Press Kit - Gallim Dance

GALLIM DANCE
2014 press kit
ABOUT GALLIM DANCE
THE COMPANY
Gallim Dance, a New York-based contemporary dance company, creates and performs worldwide original work by
artistic director and founder Andrea Miller. Founded in 2007, Gallim quickly captured the attention of fellow artists,
presenters, and audiences with its award-winning work, ensemble of dancers, and a fearless physicality grounded
by deep humanity and expressed through the madness and joy of the imagination. The company also provides NEArecognized educational programming to dancers and non-dancers in its home studio in Brooklyn and beyond.
Gallim is a highly sought-after company whose work has been by acclaimed by the New York Times as “voluptuously
polyglot choreography,” performed by dancers “of the highest calibre” (Dance Europe). The company performs
for over 15,000 audience members annually in premier venues including BAM, New York City Center, the Joyce
Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Spoleto Festival, White Bird, Peak Performances Montclair University, the
Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris, the TANZ Bremen Festival in Germany and Madrid en Danza in Spain. In 2012,
the company was honored for ‘movement innovation’ at a TEDx Conference. Gallim also partners outside the
dance world on events, films, and commercial projects. The company’s collaboration for the opening of SLS South
Beach Hotel in Miami won an industry award for Best Hotel Opening of 2012.
Artistic highlights in 2013 included a new commission from Montclair State University’s Peak Performances Series,
for the creation of Fold Here. Fold Here, Miller’s most complex and ambitious piece to date, previewed at Guggenheim
Works & Process in September, and premiered at Peak Performances later that month. Additional support for the
creation process was provided by Sadler’s Wells and by Dancers’ Workshop in Jackson Hole. Gallim Dance made
its Brooklyn Academy of Music debut in May of 2013, with six performances of Blush in the inaugural season of the
BAM Fisher Theater. Gallim’s 39 national and international performances included tours to the Vail International
Dance Festival, the Theatre National de Chaillot in Paris, France, the Festspiele Ludwigshafen in Ludwigshafen,
Germany, and the Festival Tanztage in Linz, Austria. The company was also featured in the documentary The Life and
Death of Mick Rock, directed by Barnaby Clay.
In 2014, Gallim Dance will create and perform a world premiere site-specific installation at the David Rubenstein
Atrium at Lincoln Center, and tour nationally to prestigious venues including the Institute of Contemporary Art in
Boston, Massachusetts, Dancers’ Workshop in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake, Utah. Miller has
been commissioned by Barnard College at Columbia University to create a new work for the 2014 season. Looking
ahead to 2015, the company will be touring in Germany, Luxembourg, and Spain to present its newest work Fold Here,
and will also take time to revisit repertory pieces such as Wonderland; Sit, Kneel, Stand; Blush; and Pupil Suite.
First Republic Bank is Gallim’s Lead Season Sponsor in 2014.
HOME STUDIO AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS
In January 2012, Gallim Dance established its new permanent home in a historical landmark building in
Brooklyn, NY, where it hosts year-round, free and low-cost education and performance programs. Since
its launch, Gallim’s education branch has served 3,000 individuals through weekly classes, specialized
movement workshops, artist residencies, open rehearsals, and informal performances. Both the National
Endowment for the Arts and New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs have recognized these
programs for their excellence, and have provided significant financial support.
Highlights include:
• Intensives and Weekly Classes: Expose students to Gallim’s immersive movement and process, and the
vibrant creative voice of our Artistic Director, Andrea Miller, and Company Members
• Monthly Open Rehearsals: Allow audiences to observe Gallim’s award-winning ensemble rehearse new
works and existing repertory, and engage in dialogue about movement and art
• Informal Performances: Introduce audiences to a diversity of choreographic and theatrical work, and
bring audiences closer to the creative process
• Artist Residencies: Offer artists a temporary home for artmaking while Gallim is on tour. The program
attracts acclaimed choreographers and companies including Shen Wei Dance Arts, Tere O’Connor Dance,
Issue Project Room, Urban Bush Women, and Dancewave -- a Brooklyn performing arts school for high
school students of mixed cultural, ethnic, and financial backgrounds
In recognition of Gallim’s impact and future potential, New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs has
awarded Gallim a capital grant for FY2015. This award will enable Gallim to dramatically improve the
production capabilities of the space, allowing Gallim to present more studio showings, works in process, and
local companies
THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Andrea Miller, choreographer and artistic director of Gallim Dance,
founded the company in 2007. In a 2013 Crain’s New York article, Miller
was called “one of a handful of rising-star choreographers who, dance
experts say, are shaping this generation of the art form”.
