For Immediate Release Contact: Elizabeth Cooke Communications Manager [email protected] (212) 691-6500 x210 NEW YORK LIVE ARTS presents Fresh Tracks Dec 13 – 15 at 7:30pm New York, NY, November 15, 2012 – New York Live Arts will present Fresh Tracks, the latest installment of the Fresh Tracks Performance & Residency Program, Dec 13 – 15 at 7:30pm. The 2012-13 Fresh Tracks Artists include Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie, Franklin Diaz, Megan Kendizor, Molly Poerstel-Taylor, Michal Samama and Parul Shah. Created in 1965 by Dance Theater Workshop and now continued as a signature program of New York Live Arts, the Fresh Tracks Performance and Residency Program selects six early career artists annually to receive comprehensive performance and residency support. The program begins with a showcase performance in New York Live Arts’ Bessie Schönberg Theater. Following the performance, each artist receives a 50-hour creative residency in the New York Live Arts studios for research and development of new work. Additionally, artists receive introductory level professional development workshops in marketing, fundraising and career development. Under the guidance of Artistic Advisor Levi Gonzalez, Fresh Tracks artists participate in dialogue sessions facilitating open discussion about their creative process, as well as one-on-one consultations. Performances will take place at New York Live Arts’ Bessie Schönberg Theater. Come Early Conversations and Stay Late Discussions will also be featured with two shows (see complete schedule below). Tickets are $20 and $15. Tickets may be purchased online at tickets.newyorklivearts.org, by phone at 212-924-0077 and in person at the box office. Box office hours are Monday to Friday from 1 to 9pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 8pm. Schedule of Related Events: Dec 13 at 6:30pm Come Early Conversation: 47 years of Emerging Artists, 2011-12 Fresh Track Artists. Moderated by Levi Gonzalez Dec 14 Stay Late Mixer: The Fresh Tracks Reunion, 1965 through today. Listing info: Fresh Tracks Dec 13 – 15 at 7:30pm Bessie Schönberg Theater, New York Live Arts Tickets: $20, $15 T: 212-924-0077 | www.newyorklivearts.org 219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011 Box Office hours: Monday-Friday 1 - 9pm | Saturday-Sunday 12 - 8pm About Past Fresh Tracks Artists Previous Fresh Tracks artists include: Jeff Duncan (1965), Deborah Jowitt (1968), Wendy Perron (1970), Alice Teirstein (1974), Bill T. Jones (1977), Bebe Miller (1978) Elizabeth Streb (1979), Tere O’Connor (1984), Amy Sue Rosen (1986), Ron Brown (1987), Reggie Wilson (1989), RoseAnne Spradlin (1990), Rosane Chamecki (1991), Maura Ngyuen-Donohue (1995), and more recently, Ivy Baldwin (2000), Jen Rosenblit (2009), and Vanessa Anspaugh (2010). About the 2012-13 Fresh Tracks Artists Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie has trained extensively in ballet and modern dance but found her artistic home in breaking, hip hop and house. She began breaking in 2002 under Richard Santiago (aka Breakeasy) and soon after was introduced to house music. She has been greatly influenced by the New York club scene ever since. Asherie has performed and taught throughout the U.S. and Europe, as well as in Peru, South Africa and Israel. She has appeared on NBC, MTV, Comedy Central and at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden and Dance Theater Workshop. Asherie worked on the creation process of the show Magnifico, directed by Andres Heller and choreographed by Pilobolus. She is a regular guest artist with Rennie Harris Puremovement and has worked with Bill Irwin, Buddha Stretch and Cori Olinghouse among others. Her work has been presented at Dixon Place, The Bushwick Starr, The Flea, the Motherlode Theater and the Bendheim Performing Arts Center. Asherie dances with her crew MAWU and is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center, Peridance Center and the Joffrey Ballet School. She has a B.A. in Italian Language (summa cum laude) from Barnard College. Asherie is a NYFA artist and is the recent Swing Space grant recipient from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Next year she will be travelling to Brazil with a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study grant to study how Brazilian cultural and folkloric dances have influenced breaking in Brazil. Asherie’s work for the 2012 Fresh Tracks Performance Series, In 3 Movements, fuses breaking and house with more traditional styles, reflecting on the universal journey of life. Born in the Dominican Republic, Franklin Diaz’s future was decided from the early age of four. Falling in love with movement and sound, he taught himself to dance. He is the product of a musical family composed of instrumentalists and vocalists, nurtured by music of his culture. His passion for dance and complex musical structures was further broadened and challenged with his exposure to Flamenco, an art form of Southern Spain associated with the Spanish Gypsies. Diaz is well versed in various dance forms including Salsa, Afrocuban, Ballet, Modern and Flamenco. He creates a pelau, una ensalada, a