Pentacle Booking is happy to announce the creation of a new division of our roster called Metropolitan Intersections. This is a diverse group of younger dance troupes who together exemplify the cultural and aesthetic contrasts to be found in America's vibrant cities. These companies include Illstyle & Peace Productions, Juxtapower/South Africa's Dance and Song and Soul Steps based on the East Coast.  Based on the West Coast are Sheetal Gandhi and Jacinta Vlach/Liberation Dance Theater.
 
Angela Luem is the Artist Representative for Metropolitan Intersections.  Originally from St. Louis; she received her BFA from Southern Methodist University; then lived and worked as a "pick up" dancer for eight years in New York City.  She next moved to Mexico City to live, dance and play for three years before returning to Chicago to work toward a Masters in Arts Management/Entrepreneurship at Columbia College.  Angela is excited to be working alongside Ivan, Sophie, Michelle and Doug at Pentacle.  You may contact her at angelal@pentacle.org or 212-278-8111 x305.

Sheetal Gandhi, born in India and raised in California, is a multidisciplinary choreographer and performer.  She creates work that is reflective of a life that embraces diversity, observes human experience and yearns to tell a story.  Using movement, complex rhythmic structures, theatricality and singing, she crafts a virtuosic and evocative physical/vocal vocabulary.  In form and content, the work reflects her love for both Kathak cultural tradition and disciplinary technique with the equally urgent desire to break away from them.

 

Illstyle & Peace Productions has been described in the New York Times as "a hip hop revue with killer dancing." I&PP is a multicultural, Philadelphia-based dance company founded in 2002 by Brandon "Peace" Albright and Forrest "Getemgump" Webb. The company creates work rooted in contemporary and old school hip-hop blended with an eclectic mix of dance and performance disciplines including tap, ballet, DJing and beatboxing. The company has toured to critical acclaim nationally and internationally and is committed to delivering positive messages to all audiences.  

Illstyle & Peace Productions are on the PennPAT roster which offers support (up to 50%) for touring engagements beginning June 1, 2011 to presenters in Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, U.S. Virgin Islands, and West Virginia. The next deadline for presenters to apply for funding is February 15, 2011 for an engagement taking place between June 1, 2011 and May 31, 2012.

Juxtapower/South Africa's Dance and Song's mission is to keep the dialogue about South African history, politics, people and culture fresh within the minds of the global community.  Juxtapower takes pride in bridging gaps between the cultures of the US and South Africa through their dance, song and play.  The company believes that in cultural history it is through artists that stories are told, myths written, and nations brought closer together.

 
Soul Steps concentrates on the body as a percussive, story-telling instrument.  Performances include the personal and cultural stories of the Soul Step members and the generations of ancestors they represent.  Their performances are a sincere reflection of who they are.  In a spirit of honesty they invite audiences to join in the celebration, discovery and growth that are birthed through dance.

 

Jacinta Vlach/Liberation Dance Theater represents the voice of the arriving generation.  Drawing upon movement from the Latin/African Diaspora and contemporary and urban vernaculars while honoring the tradition of the theatre arts, LDT captures the socio-political climate of our increasingly globalized world with a strong emphasis on the working class perspective.  Through collaboration and individual narratives, LDT brings personal stories to the stage in an attempt to spread awareness and healing to diverse peoples.
 
For more details on the Metropolitan Intersections artists, click here

Cornfield Dance celebrates the alliance and the tension between full-throttle dancing and pedestrian movement, creating a rich, invigorating and powerful dance landscape. The Company's lush movement language simultaneously highlights the poetry and excitement generated by the human body and the space the movement inhabits.

Dakshina / Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company is an award-winning DC-based company performing Modern Dance, Bharata Natyam, and a syncretic fusion of the two forms. Singh has crystalized a signature blend of various styles creating the company's rich, diverse and global repertoire.

 
Danse4Nia's driving force is to move, stir and captivate audiences through the art of meaningful, soulful and life changing dance. The Company has been able to touch audiences of diverse backgrounds with its extraordinary brand of dance through performances that reflect present-day motifs, informed by popular African-American concert dance traditions.
 
Erica Essner Performance Co-Op incorporates a physical narrative into its intense and compelling ensemble work, creating dance that is both heartfelt and architecturally refined. Forceful and dynamic, the Erica Essner Performance Co-Op builds vibrant movement from autobiography and theme.
 
Chris Ferris & Dancers is known for its fearless action, physical indulgence and elegant design.  Fists pound the floor, bodies spiral with tactile awareness, and the planes of raw space are rearranged again and again until you are twitching in your seat. Interdisciplinary collaborations enrich the experience with original music, sculpture and dance.
 
Liz Gerring Dance Company has been exploring non-narrative, abstract movement often derived from natural gesture. Her work is characterized by intense physicality and intricate choreography, often framed by independent media elements such as a multi-channel sound score or video set design.
 
Inspirit creates contemporary dance works imbued with spiritual exuberance, ancestral strength and startling perception. The works created by and for this collaborative company of women consistently stretch the artists' understanding of body and performance.
 
Kingsley Irons is a director, choreographer, writer and performer. Inspired by her art history, theatre and creative writing background, she creates thought-provoking, interdisciplinary dance-theatre and dance-art installations using a diverse, highly original movement vocabulary.
 
KDNY creates rich theatrical experiences that celebrate, through craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor and beauty, the deep and powerful imagery of women. At times athletic or vulnerable, graceful and empowered, Artistic Director Kathleen Dyer's dynamic choreography takes inspiration from the potent stories of women.
 
Lucky Plush Productions is a Chicago-based dance-theater company led by Artistic Director Julia Rhoads, one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch in 2010."  The company devises works with a focus on strong ensembles, complex choreography, innovative use of new media technology, and intellectually bold content.
 
Pappas and Dancers creates intimate, idiosyncratic dances that reveal the body as an archive for personal and social histories. It is known for challenging, intelligent work and its own brand of awkward beauty, which layer highly specific images with text and gesture.
 
Claire Porter/Portables presents a series of solo comedic movement monologues that offer a wryly askance view of human truths. In Portables, Claire pulls apart what seems to be normal and then puts it all back together in funny, absurd, touching pieces.
 
The Seldoms are known for combining physical risk with rigorous inscription of idea onto the body, and a vision that extends to total action and environment. Under the direction of choreographer Carrie Hanson, they make intelligent, visual dance theater works that are driven by inquiry into contemporary issues and the history of ideas and art.
 
TU Dance, led by Alvin Ailey veterans Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands, embodies a contemporary vision striving to reveal the connective power of dance. Uri Sands' luscious choreography incorporates dialects from ballet, West African, traditional, modern and streetwise American dance, rendered with simultaneous distinctiveness and cohesion by the company's sumptuous, razor-sharp execution.

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre is committed to collaborating with artists across disciplines, cultural geographies and physical borders in order to forge stimulating and transformative experiences through dance. Inspired by world events as well as personal histories, it offers an intimate glimpse into the countless faces of humanity.
 
Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Co. create works that reach toward the outermost edges of physical dance, forging a choreographic world full of emotional range and power. Noted for its impact across cultural boundaries, the company's work has spoken to audiences around the world.

 

For more details on The Gallery artists, click here

NDP Tour support for David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group:

Presenters who book David Neumann's "Big Eater" between June 1, 2011 and August 31, 2012 are eligible for National Dance Project fee support of up to 50%. Gia Kourlas in The Times called this intriguing performance work "a tragedy disguised as a comedy." It's well worth a look. Call or e-mail Ivan for further information.