Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID 40 New York, NY Permit No. 6846 Cover: Will Rawls © Devin Alberda #platform2015 PLATFORM 2015 DANCERS, BUILDINGS AND PEOPLE IN THE STREETS DAN SPAC40 E PROJECT DANSPACE PROJECT PRESENTS PLATFORM 2015: DANCERS, BUILDINGS AND PEOPLE IN THE STREETS CURATED BY CLAUDIA LA ROCCO Silas Riener, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Claudia La Rocco, Rashaun Mitchell, Sara Mearns © Simon Courchel Danspace Project's 9th Platform for our 40th anniversary year was inspired, in part, by the writings of dance critic and poet Edwin Denby. In 2014 six pairs of artists were asked by Platform curator, poet and former New York Times dance critic Claudia La Rocco, to participate in artistic exchanges. For almost a year, the artists have engaged with each other in person, via email and skype, in the studio, and in residencies at the Barshynikov Art Center, NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts, Jodi Melnick & Sterling Hyltin © Devin Alberda Bard Fisher Center, and American Ballet Theatre’s Innovation Initiative. These exploratory exchanges are open-ended and include sharing dance practices, movement ideas, text, and films. PLATFORM 2015: Dancers, Buildings and People in the Streets is: The Platform asks how shared and divergent cultural histories of artists from ballet • 3 weeks of dance dialogues between: Kaitlyn Gilliland & Will Rawls, Silas and contemporary dance are relevant today, exploring the intersections of dance Riener & Adrian Danchig-Waring, Sara Mearns & Rashaun Mitchell, Sterling and poetry, and the idea of poet as critic. La Rocco writes: Hyltin & Jodi Melnick, Jillian Peña & Troy Schumacher, Emily Coates & Yve Laris Cohen; This Platform developed out of two ongoing conversations between me and • A one-time-only public rehearsal and performance in which Pam Tanowitz Judy [Hussie-Taylor]: one about how poetry and dance intersect, and one will choreograph a new dance over the course of one day for Dylan Crossman, about the lack of meaningful engagement between artists from ballet and Melissa Toogood and four New York City Ballet corps de ballet members; contemporary dance…[We] became interested in the idea of Denby and the poet-critic as a possible framework. • Intimate, once in a lifetime workshops taught by Silas Riener (Merce Cunningham), Kaitlyn Gilliland (Balanchine's Serenade), and Emily Coates I responded to the [Edwin Denby] prompt by offering 12 artists from [Denby's (Yvonne Rainer's Trio A); "three nodal points of Balanchine, Cunningham and Judson Dance Theater"] (some of whom disagree with me about their relationships to these points), • Lively discussions with Platform artists and catalogue contributors; with the idea that they would work in six pairings, artificially created by me, a poor-man's Denby…A lot of what sparks my enthusiasm here is curiosity. What • A limited-edition publication, which will be on sale at all Platform events. would happen if…? i don't have a sense of what these pairings will come up with, whether or not it will "work" or even will be meant to work, whether it will lead to new things…so those possibilities, those known unknowns or whatever, #platform2015 are exciting in and of themselves. CALENDAR FEBRUARY 11 A Reading for Edwin Denby (co-hosted by The Poetry Project) 13 Workshop: Silas Riener 14 Conversations Without Walls & Platform Book Party 19-21 Dance Dialogues: Kaitlyn Gilliland & Will Rawls Adrian Danchig-Waring & Silas Riener 20 Workshop: Silas Riener 27 Workshop: Kaitlyn Gilliland MARCH 5-7 Dance Dialogues: Sara Mearns & Rashaun Mitchell Sterling Hyltin & Jodi Melnick 6 Workshop: Kaitlyn Gilliland 13 Workshop: Emily Coates 19-21 Dance Dialogues: Emily Coates & Yve Laris Cohen Jillian Peña & Troy Schumacher 20 Workshop: Emily Coates 23 Open Rehearsal & Performance: Pam Tanowitz 28 Conversations Without Walls Sara Mearns & Rashaun Mitchell © Devin Alberda ADMISSION & TICKETS $20 General Admission / $15 for Danspace Project members, unless otherwise noted. PLATFORM 2015 CATALOGUE ON SALE AT ALL PLATFORM Purchase tickets online at www.danspaceproject.org EVENTS! or by phone (OvationTix/TheaterMania) at (866) 811-4111. Danspace's ninth Platform publication covers a large spectrum of ideas VISIT US including poet-as-critic, Edwin Denby and New York City circa 1974; and includes Danspace Project is located inside the historic St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery photographs by Denby’s close friend and collaborator, photographer/filmmaker at 131 East 10th Street (at 2nd Avenue) in New York City's East Village. Rudy Burckhardt, as well as images of the Platform artists taken by New York City Ballet corps de ballet member Devin Alberda. Contributors: Devin Alberda, Reid Bartelme, Emily Coates, Yve Laris Cohen, Douglas Crimp, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Barbara Dilley, Douglas Dunn, Larry Fagin, Kaitlyn Gilliland, David Gordon, Christine Shan Shan Hou, Judy Hussie- Taylor, Sterling Hyltin, Emmanuel Iduma, Ryan Kelly, Claudia La Rocco, Ralph Lemon, Sara Mearns, Jodi Melnick, Megan Metcalf, Rashaun Mitchell, Fred Moten, Eileen Myles, David Parker, Jillian Peña, Cassie