The Encounter: NYC
The Encounter:NYC was created in partnership with French Institute/Alliance Francaise/FIAF as part of Crossing the Line Festival
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Featuring a cast of 10 teens and professional performers and designers from NYC and Torn Space Theater in Buffalo, NY, The Encounter:NYC (2022) blossomed from the celebratory energy and gratitude of our return to the studio post-quarantine. The work was commissioned by FIAF's Crossing the Line Festival where it premiered in Le Skyroom.
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The work is an encounter with oneself, pulling from what we are currently carrying in our bodies–grief, hope, fear, desire, newfound power- and pairs it with our dreams in this moment of reconciliation with time. Working with communities around the world merging professional, pre-professional, and non-professional performers, Bartosik has been creating unique Encounter projects, creating an intergenerational cross-geographic, global conversation about the ferocious power of the body as a form of communication and the potency of movement as a connective language.
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The Encounter: NYC
Choreography and Direction by Kimberly Bartosik, created in close collaboration with the cast
Performed by Kimberly Bartosik, Claude “CJ” Johnson, Burr Johnson, Joanna Kotze, Ryan Pliss, Kalub Michael*, Mac Twining
With young performers River Bartosik-Murray, Logan Farmer, Ellington Tanner
Original Sound Design by Frank Naploski* and Sivan Jacobovitz, arranged by Kimberly Bartosik
Lighting Design by Roderick Murray
Costume Design Jessica Wegrzyn*
Creative Producer Carlos Diaz Stoop
Rehearsal & Administrative Assistant Lexie Thrash
Stage Manager Carly Weiser*
*Guests from Torn Space Theater in Buffalo, NY
Crossing the Line performances of The Encounter were made possible, in part, through FIAF’s commissioning funds; generous funding from the Nathan M. Clark Foundation & NYS DanceForce ; Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance at the Center for Ballet and the Arts @ NYU; creative development residencies at Tremper Arts and the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation; a generative partnership and residency with Torn Space Theater (Buffalo); and donations from John Robinson, our Kickstarter donors, and other generous patrons. This project was also supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.
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Photography by Maria Baranova
