The third installment of the successful intervention series Under the Viaduct will take place on Saturday, October 4, 2014 and coincide with the Paris-based Festival of Lights. Nuit Blanche (which literally means White Night in French) was originated in 1984 by Jean Blaise, founder of the Centre de recherche pour le développement culturel (Research Center for Cultural Development) in Nantes, France. Nuit Blanche is an annual all-night or night-time arts festival. A Nuit Blanche will typically have museums, private and public art galleries and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the city itself being turned into a de facto art gallery, providing space for art installations, performances (music, film, dance, and performance art), themed social gatherings, and other activities.
The Curator Savona and the West Harlem Art Fund is developing their version of the festival with featured dances, graffiti, sounds and digital art.
Tour-based intervention:
Participants will first view a dancework choreographed by Ellen Maynard and Autumn Scoggan; then use their smartphones to scan codes matched with graffiti letterings and linked to film and music that will be along the pillars by artist Lady K Fever under the 12th Avenue viaduct; finally participants will engage with multiple digital artworks by emerging technology artists to complete their urban, conscious experience.
FEATURED DANCE INTERVENTION – Luminata: It is our light
Choreographers: Ellen Maynard and Autumn Scoggan
Location: Under The Viaduct at 125th near West Harlem Piers; Large slanted concrete slab
Performers: Ellen Maynard, Autumn Scoggan, Madeline Irmen, Quentin Burley, Emily Jones, Melanie Gallo, Erin Kerr, Ava Untermeyer
Synopsis: This group dance will occur at sunset; and as the afternoon sun creates slanted light pathways, the dancers will move in their own pathways. Rich magenta and orange colored fabric will stretch across the expansive grey concrete. The dancers will weave in and out of each other and the fabric, creating both intricate and broad pathways. A community will form within the group of dancers as they move together to create something larger than each individual. The fabric will evoke a rich sense of empowerment. At some points the fabric will become a long dress train, at other points it will work as an ornate wrapping. The movements of this piece are inspired by the arches of the viaduct and the grandeur of the huge space. The dancers appear tiny under this large sturdy structure, and while their movement reflects that at times, at other times the movement empowers them to share the grandeur of the space and of the group.
Music: Brass musicians have been invited to play improvisational music that speaks to the history of the area but with a contemporary vibe.
Costumes: Graffiti jackets that will illuminate are being designed by street artist Lady K Fever
Curator:
SAVONA BAILEY-MCCLAIN currently lives and works in New York City. She is an independent curator, producer and preservation advocate. The range of McClain’s practice has included sculpture, drawings, performance, sound, and mixed media. McClain is the Executive Director & Chief Curator for The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. a sixteen year old public art organization and curatorial collective serving neighborhoods around the City. Her public art installations have been seen in the New York Times, Art Daily, Artnet, Los Angeles Times, DNAinfo, Huffington Post among others. McClain strives for a soulful, meaningful connection with the public and the “arts”. It simply has to be approachable as far as she is concerned. McClain has installed at Times Square, DUMBO, Soho, NoLita, Williamsburg, Governors Island, Queens, Greater Harlem (East, Central and West), Chelsea, Upper East Side and the Bronx. Noted works include The H in Harlem, Counting Sheep, Story Piles, East River Flows, Under the Viaduct, Playlabs and Loosely Coupled. McClain has a liberal arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh and has been recently selected to join TINA, the new international network for contemporary art based in Italy.
Choreographers:
ELLEN MAYNARD is a Brooklyn-based dance artist and filmmaker. Ellen performed in original works by Bebe Miller, Lily Skove, Ann Sofie Clemmensen, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Ohad Fishof, and Noa Zuk, during her time as a BFA student of dance at The Ohio State University. Ellen was director of photography for Stephan Koplowitz’s dance film installation work in progress during Bates Dance Festival 2014. She is currently dancing for Dante Brown | Warehouse Dance, and Quentin Burley. Luminata is the premiere choreographic work for Ellen in New York.
