Caleb Teicher & Company

Rivers Green at College of Charleston May 28 at 8:30pm; May 29 at 8:30pm; May 30 at 8:30pm; May 31 at 8:30pm; June 1 at 8:30pm; June 2 at 8:30pm

Artistic Team Artistic Director/Choreographer Caleb Teicher Costume Designer Márion Talán Sound Designer Joseph Wolfslau Lighting Designer Serena Wong Rehearsal Director Macy Sullivan General Manager Aria Roach

1 hour | Performed with a short pause

Meet Ella

Choreography Nathan Bugh and Caleb Teicher Original Lighting Design Asami Morita Dancers Gaby Cook, Caleb Teicher, Macy Sullivan Music Selections from Ella in Rome: The Birthday Concert (Live) and Mack The Knife: The Complete Ella in Berlin (Live). Performed and recorded live by Ella Fitzgerald.

Meet Ella was created with commissioning support from Gibney Dance with funds provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation. This piece was also made possible, in part, thanks to an artistic residency at the American Tap Dance Foundation.

Bzzzz

Choreography Caleb Teicher with solo improvisation by dancers Music Chris Celiz and Caleb Teicher Dance Editor and Understudy Macy Sullivan Beatboxer Chris Celiz Dancers Caleb Teicher, Jared Alexander, Naomi Funaki, John Manzari, Demi Remick, Tamii Sakurai, Funmi Sofola

The creation of Bzzzz was made possible, in part, by a New York City Center Choreography Fellowship and was commissioned by New York City Center for the Fall for Dance Festival with generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, and Stephen Kroll Reidy. This piece was also made possible, in part, thanks to an artistic residency at the American Tap Dance Foundation.

The 2021 dance series is sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.

These performances are made possible in part through funds from the Spoleto Festival USA Endowment, generously supported by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.

About the Company

Caleb Teicher & Company (CT&Co.), founded in 2015, seeks to expand the capacity of America’s rich music and dance traditions through innovative choreography, performance, and contextualization. Utilizing tap dance, vernacular jazz, Lindy Hop, and a mix of other American dance styles, the company’s work represents a unique style of theatricality, humor, emotional expression, and aesthetic exploration.

Artistic Team

CALEB TEICHER (artistic director/ choreographer/dancer) is a New York City-based dancer and choreographer who began their career as a founding member of Michelle Dorrance’s Dorrance Dance. Since founding CT&Co., Teicher’s creative work has expanded to engagements and commissions across the US and abroad, including The Joyce Theater, New York City Center, the Guggenheim Museum, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Teicher is known for choreographic collaborations with diverse musical talents, performing as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, recording percussion and vocals for television with Ben Folds, and choreographing Regina Spektor’s residency on Broadway. Teicher is the recipient of a 2019 New York City Center Choreographic Fellowship, two Bessie Awards, a 2019 Harkness Promise Award, and a 2019 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant.

MÁRION TALÁN (costume designer) is a recognized designer with two decades of experience. Her career includes collaborations with Bryan Arias, Joe Salvatore, Pilobolus, Sonya Tayeh, and The Juilliard School. Talán is originally from Mexico City and currently resides in New York City.

JOSEPH WOLFSLAU (sound designer) is based in Brooklyn. Recent designs include production for La Sonnambula (Promenade Opera); production for Magnum Opus: A Retrospective (The People Movers); sound for The Emperor’s Nightingale (Pan Asian Rep.); sound for The Peanut Butter Show (Little Lord); production design for Cendrillon (Promenade Opera); sound for Romulus the Great (Yangtze Rep.); sound for Brideshead Obliterated (Dixon Place); set, sound, and costumes for 410 [Gone] (Yangtze Rep); sound for CoIncident (JACK); sound for Ski End (New Ohio); sound for CoVenture (Baryshnikov); and set and costumes for Poor Sailor (Tugboat Collective). SERENA WONG (lighting designer) is a Brooklyn-based freelance lighting designer for theater and dance whose work has been seen in the US and Europe. Most recently, Wong has designed for choreographers Gemma Bond, Caleb Teicher, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, and Netta Yerushalmy. She enjoys biking, beekeeping, and baking bread.

MACY SULLIVAN (dancer/rehearsal director/understudy) has the pleasure of working as a dancer, rehearsal director, and dance editor for Caleb Teicher & Company. Outside of CT&Co., she has performed extensively with Dance Heginbotham and enjoyed projects with Merce Cunningham Trust, The Bang Group, The Chase Brock Experience, and Pat Catterson. Sullivan has assisted Caleb Teicher, Michelle Dorrance, John Heginbotham, and Chase Brock in the creation and staging of works at Southern Methodist University, American Ballet Theatre, Dartmouth College, and Barnard College. Her own work has been performed at Juilliard’s Center for Innovation in the Arts, Judson Memorial Church, and the 92nd Street Y.

Performers

JARED ALEXANDER (dancer) is a native of Clintondale, New York. He started dancing at the age of three and hasn’t stopped since. His passion and talent led him to study in New York City, where he has been fortunate enough to work with and train under influential teachers and choreographers including Ray Hesselink, Rhonda Miller, Mandy Moore, Scott Jovovich, Lauren Gaul, Ephrat Asherie, Martha Nichols, Alexandra Damiani, Liz Imperio, Aaron Parkhurst, Jess Hendricks, and many more. Alexander recently graduated from Pace University in May 2019 with a BFA in Commercial Dance and is excited to work with Caleb Teicher & Company as well as share his journey with you.

