Nazmo (nah-z-moh) noun: A connection or relationship between people that cannot be expressed by words; a je ne sais quois or intangible quality that unites people by common insight, perception and understanding
Press Kit 2019
ABOUT
Nazmo Dance Collective uses movement inspired by everyday surroundings to present fresh perspectives on personal and political relationships. Collective members work with each other and with outside artists – incorporating original music, interactive media, and theater –to use dance as an engaging tool to inspire conversations about relevant community topics.
The Collective has performed works at Gibney Dance Center, Dixon Place, Center for Performance Research, Triskelion Arts, the New World Symphony, Art Basel Miami, West End Theater, Ailey Studios, Harlem Repertoire Theater, Little Haiti Cultural Center, and Heroes Unite’s Mobile Micro Theater, a traveling black box school bus. Danielle’s dance films have been presented nationally at several film festivals including, Dance on Camera in Lincoln Center, Cucalorus, ScreenDance Miami, New York Short Film Festival, and YOFI Fest.
The Core Collective
Danielle Kipnis (founder/artistic director) has presented and performed work at Lincoln Center, with the New World Symphony, for Art Basel Miami, Gibney Dance Center, Center for Performance Research, Triskelion Arts, the HATCH presenting series, Harlem Repertory Theater, West End Theater, the Rift Blackbox Theater, and Little Haiti Cultural Center. Danielle’s dance films have been presented at several film festivals including, Dance on Camera in Lincoln Center, Cucalorus, ScreenDance Miami, YoFi Fest, and New York Short Film Festival. In 2016 she was invited to the Doug Varone Devices choreographic mentorship program. She received her BS in Dance and English from Northwestern University where she worked with prominent Chicago artists such as Billy Seigenfeld and The Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak, Annie Bessera and Striding Lion, and Jeff Hancock. She has performed at Jacob’s Pillow and worked with Chet Walker, Bill Hastings and Dana Moore.
Xavier Townsend (collective dancer) has been a collaborating dancer with Nazmo Dance Collective since 2015. He was born and raised in Media Pennsylvania. He started his dance training at the age of eight with a focus in Ballet and Contemporary dance. He trained at the Philadelphia Ballet School, Broadway Bound Dance Academy and Point Park University. He is a graduate of the Peridance Capezio Certificate Program. Xavier has worked for Kristen Sudekis, Janie Rosario Dance Company, De Funes Dance, SYTYCD Academy Intro, "Newsies" at the Media Theater, and "Dragon Spring Pheonix Rise" at The Shed.
Emily "Emla" LaRochelle (collective dancer) is a Brooklyn-based dancer and performing artist originally from Peabody, MA. She graduated summa cum laude from Connecticut College with BA degrees in Dance and Biological Sciences. At Conn, she had the opportunity to work with many prominent artists, performing in works by David Dorfman, Doug Varone, Abraham.In.Motion, Lisa Race, Ori Flomin, Nicholas Leichter, Heidi Henderson, Shawn Hove, and Shani Collins-Achille. She has shown her own work at American College Dance Festival in Providence, the Art Cafe, and Gibney Dance. Emily has performed with KAKE Dance at the Center for Performance Research and at Jennifer Muller/the Works Studio, and with Mindy Toro and Dancers at Eden's Expressway, Arts on Site, Old First Reformed Church in Brooklyn, and throughout many gardens and parks of Brooklyn.
Danielle Atkinson (collective dancer) was born and raised in the United Kingdom. She studied her BA(Hons) Contemporary Dance degree in Newcastle Upon Tyne and graduated in June 2012. While in Newcastle she worked with Lo Giudice Dance, Appetite Dance, and Shaun Boyle & Artists, having the opportunity to perform regionally and nationally in festivals and full length works. Danielle came to New York in September to study on the Limon Professional Studies Program. Whilst her time in New York Danielle has had the opportunity of performing with great companies including; Dance Visions NY, Azul Dance Theatre, Humanistic Dance, I KADA Contemporary Dance Company and The Wolfe Project.
Caitlyn Casson (collective dancer) is a NYC based contemporary dancer, choreographer, and yoga teacher. She graduated from the University of South Florida, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance and a minor in Psychology. She has performed repertoire by distinguished artists Bill T. Jones, Doug Varone and Sean Curran. She has traveled across the globe dancing. Most recently, she choreographed and performed at the Ubumuntu Arts Festival in Kigali, Rwanda and has been working as an international dance trainer with MindLeaps. Currently, she shares her time dancing with Ariel Rivka Dance, Dance Entropy, Matthew Westerby Company, and Nazmo Dance Collective.
Current Work
Grimm
Grimm an evening-length, issue-driven dance and storytelling production that immerses audiences in the world of fairy tales. Three fairy tales, “The Frog Prince,” “Cinderella,” and Caribbean female figures such as “The Soucouyant” are portrayed through movement and storytelling to present important themes that relate to topics of social concern, including gender and racial issues and immigrant disenfranchisement. Though fairy tales are often associated with children’s folklore, the stories are filled with profound adult content.