Peterson, Will Rawls, Silas Riener, Troy Schumacher, Dan Siegler, Pam Tanowitz, David Vaughan, David Velasco, Anne Waldman, and John Yau. This limited edition publication will be on sale at all Platform events and online at danspaceproject.org. FOLLOW US! Instagram: @DanspaceProject Twitter: @DanspaceProject Facebook: Danspace Project Tumblr: danspaceproject.tumblr.com www.danspaceproject.org Jillian Peña © Devin Alberda EVENTS Anne Waldman & Edwin Denby. Xerox image from a photograph taken by Bill Yoscary at The Gotham Book Mart, NYC, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Claudia La Rocco, Sterling Hyltin, Will Rawls, Rashaun Mitchell © Devin Alberda ca. 1973. From An Interview with Edwin Denby conducted by Anne Waldman, 1997. Danspace Project and The Poetry Project invite you to Conversations Without Walls Conversations Without Walls Dancers, Buildings and People in the Streets: & Platform 2015 Book Party A Reading for Edwin Denby March 28 [Sat] 2-6pm February 14 [Sat] 2-6pm This final Platform-centric February 11 [Wed] at 8pm Danspace's Conversation Without Conversation Without Walls will Walls will celebrate the PLATFORM include a wrap-up discussion between Join us as we take inspiration from Denby's multiple roles as poet-critic-curator. 2015 publication with contributors participating artists, writers, and Reid Bartelme, Emily Coates, Yve special guest respondents who will The Poetry Project hosts an evening of readings by Bill Berkson, Anselm Laris Cohen, Kaitlyn Gilliland, Sara gather to share their questions, Berrigan, Jacob Burckhardt, Yoshiko Chuma, Mimi Gross, Christine Shan Shan Mearns, Megan Metcalf, David observations, and highlights from the Hou, Emmanuel Iduma, Yvonne Jacquette Burckhardt, Vincent Katz, Claudia Parker, Jillian Peña, Cassie Peterson, multi-week event. La Rocco, Eileen Myles, Ron Padgett, and Anne Waldman. Will Rawls, Dan Siegler, David Vaughan, Anne Waldman, and others A screening of Rudy Burckhardt's films "Remembering Edwin Denby" and "The who will discuss their contributions to Uncle's Return" will follow the readings. the catalogue. The second part of the afternoon will Admission: $8 at the door. No advance reservations. be a conversation between Artforum Conversation Admission: $10 editor David Velasco and author and suggested donation at the door. Location: This reading takes place inside the Parish Hall at St. Mark's Church in- art historian Douglas Crimp whose RSVP recommended at the-Bowery, 131 East 10th Street. personal correspondence about Edwin danspaceproject.org. Denby, George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham and contemporary Location: Both conversations take ballet and modern choreographers place inside the Parish Hall at St. is included in the PLATFORM 2015 Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, 131 East catalogue. 10th Street. WORKSHOPS SILAS RIENER KAITLYN GILLILAND EMILY COATES WORKSHOPS Complexity, Chance, and Balanchine's Serenade Yvonne Rainer's Trio A Workshop capacity is limited! Indeterminacy in the Advance registration is suggested. Choreographic Structures of February 27 [Fri] 2-4:30pm March 13 [Fri] 1:30-4:30pm Merce Cunningham & March 6 [Fri] 2-4:30pm & March 20 [Fri] 1:30-4:30pm Register at danspaceproject.org. February 13 [Fri] 2-4pm Former New York City Ballet dancer Emily Coates has directed the dance Observation-only tickets will be Technique as the Point of Kaitlyn Gilliland, currently on faculty studies curriculum at Yale University available at the door on the day of Departure for Experiments in at the School of American Ballet, since its inception in 2006. She has the workshop only. Choreography will teach phrases from the opening danced with New York City Ballet of George Balanchine's Serenade, February 20 [Fri] 2-4pm (1992-1998), Mikhail Baryshnikov the first original ballet he created in (1998-2002), and Twyla Tharp (2001- America. These two afternoons will 2003), and has been a member of Bessie Award-winner Silas Riener was include a brief introduction to the Yvonne Rainer's company since 2006. a member of the Merce Cunningham ballet, followed by a warmup and Coates is one of five select artists that Dance Company from November movement workshop and a discussion Rainer has approved to teach her 2007 until its closure at the end of with current New York City Ballet seminal dance Trio A. 2011. Riener, with the permission of dancers. the Cunningham Trust, will cull from The March 13 workshop will cover Cunningham repertory in these two Workshops suitable for participants the first half of the dance. The second workshops. with little or no dance experience, half will be completed on March 20. ages 16+. Please dress comfortably Participants may join one or both Workshop cost: $25. Advance and bring socks or ballet slippers. sessions. registration is suggested. Workshop cost: $25. Advance Please dress comfortably and wear Observation-only tickets: $10. registration is suggested. rubber-soled shoes. Available at the door on the day of the workshop only. Observation-only tickets: $10. Workshop cost: $25. Advance Available no earlier than 3:15pm at the registration is suggested. door on the day of the workshop only.