Katy Pyle: Ballez from Marin Media Lab on Vimeo.

Princes’ Dance from The Firebird, a Ballez from Katy Pyle on Vimeo.

ROMANTIC DANCE from The Firebird, a Ballez from Katy Pyle on Vimeo.

Excerpts for this production were supported by Danspace Project and the Jerome Foundation’s Choreographic Center Without Walls, 259 Kickstarter supporters, and residencies at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Abrons Arts Center, Mount Tremper Arts, and Rockbridge Artist’s Exchange.

Katy Pyle is a multimedia performance artist whose works explore transformation, queer failure, and the lineage of performance. Pyle began studying ballet as a child, becoming an apprentice with Austin Contemporary Ballet at 14, and furthered her studies at North Carolina School of the Arts. She went on to study modern dance at NCSA, and then post-modern dance at Hollinds, where she graduated with highest honors and a degree in Multimedia Performance Art. Pyle moved to New York in 2002, and her performance works have been presented at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, PS122, La Mama, Dance Theater Workshop, Movement Research at the Judson Church, and the Bushwick Starr. She has been in collaborative processes with Ivy Baldwin, Faye Driscoll, John Jasperse, Karinne Keithley Syers, Jennifer Monson, Anna Sperber, Katie Workum, and many others.
She currently an Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, is performing/collaborating in Xavier Le Roy’s RETROSPECTIVE at MOMA PS1, and is still touring with the Untitled Feminist Show, which she collaboratively created with Young Jean Lee Theater Company, and for which she serves as the Touring Director.
She’s received support from Abrons Arts Center, Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), Danspace Project, Dragon’s Egg, Rockbridge Artist’s Exchange, Mount Tremper Arts, and 259 Kickstarter supporters.

Evvie Allison began dancing with The Ballez in 2012. She has also performed in work by Vanessa Anspaugh, Anna Azrieli, Kim Brandt, Megan Byrne, Burr Johnson, Molly Poerstel, Anna Marie Shogren, RoseAnne Spradlin, Rebecca Warner, and Elizabeth Ward.

Will Davis is a director and theatre maker focused on physically adventurous new and devised work. Sleeping Beauty and the Beast marks his first performance with The Ballez and also his return to dancing. He is grateful for the space to move again and could not be more proud or excited to perform with this tremendous company.
Will has developed, directed and performed with New York Theatre Workshop, The Alliance Theatre, BAX, The New Museum, Mt. Tremper Arts, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, The Fusebox Festival, New Harmony Project, The Orchard Project, The Duplicates, Red Tape Theatre, Fordham University, Performance Studies International at Stanford University, The Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop, Southern Rep and JACK. Will is currently a 2050 fellow with NYTW and holds a BFA in Theatre Studies from DePaul University and an MFA in Directing from UT Austin.

Ariel “Speedwagon” Federow is an interdisciplinary performing artist. Venues: LaMama ETC, Dixon Place, the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics, the Bowery Poetry Club, WoW Theater Cafe, Hey Queen!, Rebel Cupcake, In the Flesh, BAX, the Bureau of General Services: Queer Divison. Company member: the Ballez, AO Movement Collective, Butch Burlesque, . Works With: Coral Short, Jenny Romaine, Susana Cook, Quito Ziegler, Rosza Daniel Lang/Levitsky, and the Aftselokhis Spectacle Committee. Resident weatherman, Sarah Jenny News Network. Reigning dapperQ of the year. Co-curator of Deadline, a queer works-in-progress series. 2012 Hemispheric Institute Affiliated Emerging Artist. Miss JewSA 5772. Bingo host. Clown about town. Itinerant professor and Powerpoint aficionado. Real nice guy.

