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nyfacurrent · 5 years

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Conversations | Martita Abril and Yanira Castro

“I am committed to including communities whose participation in our country’s ‘democracy,’ not to mention its very border, is being violently and systematically denied.” - Yanira Castro

Choreographers Martita Abril and Yanira Castro are linked with The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and each other via different programs offered by the organization. Abril has been both a mentor and mentee in the Immigrant Artist Mentoring program, while Castro received a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography in 2016. Together, they talked to us about their collaborations, the impact of NYFA in their careers as choreographers, and all the ways they seek to empower the immigrant artist community in New York.

NYFA: Can you tell us how you met and about your collaborations?

Martita Abril: We met at Dance New Amsterdam in 2013, when I arrived from México and was part of the Visa Program where Yanira was teaching in a Choreographic Investigation Course. Since then, Yanira continued to mentor me and we have worked together on several projects. I performed in Court/Garden, a piece by Yanira that was presented in New York City, and toured Boston ICA, Redfern Arts Center in New Hampshire, and Chicago Cultural Center. We are currently collaborating on a New York Live Arts (NYLA)/NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Program (IAP) partnership that will be involving other IAP artists.

Yanira Castro: Back in the days of Dance New Amsterdam (before Gibney), I was invited to teach in their Choreographic Investigation Course that was open to artists in DNA’s Visa Program. The program was a one-semester course that was described as an intensive, a way of working at your practice without going to university. Martita was one of the students in the program, and her use of ordinary materials (tape, plastic bag) paired with simple actions made the moment fragile, political, powerful. She invited me to be her formal mentor through that program and ever since we have been in conversation. It has been one of those relationships that feels like family.

Recently, I asked Martita what she thought artists in the IAP program would benefit from the most. She talked passionately about having opportunities to show work to support their visas. I am working with New York Live Arts on my next project, so I asked them if they would be interested in partnering to support IAP Artists, to provide the space. The response has been very positive, and I am thrilled to be working with Martita on this.

NYFA: You both have links with NYFA, Martita as a participant in IAP and Yanira as a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow. Can you both talk about these relationships and how they impacted your respective careers?

MA: I had the opportunity to meet many incredible immigrant artists as a mentee and as a mentor in IAP. NYFA made me feel at home and helped create a supportive network in a new landscape. The program had a big impact on my life here in New York City. I want to give back and help as many artists I can to find opportunities.

YC: Receiving a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship felt like an acknowledgment of my body of work. It is not often in the making of work that there is recognition. Frequently, you are working in your corner. The fellowship was one of those rare moments when I felt part of a history or continuum and recognized as a choreographer. I felt full of gratitude.

NYFA: Any piece of advice for artists (immigrants or not) on how to network and create opportunities in New York City?

YC: Go to everything you can. See as much as you can. Find ways to be in conversation with other artists whose work you are interested in. It is as important to see work everywhere as to attend classes or going to talks, conversations, and studies. Let yourself be surprised as often as possible.

MA: As an immigrant artist, I was really curious about how things were done here in New York, so I went out and got involved in all the projects that were interesting to me. When I could, I volunteered to help with administrative or production tasks at multiple companies and projects. I was fortunate to find artists I respected and who were willing to teach and guide me. It was important for me to find fellow artists who were creating provocative and exploratory art that were aligned with my own artistic values. I found it was critical to be comfortable with myself and my own style and to embrace and engage my fellow immigrant artists, like the community embraced me.

NYFA: Do you have any upcoming projects?

YC: Last Audience, which is being presented by New York Live Arts in October 2019, looks at the meaning and power of people gathering in a theatrical environment. It supports and explores the idea that theater is meant to be a place where people from the whole of society meet/see/gather to engage in ideas, stories, and actions of what it means to be in the world together/in a democracy together. These ways of interaction strengthen our communities, enlarging the possibilities of how we commune.

Through my partnership with New York Live Arts, I have access to a space, a way to gather people, and access to audiences. I would like to put this at the disposal of others who may be interested in sharing a conversation and shaping it.

