Gibney Presents New Works by Alexander Anderson, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau and Chuck Wilt
Performances part of Gibney Programs supporting Emerging Choreographers
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
Wednesday, November 9 – Saturday, November 12 at 8:00pm
NEW YORK, NY, October 11, 2022—Gibney, the New York City based dance and social justice organization, presents new works by Gibney Company Artistic Associates Alexander Anderson and Jie-Hung Connie Shiau and UNA Productions led by Artistic Director and Choreographer Chuck Wilt. Performances will be presented in two programs featuring Anderson and Jie-Hung Connie Shiau November 9 and 10 and UNA Productions November 11 and 12. The choreographers were chosen by Gibney Company artistic leadership as part of the Gibney Company Choreographic Fellows and Gibney’s ILLUME Choreographic Award programs, supporting emerging choreographers.
In the first program on November 9 and 10, Gibney presents a double bill as part of the Company Choreographic Fellows program with new works by Alexander Anderson and Jie-Hung Connie Shiau.
Alexander Anderson, a 2022 Gibney Company Choreographic Fellow, will present Access, in which he explores a range of access points from the emotional to the physical. The work features Alicia Delgadillo, Eddieomar Gonzalez-Castillo, Miriam Gittens, Scott Autry, Eleni Loving, and DaMond Lemont Garner.
In An Upward and Outward Circular Motion, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, a 2022 Gibney Company Choreographic Fellow, explores and imagines a world where we celebrate our bodies. The new work will be performed by Ashley Green, Jesse Obremski, Jake Tribus, Kevin Pajarillaga, and Jie-Hung Connie Shiau.
The Gibney Company Choreographic Fellows program is designed to foster the choreographic development of Gibney Company Artistic Associates. The program provides each Fellow with 100 hours of studio space to conduct research, explore the creative process, and develop new work; access to advisors, mentors, and technical assistance; a stipend; and the presentation and production of their work as part of the Gibney Center annual season.
In the second program on November 11 and 12, Gibney presents as part of its ILLUME Choreographic Award a collection of new works by UNA Productions. Mirrors asks questions to intentionally deepen themes of Queer intimacy, experiences within the gender spectrum, and what it means to uncover our authenticity and experience life outside societal norms. Mirrors features Styles Alexander, Kira Fargas, Dominica Greene, Dasol Kim, Rebecca Margolick, Jobel Medina, Hadassah Perry and Chuck Wilt.
Launched jointly in 2018 by Gibney and Springboard Danse Montrèal, the annual ILLUME Choreographic Award aims to cultivate and actualize the burgeoning visions of today’s emerging artists toward becoming tomorrow’s creative leaders. Each year, one of Springboard’s Resident, Fellow or Emerging Choreographers, past or present, is selected to receive the award. Awardees receive a performance run at Gibney Center, opportunities to teach classes and share their creative process, and a $5,000 stipend.
Listings Details
Wednesday, November 9 – Thursday, November 10 at 8:00pm
Access by Alexander Anderson and An Upward and Outward Circular Motion by Jie-Hung Connie Shiau
A moderated talk with the choreographers follows each performance
Friday, November 11 – Saturday, November 12 at 8:00pm
UNA Productions’ Mirrors by Chuck Wilt
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center The Theater (Studio H)
280 Broadway, New York (Enter at 53A Chambers Street)
Ticket prices: $20-25
Tickets available for purchase on the Gibney website.
COVID-19 Safety Policies
Upon arrival to Gibney Center for a performance, all audience members will need to show proof of full vaccination, a photo ID, and their tickets. Children under 17 will not need a photo ID, as long as they’re accompanied by an adult. Face masks are required.
Funding Credits and Special Thanks
Gibney Company is grateful for leadership support from Andrew A. Davis and Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund.
