Kimberly Bartosik | daela through the mirror of their eyes JAN 9, 730 PM Choreographed by Kimberly Bartosik Directed by Kimberly Bartosik Performed by Dylan Crossman, Burr Johnson, Joanna Kotze With young performers: Dahlia Bartosik-Murray, Hunter Liss, Winter Willis Music by Sivan Jacobovitz Costumes by Quinn Czejkowski in collaboration with Kimberly & the cast Lighting Design by Roderick Murray Set Design by Roderick Murray Dramaturgy by Melanie George Creative Producer: Meredith Boggia Running Time: 50 min *through the mirror of their eyes received 2020 Bessie Nominations for Outstanding Production & Outstanding Performer (Burr Johnson)
FUNDING The creation of through the mirror of their eyes is supported, in part, by a commission from New York Live Arts’ Live Feed Residency program. The Live Feed Residency program is supported in part by Rockefeller Brothers Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and the Partners for New Performance. through the mirror of their eyes has also received generous development and production funding from a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Choreography and The MAP Fund, primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Support also includes a Creative Arts Initiative grant at the University at Buffalo; the Harkness Dance Center’s Artistin-Residence Program at 92Y; an EtM Choreographer + Composer Residency, administered by Exploring the Metropolis; a Mount Tremper Arts creative development residency; and a Barnard College residency. For booking inquiries and project information, please contact: Meredith Boggia, Creative Producer, meredith.boggia@gmail.com or +001 (518)791.0376
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BIOGRAPHIES
Kimberly Bartosik was thrilled to be a 2017-20 New York Live Arts Live Feed Residency Artist where she created through the mirror of their eyes, which garnered 2020 Bessie Nominations for Outstanding Production & Outstanding Performer (Burr Johnson). She is also a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography and a 2020 Virginia B. Toulmin Women Leaders in Dance Fellow at Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, where she will create a new work in 2021 on young ballet dancers. Bartosik’s work has been commissioned and presented by BAM Next Wave Festival 2018, LUMBERYARD Center for Film & Performing Arts, American Realness, FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival, Abrons Art Center, Gibney, Danspace, The Kitchen, and La Mama. She has toured to Supersense: Festival of the Ecstatic (Melbourne, Australia), Columbia College, The Yard, Bates Dance Festival, Flynnspace, American Dance Festival, Dance Place, Wexner Arts Center, MASS MoCA/Jacob’s Pillow, Church, Mount Tremper Arts, Artdanthe Festival, Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté à Belfort, Festival Rencontres Chorégraphique Internationales, and others. Her quarantine project “The Game,” commissioned by the Onassis Foundation, was
featured in the NYTimes and Art Monthly UK. Works & Process at the Guggenheim recently commissioned a virtual project as part of You will see more stars, her new trans-media, multi-iteration collaboration with visual artist Matthew Ritchie. Bartosik’s work has also received support from National Dance Project Production & Touring Grant and Community Engagement Fund; MAP Fund; Jerome Foundation; FUSED, French-US Exchange in Dance; Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, USArtists International; Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists and Emergency Grants, American Dance Abroad; New Music USA; Harkness Dance Center AIR @ the 92nd St Y; and Exploring the Metropolis (EtM) Choreographer-Composer grant. A dedicated writer, Bartosik’s recent article Give Artists a Home! was featured in Dance Magazine. She was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance company for 9 years and received a Bessie Award for Exceptional Artistry in his work. daela.org Dahlia Bartosik-Murray is 14 and has performed in Kimberly Bartosik’s I hunger for you, through the mirror of their eyes, The Game,
