashia Kancey, Brooke Ashley Rucker, and Jin Ju Song-Begin. Costumes by Arlene Shechet. Sound Design by @selectall. Produced by Storm King Art Center and Big Dance Theater. Additional performances September 27, 28. @arleneshechet 📷 Illustration from photos by Whitney Browne and David Schulze

Check out Big Dance Theatre's (@bigdancetheatre) collection of essays by working choreographers, "Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study." Authored by twelve diverse American dance artists in the form of twelve small booklets, the collection includes essays by two CBA alumni fellows, Annie-B Parson (CBA '18, @anniebparson) and Ogemdi Ude (CBA '20, @gemgemdi). This book interrogates the history of dance from the subjective, poetic perspective of a choreographer. Co-editors: Annie-B Parson (@anniebparson, CBA '18) and Thomas F. Defrantz (@thomas.defrantz) Project Director: Sara Pereira da Silva Managing Editors: Karen Kelly and Barbara Shroeder (@dancing_foxes) Design: Omnivore, Inc. (@omnivoreland) You can buy a copy at bigdancetheatre.org!

Tomorrow night @chocolatefactorytheater ! Big Dance Theater - Book Launch: Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study In an effort to deepen our understanding of what dance is and how it has functioned throughout human history, this prismatic book project is dedicated to an artist-centric perception of dance history. This book interrogates the history of dance from the subjective, poetic perspective of a choreographer. Diverse dance artists from the American dance field contribute prismatic, disruptive perspectives on how dance has unfolded over time and what dance history is. They reimagine the question: What is dance history? Twelve illustrated booklets, each written by a working choreographer, address the subject of dance history from nonacademic, subjective, poetic perspectives. The books model a way of enlarging and complicating how we view dance history by giving the authorial microphone to artists, to learn how their embodied perceptions relate to or diverge from the dominant dance canon. Authors: mayfield brooks, thomas f. defrantz, Maura Nguyen Donohue, Keith Hennessy, Bebe Miller, Okwui Okpokwasili, Eiko Otake, Annie-B Parson, Javier Stell-Fresquez, Ogemdi Ude, Mariana Valencia, and Andros Zins-Browne. Published by Dancing Foxes Press and Wesleyan University Press. Produced by Big Dance Theater with the generous support of The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Starry Night Fund, Big Dance Theater’s Board Designated Fund, Virginia and Timothy Millhiser, and King’s Fountain. Dance History(s) was published through a partnership between Dancing Foxes Press, Big Dance Theater, and Wesleyan University Press. Photo by Jasmine Fridman. Image: the covers for the books comprising “Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study”, arranged in a circle on a white background. Each cover is a different vibrant color.

Over the next few months, we will be highlighting CBA’s talented alumni fellows and the ways CBA shaped their artistic and intellectual trajectories. First up, we are featuring choreographer, dancer, and Artistic Director of @bigdancetheater Annie-B Parson (@anniebparson, CBA ‘18)! Annie-B Parson co-founded Big Dance Theater in 1991. Since then, she has created over 20 large scale works for venues such as BAM, The Kitchen, and The National Theater in Paris, and she has also made choreography for rock shows, movies, museums, TV, and operas, just to name a few. Parson cites her CBA fellowship in 2018 as “liberating in its physical and emotional stability.” She enjoyed meeting with emerging choreographers every week to discuss their work and spending time in the studio choreographing a duet, “Ballet Dance,” which premiered at the Skirball Center for the Arts. She continues to use CBA’s studio and offices for meetings and rehearsals. CBA is privileged to have Annie-B Parson as part of our renowned alumni network! You can learn more about her artistic journey and upcoming work by following her company @bigdancetheater on social media. Photo credit: Jeff Brown (image 1), Whitney Browne (images 2-3), Rachel Papo (image 4)

Big Dance is publishing a book with @dancing_foxes and @weslpress 💥📚 Join us on SUNDAY, APRIL 28 3pm at Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair @printedmatterinc for the book preview of Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study, with Annie-B Parson, Thomas F. DeFrantz, Bebe Miller, Ogemdi Ude, and Alice Chung. (RSVP in Bio) Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study is a multivoiced dance history book, authored by twelve choreographers. With contributions by mayfield brooks, thomas f. defrantz, maura nguyễn donohue, Keith Hennessy, Bebe Miller, Okwui Okpokwasili, Eiko Otake, Annie-B Parson, Javier Stell-Frésquez , Ogemdi Ude, Mariana Valencia, and Andros Zins-Browne. The book is published by Dancing Foxes Press, Wesleyan University Press, and Big Dance Theater Pre-orders of the book: https://www.weslpress.org/9780819500908/dance-historys/ Design: @omnivoreland