salsa of unique flavors. He moves to music, transforming his body into an extraordinary instrument. Diaz has been defined as a force of nature, “un mito.” He has had the honor and pleasure of training under the watchful eyes of Jose Molina, Jose Maya and Alfonso Losa (Flamenco), studied modern and ballet at The Ailey School and salsa with Victor Pacheco and Eddie Torres. He has traveled the world, nationally and internationally sharing the stage with renowned artists such as Celia Cruz, Tito Puentes and Fania All Stars. His signature performance style is sought after by promoters from China, to Argentina, to Tunis Africa and Morocco. As he receives accolades from peers, fans, dance enthusiasts and the general public, he continues to impress with his ever evolving style. His respect for his craft, his talent and his blessings are strongly linked with his spiritual life. He continues to foster his growth at every opportunity, always striving for excellence. Diaz’s work for the 2012 Fresh Tracks Performance Series will feature a combination of flamenco and contemporary movement vocabularies, Afro influences and Cuban sounds. His work explores the inner struggle he has faced throughout his artistic career, looking at where he has come from and where he is going. Megan Kendizor is a New York based choreographer, performer, educator and administrator. She hails from Sarasota, Florida and received a B.F.A. in dance from the University of Florida. She has been influenced by experiences at the American Dance Festival (North Carolina), the Impulstanz International Dance Festival (Vienna), Kibbutz Ga'aton (Israel), the Bates Dance Festival (Maine) and the American College Dance Festival. Her work has been shown throughout Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, Washington, Israel and New York, most recently through the Draftwork series at Danspace Project. In 2010, she won the Outstanding Student Choreographer award from Dance Magazine/ACDFA for the performance of her work, Witness, at The Kennedy Center (D.C.). She recently founded the Red Lodge Dance Experience, a week-long dance intensive in Montana and will co-direct the Our Children's Dance Xchange this Fall in Harlem. Kendizor has worked as an intern for Movement Research, Dance New Amsterdam and as an assistant at the American Dance Festival. She currently works as an administrator for Jennifer Monson/iLAND, Wally Cardona, Neta Pulvermacher and Anna Sperber. She is honored to be part of the 2012 Fresh Tracks Performance Series. In Rift, Kendizor investigates the relationship between a man and a woman through moments of tender alliance, stark isolation and palpable disturbance. Molly Poerstel-Taylor is a downtown dance artist who has been active in the New York City dance community for the past twelve years. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University on a Dean of the Arts Scholarship in 2000, and within this time has worked with many artists as a physical and theatrical collaborator. Such artists include: David Grenke, Mark Jarecke, Jeanine Durning, David Dorfman Dance Company, Susan Rethorst, Alex Escalante, Hilary Clark, Larissa Valez, Roseanne Spradlin and Ivy Baldwin Dance. Poerstel-Taylor has been called “a voluptuous, earthy dancer with a mastery of tension” by The New York Times. She has studied anatomy with Irene Dowd, Body Mind Centering with Roseanne Spradlin and the Grotovsky Method with Raina Von Waldenburg. Poerstel-Taylor has taught at Dance New Amsterdam, 100 Grand, CLASSCLASSCLASS, The Open Look Dance Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia and The Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Currently she is an adjunct professor at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance and is on faculty at the Dalton School. Porstel-Taylor’s work for the 2012 Fresh Tracks Performance Series, Do Beast, challenges her ability to create a delivery system which ignites dancers’ imaginations, sourcing sensations associated with painful memories, instinctual impulses, props, imagined landscapes, humility and sexuality, and exploring the contrast of these elements when set in a structural framework. Michal Samama is a New York based choreographer and performance artist. During the last ten years Samama has created works in dance, theater and performance art and she is now focusing on the research and creation of movement based solo performances, involving video, photography and site-specific practices. Samama is a 'Movement Research' 2011-2013 Artist-in-Residence. She recently gained a ‘LiftOff residency’ at New Dance Alliance and has been a ‘The Field’ Artist-in-Residence (Fall 2010). Since arriving to NYC in 2010, her work has been presented at Dixon Place, Movement Research at Judson Church, Joyce Soho, Chez Bushwich, Priska C. Juschka Gallery, First Street Green at First Park, Vaudeville Park (in a work by Yoni Niv) and the 92nd Street Y, where she also curated an interdisciplinary art event in January 2012. In Berlin she created two solo works as part of 'Extension' PAStudies and performed there at the Home Sweet Home Festival, Werkstatt der Kulturen and the Grimmuseum.