You will see more stars, and Fanta!, Jerome Bel’s Gala, and Thierry Thieû Niang’s To the Heart. She is in 9th grade and goes to Art & Design High School. Meredith L Boggia is an independent creative producer, curator and arts worker with institutions, festivals, tours, productions, and management of individual performance artists/ collectives as well as fine and visual artists. Some consultancies and clients include Phillips Auction House, Solid Sound Art & Music Festival, The Bessie Award Ceremony, Raduno NYC, Cool Culture NYC, Meg Foley, Beatrice Thomas/Authentic Arts and Media, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, and more. She is thrilled to be supporting Kimberly in many roles since 2013. Dylan Crossman grew up in France, graduated from the Trinity/Laban School of Music and Dance, in London, and moved to New York City, where he became an understudy for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, in 2007. Dylan joined the main company in 2009 and was a part of the Legacy Tour. A two-time Bessie recipient, he has taught at Barnard, Purchase, Rutgers, Sarah Lawrence and is a stager for the Cunningham Trust. Dylan works with many other choreographers including Ryan
McNamara, Pam Tanowitz and Sally Silvers. His choreographic work has received accolades from the New Yorker and the New York Times. His first dance film, Quand le danseur danse... was a WPA commission and he recently made his curatorial debut with a Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum and an Event at the AGO in Toronto. Learn about his company at dylancrossman.org Quinn Czejkowski is a costume artist, mover, and floral artist based in NYC. They are interested in exploring the intersection of natural and man-made materials and organic and inorganic styles. Recent design credits include Darling with Helen Simoneau, Stand In with Jen Rosenblit, Chimera with Burr Johnson, rib bone / backbone with Heather Robles, (T)HERE TO (T)HERE with Liz Gerring, as well as pieces for Gwen Welliver, Renay Aumiller, Dylan Crossman, and others. In addition to their own design work, Czejkowski is the costume shop manager for Company XIV and has assisted designers Reid Bartelme & Harriet Jung. Melanie George is the founder of Jazz Is… Dance Project, and an Associate Curator at Jacob’s Pillow. As a dramaturg, Melanie has contributed to projects by David Neumann & Marcella Murray, Helen Simoneau Danse, Raja
Feather Kelly, Susan Marshall & Company, Machine Dazzle, and Urban Bush Women among others. Melanie has presented her choreography and research on jazz dance improvisation and pedagogy throughout the U.S., in Canada and Scotland, and founded the global jazz dance advocacy website jazzdancedirect.com. She is currently a Visiting Professor at Cornish College of the Arts. Sivan Jacobovitz is a producer/ musician living in NYC. Dance collaborations include: Kimberly Bartosik’s I Hunger For You (BAM Next Wave), through the mirror of their eyes (New York Live Arts - Bessie Outstanding Production Honoree) and Works & Process at the Guggenheim (2020); Shamel Pitts’ Black Hole (touring internationally), MENAGERIE (with Gibney Company) and Touch of RED (upcoming - Jacobs Pillow Lab); ASSEMBLY with GREYZONE (upcoming). thfc. @sivan_daniel Burr Johnson has danced for John Jasperse Projects, Helen Simoneau Danse, Kimberly Bartosik/daela, and Shen Wei Dance Arts. He has also worked for Marina Abramović/ Givenchy, Walter Dundervill, Ryan McNamara, Yozmit, Mark Fell, Boris Charmatz, Brittany Bailey, Isabel Lewis, Nick Mauss, Peter Sellars, Jack Ferver, Bill Young, and the Merce Cunningham Trust for Night
of 100 solos: LA. His choreography has been presented through Movement Research, Abrons Art Center, Danspace Project, GIBNEY, and W+P at the Guggenheim with Reid and Harriet Design. He received a 2020 Bessie Nomination for Outstanding Performer for Kimberly Bartosik’s through the mirror of their eyes. Joanna Kotze is a Bessie-award winning dancer and choreographer. Her work has received funding from the Jerome, Mertz-Gilmore, and Harkness Foundations, New Music USA, NYFA BUILD, Brooklyn Arts Council, Yellowhouse, and FCA Emergency Grant. Her choreography has been presented at the Wexner, Velocity, NAC Ottawa, The Yard, Bates, Opera House Arts, New York Live Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Danspace Project, ADI, Bard, Jacob’s Pillow, DNA, Movement Research, 92nd Street Y, and others. She has been supported through residencies throughout the US and Europe. She is currently working on an evening-length work, ‘lectric Eye, and a related film project, Nothing’s changed except for everything, which are both being supported by creative residencies at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) and Dance Place. Joanna danced with Wally Cardona from 20002010&2018. She has also danced for Kota Yamazaki, Stacy Spence,
