Release date: April 5, 2018

Download: Press release (PDF) | No More Beautiful Dances image

Staten Island, NY –  Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden is pleased to present No More Beautiful Dances, a dance theater piece by Anabella Lenzu which uses spoken word, video projections, and visual art to tell a personal vision of femininity and what it means to be a woman today. The piece is performed and choreographed by Anabella Lenzu, with video projection design by Todd Carroll, costumes by Jennifer Johanos, and acting/vocal coaching by Daniel Pettrow.

The production is part of Snug Harbor’s PASS (Performing Arts Salon Saturdays) series and will take place on Saturday, April 28, 2018 at 6:00 PM in Building G, studio G201 on Snug Harbor’s idyllic 83-acre campus. Guests are advised to enter through Building C. As with all PASS productions, the presentation will be preceded at 5:00 PM by a welcoming reception and followed by a moderated artist talk. Tickets are $10 and are available at https://passlenzu.bpt.me. Tickets can also be purchased at the door the day of the performance.

No More Beautiful Dances is a solo performance which wrestles with the ideas of exploration, introspection, reframing a woman after becoming a mother, and being an immigrant.

“Anabella Lenzu’s work is captivating in its layers of dance and storytelling,” said Melissa West, Snug Harbor’s Vice President of Curation and Production. “Audiences will connect to the honesty and personal elements of No More Beautiful Dances. We are really excited to share what Anabella’s been working on while in residence at Snug Harbor, including mixed media drawings and photographs that she incorporates into her performance.”

Originally from Argentina, Anabella Lenzu is a dancer, choreographer and teacher with over 25 years experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy and the USA. As Artistic Director of Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama, Lenzu draws on her diverse background to create thought-provoking and socially-conscious dance-theatre in the interest of improving our human condition. Classically trained at the renowned Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires, Lenzu studied the modern dance techniques of Humphrey/Limòn and Graham in New York. Her studies of Tango and the folkdances of Argentina, Spain, and Italy further inform her work. Her choreography has been commissioned all over the world for opera, TV programs, theatre productions, and by many dance companies such as Anna Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble (New York) and Movimento Danza (Naples, Italy).

Lenzu founded her own dance school L’Atelier Centro Creativo de Danza in 1994 in Argentina, and has maintained an active teaching career ever since. Lenzu has written for various dance and arts magazines, and published her first book in 2013, entitled Unveiling Motion and Emotion. The book contains writings in Spanish and English on the importance of dance, community, choreography, and dance pedagogy. Photography by Todd Carroll documents Lenzu’s vast range of experiences dancing, teaching, and choreographing. Currently, Lenzu conducts classes at Peridance Capezio Center, Wagner College, and Lehman College. Learn more at anabellalenzu.com.

Curated by Melissa West, PASS is a performance series that takes place at Snug Harbor’s Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art in buildings C & G. 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. Each PASS event has a reception and a post-performance artist talk. Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden is located at 1000 Richmond Terrace.

This performance is made possible in part by public funding from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Materials for the Arts, the NYC Department of Sanitation, the NYC Department of Education, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Francis Farmer Fund at Wilson College MFA Thesis project. The artist would like to extend special thanks to Siobhan Burke, Kate Valk, Kristin Marting, Sunday Lee Evans, Arianna Truman, David Parker, Wilson College, Joshua Legg, Bob Dickinson, RoseAnne Spradlin, Gisela Gamper, James Scrugg, Salvatore Cataldo, Dina Denis, Ambra Togliatti, and School of Visual Arts.