Michael Helland is a Brussels and New York-based dance artist, performing in the works of Xavier Le Roy, Daniel Linehan, Cecilia Lisa Eliceche, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Eleanor Bauer, and Tino Sehgal. Previous projects include Faye Driscoll’s Bessie award winning production 837 Venice Boulevard and various works with Marina Abramović, Big Art Group, RoseAnne Spradlin, and robbinschilds. He received a 2010 danceWEB scholarship to ImPulsTanz and was a 2012 Jardin d’Europe Wild Card resident at ex.e.r.ce. In 2013 he was invited by Chrysa Parkinson to participate in the conference The Dancer as Agent at DOCH. Michael’s choreographic installations and works for the stage have been presented in New York at the Scope International Art Fair at Lincoln Center, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, and the Chocolate Factory, and in Brussels at Volksroom and Artpotheek. His collaborative duets with Daniel Linehan were selected for New Dance Alliance’s NY Dance Exchange with Philadelphia and Montreal. Their current collaboration Vita Activa has been presented at deSingel in Antwerp and by Opera de Lille at Maison Folie Wazemmes. From 2007 to 2010 he curated the Brink dance series at Dixon Place and was on staff at The Field. Since 2010 he also works as an assistant for Ivo Dimchev. He holds degrees in Dance and in Community and Environmental Planning from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Sam Greenleaf Miller is a performer and counselor living and working in New York City. Classically trained at an early age in viola, Sam eventually began singing and songwriting. She recorded albums and toured with various iterations of her band from 1999- 2007. Since, she has performed as a mover and musician in the works of Vanessa Anspaugh, Geo Wyeth, and Katy Pyle. In 2011, Sam received a Masters degree in Clinical Social Work from Smith College, with an emphasis on working with LGBTQ populations. Sam has worked as a group facilitator in various settings, helping to organize and empower LGBTQ community members through psychotherapeutic, strengths-based counseling.

Lindsay Reuter is a dancer and dance-maker living in Brooklyn. Her current performance interests include repurposing/re-imagining function and what is queer embodiment. She loves performing with the BALLEZ. In addition, Lindsay works with Marissa Perel, organizes CLASSCLASSCLASS, and works as an ABA Therapist for people on the Autism Spectrum. Her most recent work, Good Evening, Strangers will be performed at New York Live Arts as part of the Fresh Tracks Residency.

Jules Skloot is a dancer, performance maker, and teacher based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Jules received a BA from Hampshire College and an MFA in dance from Sarah Lawrence College. In addition to collaborating with and performing in the works of Katy Pyle, Jules has performed in New York with Sara Rudner, Peggy Gould, niv Acosta, devynn emory, Margot Bassett, and Will Davis. Jules teaches dance at the Brooklyn Friends School, and is assistant director of an arts and social justice focused summer camp for young people in Northern Virginia.

Janet Werther is a performer, scholar, and educator of dance, theater, and queer performance based in New York City. She teaches Social Issues Through Drama and Performance (aka Theatre 101) at Baruch College, and she believes in the radical humanity of live performance. Janet is happy to be in a long term relationship with the Brooklyn Arts Exchange and is grateful to Katy and the whole Ballez crew for community and dancing.

“The structure–and the cast it invites– will always be tracing innumerable interrelational webs and intersecting socialities. Ballez aims to amplify these relationships, and often extends its gaze (pun most definitely intended) out past the proscenium’s edge.”
By L.N. Hafezi, Helix Queer Performance Network

“Throughout much of the dance, Ms. Pyle’s reframing of classical vocabulary is refreshingly straightforward — she skims the floor in a sequence of quick petit allegro steps, performs an adagio duet with Mr. Skloot and whips off a couple of fouettés — all in bare feet.
And within a landscape of sexual innuendo, Ms. Pyle manages to pay homage to more than Fokine’s version. Her references to other ballets are even more illuminating in the bodies of her gender-bending cast.”
“This Firebird blazes with heart.”
By Gia Kourlas, The New York Times, Published May 17, 2013

“I love the chorus of lez and trans princes* in their ballet school black tights and white t-shirts and don’t want them to aim for “perfect.” Their earnestness and willingness and sense of togetherness in all things move me like little else can. That’s a team any princess–this one included–would be lucky to gather close.
I love the space that Pyle and Skloot, with his modest charm, make for ballet to contain imperfection and feeling by reeling it back from mechanical exactitude and just plain giving it to the people.”
By Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody, Published May 18, 2013