About Alexander Anderson
Alexander Anderson (he/they) joined Gibney Company as an Artistic Associate in 2020 after serving as a guest artist in the spring of that year. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from The Juilliard School, where his choreography received Choreographic Honors and was featured in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater from 2010 to 2014. He was a 2012 recipient of the Dizzy Feet Foundation Scholarship Award, a 2013 recipient of the Princess Grace Foundation Scholarship Award, and received the Alexander Bay Moore Dance Award. Anderson began his professional career dancing for Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and later joined Nederlands Dans Theater 1 as a company artist. Anderson’s Moving Towards Justice Fellowship at Gibney, Revive, aims to address mental health, and promote mindfulness in the dance community, to enable longevity and sustainability in dancers’ careers. He is originally from South Florida and attended the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts.
Instagram: @zanderander
About Jie-Hung Connie Shiau
Jie-Hung Connie Shiau (she/her) joined Gibney Company in 2020 as an Artistic Associate and has been selected as a Gibney Choreographic Fellow for the 2022-23 season. For her fellowship, she is creating a new work that will be presented at Gibney Center in New York in November 2022. As a dancer, choreographer, and educator, Shiau has worked as a collaborator with an array of companies, including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, AIM by Kyle Abraham, Gallim Dance, Helen Simoneau Danse, MeenMoves, Adam Barruch/Anatomiae Occultii, and Kevin Wynn Works. Her choreographic work has been presented at New Choreographer Project in Taipei, Taiwan, Loyola University, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago summer intensives, Little Island Dance Festival, SUNY Purchase Spring Concert, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s 43rd Virtual Season. As a dancer Shiau has been recognized as a Chicago Dancemaker Forum Greenhouse Artist in 2019, as one of Dance Magazine’s 2018 “25 To Watch” picks, with an Honorable Mention for the Jadin Wong Award for Emerging Asian American Dancer in 2014, and with a Reverb Dance Festival Dancer Award in 2014. Her Moving Toward Justice Fellowship project with Gibney is BODYHUES, a platform to promote self-caring and self-loving practices as a means of fighting body shaming culture. Born in Gainesville, Florida, Shiau was raised in Tainan, Taiwan.
Website: jiehungconnieshiau.com
Instagram: @jiehungshiau
About UNA Productions / Chuck Wilt
UNA Productions is a dance production company, founded in 2013 by Artistic Director and Choreographer Chuck Wilt, creating, teaching and performing internationally, and based bi-coastally in San Francisco and NYC. UNA’s mission is to discover and communicate deeply rooted embodiments of human existence through physically powerful dancing and imagery that are evocative and colorful. UNA celebrates individuality and is dedicated to bringing vibrancy and joy to the world.
UNA has been presented by the 92NY’s Harkness Mainstage Series, the Clarice-Smith Performing Arts Center, the Chutzpah! Festival in Vancouver, Sointula and Alert Bay-performing and engaging in cultural exchange with the ‘Namgis First Nation Community, presented by Fusion International: Japan in Kaga and Tokyo, co-presented by the ODC Theater, presented by the Spectrum Dance Festival, Movement Research at the Judson Church, 92NY’s BH/Dig Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Platform! Montreal, CPR and more. Chuck/UNA has been an Artist in Residence of BBT, Fusion International (Japan), Brooklyn College/CUNY Dance Initiative, Dance Initiative (CO), 92nd St. Y, and a choreographic fellow for the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation NDCL. Wilt and UNA’s Associates have created/set repertory for KSU Dance, Springboard Danse Montreal as Resident and Emerging choreographer, NYU Tisch Dance, UMD, SALT Pro, Ailey Fordham, Rutgers University, LINES Training Program, among others.
Website: www.una.productions
Instagram: @una.productions
About Gibney
Founded by Gina Gibney in 1991, Gibney is a New York City-based performing arts and social justice organization that taps into the vast potential of movement, creativity, and performance to effect social change and personal transformation. Gibney deploys resources through three strategic and interwoven program areas: Gibney Center, a meeting ground for New York City’s artistic community comprising 23 studios and 5 performance spaces that provide critical space for training, rehearsal, professional development, performances, and convenings; Gibney Community, programs that use movement to help address a range of social issues with a focus on gender-based violence and its prevention; and Gibney Company, the organization’s resident dance ensemble. Gibney supports movement-based artists in every aspect of their creative development: classes, residencies, low-cost rental space, entrepreneurial training and incubation, presentation opportunities, commissioning, and operating a professional dance company.