Polly Pocket by Jillian Peña
created and performed by Alexandra Albrecht, Andrew Champlin, and Kyli Kleven
costumes by Reid Bartelme
lighting by Joe Levasseur

Jillian Peña is a dance and video artist primarily concerned with confusion and desire between self and other. Her work is in dialogue with psychoanalysis, queer theory, pop media, and spirituality. She has been presented internationally, including at The Chocolate Factory, Dance Theater Workshop and The Kitchen in New York, Akademie der Kunste Berlin, Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow, International Festival of Contemporary Art Slovenia, and the Tate Modern London. Jillian was a Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholar during which she was awarded an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was a fellowship recipient, and a Practice-based MPhil in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has her BA in Dance and Feminist Art from Hollins University. Her video work is distributed by Video Data Bank. She is a 2009 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence, a 2009 DanceWeb Fellow at Impulstanz in Vienna, a 2010 Artist-in-Residence at Archauz in Århus, Denmark, a 2011 Artist-in-Residence at the National Dance Center of Bucharest, Romania, and a 2011-2013 Artist-in-Residence at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange.

Alexandra Albrecht (performer) currently and consistently collaborates with Jillian Peña, Hilary Easton and The Dance Cartel. She has had the pleasure of working with Natalie Green, Liz Glynn and Eunhee Lee, among others, since earning her BFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She curated at The Tank from 2009-2012 and was a dancer for The Yard’s Bessie Schoenberg Choreographic Residency in 2007. She also works as a private chef and performs puppet shows for babies. Many thanks to The Baltimore School for the Arts for planting ballet roots in her body.

Andrew Champlin (performer) started dancing at the age of four in Portland, Oregon. He trained at the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre and the School of American Ballet before studying at Eugene Lang College, the New School for Liberal Arts, where he earned a B.A. in performance theory and dance. Andrew has had the pleasure of working with so many incredible artists, including Pam Tanowitz, Christopher Williams, Chase Granoff, David Parker, Brynjar Åbel Bandlien, Michou Szabo, Christiana Axelson, Burr Johnson, Macklin Kowal, Todd Williams, David Gordon, Megan Kendzior and Miguel Gutierrez. Many thanks to Alex Albrecht for her encouragement, my parents for their endless love and support, and, of course, to my idol, Jillian Peña.

Kyli Kleven (performer) grew up in Alaska. She studied ballet at Anchorage Classical Ballet and The Virginia School of the Arts, and studied dance and gender studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was a DanceWEB scholar at Impulstanz Dance Festival in 2008, a Reuss Fellow in 2009, and winner of the Vannie L. Sheiry Award for Performance. She has danced in the work of Jennifer Allen, Deke Weaver, Jennifer Monson, Tere O’connor, Kirstie Simson, Milka Djorjevich, Moriah Evans, and Jen Rosenblit. Her collaborative work with Steve May, Caitlin Marz, and Tess Dworman has been seen at Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson church, and at the Center for Performance Research. She will be performing in Tess Dworman’s next piece at New York Live Arts January 28-February 1st.

Reid Bartelme (costumes) began his professional life as a dancer.  He worked for Ballet companies throughout North America and Canada, and later in his career worked for modern dance companies in New York including Shen Wei Dance Arts and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company.  He has also performed in works by Jack Ferver, Liz Santoro, Burr Johnson, Douglas Dunn, Christopher Williams, Kyle Abraham and Ryan McNamara.  He went on to graduate from the fashion design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology and began working as a freelance costume designer.  Reid has designed costumes most notably for Christopher Wheeldon, Lar Lubovitch, Gwen Welliver,  Pontus Lidberg, Jack Ferver, Burr Johnson, Jillian Peña, Juliana May, Michelle Boulé  and Liz Santoro.  In collaboration with designer Harriet Jung, Reid has designed costumes for the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Justin Peck, Marcelo Gomes, Andrea Miller, Emery Lecrone and Mauro Bigonzetti.

Joe Levasseur (lighting design) has collaborated with many dance and performance artists including: John Jasperse, Rose Anne Spradlin, Sarah Michelson, David Dorfman, Jodi Melnick, Beth Gill, Maria Hassabi, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Lee Saar the Company, Anna Sperber, Megan Sprenger, and Christopher Williams. He has received two Bessie awards for his design work, including one with Big Dance Theater for Comme Toujours Here I Stand. In 2009 his Drop Clock installation was featured in the lobby of Dance Theater Workshop (New York Live Arts). In 2010 he showed a collection of original paintings at Performance Space 122. Ongoing projects include lighting work for Jennifer Monson, Wendy Whelan, and Palissimo.  www.joelevasseur.com

COMING SOON!