In collaboration with visual artists and company members, Miller
has dedicated herself to the creation of challenging new works for
Gallim’s growing repertory - including nationally and internationally
acclaimed pieces such as Fold Here (2013), Sit, Kneel, Stand (2012),
Mama Call (2012), For Glenn Gould (2011), Wonderland (2010),
Blush (2009) and I Can See Myself in Your Pupil (2008). Miller’s
work has been commissioned throughout the world and includes
recent commissions with VOGUE Diaries featuring model Kate
Upton, choreography for the upcoming film The Life and Death of
Mick Rock (2013) created to original music by The Flaming Lips; In Medias Res (2012) for The Nederlands Dans
Theater 2; Howl (2010) presented at the Royal Opera House of London; For Play (2012) for Bern Ballett; and
choreography for Phantom Limb’s production 69° South for BAM’s Next Wave (2011). From 2009 to 2011, Miller
served as associate choreographer of Noord Nederlandse Dans, creating two works for the company.
Miller is a founding collaborator of Movement Invention Program - a program dedicated to the research of improvisation.
She is also resident choreographer at Dancewave, a Brooklyn-based pre-professional dance program, and teaches
master classes, workshops and has been commissioned by many universities, including Harvard University, The Juilliard
School, Barnard College at Columbia University, New York University, University of Utah, and Wesleyan University.
Miller’s awards and honors include: Sadler’s Wells (Jerwood Fellowships, 2012 & 2013), Princess Grace Foundation
Special Projects Award (2012-2013), New York City Center Choreography Fellow (2011-2012), Joyce Theater Artist in
Residence (2011-2012), Youth America Grand Prix Award for Emerging Choreographers (2011), Wesleyan University’s
Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award (2011), Princess Grace Foundation Works in Progress Award
(2010), Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch (2009), Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship in Choreography (2009).
THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Meredith (Max) Hodges (Executive Director) is a graduate of Harvard
College and Harvard Business School. She brings to Gallim Dance a
wide range of experience that has combined both the not-for-profit arts
and the for-profit management industries.
As Project Director with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Hodges
led strategic projects for the External Affairs department, which included
the implementation of a cloud-based donor and member management
system. Prior to her position as Project Director, she was the Senior
Manager of Finance & Planning for MoMA. She has also worked as a
Senior Associate Consultant with Bain & Company, consulting for a
variety of clients on strategic solutions and growth strategies.
Hodges has served as a panelist at the 2014 APAP Global Arts
Presenters Conference and the Dance/USA 2013 Annual Conference, and has lectured on arts entrepreneurship
at the Juilliard School.
