The Dance Gallery Festival continues its annual New York performance showcase on November 4 and 5 at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 W 55th Street, NYC, with twenty-five artists in a weekend of groundbreaking work.

The Dance Gallery Festival was established in 2007 to mentor upcoming national and international choreographic talent with performance opportunities and residencies. The 2017 NYC Festival weekend, which will include choreography by Alvin Ailey dancer Sean Aaron Carmon , Rohan Bhargava/ Rovaco Dance (NYC) and Nicole von Arx /NVA & Guests (New York, Switzerland), will push the boundaries of modern and contemporary dance, cultivate artistry and create a performance vehicle to help support the growth of dance companies.

Under the guidance of Astrid von Ussar, Festival Artistic Director and co-founder, The Dance Gallery Festival serves to mentor hundreds of artists seeking to establish a foothold in a business with few resources and much competition. Over 300 emerging and established choreographers have participated in the Dance Gallery Festival since its founding in 2007, with more than twenty-five works commissioned. Many Festival alumni have gone on to perform at Jacob’s Pillow, the Joyce Theater, international venues and national television.

The movement artists at The Dance Gallery Festival 2017, hosted at Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center, certainly remind one that to dance is to live.  Imbedded in the psyche of the dancers and the extremely detailed choreography witnessed in each piece lies a philosophy of celebrating life, the body, the soul and the time we have here on earth to do so. The evening feautured stunning storytelling using the entire instrument that is the human body. Twelve choreographers, chosen from about 250 applicants from all over the U.S., joined in this true celebration of dance: Ad Deum Dance Company (TX), Ariel Rivka Dance (NYC/NJ), Bruce Wood Dance (TX), Cassie Hobbs (TX), Christopher Rudd/RudduR Dance (NYC), Kiara Staric Wurst (DC), Jenny Gerena (AZ), Keerati Jinakunwiphat (NYC), Mary Grace McNally (NYC), Sean Carmon (NYC), The Movement/James Morrow (MA) and Victoria DeRenzo (TX). Notable mention goes deservedly to James Morrow and Victoria Derenzo. In James Morrow’s piece he gave a gripping account of a lonely figure, perhaps who is now only a shadow of a man, isolated and trapped in a world that is terrifying. Morrow’s use of overt repetition to the point of portraying insanity was not lost on t …Read more