“Her choreography utilizes the classical ballet vocabulary, but in novel and audacious ways, leaving her audience entertained and laughing out loud. Her work intellectually explores the gay experience both within society and the world of dance, creating a space in which anyone who has ever felt like an outcast could relate.”
By Jennifer Fried, Broadway World, Published May 30, 2013

“The princes, in ballet’s uniform for boys — white t-shirts and black leggings, exhibit a graceful virility. Unlike the virgins that populate traditional works, this “corps de ballet” freely experiments with sexual desire.”
By Erin Bomboy, Dance Enthusiast, Published May 24, 2013

One with Others trailer from K Sherman on Vimeo.

Performed by: Joanna Furnans, Aaron Mattocks, and Karen Sherman
Lighting Design: Carrie Wood
Sound Design, Scenic Design, Prop Design & Construction: Karen Sherman
Original Sound: Karen Sherman, Jeffrey Wells, Dave Snyder, Joanna Furnans, Karen Fennell
Text: Karen Sherman, Joanna Furnans, Jeffrey Wells, Aaron Mattocks, Claudia La Rocco, Nami Mun, Hope Forstenzer
Additional Voiceovers: Claude Bleton, Hope Forstenzer
Video: Karen Sherman and Andrew Welken
Costumes: Tulle & Dye
Stage Manager: Emily McGillicuddy
Technical Guru: Janet D. Clancy

Special Thanks: Morgan Thorson; the Minneapolis & NYC dance communities; Ben, Natalie, Will, and everyone at AR and Abrons; Nami Yamamoto/Danspace Project, Nastalie Bogira/Pleasure Rebel, Laurie Van Wieren/9×22 Dance Lab, Steve Busa & Miriam Must/Red Eye Theater, Jon Kirchhofer, Mike Rice, Pearl Rea, & Christian Gaylord/Walker Art Center; Sara Coffey, Dave Snyder & Matt Hall /Vermont Performance Lab; Claude Bleton, Hope Forstenzer, Nami Mun, Chris Offutt, Susan Orlean, Max Wirsing, Karen Fennell, Hannah Kramer, Krista Langberg, Aaron Schoenrock, Jeffrey Wells, Claudia La Rocco, David Sheingold, Yolanda Cesta Cursach, Judson Church, Studio 206, The Bogliasco Foundation, MAP Fund, The Jerome Foundation, NEFA, MN State Arts Board, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago / MCA Stage, and everyone who gave money, support and time to this project. Joanna, Aaron, Carrie, Janet, and Emily for their versatility, humor, smarts, and generosity. MT, whose contributions to everything cannot possibly be measured. And MS who, through teaching me how to write poems, taught me how to make dances; and through teaching me writing, taught me myself.

Karen Sherman has been based in Minneapolis since 2004, when she relocated from NYC. Her work has been presented by P.S. 122, Walker Art Center, Movement Research, Fusebox Festival, PICA/TBA Festival, Chocolate Factory Theater, Studio 303, ODC, The Southern Theater, DiverseWorks, and many others. Her awards as a choreographer, performer, and designer include a 2007 Bessie Award for her performance in Morgan Thorson’s Faker, multiple McKnight Fellowships in Choreography and Dance, a Bush Foundation Fellowship, residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Movement Research, Vermont Performance Lab, and the Bogliasco Foundation in Liguria, Italy. She has worked and collaborated with such fine folks as Morgan Thorson, Sally Silvers, NTUSA, Emily Johnson, Lisa D’Amour, Katie Pearl, Heidi Dorow/The Love Everybody Players, Tanya Gagné, Dan Hurlin, Le Tigre, Jan Bell, and Jimmie James, among many others. Her background in nearly every facet of arts production as a technical director, designer, and stage technician informs each aspect of her work. Her writing, including essays and poetry, has been featured on many live, web and print forums, including The Movement Research Performance Journal, Culture Bodega, The Performance Club, Criticism Exchange, and The Triumph of Poverty: Poems Inspired by the Work of Nicole Eisenman. She builds custom lamps for fun and profit, and dreams of beaches, puppies, and deliverances.