HIGHLIGHTS
New York Metro Area
2014
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center Atrium, New York NY
New Victory Theater, New York NY
NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York NY
Ailey Citigroup Theater, New York NY
2013 BAM Fisher Theater, Brooklyn NY
Montclair University Peak Performances Series, Montclair NJ
Guggenheim Works & Process, New York NY
New York City Center, New York NY
Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, New York NY
2012 The Joyce Theater, New York NY
New York City Center, New York NY
The Pocantico Center, Tarrytown NY
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York NY
2011 The Joyce Theater, New York NY
New York City Center’s Fall for Dance (Drew Jacoby), New York NY
Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York NY
JCC in Manhattan, New York NY
Cedar Lake Theater, New York NY
Grand Central Station, New York NY
Cooper Union, New York NY
2010
New York City Center’s Fall for Dance, New York NY
Dance Theater Workshop, New York NY
Joyce SoHo, New York NY
Fire Island Festival, Fire Island Pines NY
Saratoga Arts Fest, Saratoga Springs NY
Purchase Performing Arts Center, Purchase NY
2009 The Juilliard Theater, New York NY
Judson Church, New York NY
92nd Street Y, New York NY
Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, New York NY
National
2014 Institute of Contemporary Art, World Music / Crash Arts, Boston MA
Dancers’ Workshop, Jackson WY
Kingsbury Hall Presents, University of Utah, Salt Lake UT
JCC of Metropolitan Detroit, West Bloomfield MA
Fort Wayne Dance Collective, Fort Wayne IN
Hancher Auditorium, University of Iowa, Iowa City IA
2013
Vail International Dance Festival, Vail CO
Choregus Productions, Cascia Hall Performing Arts Center, Tulsa OK
The Rialto at Georgia State University, Atlanta GA
Wesleyan University Center for the Arts, Middletown CT
Old Town Temecula Theater, Temecula CA
University of Minnesota, O’Shaughnessy Auditorium, Saint Paul MN
2012
Dancers’ Workshop, Jackson WY
Dance Center at Columbia College, Chicago IL
gloATL, Atlanta GA
Virginia Arts Festival, Virginia Beach VA
Evelyn Rubenstein JCC, Houston TX
2011 World Music/Crash Arts, Boston MA
University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center, Amherst MA
Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN
2010 Jacob’s Pillow, Becket MA
White Bird Dance, Portland OR
Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston SC
Wesleyan University Center for the Arts, Middletown CT
Palm Beach Performing Arts, Palm Beach FL
International
2015
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Stuttgart, Germany
2014
Tanzmesse, Düsseldorf, Germany (pending)
Barcelona, Spain (pending)
2013
Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris, France
Festspiele Ludwigshafen, Ludwigshafen, Germany
Festival TanzTage, Linz, Austria
Festival Prisma, Teatro Nacional de Panama, Panama City, Panama
2012
TANZ Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Madrid en Danza Festival, Madrid, Spain
Vancouver Dance House, Vancouver, Canada
Grand Theatre, Kingston, Canada
Markham Theatre, Markham, Canada
Brock University Centre for the Arts, St. Catharines, Canada
2010
Noord Nederlandse Dans, Groningen, Holland
Isadora Festival, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Madrid en Danza Festival, Madrid, Spain
Santander Palacio de Festivales, Santander, Spain
Chutzpah! Festival, Vancouver, Canada
COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS
Commissions
2014 Barnard College at Columbia University
2013 Montclair University Peak Performances Series
Dancers’ Workshop, Jackson Hole
Harvard University, Blodgett Distinguished Artist-in-Residence
Studio HS / Target C9 by Champion
2012 Nederlands Dans Theater 2
New York University, Tisch School of the Arts
Bern: Ballett
Company E
Sephora SoHo
Studio HS / Hotel SLS Miami
Connecticut College
2011
Noord Nederlandse Dans
Lacoste L.12.12 at Grand Central Station
Drew Jacoby, New York City Center Fall for Dance
69°S: Phantom Limb Company
Fire Island Dance Festival, Dancers Responding to AIDS
2010
Bern: Ballett
Noord Nederlandse Dans
2009 Ballet Hispanico
Hubbard Street II Zenon Dance
Hedwig Dances
Northwest Dance Project
Springboard Danse Montreal
KSwiss
Installation at Sportmax
Awards + Funding
2014 First Republic Bank - Lead Season Sponsor
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
American Airlines
2013 The Princess Grace Foundation Special Projects Award
National Endowment for the Arts “Art Works” Award
New York State Council for the Arts
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
Jerwood Studio at Sadler’s Wells - Research & Development
First Republic Bank
The Princess Grace Foundation – USA
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
USArtists International
The Harkness Foundation for Dance
The Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation
The Puffin Foundation Tupperware Corporation
Ikea
Target
The Vine Collective
UVA Wines and Spirits
Sixpoint Brewery