I am committed to including communities whose participation in our country’s “democracy,” not to mention its very border, is being violently and systematically denied. I am working with New York Live Arts to do this in a variety of ways: a free, public communal meal in the lobby of Live Arts called COMMUNE, where people can gather before and after shows and engage in conversation. And through this partnership between NYFA and NYLA, I aim to support the work of artists in IAP.

MA: Currently I’m the coordinator for the Movement Research at the Judson Church series, a program that intends to serve as a creative laboratory and incubator for wide-ranging artistic investigations in movement-based forms. This series is a platform for artists at various stages of their creative development. I will be presenting solo work in May and in the fall as part of several festivals in New York, and I will also be curating an immigrant artists symposium later this Spring, with more details forthcoming.

- Interview Conducted by Alicia Ehni, Program Officer at NYFA Learning

About Martita Abril and Yanira Castro Originally from Tijuana, México, Martita Abril is a performer, choreographer, teaching artist, alumna, and now Mentor in the Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program (IAP). She has worked with numerous dance artists and companies throughout México, the U.S., and Ecuador, including Dance Constructions by Simone Forti at the Museum of Modern Art.

Yanira Castro is a Puerto Rican, Bessie Award-winning artist based in Brooklyn, NY. In 2009, she formed the interdisciplinary group, a canary torsi.

This interview is part of the ConEdison Immigrant Artist Program Newsletter #115. Subscribe to this free monthly e-mail for artist’s features, opportunities, and events.

Images from top: Martita Abril, Bifur/cación, 2014, Photo: Ian Douglas; Yanira Castro | a canary torsi, Court/Garden (2015), Photo: Maria Baranova (pictured: Toni Carlson, Kimberly Young, Martita Abril); Yanira Castro | a canary torsi, STAGE (2017), Photo: Maria Baranova (pictured: Simon Courchel, Leslie Cuyjet, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste); Yanira Castro | a canary torsi, CAST (2017), Photo: Maria Baranova (pictured: Leslie Cuyjet, Kyle Bukhari, Simon Courchel)

#a canary torsi #martita abril #yanira castro #alicia ehni #afp #immigrant artist mentoring program #nysca nyfa artist fellowship #immigrant artist program #iap #iap newsletter #conversation #interview #nyfa learning #iap interview #performance #choreography #instagram

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breakingbuzz · 4 years

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A Space for Black Dance Artists to Create in the Hudson Valley

By BY PETER LIBBEY New Dance Alliance announces a residency program and its first three recipients: Angie Pittman, Johnnie Cruise Mercer and Leslie Cuyjet. Published: August 14, 2020 at 06:02PM from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/3haSj6J via

#NYT

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shadowybouquetnacho1233 · 4 years

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A Space for Black Dance Artists to Create in the Hudson Valley

#food #cake #dessert #pastries #intersectional feminism #feminist #my hero academia #all might #lingerie #babe

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toldnews-blog · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/technology/entertainment/9-dance-performances-to-see-in-n-y-c-this-weekend/

9 Dance Performances to See in N.Y.C. This Weekend

Our guide to dance performances happening this weekend and in the week ahead.

AUSTRALIA FESTIVAL at the Joyce Theater (through May 12). This event continues with performances by Australian Dance Theater (Friday to Monday) and the Australian Ballet (May 9 to 12). For its program, Australian Dance Theater explores the natural world in “The Beginning of Nature,” which is set to a score sung in Kaurna, the first language of the Indigenous peoples of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. The Australian Ballet wraps up the festival with a trio of dances: Alice Topp’s “Aurum,” Stephen Baynes’s “Unspoken Dialoguesfollows” and a yet-to-be-titled premiere by Tim Harbour. 212-242-0800, joyce.org

COLUMBIA BALLET COLLABORATIVE’S SPRING 2019 PERFORMANCES at Miller Theater (May 4, 8 p.m.; May 5, 3 p.m.). Dances by the choreographers Tom Gold, Morgan McEwen, Durante Verzola, Nadia Vostrikov and Andrea Ward will grace the stage of this student-run group, which was formed in 2007 by five professional ballet dancers enrolled at Columbia University. A sixth premiere, by the Columbia Ph.D. student James Shee — a former dancer with National Ballet of Canada — is also be part of the mix; it has been created under the guidance of the former American Ballet Theater soloist and Columbia Ballet choreographer Craig Salstein. 212-854-7799, columbiaballetcollaborative.com