Winter Willis is 10 years old and a founding member of Young Them, cullen+them’s collaborative dance group for young people which uses movement and spoken word to create work that is important and Hunter Liss is 11 years old, currently meaningful to them. She attends the attends West End Secondary School Alexander Robertson School and is and studied dance at the School of excited to join Kimberly Bartosik/ American Ballet for three years. This daela for the presentation of this fall Hunter joined a running team, new project! training a few times a week. He also loves doing hip hop and creative writing through Writopia Labs. Sam Kim, Netta Yerushalmy and others. This is her 12th year dancing with Kimberly. She is originally from South Africa and has a BA in Architecture. joannakotze.com
Roderick Murray is a BessieAward winning artist who has been designing lighting and installations for dance, music, and opera internationally since 1989. He is thrilled with through the mirror of their eyes and grateful to continue his life-long collaboration with Kimberly. Murray designed projects for Ralph Lemon, Benjamin Millepied, LADP, Wally Cardona, Dusan Tynek, Kathy Westwater, Yanira Castro, Luca Veggetti, and others. His work as also been seen on performances by Karen Sherman, Sekou Sundiata, Yasuko Yokoshi, Ethel, Bill Young, Roseanne Spradlin, NYCBallet, Ballet di Roma, ABT, Lyon Opèra Ballet, Ballet Collective, Dortmund Ballett, Tim Fain, Melinda Ring, Donna Uchizono, Cori Olinghouse, Paul Simon and others. roderickmurraylighting.com
DIRECTOR’S NOTE I created through the mirror of their eyes from the remnants of I hunger for you (BAM Next Wave 2018). Building from that work’s momentum, and its 7-city tour, I deepened my interest in working with diverse populations onstage alongside my trained dancers. through the mirror of their eyes features three children performing with a trio of extraordinary professional dancers. The piece also includes a “crowd” scene, where the young performers, ages 9-13, invite pre-selected audience members onstage to run with the cast. During our March 2020 premiere, this was an incredibly powerful moment in the work, where our audiences have commented on the feeling of hope and possibility that this act of shared running produces. I cannot imagine a more potent moment to insist on the importance of artistic exchange than the current one defined by the pandemic that is ravaging our world. As we endure periods of isolation without an endpoint, we need to imagine spaces where we will, once again, be able to commune, to feel together, to hope together. Our audience’s response to through the mirror of their eyes has assured me that the work is essential to share. It is universal in its insistence on moving forward, on creating a collective energy to forge ahead, to carve a new path, to trust, to take each other’s hand, and run. What better way to begin to dissolve the life-saving borders that we have had to construct than to present a work that needs an audience to exist. A work that requires that we work intergenerationally within the community, and that the community joins us onstage. Our bodies will be in conversation. Notes on the audience participation and young performers: Not shown in the video documentation of through the mirror of their eyes is the pre-show transaction between the young performers (aka, the “kid-pack”) and select audience volunteers. In the weeks leading up to the premiere, we identified 8-10 audience members each night who agreed to participate in the work, but did not tell them what they would be doing. As they entered the theater, each kid-pack member would approach and talk them through a series of verbal and visual directions, including hand-made drawings.
Each child also wrote and practiced a speech in their own words which they delivered to the audience while showing them the visual directions on the card. My belief was that by having the kids communicate directly to the audience member, they could earn their full confidence. That way, when the time came in the piece for them to take the audience’s hand and lead them onstage, a bond of trust had been formed. Also, when Dahlia shouted “Run!” they didn’t have a chance to hesitate because they had been given all the information they would need. We did not encounter a single mishap or miscommunication, confirming my belief that if we give a child the right information, we can trust they will know what to do with it! Our tour plan is to cast 2 of the 3 young performers with youth from our tour communities. In each venue, the presenter will identify 2 young people who will be integrated into the piece over the course of 1-2 days. Dahlia will lead this transmission. The importance of what a young person holds in their body, and that their body is the vessel for nonverbal communication, is a driving concept for the work. It’s not only about learning steps, but understanding, through this young body, the concept of direction (we go this way). It cannot be described or taught. It needs to be felt and shared through her.