AUTUMN SCOGGAN combines social activism with performance art in order to tell stories and engage in open dialogue with audiences through a variety of at mediums, such as dance, film, and comedy.
Dancers:
MADELINE IRMEN began dancing at the age of six in her hometown, Toledo, OH. In 2013, she graduated with a BFA in dance from The Ohio State University where she has had the pleasure of performing works by Bebe Miller, Susan Hadley, Noa Zuk and Ohad Fishof. She has attended the Bates Dance Festival, Doug Varone and Dancers Workshops, and the American Dance Festival. Madeline moved to New York City in 2014, where she is thrilled to be dancing in projects with Erik Abbott-Main | Boy Friday, Dante Brown | Warehouse Dance, The Median Movement, and Quentin Burley Dance Group.
AVA LOUISE UNTERMYER is a New York based dance artist who moves to stimulate livelihood in others. She has had the pleasure of performing a variety of works, ranging from the classic pieces of Isadora Duncan Dance Company to the contemporary work of Benny Simon. Ava and her brother Adrian Untermyer are co-producing “The Funks”- a show that blends vivacious movement with live jazz music. In addition to dancing, she administrates for the Gina Gibney Dance Center and teachers creative movement for Hosh Kids Enrichment and the Imagine Early Learning Centers. Ava is honored to share the space with such beautifully creative movers this evening.
EMILY JONES having recently graduated from The Ohio State University’s Department of Dance, Emily has had the privilege to work with such artists as Dave Covey, Meghan Durham-Wall, Susan Hadley, and Bebe Miller. While at OSU, Emily performed Miller’s piece “Our Town” in Dance Uptown DIRT, and later worked with Erik Abbott-Main for the Columbus Symphony’s performance of SPRING. Jones has enjoyed international dancing experiences in both Costa Rica and Ghana and developed research in conjugation with such travels to present in a choreographic project entitled “Necessarily together/we persist.” Currently, Jones is a Personal Trainer at Equinox Tribeca and can be found teaching yoga at Yoga to the People. #TeamTribe! @emilybernadettejones
ERIN KERRE began her dance training when she was four in Raleigh, NC. In the spring of 2014, she graduated magna cum laude from The Ohio State University with a B.F.A in Dance and a B.A. in Psychology. While at The Ohio State University, she has performed in many Department of Dance shows including Dance Uptown, Drums Downtown, student concerts, and dance films. She has also choreographed work for student concerts and created dance films.
Street Artist:
LADY K-FEVER (b. Canada) is a New York based inter-disciplinary artist and curator working with painting, installation, photography, performance and public art projects. She began her career in Vancouver the early 1990’s when she was invited to create an installation with Riot Grrlz for Artropolis 93. In 2003, she became the first Canadian woman to paint at the legendary Graffiti Hall of Fame in East Harlem, New York and to be put down with NYC graffiti crews KD & TDS. Her work has been exhibited in Bronx Lab Style Wars Bronx Museum, Graffiti Research lab MOMA, Figure8 El Museo del Barrio, Born again: Eight Artist Respond Longwood Art gallery, B-girl Be Intermedia Arts, This side of Paradise No Longer Empty and Figment 2012 New York and published in the New York Times, New York Post, Daily News and in the magazines: Studio (Harlem), Mass Appeal (Brooklyn), Backspin (Germany), and Trace (international) among others, and in the books Graffiti Women: Street Art from Five Continents, and Burning New York: Graffiti NYC, and We B Girlz (New York). In 2013, her graffiti/street art has been presented at The Graffiti Hall Of Fame 2013, New York, Rooftop Legends 2013, New York, and The New York Walls Wynwood, Miami. From 2004 to 2006, she was the lead curator at The Aurora Gallery in Chelsea creating exhibitions History in the Making I, II & III. She has curated Made from love for the Bronx Museum’s project space in 2007 and most recently Outside the Box at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx.
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