Artists In Residence

October 2nd-3rd, 2021:

DEBBIE MAUSNER is a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist from Brooklyn, NY.  She studied dance at LaGuardia High School and graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Dance and Art History (minor) from Barnard College.  While at Barnard, she performed in works by Pam Tanowitz, Mark Morris, Caitlin Trainor, Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, and Joanna Kotze.  She has since collaborated and performed with Trainor Dance, Stefanie Nelson DanceGroup, Bryce Dance Company, Lu Dai, Carolyn Silverman, JACKS | Lexie Thrash & Kelsey Kramer, and visual artist Eric Gottshall.  

Debbie’s creative process is highly collaborative, idiosyncratic, and specific to the people she is working with. Her work for both stage and film have been showcased at Gibney Dance (Showdown), Triskelion Arts (WAXworks & Collabfest), 100 Grand, Spoke the Hub, Brooklyn Ballet, Greenspace, Freddy’s Bar, The Plaxall Gallery, and Dance Complex. Debbie also teaches Creative Movement to young children, works as an Administrative Assistant for Dancio, and is a co-founder of emerging artist series Current Showcase (@currentshowcase). (https://debbiemausner.com/) (@debbiemakesdances) 

Relay is a study of the process of transference — of how movements and ideas are transferred across space, time, and bodies, and of what is gained, lost, or altered in the process. It is also an exploration of repetition and disruption. How do we return to something known, and yet find new ways of approaching it that keep it moving forward? What happens when those repetitions are interrupted, and how can those moments of disruption repurpose the process? A reimagining of a quintet created in the tennis courts of South Oxford Park, Fort Greene, this trio adaptation for Degraw Street and 4th Avenue will approach this new site with curiosity, play, and rigor.  

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JKING DANCE COMPANY/JKDC, creating works that arouse diverse perspectives, cultural consciousness, questions actuality, and personal truths through the art of dance and storytelling. Additionally, we offer programs for young emerging artists to create, rehearse and share the stage with JKDC. We encourage teamwork, self-expression, and mutual respect.

JKDC, founded by Artistic Director Joyce King, is an all-female dance ensemble in Brooklyn, NY. Our innovative repertory, solely choreographed by King, has been presented at over 25 venues featuring JKDC dancers’ athleticism, versatility, and compassion. We address delicate topics and preconceived ideas to awaken aesthetic values and emotional influences. Our repertory tells stories, some metaphoric, some literal-intermingling human behavior with ballet, jazz, modern, and acting. We are motivated to comprehend life’s complexities in their simplest form, striving to build cultural bridges, encouraging dialogue, and exploring personal experiences and events that shake the social world.

‘together-apart, working title, an excerpt’ is a new work-in-progress born out of Artistic Director Kings’ questions on health and well-being. Which dominates? Our mental, physical, or emotional health. Portrayed by three female dancers as ‘roommates,’ we explore the impact and challenges when one aspect is faltering or leading, dormant, even complacent. What will it take to create a sense of life balance?

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INCLINED DANCE PROJECT is a female identifying Brooklyn based contemporary dance company which strives to present visually intricate landscapes inspired and propelled by human experiences. Inclined aims to challenge the conventional roles of a female dancer by creating virtuosic works that defy gender and stereotypical responsibilities. The company approaches dance-making through a “set and destroy” method, allowing the performers and collaborating artists the opportunity to deconstruct material and incite dialogue, exploration, and personal contribution to a work. The result is athletic, technical, and dynamic movement that challenges the dancer and engages audiences. Inclined Dance Project was founded by Kristen Klein in 2009 and the company has performed at many venues and festivals throughout the USA including BAM Fisher, Little Boxes Theatre, RAW Artists: Brooklyn & San Francisco editions, The Julie Ince Thompson Theatre at The Dance Complex, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Boston University, The BARNES Foundation, the Ailey Citigroup Theater, Baruch College, Dixon Place, Greenspace, Chen Dance Center, the Center for Performance Research, University Settlement, the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance, The Flea, The Tank, The Winter Garden Theater at Brookfield Place, The Actors Fund Arts Center, Triskelion Arts, The Secret Theatre, The Totts Gap Arts Institute, and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, among many others. Inclined Dance Project also supports the presentation of other emerging female choreographers through their split-bill series inQUAD, produced annually at Dixon Place, where they mentor young female-led dance companies in the step by step process of self-producing work. The company is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas and has been featured in Dance Spirit Magazine, Dance Informa, Huffington Post, Critical Dance Magazine, DiY Dancer, FitEngine Reviews, offoffoff Dance, and on Dancemedia.com. 

“groupthink” explores how group dynamics influence identity, individual thought processes, and emotional responses. Development of the work began in 2019 through a series of discussions with the performers ranging in topics from how we identify as artists, how societal standards direct decision making, to personal encounters with friends, family, or strangers. These reflections from the performers were then translated into choreographed phrases, movement patterns, and interactions to mimic either specific events described by the dancers or to evoke particular feelings.  “groupthink” is currently a series of multiple short sections pasted together, creating a broad narrative of dancer interactions. For Movement Underground we are focusing on specific sections of the work to expand and re-develop, specifically focusing on one-on-one dynamics between the performers. The work will feature 4 dancers and is set to a compiled sound score of various artists designed to enhance the mood and tone of the work. 

August 17, 2020:

RAHA BEHNAM is a Brooklyn-based choreographer, performer, and contemporary performance-maker. In describing her multi-national identity, and approach to performance, she says: “Conceived and born almost a decade after the Iranian revolution, my life has arisen out of the dust of destruction, turmoil, death, hope, and the sweat of my people. I make performance as a means of creating new cultural forms and possibilities in the face of loss, breakage, assimilation and forgetting. I am concerned with systems and practices for collective healing, and engaged in liberation work through community-based counseling.

Void in Vignettes is a culmination of two years of performance research into loss, longing and absence. I continue to negotiate with these themes, this time in collaboration with fellow artist and my sister, Nava Behnam.  

As a yearning for language and homeland continues to haunt the background of our lives, we consider what it has taken to survive. We weave a conversation through digital space, responding to each other’s visual, verbal and embodied statements, exploring how familiar life circumstances have led to vastly divergent ways of being and existing in our adoptive worlds.