FUSA Fringe Festival | Althea Dance Company & Ariel Rivka Dance

Program

Unorthodox Choreographer: Ariel Grossman Dancers: Asia Bonilla, Caitlyn Casson, Casie O’Kane, Hana Ginsburg Tirosh Original Composition: Stefania de Kenessey 2020

Collaborating with composer Stefania de Kenessey to create an original score inspired by the drive and tradition of Klezmer music. The work juxtaposes the raw realness with the polite versions of ourselves we often portray to the world. What happens when you unzip the dress to breathe? The title is inspired by the book of the same name (recently adapted into a Netflix Series), about a woman who leaves a strict Hasidic sect.

LAZAR Choreographer: Thea Bautista Dancers: Geovanni Ortega, Thea Bautista Text and voice: Olivier Benyahya Music: MSHR Art Collective 2019

Lazar is a duet choreographed by Thea Bautista based on a extract 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.

What You Want Choreographger: Ariel Grossman Dancers: Amy Ashley, Asia Bonilla, Caitlyn Casson, Abriona Cherry, Kristin Licata, Casie O’Kane, Hana Ginsburg Tirosh Original Composition: Summer Dregs Costumes: Carmen Maria Martinez 2022

What You Want is a story of personal revolution and self-discovery. Through a female lens, the new work, continued from last Spring’s first iteration by the same title, answers questions around identity, agency, limitations, and the importance of finding truth amongst the noise of the world around us. It is a universal story told through an intimate expression of personal struggle, victory and acceptance. What You Want is made possible by a commissioning grant from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation

About the companies

Ariel Rivka Dance (ARD) is a contemporary dance company established by Ariel Grossman in New Jersey/New York. ARD’s mission is to promote female creatives through original choreography, commissioned music, and educational programming. ARD values collaboration and strives to create emotionally driven movement with technique and structure, and features newly commissioned music from living composers in their shows. ARD has performed at various venues in the United States such as BAM Fisher, NY, New York Live Arts, and New Jersey Performing Arts Center, as well as internationally at the Istanbul Fringe Festival in Turkey. ARD will tour France, London, and Italy in 2023.

Althea Dance Company is a New York-based contemporary dance company based between New York City and Paris, directed by Thea Bautista. Althea Dance’s work is a blend of contemporary flow and seamless movement, yet very physical, which mixes floor work with the lines and extensions of the dancers. Althea Dance Company focuses on international collaboration with artists from different fields such as writers, musicians, painters or visuals artists. The company explores new ways of sharing dance with the audience and how to reach to people who may not be used to the contemporary dance scene. So far, Althea Dance Company has performed mainly in the US, France and Mexico and is aiming to keep expending its international voice. Althea Dance Company has been in residency at the FEU since 2018. Follow Althea Dance on Facebook and Instagram!