THE MOOD ROOM @walkerartcenter The wait paid off 💥 thank you thank you to everyone that made it possible! Photos by @kameron_herndon_photo Created/Choreographed: by Annie-B Parson Music by @holly_herndon Based on the play “FIVE SISTERS” by Guy de COINTET (1982) with additional text from Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1901) Created in collaboration with and performed by: Elizabeth DeMent, Theda Hammel, Jannie MaryTai Liu, Kate Moran, and devika v. wickremesinghe. Sound Design and re-composition by Mark degli Antoni. Sound Associate: Michael Hernandez Set Design by @machenmachen Lighting Design by @sirjoelevasseur Lead Costume Design by @swankenstein Co-Design by Baille Younkman Stage Manager @racheffects Production Manager @alxvsquezdhming Producer @sarasps Tour Representation ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann @arktype Rehearsal Assistant @choreobyliv_pal Big thank you to @nngreen81 and Cheryl Rosario. The generative creative process for this production included Brittany Engel-Adams, Tina Satter, and Michelle Sui. The Mood Room by Annie-B Parson / Big Dance Theater © premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2021. Original cast: Elizabeth DeMent, Theda Hammel, Kate Moran, Myssi Robinson, and Michelle Sui.

THE MARCH premieres TODAY!!! Photos 1 & 2: “The Oath” by Annie-B Parson Photos 3 & 4: “NYSea” by Tendayi Kuumba Photos 5 & 6: “ Big small feet” by Donna Uchizono Dancers: @mawuoye @brookerucker @stacydawsonstearns_herrklunch @nngreen81 @megharper32 @hsiaojou19 @jin_ju_song @kashiakancey @jrkotze @nugent.jenn @devinoshiro @pamela.pietro @moonchildbinch @pazdanz @isabel.umali @wingedviolet Photos by @canigetawhitney Image Description Image 1 - a group of dancers stand in a circle looking up with both arms up in white costumes and a crown of flowers Image 2 - a group of 16 dancers is on a long diagonal wearing white backpacks Image 3 - a group of 15 dancers runs in a circle. They are all wearing white costumes Image 4 - One performer is singing in front of a stand-up microphone and another two dancers are facing back in white costumes Image 5 - a group of 15 dancers is facing front with their right leg up, they are all wearing blue dresses. Image 6 - 3 dancers are facing front and looking down, their arms extended to the side, and other 15 dancers are forming in a quadrangular shape

THE MARCH is here. Preview today @3pm. Our stellar creative team: Associate artists: @lizdement @levignzlz @uflymothership • Sound Design: @selectall @okkyung_lee @uflymothership @sound.by.ryan • Lighting Design @jeanette_yew • Stage Manager Ilana Khanin • Company Manager @lilachorenstein • Production Manager @glitterandjustice • executive director and producer @sarasps 💫💫💫 Pictured from L to R: @brookerucker @jin_ju_song @wingedviolet @mawuoye Photo by: @j_cervantes NYSea @whostendayi Image description: a group of four dancers with one leg up and their arms to the sides.

THE MARCH premiers in 10 days at @pac_nyc 💥! Big Dance gets BIG! . THE MARCH, a dance in three distinct sections, created by three distinct choreographers @whostendayi @anniebparson @donnauchizonoco interrogates the use of unison in the world, from the harmonious to the monstrous, from the communal to the mechanist, into abstraction. Each dance maker experiments with moving as one voice, one body, and the necessity behind this impulse to move in synchronicity, as stronger and stranger than the individual. Beautiful photos by Julieta Cervantes @j_cervantes Dancers: @mawuoye @brookerucker @stacydawsonstearns_herrklunch @nngreen81 @megharper32 @hsiaojou19 @jin_ju_song @kashiakancey @jrkotze @nugent.jenn @devinoshiro @pamela.pietro @kportier @moonchildbinch @pazdanz @isabel.umali @wingedviolet

One month until we open @pac_nyc! 💥 The March, an evening of contemporary dance in three parts, will be presented in-the-round. Tendayi Kuumba @whostendayi, Annie-B Parson @anniebparson, and Donna Uchizono @donnauchizonoco joined forces to interrogate our human compulsion to move together in time. • TICKETS ARE GOING FAST! • Co-commission with PAC NYC, @amerdancefest, @spoletofestivalusa, and @nccakron ! Our women and femme cast is ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️! Everyone is tagged* Dec 10-16. • 📸 Hsiao-Jou Tang by Jai Lenard.