DVP to present ‘Revival’ in Harlem & Brooklyn

Dances For A Variable PopulationCelebrating dance and the beauty of age, Dances For A Variable Population (DVP) will soon present three performances of Revival, an outdoor public dance project that re-imagines the works and ideas of celebrated 20th century choreographers as performed by non-professional senior dancers. In utilizing the founding dance languages of Lester Horton, Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Helen Tamiris, Daniel Nagrin, Pearl Primus and Katherine Dunham, Revival connects a multi-generational dance company with a lifetime of experience in each technique.

 

Now in their ninth year of free performances in iconic public spaces, DVP’s 2017 world premiere will take place at Grant’s Tomb in Harlem on June 17 and Lincoln Statue in Prospect Park on June 24.

 

For Revival, DVP welcomes seven choreographers rooted in American Modern Dance and Broadway: Ramona Candy (Katherine Dunham), George Faison (The Wiz/Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), Ellen Graff, Stuart Hodes, Marnie Thomas Wood (Martha Graham Company), Elizabeth Keen (Paul Taylor, Helen Tamiris/Daniel Nagrin) and Artistic Director Naomi Goldberg Haas.

 

In total, Revival will feature 50 seniors from DVP’s free Movement Speaks programs, which take place at over 14 sites across New York City. It will also feature professional guest performers Laura Glenn, Chet Walker, Shirley Black Brown and Alice Teirstein.

 

In a project of historical and technical exploration, Revival celebrates the past performing careers of these artists and the impacts these techniques have had on dance history. Through exploration across dance studios, libraries, senior and recreation centers in Manhattan and Brooklyn, Revival will bring audiences the stylized musical revue walk of the Cotton Club, the quirky gestures of Paul Taylor, and the emotion-driven hellos and poignant farewells of Martha Graham.

 

This one-of-a-kind event will be free to the public and an opportunity to see new possibilities in beautiful movement distilled from the seminal techniques of legendary geniuses, to see the eloquence of the older brain/older body, and to see older artists create.

 

For more information on DVP, visit www.dvpnyc.org.