AUDIENCE RESPONSES I am still under the enchantment of your work. So generous. So devastating... Remarkable! Made me cry. Thank you for making it and sharing it. Your work brought us to tears, so beautiful, powerful, and relevant to the times in which we find ourselves. Thank you for giving us a work we didn’t know we needed, but really really needed to see. The anger - the tenderness, the physicality and rigor... feeling like all you can and want to do is run and scream and knowing that you have to try and hold it together - knowing that community can save us and help us try to move through it all together. And all balanced beautifully with the hope and earnestness brought by the younger performers. In my 13 years of life... this is the best thing I have ever seen! What I saw was just how difficult and messy life is, and yet how intensely we can be there for one another, even sometimes despite ourselves. In the end, what a surreal moment to not only watch this story..., but then somehow enter it by joining the crowd on stage, saturated in that incredibly powerful score. To be myself in that grand central station cloud of humanity, and to also be watching myself ... in the form of your dancers, running from things and running toward things and just running, and then stopping, and looking one another in the eyes, and holding space for each other to breathe.
SPECIAL THANKS Kimberly and her cast and collaborators would like to thank the incredible communities/families that, collectively, have helped us bring through the mirror of their eyes to life! Our New York Live Arts community: Bill T Jones, Janet Wong, Kyle Maude, Hannah Emerson, Hannah Seiden, Hillery Makatura, Ryan Naso, Gregory English, Tyler Ashley, Mayadevi Ross, Liliana Dirks-Goodman, Kristiana Cowcer, Veronica Falborn. A very special thanks to Joe Melillo, Meredith Boggia, Michelle Fletcher, Lisa Willis, Maydelle, Daniel & Ezra Liss, Vanessa Knouse, Jim & Eleanor, Phyllis Lamhut, our generous donors, our MTA family (Matt, Carter, Crystal), EtM (David and Kate), MAP Fund (Moira and Lauren), 92nd St Y (Catherine, John-Mario, Taryn). To ALL our fantastic volunteers for, literally, running with and for us! And to my amazing NC family, especially those who traveled here to champion us: Vicki, Bob, Rick, and my Dad. We dedicate these performances, with love, to my mother, who left us in 2014 and taught us about the power we held in ourselves. Kimberly also bows down to the exquisite artists and collaborators who have embodied her work, infusing it with humanity and passion, and who continue to thrill and surprise her. Nothing exists without them. Thank you Joanna, Dylan, Burr, Rick, Sivan, Quinn, Melanie, Dahlia, Winter, Hunter.
LIVE ARTS CONTRIBUTORS New York Live Arts is deeply grateful to all the individuals listed below for their vital gifts to New York Live Arts over the last year: $500,000 and higher Anonymous Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker
Deborah Ronnen Temple St. Clair & Paul Engler Billie Tsien & Tod Williams
$100,000-$499,999 Booth Ferris Foundation Ruth & Stephen Hendel Ellen M. Poss
$1,000 - $4,999 Gerald Appelstein Robby Browne Charlotte & Charles Buchanan Jeannie Colbert Elizabeth Diller Philip Gallo Morton Glickman Michael & Deborah Goldberg Deborah Hellman & Derek Brown Judith and Steven Gluckstern Michael Keegan James Krents Kyung-Lim Lee Turrell & James A. Turrell Glenn Ligon Robert Longo Anna Maltby & Akshay Patil Tommy McCall & Victor Zonana Nancy Meyer & Marc Weiss Susan Micari Helen Mills & Gary Tannenbaum Pat Minard Thomas Nichols & Daniel Chadburn Anonymous Mark O’Donnell PR Consulting Inc. Rita Salzman Amy Schulman Cindy Sherman Catharine R. Stimpson Kristalina & Jack Taylor Kate Whitney & Franklin Thomas Bruce & Megumi Williams Timothy Wu &Eric Murphy
