BIODANCE performed as plenary guest artists at University of Rochester’s “Creative Innovation: Building Synergy through the Arts, Sciences and Diversity” on November 13, 2015.  Sharing Smith’s choreography from the BIO/DANCE & Social Justice series, the company performed In/Difference at the Memorial Art Gallery at the Creative Innovation Performance and Reception.  Smith also served on a panel:  INVESTIGATE Breakout Session that examined methods for trans-disciplinary research and its connection to diversity with a panel of scholars led by AnnMarie White, EdD.

BIODANCE presents In/Difference on Jan. 5, 2016 at Rammerman Leadership Group in Rochester, NY.  As part of the BIO/DANCE & Social Justice Series, the company presents choreography by Missy Pfohl Smith as part of Frederick Jefferson’s Leadership course, accompanied by dialogue and discussion.

“Compartmented”

Multimedia site-specific art happenings

Co-curated by Missy Pfohl Smith and Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge

At ‘The Sunday School’

Rochester Lyric Opera

440 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607

December 4 & 5, 2015, 6–9pm, $5 at the door

For images and souvenirs from the show, visit Compartmented’s Website: http://thesundayschool.space

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1221086807907978/

Seventeen artists will occupy ‘The Sunday School’ located in the back of the Lyric Opera Theatre for two evenings of site-specific installations and performances in December. The audience will be invited to wander through a unique curiosity cabinet and explore the architectural structure transformed by the artists’ interventions. Independent artists and faculty from University of Rochester, RIT, Alfred University, Alfred State College and Hobart and William Smith Colleges were invited by the organizers/curators to imagine and present work in response to this fascinating space.

Missy Pfohl Smith happened upon the space when considering venues for The Fringe, and immediately thought it would make for fascinating site-specific art and performance. Smith contacted colleague Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge, suspecting she too would be inspired by the space. Smith says, “I was thrilled when Sue Cotroneo and Lyric Opera were willing to let us play in this curious space. Lyric Opera’s plans to renovate the space into a cabaret hall were scheduled to begin in January – I felt an urgency to give these fascinating vestiges from the former Christian Scientist Church one last life through art, dance and media.” Luckily, Evelyne wholeheartedly agreed, and the two invited multi-disciplinary artists from the region to explore and create in and for the space. Leblanc-Roberge writes, “One could see Bentham’s Panopticon, strange biblical reading rooms, a compartmented symmetrical cabaret, fascinating surfaces and corners, rounded walls, hypnotic wallpaper, one could hear the sound of a lost memory, imagine a dress as big as a room, a play of differences and repetitions, the smell and texture of a worn red carpet, typographic wonders of ancient blue prints, a place of worship, or perhaps a surveillance device.” The curators and the dozen artists involved in the project are curious to know, “What will you find here?”

This project would not be possible without the Rochester Lyric Theater, thank you!

BIODANCE shared two works from the BIO/DANCE & Social Justice Series on Oct. 11, 2015 in Spurrier Dance Theatre at University of Rochester.  In/Difference choreographed by Missy Pfohl Smith and (drowning) choreographed by Lev Earle were performed by Jeanne Schickler Compisi, Kathy Diehl, Lev Earle, Maureen Gorman, Alaina Olivieri, Laura Regna, Julie Schlafer Rossette, Missy Pfohl Smith, Stuart Tsubota and Kaitley Wozer.

On Friday, Oct. 16, there will be a FREE dance performance at Rush Rhees Library, Q&I Area, First Floor (inside the front/main entrance off the quad) at 12:00noon of BIO/DANCE & Social Justice. This performance will feature work by BIODANCE, students from DAN378 Choreographic Voice: Dance & Social Justice, and special guest artists.  Work will include (drowning) by Lev Earle, Lined Up for Injustice by Donna Davenport, In the Palm of Our Hands by Kelly Johnson,  Rickshaw-See-Saw by Allen C. Topolski, and more.  Join us!

This performance is made possible with support from Kinections and with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by Livingston Arts, a member supported organization.

Please consider supporting this project and helping us match our grant by making a tax-deductible contribution online at this website through our Contributions page!

On Friday, June 19, BIO/DANCE and Social Justice will be presented at Community Place of Greater Rochester (145 Parsells Ave., Rochester, NY) in a free, public performance at 12:30pm.  On this day, we commemorate Juneteenth, the ending of slavery in the United States.  But we also mourn on this day, the nine victims of the atrocious Charleston Church shooting – nine innocent African American citizens of our country.  While we struggle to understand how it is possible for this type of hate crime, and so many other losses where race, difference, religion and fear play a main role, to continue in 2015, we offer our work as a way to open a dialogue about these issues, as way to share the beauty of difference, and as a way to honor justice and equality and humanity.

BIODANCE and Social Justice Starts May 29 Press Release 1

Join us on Friday, May 29 at Monroe Community Hospital for the first of the BIO/DANCE and Social Justice Series Performances. All of these shows are free and open to the public. Community engagement can take many forms. On May 29, your help is needed to bring hospital residents down from their rooms to the auditorium (and then back afterwards). If you are interested in attending and willing and able to push a wheelchair, please plan on arrive at 10am to help. The dances will reflect themes of social justice and equality, and this is one way to provide access to the arts for those who may not otherwise have the experience. Please rsvp for planning purposes to [email protected]. Thank you for taking part and we look forward to beginning to share this work with you!