Joanna Furnans, “tall, soft and curvy, with a buzz cut” (Washington Post), is an independent dance maker and performer newly based in Chicago. She has performed and toured most extensively in the works of Minneapolis artists Karen Sherman, Chris Schlichting, Morgan Thorson and Laurie Van Wieren. Joanna is currently developing a new solo work commissioned by the Chicago Moving Company which will premiere this spring and an evening length work entitled these men premiering in the fall of 2015 at Links Hall. Joanna studied at the Laban Centre, London and is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, NY.

Aaron Mattocks, “one of the finest young actor-dancers in New York” (New York Times), is a Pennsylvania native, Sarah Lawrence College alumnus, and 2013 New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award nominee for Outstanding Performer. He has worked with Annie-B Parson/Paul Lazar/Big Dance Theater since 2009 in The Goats (OtherShore), Supernatural Wife (BAM Next Wave 2011), Comme Toujours Here I Stand (NYLA revival), Man in a Case with Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Alan Smithee Directed This Play: Triple Feature (BAM Next Wave 2014); created roles in premieres by Doug Elkins, David Gordon, Stephen Petronio, Jodi Melnick, Steven Reker, Phantom Limb (dir. Jessica Grindstaff/Erik Sanko), Christopher Williams, Ursula Eagly, Kathy Westwater, and John Heginbotham; appeared as a guest artist with Faye Driscoll, John Kelly, Dean Moss, David Parker, Yoshiko Chuma, and the Bessie Award winning production Then She Fell; and performed in projects by Joanna Furnans, Courtney Krantz, Abigail Levine, and Amanda Villalobos. In addition to his work as a performer, he was commissioned to be a 2013-2014 Context Notes Writer for New York Live Arts, has served as guest editor for Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence, and as guest curator for Sarah Maxfield’s One-Shot. His writing has been published by The Performance Club, Culturebot, Hyperallergic, Critical Correspondence, The Brooklyn Rail, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Hartford Stage, and the BAM Next Wave Festival. As a producer and arts manager, he has worked with the Mark Morris Dance Group (2002-2010), Tina Satter/Half Straddle, Faye Driscoll, Beth Gill and Big Dance Theater. www.aaronmattocks.com

Carrie Wood is a NYC-based lighting designer. She has designed for a diverse group of artists including Opiyo Okach, Nicole Walcott, Melanie Maar, Luciana Achugar, Reggie Wilson, Walter Dundervill, Sarah Michelson, Michael Lluberes, and more. She recently returned from a first of its kind artist exchange with Opiyo Okach in Nairobi, Kenya. Carrie’s design work has been seen on both international and national stages including BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Yerba Buena Center for the arts, Walker Art Center, Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz, and New York Live Arts. Carrie serves as a lighting designer for Star Group Productions at Cipriani – 55 Wall Street and 25 Broadway. Along with her lighting credits she is also the production supervisor of licensing for the Merce Cunningham Trust.

Emily McGillicuddy is a New York based SM, PM, LD, ME, and just about every other abbreviation related to dance and theatrical production. She has stage-managed shows in NYC and across the country with Reggie Wilson/ Fist & Heel, Nai Ni Chen, Liz Gerring, Satoshi Haga, and VIA Dance. Emily is a proud Astorian, graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts, and tours the world with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo.

Janet D. Clancy has eaten fire, swum across the East River, straddled the drunken body of David Lee Roth, and escaped the deadly jaws of the Black Mamba (the fastest, most venomous snake on Earth) by fleeing on horseback. Her career path continues to spiral upward, to this show.

