Mark DeGarmo Dance broadcasts its Virtual Salon Performance Series on May 28th and June 11th at 7PM ET on Zoom: a sharing of works-in-progress with a facilitated audience response curated and facilitated by dancer, choreographer, writer, and researcher, Dr. Mark DeGarmo.

Thursday, May 28th & Thursday, June 11th, 2020 7PM ET
Mark DeGarmo Dance Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/2123759214

Tickets ($20, $15, $10):
Online: www.sps2020.givesmart.com
Venmo: Mark-DeGarmo-2
Paypal: paypal.me/markdegarmodance

Mark DeGarmo Dance goes virtual by broadcasting its transcultural transdisciplinary Salon Performance Series on Zoom with performances featuring Ilona Bito and Ara Fitzgerald on Thursday, May 28th and Callie Hatchett and José Rivera Jr. on Thursday, June 11th – each at 7PM ET. Each performance includes an audience feedback session curated and facilitated by Dr. Mark DeGarmo.

Mark DeGarmo Dance recognizes the impact of COVID-19 on global artistic communities and is committed to offering opportunities for artists to share and develop their work, despite the current circumstances.

Founded in 2010, MDD’s Salon Performance Series provides an opportunity to view and engage with original performing arts and dance works-in-progress of guest artists. The series highlights artists and performing art and dance forms underrepresented in traditional and commercial performing arts venues nationally and internationally.

Dr. Mark DeGarmo curates the series and facilitates audience response sessions during each installment by adapting Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process. DeGarmo guides discourse among the artists and audience members and encourages the public to actively participate in the development of original works-in-progress.

Usually housed in Mark DeGarmo Dance Studio Theater 310 at The Clemente Center, where MDD has been an anchor resident member nonprofit organization since 2001, MDD’s Salon Performance Series works to support the Clemente’s mission, and its determination “to operate in a multicultural and inclusive manner, housing and promoting artists and performance events that fully reflect the cultural diversity of the Lower East Side and the city as a whole.”

About the Artists

Ilona Bito is a dance artist and educator living in NY since 2006. She is a member of Gamelan Dharmaswara Dance Ensemble and the Bo Law Kung Fu Demo Team.

Ara Fitzgerald is the granddaughter of a vaudevillian leader of an all girl jazz band. She creates dance/theatre as a choreographer, writer, improviser and performer.

Callie Hatchett is an NYC based dance artist. She grew up in Alabama studying Vaganova based ballet under the direction of Meryane Martin Murphy. She is also a teaching artist for NYC Ballet and MDD.

José Rivera, Jr., is a queer, nonbinary, Puerto Rican recording and performing artist. They create glam electro-pop music and athletic dance for stage and screen. José’s work orients us towards Queer Future – queering narratives of love, power, and vulnerability.
About Mark DeGarmo Dance

Founded in 1987, Mark DeGarmo Dance is a nonprofit organization that educates New York City communities and children; creates, performs, and disseminates original artistic work; and builds intercultural community through dance arts. MDD has received over 300 grants from public and private funders and was the subject of a coveted cover feature article by Dance Teacher Magazine in June 2017. Since its beginnings, MDD has committed its resources to serving social justice, equity and equality issues across multiple fronts through dance arts in New York City, the U.S., and internationally.
About Mark DeGarmo
A graduate with a B.F.A. of the Juilliard School Dance Division and Union Institute & University’s Ph.D. program, DeGarmo has created, performed, and produced over 100 dance-theater works and led his company on 30 international tours to 13 countries. His work has been recognized with performing arts awards and honors from the Martha Hill Dance Fund, the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, the U.S. Department of State, and The White House. His transcultural transdisciplinary commitment includes writing “Transdisciplinary Performative Improvisation” for the University of Colima Mexico’s textbook Teaching Choreographic Composition from a Transdisciplinary Focus (2020 Spanish publication pending). Dance Director of Tlacopac International Artist Residency Mexico City, he is also an artist-scholar of Creative Agency Australia. Las Fridas, Mark DeGarmo’s original duet inspired by Mexican painter and revolutionary Frida Kahlo, was called “Genius,” “Wonderfully in your face,” and “Frightening… in a way great art always should be,” by New York audiences in November 2019. Melanie Brown of Stagebuddy.com deemed DeGarmo “a gladiator in various arenas.”

www.markdegarmodance.org, Follow Mark DeGarmo Dance on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

We are grateful that this program is supported in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.