CHRIS CELIZ (beatboxer) is a musician, educator, and performer from New York City. He has worked with such luminaries as Harry Belafonte, Bryonn Bain, and Dana Leong. Celiz is the 2015 American 2v2 Champion and has been ranked as one of the top North American beatboxers. His most notable accomplishment is the formation of “The Beatbox House,” a conglomerate of the most talented beatboxers in the United States looking to rebrand the art form.

GABY COOK (dancer) is an esteemed, active professional in the global Lindy Hop community. For nearly 20 years, she has established her career, teaching and performing worldwide for events such as Herräng Dance Camp, Paris Jazz Roots, and Lindy Focus. She leads two swing and jazz based dance companies: Wild Rhythm Dance Company and Gatsby Entertainment. These companies have been featured on stages such as Jacob’s Pillow’s Inside/Out Series, Jazz at Lincoln

Center Orchestra, The 92nd St Y, Midsummer Night Swing at Lincoln Center, and many appearances at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center.

NAOMI FUNAKI (dancer) is a tap dancer from Tokyo, Japan. She currently lives in New York as an IISP student of Steps on Broadway. She has performed in CT&CO. and Dorrance Dance’s second company. She has danced at the first Tap Family Reunion, Vail Dance Festival, Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Tokyo International Tap Dance Festival, and is an alumna of The School at Jacob’s Pillow’s tap dance program.

JOHN MANZARI (dancer) is an Ovation Award and Helen Hayes Awardnominated performer, teacher, and choreographer. A multifaceted artist, he is best known for tap dancing. His stage credits include 42ND Street, Maurice Hines: Tappin’ Thru Life, The Wiz is 40: A Celebration in Dance and Music, Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, and Apollo Club Harlem. Television credits include The View, PBS’s special Michael Feinstein at the Rainbow Room, The Jerry Lewis Telethon, and the season seven finale of So You Think You Can Dance. Concerts include A Little Old, A Little New at Birdland and Jacob’s Pillow. Manzari can be seen in a documentary about his mentor, titled Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back.

DEMI REMICK (dancer) is a YoungArts Gold winner, one of Dance Magazine’s "25 To Watch,” and a Capezio athlete. Remick tours worldwide as the tap dance soloist with Postmodern Jukebox at venues like the Sydney Opera House and was recently a featured soloist at Company XIV, an Off-Broadway production in Brooklyn. She has danced for CT&Co., Dorrance Dance, Jason Samuels Smith, Bill T. Jones, Lisa La Touche, Monica Bill Barnes, and American Ballet Theatre’s James Whiteside. Remick teaches at Broadway Dance Center. She earned her BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance.

TAMII SAKURAI (dancer) is a tap dancer based in New York City. She is an artist-in-residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation, and she has had the privilege of working with numerous leading tap companies such as Brenda Bufalino’s New American Tap Dance Orchestra and Michelle Dorrance’s Dorrance Dance. Sakurai studied mathematics and dance at Hunter College, where she developed her own style of teaching tap dance that incorporates numbers and visuals. In 2016, she made her Off-Broadway debut in STOMP. FUNMILAYO “FUNMI” SOFOLA (dancer) is from the greater Seattle area. Her formal dance training began at the age of eight. When she was eleven years old, she joined the Alchemy Tap Project, which was founded by Josh Scribner. Sofola was a participant in The School at Jacobs Pillow Tap Program 2017 and was a 2018 National YoungArts finalist in tap dance. Currently living in New York City, Sofola is earning a B.F.A. in Commercial Dance at Pace University. As a member of the class of 2023, she is enjoying opportunities to train with renowned artists including Rhonda Miller, Lauren Gaul, Scott Jovovich, and Lisa La Touche.

BALLET UNDER THE STARS

Rivers Green at College of Charleston June 4 at 8:30pm; June 5 at 8:30pm; June 6 at 8:30pm; June 7 at 8:30pm

Artistic Team

Stage Manager Nicole Mitchell Lighting Designer Jason Lyons Dancers Isabella Boylston, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Joseph Gordon, Unity Phelan, Calvin Royal III Piano Susan Walters Oboe James Austin Smith

1 hour | Performed without an intermission

Apollo (excerpts)

Choreography George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust Music Igor Stravinsky Dancers Unity Phelan and Calvin Royal III Piano Susan Walters

By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.

Concerto Six Twenty-Two (excerpts)

Choreography Lar Lubovitch Music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Dancers Adrian Danchig-Waring and Joseph Gordon

This Bitter Earth

Choreography Christopher Wheeldon Music Max Richter and Clyde Otis Dancers Isabella Boylston and Calvin Royal III

Program continues on next page

The performances of Apollo and Diamonds, both Balanchine® Ballets, are presented by arrangement with The George Balanchine Trust and have been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style® and Balanchine Technique® Service standards established and provided by the Trust.

The 2021 dance series is sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.

Piano by Steinway & Sons.