THE DANCE COMPLEX TO HOST
DANCE NOW BOSTON
Two Weekends of Performances in Cambridge, MA.
Saturday, February 19th at 8:00PM ET
Sunday, February 20th at 7:00PM ET
Saturday, February 26th at 8:00PM ET
Sunday, February 27th at 7:00PM ET
Program features Choreographer David Parker and The Bang Group’s All-Dance Re-Imagining of “Annie Get Your Gun” and performances by Peter DiMuro, Kristin Wagner’s The Click, and Aysha Upchurch – hosted by The Davis Sisters.
TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED HERE
IMAGES AND B-ROLL ARE AVAILABLE HERE
[Cambridge, MA, January 31, 2022] – DANCE NOW Boston announced its 8th Season program, continuing its partnership with The Bang Group and choreographer David Parker for two weekends of performances on February 19th, 20th, 26th, and 27th, at the Dance Complex in Cambridge, MA. Saturday performances will take place at 8:00PM ET and Sunday performances will be at 7:00PM ET. Virtual tickets are also available for the final performance on Sunday, February 27th.
This year, The Bang Group will present excerpts from choreographer David Parker’s original all-dance re-imagining of “Annie Get Your Gun” called “ShowDown” with recordings from the Irving Berlin classic. The performance unravels Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun’s” theme of a showdown between the sexes, the lure of show business and the juncture of love and ambition, reassembles them with grace and vigor into a wholly new experience.
“The goal of DANCE NOW Boston is to establish a creative bridge between NYC and Boston by commissioning Boston choreographers to create work for cabaret spaces as DANCE NOW NYC does for New Yorkers,” explains The Bang Group choreographer David Parker. “We are thrilled to be able to bring these new pieces to audiences in Boston this year.”
“DANCE NOW Boston has become a staple of our season here at The Dance Complex, and we’re thrilled to see it arrive back in our Julie Ince Thompson Theatre for a two weekend run,” said Peter DiMuro, executive artistic director of The Dance Complex. “Native son David Parker has steadfastly provided this platform for dance-makers here, creating exchanges with Boston and NYC. He’s a loyal Boston dance citizen, never forsaking his hometown- while making a name for himself as a dance master in NY and around the world. Honored, too, to share the stage with my Boston colleagues in this venture.”
Alexander Davis and Joy Davis, known as The Davis Sisters, will serve as hosts for the DANCE NOW Boston program; the duo will also perform pop-up vignettes between pieces which will include DANCE NOW Boston alumni.
Aysha Upchurch will join the Dance Complex stage for the DANCE NOW Boston program on February 26-27 with a piece she has titled “Tensile Joy.” Aysha explains the performance as “an exploration into understanding what keeps me going, even when…life says I shouldn’t. It is supernatural. It is fuel. It is unfailing. It is radical.”
Kristin Wagner has also choreographed a piece for both weekends of performances, a piece she calls “Survival Aesthetics” 
(working title for a work-in-progress). Artists from Wagner’s dance exchange “The Click” including Olivia Blaisdell, Katrina Conte, Rachel Linsky, Audrey MacLean, Frederick Moss, and Alexandria Nunweiler (February 19 & 20 only) perform in “Survival Aesthetics” which is as much a celebration of meaningless beauty as it is a rejection of the current wave of highly intellectual art. In this work-in-progress, choreographer Kristin Wagner pulls from lesser known Darwinian theories of evolution – that argue aesthetic as inherent to survival – to inspire movement vocabulary whose meaning exists only in the beauty of its presentation.
Peter DiMuro will be performing a solo piece for DANCE NOW Boston performances on February 19th, 20th and 26th. His piece “Five Episodes Facing Dusk And A Possible Dawn” is a new solo work, comprised of five small movement or spoken “episodes” that reflect on the stupefying existence we as a world and we as individuals have experienced over the last two years of COVID-19.
DANCE NOW remains committed to sparking creativity for and with dance-makers in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. DN brings together communities and collaborations, pursuing presentations of dance in non-traditional spaces, all while providing support to bring artists’ visions to life on and off stage. DN offers a network of performance, creative development, and teaching opportunities, as well as development and administrative support, which serves a diverse roster of multi-generational dance-makers.
For over 25 years, DN has sought out new voices while supporting and promoting our existing relationships with hundreds of artists. DN remains committed to supporting unique artistic visions, focusing specifically on amplifying BIPOC artists and audiences, with the goal of becoming a not-for-profit arts organization that mirrors the diversity of the dance community. DN continues to prioritize accessibility for its audiences via captioning, interpretation, and fully accessible performance spaces.