CONVERSATIONS WITH MERCE at N.Y.U. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (May 3-4, 7:30 p.m.). The Merce Cunningham Centennial festivities continue with three new works celebrating the choreographer’s legacy. This presentation, curated by Rashaun Mitchell, a former company member and a trustee with the Merce Cunningham Trust, explores the theoretical, practical and experiential approaches to Cunningham’s work. Three respected choreographers take part: Moriah Evans, Mina Nishimura and Netta Yerushalmy. In their responses to his lineage, they focus on conceptual, formal and personal connections with the choreographer. In addition to the commissioned works, Cunningham solos will be performed by Shayla-Vie Jenkins and Keith Sabado. 212-998-4941, nyuskirball.org

E-MOVES at Harlem Stage Gatehouse (May 9-11, 7:30 p.m.). This annual dance series continues its 20th anniversary celebration with a final weekend of performances. The lineup spotlights the work of Ousmane Wiles, or Omari Mizrahi, who presents two works: “Sila Djiguba,” or “Path of Hope” — a work for eight mixing West African, AfroBeat, house and vogue styles — and “Crossroads,” which takes inspiration from relationships of all kinds, good and bad. Faustin Linyekula and Moya Michael present “Festival of Dreams,” created in collaboration with 22 street dancers from the organization It’s Showtime NYC!, and on May 10 and 11 TweetBoogie offers “Trinity,” a fast and intense look at the struggle for female empowerment in hip-hop culture. 212-281-9240, ext. 19; harlemstage.org

LA MAMA MOVES! DANCE FESTIVAL at the La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theater and the Downstairs (through May 26). This East Village event continues this weekend with performances by Mia Habib, a Norwegian choreographer whose “All — a Physical Poem of Protest” highlights the protesting body with nude dancers of all ages walking and running in circles, and Colleen Thomas’s “But the Sun Came Up and We Were Here.” In it, she collaborates with Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian and American dancers to expose a world of political and social unrest. And on May 9, the choreographer Yin Mei presents “Peony Dreams: On the Other Side of Sleep,” a new take on “The Peony Pavilion.” 212-352-3101, lamama.org

[Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead.]

MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (May 8-11, 7:30 p.m.). The choreographer created “Pepperland” in response to a 2017 invitation from the city of Liverpool to make a work in homage to the Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Morris may be one of the most musical of choreographers working today, but he doesn’t set his dances to recorded music. No matter. For his dance, Morris has collaborated with the jazz pianist and composer Ethan Iverson to create new arrangements of six songs as well as six more inspired by the album. It promises to be a feast for the ears and eyes. 718-636-4100, bam.org

NEW YORK CITY BALLET at the David H. Koch Theater (through June 2). The season continues with repeats of premieres by Justin Peck and Pam Tanowitz, as well as several George Balanchine gems, including “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” “Stravinsky Violin Concerto” and “Western Symphony.” But, really, isn’t it all about “Diamonds”? Suzanne Farrell, the magnificent ballerina and muse to Balanchine, has recently been coaching dancers in the 1967 work, which is set to Tchaikovsky and pays homage to Russian schooling. The tiaras will glitter even more brightly than usual. 212-496-0600, nycballet.com

RHIZOMATIKS RESEARCH X ELEVENPLAY X KYLE MCDONALD at New York Live Arts (May 8-11, 8:30 p.m.). In the New York City premiere of “Discrete Figures,” the Japanese companies Rhizomatiks Research and Elevenplay — a dance group directed by Mikiko — collaborate with the American media artist Kyle McDonald. Part of the annual interdisciplinary festival Live Ideas — this year’s focus is on artificial intelligence — the work features five female dancers who interact with machines to look at the meeting point of humanity and innovation. 212-924-0077, newyorklivearts.org

THREE SHARED EVENINGS OF WORK: HILARY CLARK/OREN BARNOY/LESLIE CUYJET at Roulette (May 6-8, 8 p.m.). The choreographers and frequent dance collaborators Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith curate three evenings of movement-based work, in which two artists perform each night. Clark presents “Another Room” (Monday and Tuesday), in which she considers time passing emotional memory, while Barnoy creates a ritualized version of daily prayer through movement in a work that is titled not by words but with a symbol (Monday and Wednesday). Finally, in “Exographic Will” (Tuesday and Wednesday), Leslie Cuyjet, joined by her longtime collaborator, Darrin Wright, delves into the memories held within a body. 917-267-0368, roulette.org

#9jaflaver entertainment news #entertainment news gossip uk #entertainment news please #entertainment news wendy williams #ENTERTAINMENTNINFO #itv2 entertainment news

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leanpick · 3 years

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All Her Life Studies: A Downtown Dancer Finds Her Voice

Leslie Cuyjet has performed with dozens of contemporary choreographers over the years, but she’s still something of a mystery. Her subtle, strong presence unassumingly grounds the stage. She has a way of revealing and receding. But the layers are being peeled back: Lately, Cuyjet, 40, has unveiled a potent choreographic voice, excavating the solo form through video, writing and, of course, the…

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gooddaygoddamn · 7 years

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UPCOMING SHOWINGS :

03.17.18 - Good Day God Damn - Extracted Excerpt @ Pies + Performance [featuring Mimi Gabriel + Jessie Young]

03.24.18 - Good Day God Damn - In Process @ Museum of Art + Design [featuring Leslie Cuyjet + Angie Pittman]

#gooddaygoddamn #stephanieacosta #performance #dance #performanceart #americanlandscape

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ladiesalmanackfilm · 8 years

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LESLIE CUYJET AS SOLITA SOLANO

A MIDDLE-CRUST MIDWESTERN BLACK DAUGHTER, ARTIST, FRIEND, LOVER—dreamer of water, drawn-out water, recurring orcas—Leslie Cuyjet was born left-handed on Valentine’s Day, 1981, and voted the most talented in high school. Her childhood was spent conducting an independent search for knowledge (1920s Paris, 1970s New York) and obsessing over music her parents enjoyed in their youth (a memory: the purchase of that first Nina Simone album, the first Madonna album). These interests were cultivated at the Montessori School of DeKalb, Illinois (a memory: the first period arriving during Bill Clinton’s inauguration) and later she earned her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Today she is a web producer for a digital agency in Brooklyn and performs for various New York choreographers and artists (a memory: that first art/dance film that gave you a big paycheck and the courage to pack and move to New York City). In the Ladies Almanack, Leslie plays Solita Solano.

#leslie cuyjet #solita solano #ladies almanack #the ladies almanack #djuna barnes

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poddedeux · 5 years

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https://poddedeux.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/leslie-final_ml1.mp3

Pod de Deux interviewed Leslie Cuyjet as part of a series of interviews with five 2019 NYC Bessie Award nominees. Leslie was nominated for a Bessie for Sustained Achievement with Jane Comfort, Niall Jones, Juliana F. May, Cynthia Oliver, and Will Rawls. We hope to do a full-length interview with her in the future!

Leslie Cuyjet is a dance and collaborative artist based in Brooklyn. She has collaborated, contributed, co-directed, facilitated, designed, and danced with a range of artists, including Kim Brandt, Yanira Castro/acanary torsi, Jane Comfort, David Gordon, Niall Noel Jones, Cynthia Oliver, Juliana F. May, KatieWorkum, Julian Barnett, Stephanie Acosta, Vanessa Walters, NARCISSISTER, Sean Donovan and Sebastián Calderón Bentin, Emily Wexler, David Thomson, Mark Dendy, The A.O. Movement Collective, and Will Rawls, among others. Cuyjet has been presented in New York by La MaMa (La MaMa Moves!Festival/The Current Sessions), Gibney Dance (DoublePlus), Center for Performance Research (Fall Movement), Movement Research (Fall Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church), AUNTS (Realness, Populous), and Danspace Draftworks. Leslie has held residencies at Chez Bushwick, Movement Research, and Center for Performance Research, and Yaddo.

2019 BESSIE NOMINEE: Leslie Cuyjet Pod de Deux interviewed Leslie Cuyjet as part of a series of interviews with five 2019 NYC Bessie Award nominees.

#Bessie Awards #Leslie Cuyjet

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