Premier dates: Triskelion Arts Split Bill Series, February 14th and 16th, 2019; Center for Performance Research, April 26th and 27th, 2019
Past Work-in-Progress Showings: Hatch Presenting Series, Jennifer Muller Studios, April 8th, 2017; Fertile Ground, Green Space, April 20th, 2017; Footprints Modern Dance Festival, West Side YMCA, May 18-20th, 2017; Waxworks, Triskelion Arts, May 2018; TRIal, Center for Performance Research, August 2018; Dixon Place, October 2018
Dancers: 5
Choreography: Danielle Kipnis and NDC Dancers
Storyteller: Kay Turner
Costume Design: Lucca Damillano
Set Design: Jeremy Morrow
Repetoire
Matters of Facts
Matters of Facts (2016) is an immersive, multi-media performance that combines dance, sound and interactive projection to dramatize prisoner of war camps that existed in the United States during World War II. The history of these camps is seldom taught and controversial because captured Nazi soldiers were treated unusually well while American citizens faced war rationing and internment camps. This multimedia dance experience moves audiences to do more than merely observe. It immerses them in Camp Aliceville and engages them to walk around and through the performance space as the dancers move. The work teaches, entertains and challenges modern day audiences to confront the present in light of a little-known piece of America’s past.
Premier: Center for Performance Research, New York, NY, October 28th and 29th, 2016
Dancers: 4
Running Time: 50 minutes
Choreography: Danielle Kipnis and NDC Dancers
Original Music: Noah Pardo
Lighting Design: Daniel Barbee
Live Music: Jeremy Morrow
[re]CLAIM
[re]CLAIM (2015) is an immersive and interdisciplinary dance performance and workshop series. The piece explores reclamation of space and ideas as an artistic canvas for social change and investigates who and what defines creative value. Projection, film, and speech create a three dimensional atmosphere and audience members have the opportunity to walk within the performance space, choosing their own vantage points. [re]CLAIM was made possible by collaboration with graffiti artists, filmmakers, an animator, a composer and a community organization.
Premier: RIFT Black Box Theater, Miami, FL, May 15-18, 2015
Dancers: 4
Running Time: 50 minutes
Choreography: Danielle Kipnis and NDC Dancers
Music: Noah Pardo and mixed artists
Lighting Design: Jared Shannon
Moonrise with Memories
Moonrise with Memories (2015), created in collaboration with bass trombonist Jeremy Morrow, is a duet that explores reflection and memory encountered in loss. The music, composed by Frederic Rzewski, was inspired by Pygmy culture and displays the solo bass trombone as an instrument, "played when something big goes wrong, or when someone dies, and an optimistic answer... is needed" (Rzewski). Moonrise with Memories reflects this musical relationship through dance, investigating the perseverance of the human spirit and glorification of history and personal memories. Combining music and dance, Moonrise with Memories is a heartfelt narrative about how we remember and retell our life stories.
Premier: New World Symphony, Miami, FL, January 12, 2015;
Dancers: 2
Running Time: 12 minutes
Choreography: Danielle Kipnis
Music: “Moonrise with Memories” by Frederic Rezewski
Lighting Design: Luke Kritzeck
TAGGED
TAGGED (2015) is a dance film that features graffiti painted dancers who move throughout New York City. They create a moving image and transform spaces viewed as sacred, private, or useless into a useful urban theater. The film addresses how artists can claim urban public and private space as their own creative canvas as well as encourages communities to look at and appreciate the art surrounding them everyday.
New York Screening: Dance on Camera, The Walter Read Theater at Lincoln Center, January 2015
Florida Screening: ScreenDance Miami, January 2015
Dancers: 2
Running Time: 5 minutes
Choreography: Danielle Kipnis
Music: Noah Pardo
Costume: Arielle Rothenberg
Cinematography: Denis Cardineau
Editing: Adam Turkel
Sound Design: Brandon Johnson
Fettered, Fly Free
Fettered, Fly Free (2014) explores an individual’s coming to terms with the unknown. The movement plays with a sense of duality between feeling stuck in a routine and the freedom created when one does not know what to anticipate. Through a discovery of risk taking and its positive and negative consequences, Fettered, Fly Free attempts to represent a possible world in which these dueling tensions can and do exist together.
Premier: Rift Blackbox Theater, Miami, FL, May 2014
Dancers: 3
Running Time: 10 minutes
Choreography: Danielle Kipnis
Music: “Music for 18 Musicians” by Steven Reich; "Untitled" and “Theme 1 (Waltz)” by Andrew Bird; "Kétsarkú Mozgalom" by Venetian Snares
No Trespassing
No Trespassing (2014) was shot in the abandoned Miami Marine Stadium and moves dance into an urban theater. Movement takes place in and around the entire stadium except for the spaces where performance traditionally occurs. It takes the viewer on a playful exploration of what is abandoned and prohibited, yet beautiful.