Galllim Dancer Jonathan Royse Windham Named ‘25 to Watch’ in Dance Magazine
2012
Jerwood Studio at Sadler’s Wells - Research & Development
Joyce Theater Choreography Residency
New York City Center Choreographer-in-Residence
National Dance Project 2011-2012 Touring Award
BAM Professional Development Program
The Rockefeller Brothers Foundation
The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation USArtists International
First Republic Bank
The Harkness Foundation for Dance
The Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation
The Foundation for Contemporary Art
2011 Dance Magazine Cover Story
Princess Grace Foundation USA Works in Progress Award
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
The Trust for Mutual Understanding
Gallim Dancer Troy Ogilvie Named ‘25 to Watch’ in Dance Magazine
2010 The Jerome Foundation
The American Music Center
The O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation
Youth America Grand Prix Award for Emerging Choreographers
The Mariam McGlone Choreographers Award from Wesleyan University
2009 Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship in Choreography
Gallim Dance Named ‘25 to Watch’ in Dance Magazine
Residencies
2014 Mount Holyoke
University of Utah
University of Iowa
2013 Montclair University Peak Performances Series
Montclair State University Department of Dance
Dancers’ Workshop Jackson Hole
Brooklyn Academy of Music Professional Development Program
University of Michigan
Goucher College
The University of Tulsa
2012 Joyce Theater Residency Program
Choreography Fellow at New York City Center
Columbia College
SUNY Purchase
Dancewave
Evelyn Rubenstein JCC of Houston
REPERTORY
FOLD HERE
In collaboration with video artist Tal Rosner and lighting designer Robert Wierzel, Fold
Here unfolds in an implausible universe filled with empty cardboard boxes as the basic
units of all existing matter. In pursuit of the boxes’ elusive essence, the performers
explore the physical, sensorial and spiritual properties of human beings as parallel
contents and containers of existence. The piece was initially inspired by Raymond
Carver’s short story Cathedral, in which a sighted man’s hand is guided by a blind
man’s heart in drawing a cathedral. Fold Here is commissioned by Montclair State
University Peak Performances and co-commissioned by Dancers’ Workshop Jackson
Hole. Research for Fold Here was supported by the Jerwood Studio at Sadler’s Wells
| London’s Dance House.
“Andrea Miller is known for creating work that blends wild-child dynamism
with quiet emotional resonance. Expect both in full force in Fold Here, the
most complex piece to date for her six-year-old company, Gallim Dance.”
- VOGUE, September 2013
Preview: September 22-23, 2013, Guggenheim Works & Process
World Premiere: September 26-29, 2013, Montclair State University Peak Performances
Choreography: Andrea Miller in collaboration with Gallim dancers
Running Time: 60 minutes, no intermission
Dancers: 9
Projection and Video Design: Tal Rosner
Lighting Design: Robert Wierzel
Associate Lighting Design: Amith Chandrashaker
Set Concept: Jon Bausor
Production Manager: Valerie Oliveiro
Music: Various including Original Music and Sound Design: Andrzej (Andrew) Przybytkowski
Costume Design: Jenny Lai
Dramaturge: Alejandro Rodriguez
Rehearsal Directors: Ana Maria Lucaciu and Alejandro Rodriguez
SIT, KNEEL, STAND
Inspired by Albert Camus’ essay on the Myth of Sisyphus, which concludes
that “one must imagine Sisyphus happy”, Sit, Kneel, Stand is an evening-length
work that explores the restless human search for meaning in a daily life full
of absurdity, inertia, and simple unexpected rewards. It is set to the original
score of Jerome Begin and Christopher Lancaster.
“Sit, Kneel, Stand is sophisticated and touching; you think along with it as well
as laugh along with it. And it ends on a beautiful high.”
- The Huffington Post, Margaret Fuhrer, June 2012
Premiere: June 2012, The Joyce Theater
Choreography: Andrea Miller in collaboration with original cast
Running Time: 60 minutes, no intermission
Dancers: 7
Lighting Design: Ashley Vellano and Vincent Vigilante
Costumes: Jose Solis
Music: Various, including Original Composition by Jerome Begin and Christopher Lancaster
WONDERLAND
Wonderland investigates pack mentality as an inherent and potentially dangerous
element of human instinct. The work was initially inspired by Chinese-born
artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s installation Head On, which depicts 99 wolves charging
into a glass wall. Four archetypal characters evolve in a universe influenced
by the imagery of the American atomic age. Behind the smiles of an Esther
Williams dream world, Wonderland reveals psychological and physical episodes
of a herd acting as a unit through the uncoordinated behavior of self-serving
individuals. Although pack mentality is a natural and ongoing strategy in the
animal kingdom, among humans it can indicate a vicious, desensitized brutality
and disregard for humanity – a concept that is at the core of Wonderland.
