DoublePlus: Alexander Diaz + Jennifer Harrison Newman

CURATED BY CHARMAINE WARREN

DoublePlus embraces the artist-as-curator format to present split-bill evenings featuring artists deserving of new or wider visibility, each curated by an established artist.

Alexander Diaz
Getting closer to Coral
Getting closer to Coral explores memories of being too feminine, not “manly” enough, and being instructed to love the normalized idea of masculinity. Diaz recalls the isolation of his “different,” expressive four-year-old self and remembers life as a 26-year-old afraid to wear a dress and make-up in public. Movement, clothing and love songs from the latter 20th century enable Diaz to revisit personas and masks used to shield his vulnerable identity throughout life.

Jennifer Harrison Newman
topologies
topologies is a meditation on the porousness of borders, real and imagined, natural and technological, internal and external. Using performance, video, and architecture topologies puts the body at the center of an environment in a constant state of slippage. 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Alexander Diaz (Bronx, NY) Began his training at the Bronx Dance Academy and soon after the Bronx Dance Theater. While attending High School Alex became a Fellowship recipient at The Ailey School. Diaz is a graduate of The University of The Arts located in Philadelphia, PA, as well as Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program in San Francisco, CA. Alex has had the pleasure of working with nathantrice/ RITUALS, Ray Mercer, Sara Shelton Mann as a guest artist with LEVYdance, Maurya Kerr’s tinypistol, INSPIRIT created and led by Christal Brown, and is currently working with Earl
Mosley’s Diversity of Dance created and led by Earl Mosley located in NYC. For more information visit alexandertheartist.com

Jennifer Harrison Newman is a New York based choreographer and performer who works extensively across disciplines with artists pushing the boundaries of dance and theater. Her site-specifc and theatrical work includes: The Infinite Hotel (Prototype Festival); Angel’s Bone (Hong Kong New Visions Festival); Place (BAM/Next Wave Festival); If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Motherfucker (Yale School of Drama); an installation/walking tour of Seneca Village in Central Park (Bard Graduate Center for Material Culture’s Focus Festival: Ritual and Capital); la ronde (International Festival of Arts & Ideas); Bread of Heaven (LABA Live); The Children (Yale School of Drama); Three Women (Ojai Playwrights Conference); Bulrusher (New Georges). Her performance installation, The Geneva Project, an interdisciplinary and immersive dance work directed by Charlotte Brathwaite has been presented at Yale University, Central Arts Festival in Seoul, Korea, JACK NYC, and Bronx Academy of Art and Dance (BAAD!). She has been an artist in residence at Princeton, Yale and Central Connecticut State Universities, The Field, Mabou Mines, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 651 Arts, and Sisters Academy Inkost, and has taught workshops across the United States, Sweden, South Africa, China, and Mexico.

Photos: Alexander Diaz by Caylee Shimizu and Jennifer Harrison Newman by Elena Gorelik.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Charmaine Warren is the founder/artistic director for “Dance on the Lawn: Montclair’s Dance Festival,” and curator of dance at The Wassaic Project. She has curated for E-Moves and danced with david roussève/REALITY. Charmaine is on faculty at Hunter and Empire State Colleges, and former faculty at Ailey/Fordham, Sarah Lawrence College and Kean University. She is published in Dance Magazine, Amsterdam News, and panelists for Robert Battle’s New Directions Choreography Lab. Charmaine holds a Ph.D. in History/Howard University, a Master’s in Dance Research/City College, and Bachelor Degrees (Dance/English)/Montclair State College. She is member of the Skeleton Architecture Collective, recipients of a 2018 Bessie Award.

ACCESSIBILITY

Gibney 280 Broadway is accessible via elevator from the main entrance at 53A Chambers Street.

We welcome the opportunity to make this event more accessible. Please refrain from wearing scented products, so that people with chemical sensitivities can join us. Please request ASL interpreting, audio description, or open captioning 30 days before the event or submit other requests by completing our Access Requests and Inquiries Form or calling 646.837.6809 (Voice only).