Florida Screening: ScreenDance Miami, January 2015
North Carolina Screening: Cucalorus Film Festival, November 2014
Dancers: 2
Run Time: 2 minutes
Choreography: Danielle Kipnis
Cinematography/Editing: Bruce Pinchbeck
Music: Noah Pardo
The Collaborators
Noah Pardo (Composer) is a composer, sound designer, mixer, and audio editor who has written and recorded original content for television series, corporate spots, live performances, short films, dance, sketch comedy, and animated series. In 2015, Noah scored Nazmo Dance Collective’s full length dance performance re[CLAIM]. He also scored NDC’s dance film, Tagged, featured at Dance on Camera 2015 in Lincoln Center. He scored the 2018 animated series “Tammy’s Tiny Teatime,” an official Sundance selection and wrote original music for promotional shorts by Wondros Media in Los Angeles and comedy videos produced by The Huffington Post in New York City. He received his Bachelor’s of Music from the Steinhardt School at New York University.
Jeremy Morrow (Bass Trombone) is a bass trombonist currently based in New York City and playing in the Boradway revival of Sunset Boulevard with Glen Close. Jeremy is active throughout the world as an orchestral, chamber, and solo musician. He has performed with top ensembles including New York City Ballet Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, New York City Opera, Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Verbier Festival Orchestra (Switzerland), Pacific Music Festival Orchestra (Japan), Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, and many others. Jeremy was a member of New World Symphony for three seasons, where he performed the world premier of "O Bury Me Not," a piece commissioned for him by Michael Tilson Thomas.
Kay Turner (Folklorist) is an artist and scholar working across disciplines including writing, music, performance, and folklore. She will lead all Grimm pre- and post-performance discussion/workshop events as well as serve as an artistic mentor for the project. Turner holds a PhD in folklore from the University of Texas at Austin. She is the current president (2015-2018) of the American Folklore Society. From 2000-2014, Turner was Director of Folk Arts at the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). Since 2002 she has been Adjunct Professor in Performance Studies at NYU where she teaches courses on gender and queer theory, temporality, ghosts and their ontologies, fairy tale performance, and oral narrative theory. She has written several books and her current book project, "What a Witch", queerly rethinks the witch figure in history, story and performance. Turner has actively pursued her scholarly and performance interests in the fairy tale since 1998. Recent performance works include, “Before and After: What the Witch’s Nose Knows that Andy Warhol’s Nose Can Never Know” (2017); “Hansel and Gretel Queered (Devouring)” (2017); “When Gertrude Met Susan: A Literary Love Fest” (2011- 2016); “The Black Kiss” (with Mary Beth Edelson), Brittany, France, 2014; “Otherwise: Queer Scholarship into Song” (2013- 2017) and, with Ella Gant, “Creating Queer Genealogies: The Spinster Aunt Project,” (2009).
Lucca Damilano (Costume Designer) is a multi-media artist that creates costumes, sets, performances, texts, film, paintings, and mixed media artworks. They have worked with Nazmo Dance Collective, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, PopUp Theatrics, The Working Theatre, The Pearl Theatre Company, The New York State Theatre Institute, Theater for The New City, Drama League Directors Project; they’ve devised original work as company member for Hurst Hollow & Co., Suku Dance Lab, and Untitled Theatre Collective in New York and Os Teatores in São Paulo, Brazil.
Danielle Yankiver (Filmmaker) has been creating visual projects projects for over a decade. Daniel went to NYU where he created award winning short content and has gone on to produce films, music videos, documentaries, and commercials. He ran a monthly screening series in Brooklyn called Cinema Club that operated on a grassroots level. Daniel currently resides in Miami where he works as the Director of Production for HGAB Studios. As a filmmaker Daniel enjoys working with teams of creators to fulfill a larger vision. Daniel strives to combine mediums in different industries by bringing artists together through visual and digital content.
Schedule, Grants, and Awards
2019-2020 Season Schedule
Split Bill Series, Triskelion Arts, February 14th, 16th, 2019, "The Frog Prince" and "Cinderella" from Grimm
Grimm (Full premier), Center for Performance Research, April 26th and 27th 2019
Spring 2020, "Grimm" tour
Grants and Awards
Humanities New York, Quick Grant 2019, Awarded $500 for "Grimm" performance and panel discussion
Humanities New York, Vision Grant 2017, Awarded $1,500 for planning and research for Grimm
Humanities New York, Action Grant 2016, Awarded $4000 for creation of Matters of Facts
Miami Dade County Cultural Affairs, Community Grant 2015, Awarded $5000 for creation of [re]CLAIM
Dance Films Association, Awarded $75 for screening of TAGGED with BAAD
Contact
Danielle Kipnis, Artistic Director
NazmoDanceCollective@gmail.com
www.NazmoDanceCollective.com
(516) 395-6868