$50,000 - $99,999 Jane Bovingdon Semel & Terry Semel Zoe Eskin Eleanor Friedman Helen & Peter Haje Suzanne Karpas Alex Katz Foundation Barbara & Alan D. Marks Matthew Putman $25,000 - $49,999 Anonymous Patricia Blanchet David Dechman & Michele Mercure Adam Flatto Alexes Hazen James C. Hormel & Michael P. Nguyen In Loving Memory of Linda Grass Shapiro Charla Jones Lorraine Gallard & Richard H. Levy Amy Newman & Bud Shulman Diana Wege $10,000 - $24,999 Bloomberg Philanthropies The Brant Foundation, Inc. Claire Danes & Hugh Dancy Colleen Keegan Jonathan D. Lewis & Mark Zitelli Julie Orlando Pace Prints Phillips Andrea Rosen Alanna Rutherford Ruby Shang Nina & Gabe Stricker Pat Stryker $5,000 - $9,999 Zaire Baptiste & Voodo Fé Agnes Gund Bill T. Jones & Bjorn Amelan Jeffrey B. & Wendy Liszt
$500 - $999 Irene Barth Kathleen Chalfant Sheron Davis & Nat Lipstadt Maribeth Gainard & Hal Goltz Sharon Gerstel Jamie & Jeffrey Harris The Marshall Frankel Foundation Jan Paschal Gifts and commitments between 9/30/2019-9/30/20
Support is provided by the Alice Lawrence Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Arnhold Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Con Edison, Dance/NYC, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., Ford Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Humanities New York, Hyde & Watson Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Joseph & Joan Cullman Foundation, MAP Fund, Marta Heflin Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts, New Music USA, O’Donnell Green Music & Dance Foundation, Samuel Levy Foundation, Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Studio Institute, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, William Penn Foundation. New York Live Arts is supported by public funds from Humanities New York, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council with special thanks to Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
STAFF & BOARD Artistic Leadership
Executive Leadership
Board of Directors
Bill T. Jones Artistic Director
Kim Cullen Executive Director & CEO
Stephen Hendel Co-Chair
Janet Wong Associate Artistic Director
Development
Richard H. Levy Co-Chair
Dave Archuletta Chief Development Officer
Helen Haje Vice Chair
Kyle Maude Producing Director
Ali Burke Individual Giving & Special Events Manager
Slobodan RandjeloviĆ Vice Chair
Hannah Emerson Producing Associate
Erin Baskin Institutional Giving Manager
Veronica Falborn Producing Associate & Production Stage Manager
Bianca Bailey Member Services & Education Coordinator
Production
Hans Rasch Institutional Giving Assistant
Hillery Makatura Director of Production
Finance
Sarah Arison
Creative Director
Nupur Dey Director of Finance
Charla Jones
Bjorn G. Amelan
Artlin Hawthorne Finance Associate
Amy Newman
Communications
Gregory English Rentals Coordinator
Programming, Producing & Engagement
Tyler Ashley Director of Communications Mayadevi Ross Digital Media Coordinator Candystore Communications Assistant
Alan Marks Treasurer Alanna Rutherford Secretary Bill T. Jones Artistic Director Ex-Officio Kim Cullen Chief Executive Officer Ex-Officio Bjorn Amelan
Alden Henderson Facility Services Coordinator Human Resources ADP TotalSource
Colleen Keegan Randy Polumbo Ellen M. Poss Matthew Putman Jane Bovingdon Semel Ruby Shang Catharine R. Stimpson Diana Wege
Hannah Seiden Front of House Coordinator
Legal Services
Board Emeritus
Liliana Dirks-Goodman Graphic Designer
Lowenstein Sandler, PC Pro-Bono Counsel
Derek Brown
Pentagram Pro-Bono Branding
Terence Dougherty Eleanor Friedman Advisory Council
Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist Raja Feather Kelly Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company Vinson Fraley, Jr., Barrington Hinds, Chanel Howard, Dean Michael Husted, Shane Larson, s. Lumbert, Marie Paspe, Nayaa Opong, Huiwang Zhang
Margaret Doyle, Chair Alberta Arthurs Beverly D’Anne Lisa Frigand Jenette Kahn Susan Micari Alton Murray Lorraine Gallard Lois Greenfield Martha Sherman