“What is most memorable is the dancers’ fervor and undeviating commitment, especially
in the most bizarre passages: which makes Wonderland both stirring and chilling.”
– The New York Times, Alastair Macaulay, August 2010
Premiere: August 2010, The Joyce Theater
Developed into full evening premiere, March 2012 TANZ Bremen Festival
Choreography: Andrea Miller
Running Time: 60 minutes, no intermission
Dancers: 8
Set Design: Jon Bausor
Lighting Design: Vincent Vigilante
Costumes: Jose Solis
Music: Orchestra Barzizza, Chopin, Black Dice, Tim Hecker, Michel Bokanowski, Joanna Newsom,
Sebastien Agneessens and Kyle Fische Remix courtesy of the Alan Lomax Foundation
BLUSH
Blush expands the sudden moment of blushing into a sixty-minute flood. Dense
with emotional rawness and physical exertion, this visceral work chases one
of the most elusive human expressions – the blush – through the stress and
raptures as it melts to the edges of the skin. Since its 2009 premiere, Blush
has toured nationally and internationally to the highest critical acclaim, and
received the 2011 National Dance Project Touring Award.
“Excellent... one highly charged moment after another.”
- The New York Times, Roslyn Sulcas, January 2009
Premiere: 2009
, Joyce SoHo. Redeveloped: 2009, Jacob’s Pillow.
Choreography: Andrea Miller
Running Time: 60 minutes, no intermission
Dancers: 6
Lighting Design: Vincent Vigilante
Costume Design: Jose Solis
Music: Mannyfingers, Andrej Przybytkowski, Chopin, Kap Bambino, Arvo Part, Wolf Parade
MAMA CALL
Mama Call has its roots in Andrea Miller’s SephardicAmerican heritage. The
work explores ideas of displacement and alienation as it affected Spanish
Jews during the centuries surrounding the Inquisition. Miller adapts the
Sephardic story into a contemporary border-crossing idea of how those who
have been displaced rescue the idea of “home.”
“There’s so much to see and take in, it’s hard to blink for fear you might miss
something.”
- Arts and Culture Magazine, Nancy Wozny, March 2012
Premiere: December 2011, The JCC in Manhattan
Choreography: Andrea Miller
Running Time: 30 minutes (can be arranged for various durations from 15-30 minutes)
Dancers: 8
Lighting Design: Ashely Velano
Costume Design: Andrea Miller
Music: A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Beirut, Arvo Part, Tony Gatlif, Agrupacion Musical Cristus Vincit
PUPIL SUITE
Performed to the contagious music of Israeli band Balkan Beat Box, Pupil
Suite is an exuberant romp that plays with the extravagance of imagination.
“Lush, fierce dancing punctuated with thrilling bouts of kinetic wit.”
- Arts and Culture Magazine, Nancy Wozny, March 2012
Premiere: September 2010, New York City Center’s Fall for Dance
Choreography: Andrea Miller
Running Time: 8-25 minutes
Dancers: 7-8
Lighting Design: Vincent Vigilante
Costume Design: Andrea Miller and Arika Yamada
Music: Balkan Beat Box, Bellini
DUST
Dust is a duet for two men that confronts loss and the vain attempt to thwart
mortality. Excerpted from Blush.
Premiere: April 2010, Dance Center at Columbia College
Choreography: Andrea Miller
Running Time: 12 minutes
Dancers: 2
Lighting Design: Vincent Vigilante
Costume Design: Jose Solis
Music: Arvo Part
NEW WORK
Lincoln Center Atrium Commission: Site-Specific World Premiere – Fall 2014
Andrea Miller and the dancers of Gallim Dance will create a site-specific live dance and projection installation for
Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium, a vibrant public performance and community gathering space. For each
of Miller’s choreographic works, she creates an original movement vocabulary in order to construct a specific and
enveloping world. Miller views the creation of an immersive installation piece as the next artistic challenge for
herself and the company.
