Gibney Company Announces Commissioned Artists for Debut Season
World Premiere Program Features New Works by Choreographers Sonya Tayeh, Alan Lucien Øyen and Rena Butler
November 2-7, 2021
Tickets on Sale Now at Joyce.org
Gibney Company, a new contemporary dance company, will make its debut at The Joyce Theater in New York City, November 2-7, 2021, with a program of three world premieres. Led by Founder, Artistic Director and CEO Gina Gibney and Directors Nigel Campbell and Amy Miller, the 12-member Gibney Company is a creation-based repertory company that commissions work from internationally renowned and emerging choreographers committed to exploring connections between the rigorous physicality of contemporary dance and responsive, humanistic storytelling.
Tony Award-winning choreographer and director Sonya Tayeh; Norwegian writer, director, and choreographer Alan Lucien Øyen; and Gibney Company Choreographic Associate Rena Butler have been commissioned to create new works for the Company’s six-day run.
Tickets to Gibney Company’s debut week at The Joyce go on sale to the public on August 9, at joyce.org. A limited number of tickets for Gibney Company’s Opening Night Performance & Cast Party are also available now here.
Gina Gibney said, “As we approach this thrilling milestone, especially after New York’s stages have been dark for so long, I am inspired more than ever by the power of live performance to elevate us both individually and collectively. I feel profound gratitude to our artists and staff, and our collaborators and partners, for their creativity and commitment throughout the last year, and I look forward to welcoming audiences to The Joyce for a first look at Gibney Company.”
Nigel Campbell, Gibney Company Director, said, “We are thrilled for Gibney Company to make our debut at The Joyce with this remarkable program showcasing the virtuosity, humanity, and diversity of the company. We are excited to share these bold world premieres as part of the dynamic re-emergence of culture in New York City.”
Amy Miller, Gibney Company Director, said, “It’s impossible to describe what we’ve learned and experienced during this difficult and transformative year, but you’ll see it and feel it on stage at The Joyce in November. Gibney Company is moving our bodies and our ideas are moving with them. With gratefulness to reconnect with our NYC audiences, we can’t wait to share what we’ve collaboratively created through newfound resilience and appreciation for moving together once again.”
ABOUT THE WORKS
Exploring a journey of emotional awakening and the realization of both loss and gain, Sonya Tayeh’s full-company piece will be performed to an original composition played live by The Bengsons. The creative team also includes: Associate Choreographer/Tayeh Dance Resident Choreographer Jenn Freeman, costumes designed by Márion Talán de la Rosa, set design by Rachel Hauck, and lighting design by Asami Morita. The piece will examine a thickening of culture as the world continues to adapt, and will explore related themes of struggle, self-reflection, art, and social justice, while bridging various aesthetics through Tayeh’s artistic lens.
Making his New York City debut, Alan Lucien Øyen will introduce audiences to the theatrical style for which he has received international recognition. Created in close collaboration with all twelve Gibney Company dancers, the work incorporates movement, text, and visuals to explore aspects of vulnerability and sincerity that make us human. Key collaborators include lighting and set designer Martin Flack and costume designer Victoria Bek.
For her Joyce premiere as a choreographer, Rena Butler is creating a trio for two distinctive casts of dancers through a highly collaborative process. Exploring her own questions around colonization and the process of decolonizing the self as a point of departure, this new work reimagines the narrative of the infamous film “King Kong,” and its iconic, monolithic title character. Collaborators include lighting designer Asami Morita, costume designer Hogan McLaughlin, and composer Darryl J. Hoffman.
GIBNEY COMPANY SUPPORT
Gibney Company is grateful for leadership support from Andrew A. Davis, a trustee of the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund.
The Company also receives generous support from The Bay & Paul Foundations, Con Edison, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, the Office of the Manhattan Borough President, the Omomuki Foundation, The Ready Foundation, the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, the Shubert Foundation, The SHS Foundation, Symbio Physiotherapy, and Timothy and Virginia Millhiser, among others.
ABOUT GIBNEY COMPANY
Gibney Company, led by Artistic Director Gina Gibney and Directors Nigel Campbell and Amy Miller, is Gibney’s resident dance ensemble. Gibney Company is a creation-based repertory company commissioning work from both internationally renowned and emerging choreographers who are committed to exploring connections between the rigorous, often superhuman physicality of contemporary dance alongside responsive, humanistic storytelling.
Transformed in 2020 through a $2 million gift from Andrew A. Davis, a Trustee of the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund, Gibney Company (formerly Gibney Dance Company) presents a broad range of aesthetics and techniques and has an unrelenting focus on artistic excellence and social integrity.
In addition to Nigel Campbell and Amy Miller, Gibney Company’s roster of full-time dancers, known as Artistic Associates, are Alexander Anderson, Rena Butler (Choreographic Associate), Zui Gomez, Jesse Obremski, Kevin Pajarillaga, Marla Phelan, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, Jacob Thoman, Jake Tribus, and Leal Zielińska. More information about Gibney Company Artistic Associates can be found here.
Top photo by Nir Arieli. Bottom photo by Scott Shaw.