Kinesis Project dance theatre announces their first in-person performance of Search(Light) on Friday, June 18, 2021 at 6:45pm ET at the Brooklyn Navy Yard at 141 Flushing Ave, Building 77 Floor 15, Brooklyn, NY. Doors open at 6:45pm and the performance begins at 7pm. Music by Sandbox Percussion Quartet with David Crowell and a live violin solo by Doori Na. For more information and to reserve a ticket, visit https://www.kinesisproject.com/events/2021/6/18/searchlight-in-person-development-performance-at-brooklyn-navy-yard.
Presented in partnership with the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Kinesis Project dance theatre is developing their newest work, Search(Light). The company is publicly sharing the creation process as they build toward a cross-country experience – sharing live performances between dancers in NYC and Seattle, WA. Audiences can join this boundary-breaking dance company as they invite you into their process.
Leading up to the live performance on June 18th, Kinesis Project dance theatre invites the public to go “behind the dance” for two open rehearsals in their series “Revealing Dances.” Guests can be part of the conversation and engage in dialogue with the artists on June 10 and June 17 at 12:15pm, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard at 141 Flushing Ave, Building 77, 15th Floor, Brooklyn, NY. Tickets are available on a sliding scale at www.kinesisproject.com/events These events are part of Kinesis Project’s 2021 summer performance season in spaces all over NYC and Seattle, including Little Island, NYC’s newest park along the Hudson River.
“Search(Light) is a work of connection; it is about invisible threads made visible and many kinds of light,” said Melissa Riker, artistic director of Kinesis Project dance theatre. “Kinesis is a large-scale dance company, and in these challenging times for performance and performers – we are doing exactly what we are here to do: finding new ways of bringing artists together, and pushing the boundaries of how audiences experience dance. I am so grateful to our venue partners, our collaborators and creative team that we are continuing this experiment in shared performance over distance.”
Search(Light) is Kinesis Project dance theatre’s newest work in development, originally inspired by an experience Riker had six years ago when she witnessed a full pier of squid jigging, a type of fishing, in Seattle. Enthralled with the lights from the dock reflected off of the water, beautifully caught in a chaotic, mesmerizing rhythm of fishing lines, Riker had the inkling of an idea. As it is developing now, Search(Light) draws from the science of light, as well as how we connect, how we are pulled in, how light guides and informs, and how light, connection and distance intertwine. Riker and the dancers have been developing the vocabulary of the work since November 2019, workshopping the connectedness of light and dancing of the piece by being in person and then when the global pandemic hit in 2020, shifting to Zoom and then cross-country, real-time live stream to keep the full company in collaboration.
Search(light) is set to premiere in NYC at the Navy Yard on October 9 and 10th in partnership with Vashon Center for the Arts, Vashon Island, WA. The New York cast includes Claudia-Lynn Rightmire, Therese Ronco, David L. Parker, Sumaya Mulla-Carrillo, and Nicole Truzzi. The Seattle cast includes Kimberly Holloway, Hendri Walujo, Robert Moore, Margaret Behm, Madeline Morser.
Kinesis Project’s programming, Revealing Dances, was invented by Melissa Riker and Jeremy Williams as a unique way to offer an open process and foster discussion about creativity in general. Search(Light) in 2020 and 2021 has been made possible in part through partnerships with Brooklyn Navy Yard and Vashon Center for the Arts, Dance/NYC Covid Relief Grant, Indie Theatre Fund, John C. Robinson, Emily and Tony Seaver, Amerigo Falciani and Melissa Graule, and many generous individuals.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard (the Yard) is a mission-driven industrial park that is a nationally acclaimed model of the viability and positive impact of modern, urban industrial development. The Yard is now home to more than 450 businesses employing more than 11,000 people and generating over $2.5 billion per year in economic impact for the city. Building on the Yard’s history as the economic heart of Brooklyn, the 300-acre waterfront asset offers a critical pathway to the middle class for many New Yorkers. The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) is the not-for-profit corporation that serves as the real estate developer and property manager of the Yard on behalf of its owner, the City of New York. BNYDC strives to provide an environment in which innovative companies can take root and grow. The Yard was once the nation’s most storied naval shipbuilding facility, which for over 150 years built and launched America’s most famous fighting ships, including the USS Maine, USS Arizona, and USS Missouri. The Yard also served as an important point of the passage, home, and workplace for countless veterans as they served our country. Through its public programming, the Yard continues to honor and preserve this rich history.
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 90s. Riker’s dances and aesthetic layer her training as a classical dancer, martial artist, theatre choreographer and aerial performer. She creates dances on site – and in context. Riker invents large-scale out-door performances and spontaneous moments of dance for individuals and corporate clients. Audiences and critics have called Riker’s work “a Marx Brothers’ routine with soul,” “A movable feast.” And from The New York Times, her choreography is: “comically acrobatic, gracefully classical, visually arresting.”
Kinesis Project is a dance organization that creates dance as public art, facilitates educational programs and produces site-specific performances with diverse communities. A company at the forefront of the international discussion of placemaking, art engagement and the cultural imperative of art in public space, Kinesis Project dance theatre invents large scale, space-changing, breath-taking experiences. In 2020 Riker kept Kinesis Project working and creating consistently on both coasts thanks in part to COVID Relief Grants from Dance/NYC, the Indie Theatre Fund and generous donors.
The company live-streamed multiple performances from Riverside Park South presented by Summer on the Hudson and has continued creating and developing Search(Light) on both coasts. Since 2005, Kinesis Project’s work has been experienced in San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Vermont, Florida and in New York City at such venerable venues as Danspace Project, Judson Church, Joyce Soho, The Minskoff Theatre, The Cunningham Studio, West End Theatre and Dixon Place. In 2019, the company’s work was experienced in Seattle, Brooklyn, NY, Riverside Park, supported by New York City Parks, and in Snug Harbor Cultural Center on Staten Island. The company dances outside in sculpture gardens, universities, and annually since 2006 in Battery Park’s Bosque Gardens and The Cloisters Lawn as well as hosting more than 30 surprise performances all over New York City and the tri-state area as an element of the company’s earned income and outreach programming with volunteer populated flash mobs. Residencies include: Earthdance 2006, Omi International Arts Center 2008, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center 2011, TheaterLab 2014, Adelphi University 2014. Ms. Riker is a 2016, 2017 and 2019 CUNY Dance Initiative Residency Fellow, 2015 LMCC Community Arts Fund grantee, 2019 Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Grantee. In 2020 Riker and Kinesis Project received a Dance/NYC COVID Recovery Grant and Indie Theatre Fund Recovery Grant. She has been commissioned by The Brooklyn Botanic Garden for a surprise large-scale work and performances of her work Secrets and Seawalls at Omi International Arts Center, Long House Reserve, Gateway National Park in partnership with Rockaways Artist Alliance. Ms. Riker has received commissions from Carson Fox and the Ephemeral Festival in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 for large-scale outdoor events, NYU in 1998, for an outdoor work long before “flash mob” was coined, 2006 and 2008 grants from the Puffin Foundation for her work Community Movements, a dance work with community volunteers, Fellowships from the Dodge Foundation, Space Grant Residencies from 92nd St Y, The New 42nd St Studio, Gibney Dance Center, and The Joyce Theatre Foundation, and grants from The Bowick Family Trust and John C. Robinson to support the continued work of Kinesis Project dance theatre.