“Among the messages transmitted during Karen Sherman’s arresting One With Others was this: ‘Only poets have it worse than dancers.’ In that case, Sherman and [her] fellow performers have it perhaps worst of all, as their brilliant articulation of the human experience was sheer poetry in motion. …One With Others was a triumph on many fronts.” “Her sophisticated use of language is what distinguished this show and practically guarantees a broad appeal beyond the realms of theatre and dance.”
By Stacy Alexander Evans, The Austin Chronicle, Published May 2, 2014

“The show was full of fun, but rarely without a sense of something more pensive below—just the right amount of bitters in the cocktail.”
By Nim Wunnan, Oregon Arts Watch, Published September 26, 2013

“If you are expecting me to change your life, forget about it,” says a voice in a recording in ‘One With Others,’ a smart, witty production by Minneapolis-based artist Karen Sherman that chips away at the pretensions of art. Wait, chips away? Scratch that. ‘One With Others’ doesn’t chip, it claws huge backhoe craters out of all the hooey slung around about the transformative powers, purity and superiority of art — and artists.”
By Sarah Kaufman, The Washington Post, Published April 21, 2013

by and with: Florentina Holzinger & Vincent Riebeek
technical: Korneel Coessens
production: NONA (Mechelen, BE) with the support of SNDO (Amsterdam, NL) & CAMPO (Gent, BE)
executive producer: CAMPO
performances at American Realness supported by ICK & CAMPO
contact for touring: Marijke Vandersmissen – marijke@campo.nu

Florentina Holzinger (Austria, 1986) trained dance and performance in Vienna before she moved to Amsterdam to study choreography at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. She received education in composition, dance and choreography and performed in works by Artists in Residence Deborah Hay, Benoit Lachambre and Ann Liv Young.

Florentina received the Danceweb Europe Scholarship 2008 and 2011 at Impulstanz Vienna. She had residencies at Impulstanz, Workspace Brussels, Frascati Amsterdam, PACT Zollverein and Performance Mix in New York. Amongst others she performed in works of Rob List, Ann Liv Young and Jeremy Wade. She tours her work in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Croatia and New York.

Her collaboration Kein Applaus für Scheisse with Vincent Riebeek was called one of the revelations of the Bâtard festival for young makers in Brussels. They premiered their newest project Spirit in October 2012 at CAMPO (Gent). Her Graduation Solo Silk got awarded the Prix Jardin d’Europe 2012 at Impulstanz Vienna. The third piece of the trilogy, the CAMPO- production Wellness, premiered in November 2013 in Düsseldorf. After that Florentina Holzinger made a new solo called Recovery, which premiered in Frascati Amsterdam in October 2014.

Vincent Riebeek (born in The Netherlands, 1988) started dancing hip-hop and street dance in his pre-teens. While finishing his high school education he went to the pre-education dance program at the AHK Amsterdam where he graduated at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO). During his education he had a chance to work with a.o. Benoit Lachambre, Simone Aughterlony, Ibrahim Quraishi, Hooman Sharifi, David Zambrano, Gabriel Smeets, Robert Steijn, Renée Copraij, Bettina Masuch, Jeremy Wade, Meg Stuart, Deborah Hay and Janine Durning.

He received the DanceWeb Scholarship at Impulstanz Vienna in 2010 where he followed workshops with a.o. Igor Dobricic, Ivo Dimchev, Benoit Lachambre and Jennifer Lacey. His DanceWeb mentors were Sarah Michelson and Yasuko Yokoshi. His own work is shown at various theaters in Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, Brazil and Croatia. He had residencies at Impulstanz, Workspace Brussels, Frascati Amsterdam and PACT Zollverein.

The duet he made together with Florentina Holzinger, Kein Applaus für Scheisse, was called one of the revelations of the Bâtard festival for young makers in Brussels (October 2010) It was produced by NONA (B) and is currently touring at various international performance festivals around Europe. Their second piece, Spirit, premiered in October 2012 at CAMPO (Gent). Before the première it already had premature showings in several theaters in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany, where in Berlin at 100grad Festival it won ‘Best production at the Hau’. The third piece of the trilogy, Wellness, premiered in November 2013 in Düsseldorf.