The Atrium is a long and narrow space; audience members will be encouraged to walk around the Atrium and view
the dancers from many different perspectives. Real-time projections of the performance displayed on the Atrium’s
media wall will offer yet another perspective on the dancers’ movement.
Miller is often inspired by the visual art world during her creation process. John Baldessari, an artist whose
photographic images feature bright circles covering his subjects’ faces and joints, inspired Miller’s concept for the
set – which will include multiple walls or flats that challenge the audience’s ability to see the whole work. To allow
for the fullest exploration of the choreography, Miller intends to choreograph the 60-minute performance as three
20-minute sets, performed in direct succession by three different casts (one all women, one all men, and one mixed).
Throughout the evening of performance, audience members may consider how their experience of the piece differs
from others’, and how a viewer understands ‘the whole work’ when he or she can only see a part.
New World Premiere – 2015
Andrea Miller will create an evening-length work for the seven company dancers of Gallim Dance, inspired by
a selection of early baroque music. For the world premiere and at touring venues where possible, the piece
will be performed to live music. The new work will showcase Gallim’s core gifts of virtuosic physicality and
musicality.
Miller envisions a transformation of the visual stage environment accomplished by the use of color. In particular,
she imagines lavender and pastel hues, creating a “Rothko effect” of light, fresh pastel colors that serve as the
backdrop for the performance.
THE ARTISTS
FRANCESCA ROMO (Associate Director, Dancer) was born in London, England, and trained
at the Royal Ballet School and the London Contemporary Dance School. After a one-year
apprenticeship with Richard Alston Dance Company, she formally joined the Company
from 2003 to 2006. Francesca is certified in GYROTONIC® and teaches in Manhattan and
Brooklyn. Francesca co-founded Gallim Dance in 2007 and has helped create and stage
Miller’s work throughout the world.
CAROLINE FERMIN (Education Chair, Dancer) attended the New Orleans Center for the
Creative Arts throughout her youth and later The Juilliard School (BFA). In 2007, she joined
James Sewell Ballet in Minneapolis. She has received grants and awards for her work and
she created a highly needed project to bring young artists to work in New Orleans after
Hurricane Katrina. Caroline serves as Education Chair for Gallim’s education program.
ALLYSEN HOOKS (Dancer) is from Houston, TX. She graduated from The Juilliard School
in 2010 and has since freelanced with emerging choreographers such as Carlye Eckert,
Esme Boyce, and Michelle Mola. Allysen has been a member of Dance Heginbotham, under
direction of John Heginbotham, since August 2011. In 2010 she presented her own work in
Montreal. Allysen has danced with Gallim Dance since 2012.
MATTHEW PEREZ (Dancer) is a native of the Bronx, New York. He graduated from North
Carolina School of the Arts as a high school student in 2009. Matthew later went on to
receive a BFA from SUNY Purchase (2013), where he performed works by Pam Tanowitz, Lar
Lubovitch, Twyla Tharp, Nicolo Fonte, and John Heginbotham. Matthew has also attended
the Movement Invention Project (2011) and Springboard Danse Montreal (2011 & 2012). EMILY TERNDRUP (Dancer) is a native of West Des Moines, Iowa, and graduated with a
B.F.A. in Modern Dance from the University of Utah. As a performer and choreographer, her
work has been presented at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as venues
throughout Utah, Iowa, and Colorado. She was the recipient of Dance Teacher Magazine’s
2010 Outstanding Student Performer Award, and has had the pleasure of working with
artists such as Gregory Dolbashian, Edgar Zendejas, Susan McLain, David Dorfman, and
Shannon Gillen. Emily is currently performing in Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More.
