DoublePlus: Dual Rivet and Roderick George | kNoname Artist
This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
DoublePlus: Dual Rivet and Roderick George | kNoname Artist Mentor/Curator: Kyle Abraham January 11-13, 2024 Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center The Theater 7:30 PM
General Admission: $25 + $2 fee Groups 10+: $22.50 + fee (contact boxoffice@gibneydance.org for purchasing options)
DOUBLEPLUS embraces the artist-as-curator format to present fully produced split-bill evenings featuring artists deserving of new and wider visibility curated by established artists. Learn more about Gibney’s residency and commissioning program here.
DoublePlus returns for the 2023/2024 season with two distinct programs. In January, enjoy three evenings of performance curated by artist/mentor Kyle Abraham that feature works by Dual Rivet and Roderick George | kNoname Artist.
Dual Rivet
Women-led dance company Dual Rivet creates highly physical contemporary dance works for stage and film that draw from cinematic and visceral languages to influence both platforms. The company will bring the world premiere of From the Outside, a live expansion of its short film Rabbithole, to Gibney’s stage. Using intimacy and the importance of human connection as a springboard, From Outside examines humanity’s relationship to technology and asks what it means to truly connect in a time when, for many, it has become our only hope at connection. The work features choreography by Chelsea Ainsworth and Jessica Smith, along with fellow dancers Maggie Joy and Quaba Ernest.
Artist Biography
JESSICA SMITH is a New York City based dancer from New Orleans, Louisiana. She studied at London Contemporary Dance School and received her BFA in dance from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College. She has performed with Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More NYC, Vim Vigor Dance Company, ZviDance and Kizuna Dance. Jessica was one of eight choreographers chosen for The Jacob’s Pillow Ann and Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellowship in 2022. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Dual Rivet, a highly physical contemporary dance company. Jessica is currently on Faculty at The Juilliard School, Purchase College, Gibney, and Peridance.
CHELSEA AINSWORTH is a graduate of the Dance Department of The Juilliard School. After graduating she worked with Johannes Wieland/StaatstheaterKassel in Germany, Lorena Egan, Flexicure, Amber Sloan, Bryn Cohn + Artists and was on the modern/ballet dance faculty at Cap21 musical theater school and Chen DanceCenter. Currently she dances with The Bang Group and ZviDance. She’s also the co-founder and Executive Director of Arts On Site, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting artists. She built and curates residencies at a retreat and residency center in upstate New York. In 2020 she joined the Dance Advisory Board of Marymount Manhattan College.
Company Biography
DUAL RIVET is a women-led dance company focused on creating and sharing highly physical contemporary dance to a wide audience. Based in NYC, Dual Rivet creates work for stage and film that exchanges a cinematic and visceral language to influence both platforms. Directors Jessica Smith and Chelsea Ainsworth have been making and presenting work since 2017. They have performed and set work at Festival PRISMA (Panama), Centro Cultural Los Talleres (Mexico), Oklahoma International Dance Festival, Barnard College/Columbia University, West End Theatre, Kittery Maine, Musikfest Pennsylvania, Peridance Capezio Center, CreateArt, Arts On Site and many more. The company teaches a myriad of classes, throughout the United States and internationally, with an emphasis on contemporary partnering and floorwork. Dual Rivet is currently on faculty at The Juilliard School, Gibney, Peridance, SUNY Purchase and Adelphi University. The company hosts an annual choreography festival, MADE BY WOMEN, highlighting women choreographers and creators.
2023 NYFA Mertz Gilmore Foundation Dancer Award and 2021-22 YoungArts Fellow Awardee Roderick George | kNoname Artist presents Venom, a new work inspired by the lasting impact of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic and the present events of the erasure of the LGBTQIA+ community. Venom exposes how the queer community faced silencing, isolation, being forced into hiding, and death through fear, media, and ‘God’s reckoning.’ As a queer Black man from Houston, Texas, George recognizes that his existence lies on the backs of these individuals and pays homage to his community in its ability to uplift each other using the underground nightlife as a sanctuary.
“Structurally Roderick’s choreography was well crafted, his thematic orientation was simple and clear. He supplied good summer entertainment with four hot dancers that know all the right moves.”The Jerusalem Post
Artist Biography
Roderick George was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He has trained at Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy, The Alvin Ailey School, and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). George was a bronze winner of the Youth American Grand Prix in 2005 and a YoungArts Winner and Presidential Scholar of the Arts in 2003. He has danced for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Basel Ballet/Theater Basel, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and The Forsythe Company. In addition, he has performed the work of choreographers such as Marie Chouinard, Peeping Tom, Jorma Elo, Jacopo Godani, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Jiří Kylian, Sharon Eyal, Ohan Naharin, Benoit Swan-Pouffer, and Richard Wherlock.
In 2012, George was a part of the Emerging Choreographer Series for the Youth American Grand Prix and an Emerging Choreographer for Springboard Danse Montréal in 2013. In addition, he has been commissioned by dance companies, institutions, and festivals, including Bodytraffic, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, Festival Quartiers Danses, Suzanne Dellal, Zurich Tanzhaus, Pavillon Noir| Ballet Prejlocaj, Ballett Basel, L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and Fall for Dance North/NIGHTSHIFT. Most recently, George was a YoungArts Fellow Winner Awardee for the 2021-2022 season.
KYLE ABRAHAM (Artistic Director, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham) and his choreography have been featured in Document Journal, Ebony, Kinfolk, O Magazine, Vogue, and Vogue UK, amongst other publications. Abraham is the proud recipient of a Dance Magazine Award (2022), Princess Grace Statue Award (2018), Doris Duke Award (2016), and MacArthur Fellowship (2013). He currently serves as the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professor in Dance at The University of Southern California (USC) Glorya Kaufman School of Dance (2021-). Abraham also sits on the advisory board for Dance Magazine and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the inaugural Black Genius Brain Trust, and the inaugural cohort of the Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab, a partnership between the Prada Group, Theaster Gates Studio, Dorchester Industries, and Rebuild Foundation.
