CEC’s NY Dance Exchange -
From Outrage to Enlightenment

Risk taking is one of the tenets of the CEC’s New Edge Artists Program and the NY Dance Exchange, a component of the New Edge, probably best personifies what’s new and provocative in dance and performance.  The NY Dance Exchange, CEC’s annual artists exchange with NYC based New Dance Alliance never fails to surprise and stimulate.  This year the Exchange brings to Philly performance artist Ann Liv Young whose work is considered more than provocative, even by NYC standards Young’s work is considered outrageous.  Also, from NY, dancer choreographer Mathew Heggem whose contemporary dance seeks to transcend classical technique to offer a different experience for both dancer and viewer.  In addition to the NY based artists, two Philadelphia entries will perform, relative new comer to the Philadelphia dance scene, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, and perpetual mvmt<>snd featuring Emily Sweeney with musician Bilwa.  There will be one performance only, Saturday, November 8 at 8PM.  Due to some of the program content we recommend this evening for adults only.

About the Artists:
Ann Liv Young hails from the outer banks of North Carolina and is a graduate of Hollins University (Roanoke, VA ).  She blasted onto the NYC performance scene about eight years ago and has managed to garner a reputation as an artist who will do about anything on stage.  Performing to sold out houses, the work is in your face, over the top, and often displays overt sexual content.  The work deals with social themes and is characterized by the blurring of lines between real life and art.  Young's work has been presented at major venues in New York City and Europe such as Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, Brooklyn Museum, The Kitchen, Laban Centre London, Impulstanz, Springdance, The Arches, Tanz Im August, Motel Mosaique, Donau Festival, and City of Women.  Her work has also been presented in Virginia, North Carolina, London, Vienna, Holland, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Italy, Slovenia, Washington D.C., New Mexico, Connecticut, Montana and Philadelphia. As part of a FUSED residency in France, she remade the original Grimm’s Brothers fairytale of Snow White. "Snow White" was performed at Theatre de la Bastille, Beursschouwburg festival in Brussels, AMAT in Italy, Impulstanz in Vienna and in New York at the Kitchen, among others. For the Exchange Young will perform an excerpt from "Snow White," entitled "Radio Play."  www.annlivyoung.com

Mathew Heggem is the co-founder of a research-based dance company, Kinaesthesia, with fellow artist Wendell Cooper.  Their art is contextualized by research on visionary art, theology, Buddhism and meditation practices.  For the Exchange Heggem will be performing with the Philadelphia based, “Sparta Philharmonic,” - musicians Alexander & Gregory Bortnichak.  Heggem’s work has been performed at many venues on the East Coast, including NY venues: Dance Conversations @ The Flea, Dixon Place, Movement Research, The Gowanus Arts Center, Cabaret Caterplexy, and Sublet Series; as well as, the National's Theater in D.C., the Baltimore Theater Projects, Baltimore's Transmodern Festival, and the Gloucester New Arts Festival (MA). He is a member of Nicholas Leichter Dance and Clyde Forth Visual Theatre.  www.matheggem.com 

Jaamil Olawale Kosoko (choreographer/director/writer/performer) is a Philadelphia based movement and literary artist, as well as a film maker.  He holds a BA in Literature and Performance Studies from Bennington.  Kosoko made his Philadelphia choreographic debut at the CEC as part of the CEC New Edge Resident Artists Performance Series in 2007 with an evening length dance theatre work inspired by Prince entitled WET. PURPLE. LOVE. AFFAIR.  He has shown his dances and dance-films at Bennington College, Dance Theater Workshop, the American Dance Festival, Danspace at St. Mark's Church, Joyce SoHo, and most recently completed, POOL PERMIT, the first dance-film to be commissioned by Dance Films Association.  He has performed in the choreographic works of Ann Carlson, Yoshiko Chuma, the Emergent Improvisation Ensemble, Lisa Kraus, Richard Siegel, Kate Watson-Wallace, Headlong Dance Theater, Leah Stein Dance Company, and Pig Iron Theatre Company among others.   Kosoco will present an excerpt from his newest work “Dances for the 21st Century,” performed by dancer John Beauregard. www.kosokoperformance.org

Since 2006, perpetual mvmt<>snd (Perpetual Movement and Sound) has explored the intersection of various artistic media and the way these media inform and inspire one another in a perpetual loop.  Perpetual Movement and Soundis co-directed by Emily Sweeney, a movement artist, and Bilwa, a musician and visual artist. As frequent collaborators, they have presented their improvised and choreographed works around Philadelphia as part of paraphrase/NEXUS, Bowerbird Performance Series, Soundfield Festival, CEC New Edge Mix, and Philly Fringe. Emily also dances with the Emergent Improvisation Ensemble and independent choreographer Brigitta Herrmann. She is a native of Vermont and studied dance and literature at Bennington College. Bilwa is a member and special projects director of NEXUS Foundation for Today's Art.   His past projects include Hoopty Heaven, an ambient dub duo, and VERSIONsound, a roots/reggae/dub sound system. In 2007, Bilwa and Mikronesia (another founding member of the ensemble) released perfect seconds, a compilation of their music inspired by the dancers of Perpetual Movement and Sound, on earSnake records.  Emily Sweeney and Bilwa of Perpetual Movement and Sound will perform a new work that heightens the audience's experience of the body through live-feed audio and video. www.perpetualmvmtsnd.org

UPCOMING EVENTS -  The New Edge Resident Artists Performance Series with: theatre artists Sarah McCarron - January 16-18, and 23-25, 2009; and Martina Plag - May 8-10, 2009; and dance artists: Megan Mazarick - April 24-26, 2009; Shavon Norris- May 15-17, 2009; and Meredith Rainey - June 12-14, 2009,  Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM and Sundays at 3PM.

Major funding provided by The Pew Center of Arts and Heritage, through Dance Advance, and the PA Council on the Arts.