DANIEL STAAF (Dancer) was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He graduated from the Royal Swedish
Ballet School’s contemporary department in 2009. After his graduation he joined the Project
Kamuyot, a collaborative production between Batsheva Dance Company and Riksteatern and toured
throughout Sweden. He has worked with Swedish based choreographer Örjan Andersson’s company
Andersson dance. In the fall of 2011 he joined Bern:Ballett under Cathy Marston’s direction and had
the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Noa Zuk, Jyrki Karttunen, Andrea Miller, Johan
Inger, Tabea Martin, Alexander Ekman and Medhi Walerski. In April 2013 he joined Gallim Dance.
AUSTIN TYSON (Dancer) hails from Portland, Oregon. He received his dance training
from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Salzburg Experimental
Academy of Dance. While at NYU, Austin performed the works of Aszure Barton, Kate
Weare, and Seán Curran. Since university, Austin has performed with Company XIV and
MADboots Dance Co. Austin fell in love with yoga while at NYU. A renewed mindfulness
towards alignment and breath became a source of guidance through the rigors of a dance
career and the many facets of city living. Austin has since become a certified teacher
through the Mind Body Dancer® 200 Teacher Training with TaraMarie Perri.
DAN WALCZAK (Dancer) is originally from Buffalo, New York where he began
dancing at the age of 7. After receiving his BFA in Dance from SUNY Brockport in
2007, he began dancing with Coriolis Dance Inc. as well as Keith A. Thompson’s Dance
Tacticts Performance Group. Joining Gallim Dance in 2008, Daniel has since toured
internationally, staged Andrea Miller’s work, and taught for the company at residencies
and workshops.
The vision of
Gallim Dance:
to play inside the imagination,
to find juxtapositions in the
mind and body
that resonate in the soul,
limitations and pleasures,
& to realize the endless human capacity for inspiration.
to investigate our
“
PRESS QUOTES
eye-catching,
original
movement
- Chicago Tribune
”
“Miller is known for creating work that blends wild-child
dynamism with quiet emotional resonance. Expect both in
full force in Fold Here.”
– VOGUE, September 6, 2013
“Miller has high expectations for choreography, especially her own. It isn’t enough, she feels, for a dance to be
beautiful. Dances should be revolutionary.”
– Robert Johnson, Star Ledger, September 24, 2013
“Her excellent dancers fly, crawl, hover, and hang together. They split jump, hurtle themselves into the arms of each
other, and hold a pose, all with abandon, yet precision… BLUSH feels flush with craft, design, and invention.”
– Deirdre Towers, DancEnthusiast, June 10, 2013
“Like all of Miller’s dances, Fold Here is physically dramatic, mining the deep emotional and theatrical
resources of her riveting dancers.”
– BWWDanceWorld, June 7, 2013
“On some level, Blush is unfathomable. On another it’s as dangerously, sensuously present as a touch on your own flesh.”
– Deborah Jowitt, Arts Journal, May 26, 2013
“You want to keep [ Miller ] in your sights. Her ideas are
intriguing, and her movement style lusty, daring” – Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice, May 2012
“
A rising-star
choreographer... shaping
this generation of
the art form
- Crain’s New York
”
“
A physical language
reminding us how
&
tough
resilient
the human body can be
- The New York Times
“Miller has somehow captured what it’s like to be young and alive
and free, and the feeling will stay with you for days.”
– Janet Smith, Straight Vancouver Online Source, March 2012
”
“Lush, fierce dancing punctuated with thrilling bouts of kinetic wit”
– Nancy Wozny, Arts + Culture Magazine Houston, March 2012
“Sexy, reckless and edgy as hell... as exciting as high art can get.”
– Laura Hutson, Nashville Scene, October 2011
“It was the kind of honest, exhilarated audience response that is palpable and undeniable. For two nights
in September, the most vocal reaction during a Fall for Dance opening program... went to Andrea Miller’s
Gallim Dance.”
– Susan Reiter, Dance Magazine, April 2011
“It seizes your attention and dares you not to get caught up in its delicious
strangeness, fierce aggression and raw beauty.”
– Susan Reiter, New York Press, July 2009
“The impact of this piece is so powerful - and the dancers perform
so urgently, so intently about things... so essential to our being - that
it’s hard to leave the show without feeling changed”
– