Artificial Hollow by Julie Mayo

Breathing with Strangers by Kinesis Project dance theatre

big nether by Lily Gold

September 6, 2019, Staten Island, NY— Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden is excited to present an exciting new season of performances as part of this autumn’s 2019 PASS (Performing Arts Salon Saturdays) series. 

“This season’s PASS explores the depths of time, memory, and ritual,” said Melissa West, Snug Harbor’s Vice President of Curation, Performing & Visual Arts.  “All three PASS artists open up exciting spatial and sonic possibilities through movement and performance. Julie Mayo’s piece evokes elements of video, sound and photography to confront the creative process. Kinesis Project dance theatre, led by CUNY Dance Initiative artist-in residence Melissa Riker, activates the richness of our historic campus by staging a site-specific performance in Shinbone Alley. And Lily Gold’s work asks important questions on immateriality and the trauma of this material world.”

Artificial Hollow by Julie Mayo

Artificial Hollow is the conjuring of a dance that was never finished. Loosely inspired by Mayo’s 2012 incomplete duet Man in the City, Artificial Hollow invokes fragments of video, sound, and photographs from this previous work to create a new performance from these “found” materials.

In the spirit of her evolving creative process, Mayo works with various groupings of performers and asks the question: what does it mean to borrow from the past while simultaneously letting it go?

Julie Mayo is a New York-based choreographer and performer who makes dances that foreground performance as content and resist easy description of lived experience. In New York, she has had her work presented by Gibney, The Chocolate Factory, The Kitchen (DaP), Movement Research at the Judson Church, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, JACK and Dixon Place and nationally by Highways in Los Angeles, Columbus Dance Theater (OH), and NOHspace and Dance Mission in San Francisco. Julie was a 2017 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence, a 2014-2015 New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks artist, and is the recipient of previous residencies at UCross Foundation, Djerassi, Yaddo, Mount Tremper and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Julie is also a teacher and has taught at colleges and universities including University of Wisconsin/Madison, Dickinson College, University of Nebraska, Wilson College, Ohio University, Virginia Commonwealth University and next spring will be an Artist-in-Residence at Whitman College in Walla Walla.

Breathing with Strangers by Kinesis Project dance theatre

Melissa Riker/Kinesis Project dance theatre’s newest large-scale, outdoor performance Breathing with Strangers is a ragged, sweeping and surprising love-song to New York City. Dancers appear and disappear as the choreography twists around and within the levels, buildings, and hillsides of Snug Harbor’s Shinbone Alley.

This project invites the audience to witness, interact, and follow the performance — and consider how generous moments between strangers can occur.

Kinesis Project dance theatre is a non-profit organization that creates site specific dance performances and facilitates educational programs. Led by choreographer Melissa Riker, the company produces large-scale, space-changing and unexpectedly intimate dances. Kinesis Project is at the forefront of the international discussion of placemaking, art engagement with diverse communities and the cultural imperative of art in public spaces.   

Melissa Riker is Artistic Director and Choreographer of Kinesis Project dance theatre. She is a New York City dancer and choreographer who emerged as a strong performance and creative voice as the NYC dance and circus worlds combined during the 90’s. Riker’s dances and aesthetic layer her training as a classical dancer, martial artist, theatre choreographer and aerial performer. 

PASS: big nether by Lily Gold

big nether is Lily Gold’s newest performance, enacted by herself and longtime collaborator Mary Read. Still nascent, this work is an exploration of ritual and prayer through movement and song, asking: how can we experience an immaterial reality amidst the traumas of this material world?

Lily Gold is an artist working in dance, sound, installation and painting. Her work has been presented by Movement Research, Danspace Project, First Street Gallery, AUNTS, Dixon Place, Chez Bushwick, and co-presented by Movement Research, Judson Memorial Church, and the Museum of Modern Art. Gold has been an Artist in Residence at Fumbling Bush (2019), Movement Research (2015-2017), the ZIL Cultural Center in Moscow (2016), and AUNTS (2013). As a performer, she has collaborated in works by Walter Dundervill, Iki Nakagawa, Vicky Shick, Tere O’Connor, Andrea Geyer, Larissa Velez-Jackson, Strauss Bourque-LaFrance, Faye Driscoll, Jen Rosenblit, and Vanessa Anspaugh, among others.

PASS is supported in part by public funding through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

big nether has been developed with the support from fumbling bush.

Breathing with Strangers was developed in part through a residency at Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, and is made possible in part with funding from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation and administered by LMCC.  Melissa Riker/Kinesis Project dance theatre’s residency and performances at Snug Harbor are held in partnership with the Department of Creative and Performing Arts at the College of Staten Island as part of the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), which receives major support from The Howard Gilman Foundation and The Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the SHS Foundation, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, and Dance/NYC’s New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. CDI is spearheaded and administered by The Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College. www.cuny.edu/danceinitiative

ABOUT PASS (PERFORMING ARTS SALON SATURDAYS)

PASS is a curated performance series that takes place at Snug Harbor.  The salon’s focus is on original works in performing arts (music, dance, theater, and multi-media) in different stages of development.  When possible, work is developed in residence at Snug Harbor, which serves as an incubation lab.  Each PASS has a pre-performance reception and a post-performance artist talk moderated by the curator.  PASS is curated by Melissa West, Vice President of Curation.

ABOUT SNUG HARBOR CULTURAL CENTER & BOTANICAL GARDEN

Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden’s historic 83-acre campus is one of the largest ongoing adaptive reuse projects in America, with 28 structures, 14 unique botanical gardens, 10 acres of wetlands, and a two-acre urban farm. Our mission is to provide a vibrant, regional cultural destination that offers dynamic programming in the arts, education, horticulture, agriculture, and recreation for diverse cultures and all ages while ensuring a well-managed campus for all residents of Staten Island and surrounding communities. Snug Harbor is a proud Smithsonian Affiliate. Learn more about Snug Harbor at snug-harbor.org.