DANCE NOW Boston Performances
The Dance Complex
536 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Virtual Tickets Also Available
Saturday, February 19th, 2022 at 8:00PM ET
Performing Artists Appear as Follows:
The Davis Sisters – Hosts
The Bang Group – ShowDown (choreographer David Parker)
Peter DiMuro – Five Episodes Facing Dusk And A Possible Dawn
The Click – Survival Aesthetics (choreographer Kristin Wagner)
Sunday, February 20th, 2022 at 7:00PM ET
Performing Artists Appear as Follows:
The Davis Sisters – Hosts
The Bang Group – ShowDown (choreographer David Parker)
Peter DiMuro – Five Episodes Facing Dusk And A Possible Dawn
The Click – Survival Aesthetics (choreographer Kristin Wagner)
Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 8:00PM ET
Performing Artists Appear as Follows:
The Davis Sisters – Hosts
The Bang Group – ShowDown (choreographer David Parker)
Aysha Upchurch – Tensile Joy
Peter DiMuro – Five Episodes Facing Dusk And A Possible Dawn
Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 7:00PM ET
Performing Artists Appear as Follows:
The Davis Sisters – Hosts
The Bang Group – ShowDown (choreographer David Parker)
Aysha Upchurch – Tensile Joy
The Click – Survival Aesthetics (choreographer Kristin Wagner)
For more information visit https://www.dancenownyc.org/boston
Performer Biographies
The Bang Group
THE BANG GROUP is a rhythm-driven, New York-based dance company which spans contemporary and percussive forms. The company, founded and directed by Jeffrey Kazin and David Parker, celebrates its 26th anniversary this season. TBG has toured and performed widely throughout North America and Europe and has been generously supported by The Jerome Robbins Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Doris Duke Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Harkness Foundation, Tiger Baron Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Fund, Greenwall Foundation, Arts International, Fund for Mutual Understanding, Netherland-America Foundation, Pentacle’s ARC Fund, Frederick Loewe Foundation and several private donors. It is presented regularly in New York City by New York Live Arts and its predecessor Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Dance Now NYC, Symphony Space and The Harkness Dance Festival among many others. The Bang Group has made its second home in Boston through sustained partnerships with Summer Stages Dance (13 seasons), The ICA, and The Dance Complex. The Bang Group supports and presents the work of a wide range of artists through its Dance Now Boston initiative which commissions new work created for cabaret spaces and enters its seventh annual season in June 2022 and through annual performance series in New York City at The Flea Theater, The West End Theater and Arts On Site.
Peter DiMuro
Peter has been making dance/theater/performance in all kinds of settings for the length of his career- from his 20’s during the height of the AIDS crisis, through touring and engaging communities for 15 years world wide as artistic director of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and now as director of Public Displays of Motion, a group of collaborators based in Boston. Peter’s day job: Executive Artistic Director of The Dance Complex.
Aysha Upchurch
Aysha, aka the Dancing Diplomat, is an artist and educator who creates, facilitates, and designs for radical change. As a dancer/choreographer, she is an embodied storyteller who leans on African diasporic movement to create works of joy, connection, and liberation. Her works braid together spoken word, humor, and deep inquiry that highlight her own unique stories while shedding light on those universal experiences that can invite audiences into closer dialogue with each other and themselves. She has been a John F. Kennedy Center commissioned artist, Schonberg Dance Fellow, and CATALYST artist, as well as led performance and choreographic residencies at universities across the country. Aysha is a Lecturer and Artist-in-Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she pioneered courses on Hip Hop and embodied learning as necessary tools of transformative education. Whether on stage or in a classroom, as a US State Department cultural envoy or professor, Aysha is making moves and demonstrating how to be D.O.P.E. – dismantling oppression and pushing education.
Kristin Wagner / The Click
Kristin is a movement enthusiast living, learning and growing in Boston, MA. Since 2012, Kristin has been performing with a number of local contemporary dance theater companies and freelance choreographers, most notably: Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion and KAIROS Dance Theater, for whom she serves as Rehearsal Director and Principal Dancer. As “Decent Dance”, Kristin – with partner Tony Guglietti – creates accessible contemporary performance works that dabble in comedy, dramedy, and all things silly, sweet and true. Spearheaded in 2021, The Click is an experiment in organization, connection, and collaboration among a group of like-minded creative spirits living, making, teaching, studying, and/or existing in the Greater Boston area. We are a group of contemporary dancers operating within a lateral power structure to create and present meaningful and accessible arts experiences. The Click contributes to the cultural vitality of our communities via education, performance, and engagement. With a mission to redirect the energies of the dance community from the individual to the collective, we invite you, whoever you are, to click with us: #letsclicknotclique.
About The Dance Complex:
The Dance Complex is a 30 year old central hub of dance- locally, with connections to the New England region and in dialogue with the inter/national dance field. The Dance Complex enables the creation, study, and performance of dance. We sustain artists, audiences, and the community through programs that connect movement and ideas. We celebrate the wonder and curiosity of dance for all. The Dance Complex is for all who want to dance or move; who need space to express or explore through movement. We offer classes, performances and professional development in a safe inclusive environment – unlike those with barriers to entry because we believe in catalyzing movement as both art and as a tool for life.
Media Contacts:
Adam Klein, CK Communications Group – adam@ckcommgroup.com / 617 – 504 – 6156
Darren DeLuca, DDPR – darren.deluca@gmail.com / 603 – 489 – 7624
