Kinesis Project dance theatre presents "Search(Light)" at Summer on the Hudson
Company:
Kinesis Project
Kinesis Project dance theatre presents a performance of Search(Light) as part of Riverside Park's Summer on the Hudson on September 19, 2021 at 6:30pm on the Locomotive Lawn, Hudson River Greenway & W 62nd St, New York, NY. For more information and to reserve a free ticket, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/170038723399.
Kinesis Project dance theatre—the large-scale, outdoor dance company known for creating beautifully expansive yet surprisingly intimate dances—returns to Riverside Park South with Search(Light), their newest evening-length work. Combining high-energy dancing, gorgeous light-refracting costumes, and live music, this mesmerizing performance traverses from bridges to hilltops to the shores of the Hudson River, prompting viewers to contemplate the potency of human connections across great distances.
Search(Light) will be danced by company members Claudia-Lynn Rightmire, Therese Ronco, David L. Parker, and Nicole Truzzi, and accompanied by live violin soloist Doori Na, creating a layered experience of the human and the ethereal for audiences. Melissa Riker, Choreographer and Artistic Director of Kinesis Project dance theatre, said "the dancers and I are thrilled to bring another performance of our unconfined dances to Riverside Park South. There are so many ways to experience the varied spaces of this park! With Search(Light), we are excited to reveal the scale of the landscape overlaid with the intimacy of individual connection."
The dancers' connections are enhanced by reflective costumes designed by Rebecca Kanach. These eye-catching elements replicate lines of light through the movement as the 45-minute dance progresses through the park. Please be prepared to be mobile. Verbal description will be available.
Know Before You Go:
For everyone's safety, we are asking all participants to observe the following guidelines:
- Please wear a mask if you are unvaccinated, or if it makes you feel more comfortable
- All individuals should maintain social distancing of six feet during programming, regardless of vaccination status
- Please wear a mask if social distancing cannot be maintained
- Wash your hands before attending a program
- Stay home if you are sick
- Additionally, we encourage participants to bring their own hand sanitizer to our programs.
Search(light) is presented by Summer on the Hudson and made possible with support from Riverside Park Conservancy, John C. Robinson, City Artist Corp and Kinesis Project dance theatre donors and Patreon Patrons.
Consistent with this unique dance company's process of using varying environments to explore a single dance work, Search(light) appeared in Seattle and Vashon Island, WA over summer 2021, and will also be appearing in NYC on Little Island on September 25, 2021, and in Brooklyn Navy Yard October 8 and 9, 2021.
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 new work on both coasts in person throughout 2021, from Vashon Island, to Seattle to NY's Brooklyn Navy Yard. 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.
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