Doori Na, a San Francisco native, took up violin at the age of four and began his studies with Li Lin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In the fall of 2018, he made his debut with The San Francisco Symphony performing Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with Itzhak Perlman and Michael Tilson Thomas. Currently living in New York City, Mr. Na plays with numerous ensembles around the city. He has played with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with tours in the US, Japan, and Europe performing in venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Musiverien in Vienna. Mr. Na is also a member of Argento Chamber Ensemble performing works of living composers such as Georg Friedrich Haas, Beat Furrer, Tristan Murail, and many more. New Chamber Ballet is where you can find Mr. Na regularly performing solo works for dance and he has been a part of the company since 2013. Recent tours include performing in Lake Tahoe, Germany, and Guatemala. Chamber music has also been an integral part of Mr. Na’s musical career. He has collaborated with members of the Juilliard String Quartet, Orion String Quartet, New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera and has been fortunate to tour with Itzhak Perlman at venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Other notable experiences include performing at the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach with the Bonhoeffer Trio and Les Amies trio. In addition to performing, Mr. Na has been active in teaching and doing outreach at schools. He has worked at the Juilliard School as a teaching assistant to Catherine Cho as well as working as a coach for the Pre-College Orchestra. Outreach to schools include going to Sarasota, Florida with the Perlman Music Program/Suncoast, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates with Juilliard Global Ventures, and the British International School of Chicago with The Juilliard School President, Joseph Polisi. Mr. Na attended the Juilliard School with the Dorothy Starling and Dorothy Delay scholarships and holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree where he studied under Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Donald Weilerstein. He was concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and was fortunate to play on a Guadagnini and Vuillaume violin from the Juilliard School’s prestigious violin collection.
Sandbox Percussion Described as “exhilarating” by The New York Times, and “virtuosic and utterly mesmerizing” by The Guardian, Sandbox Percussion has established themselves as a leading proponent of this generation of contemporary percussion chamber music. Brought together by their love of chamber music and the simple joy of playing together, Sandbox Percussion captivates audiences with performances that are both visually and aurally stunning. Through compelling collaborations with composers and performers, Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, and Terry Sweeney seek to engage a wider audience for classical music. Sandbox Percussion performs throughout the United States and made their United Kingdom debut in 2019 at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival in Cardiff where they premiered a new work by Benjamin Wallace for percussion quartet and fairground organ. In the 2019-20 season Sandbox Percussion premiered Don’t Look Down, a new work by Christopher Cerrone, with pianist Conor Hanick, as part of a new live stream concert series at the Caramoor Center for Music. They also presented a performance at Dumbarton Oaks of a new work by Viet Cuong. Sandbox Percussion has presented four separate programs of music by John Luther Adams at Storm King Art Center, Tippet Rise Art Center, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and the String Theory concert series in Chattanooga, TN. Sandbox performed Viet Cuong’s concerto Re(new)al with the Albany Symphony and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, as well as premiered a wind ensemble version of the work with the Brooklyn Wind Symphony. Sandbox collaborated with actor and writer Paul Lazar on a portrait concert of music by John Cage at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, and gave three sold out performances of Music for Eighteen Musicians with Emerald City Music in Seattle, WA. In addition to maintaining a busy concert schedule, Sandbox has also led masterclasses and coachings at schools such as the Peabody Conservatory, Curtis Institute, the University of Southern California, Kansas University, Cornell University, and Furman University. While there, they coached students on some of the most pivotal works in the percussion repertoire including Steve Reich’s Drumming, György Ligeti’s Síppal, Dobbal, Nádihegedüvel, and John Cage’s Third Construction. These teaching experiences have inspired the quartet to pursue a role of pedagogy and mentorship for today’s young generation of musicians. In 2016, Sandbox Percussion founded the NYU Sandbox Percussion Seminar – this week-long seminar invites percussion students from across the globe to rehearse and perform some of today’s leading percussion chamber music repertoire at the iconic Brooklyn venue National Sawdust. In 2020, Sandbox Percussion released their debut album And That One Too on Coviello Classics. The album features works by longtime collaborators Andy Akiho, David Crowell, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Thomas Kotcheff. In the 2020-21 season, Sandbox Percussion will launch a group of new virtual initiatives: a concert series live-streamed from their studio in Brooklyn, #sandboxsunday – a live-streamed series of conversations with composers, performers and other close collaborators, and monthly live-readings of new works submitted by composers from around the world. In 2021, Sandbox will release Seven Pillars, an evening-length commissioned work by Andy Akiho, with staging and lighting design by Michael McQuilken. Sandbox Percussion endorses Pearl/Adams musical instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Remo drumheads, and Black Swamp accessories.
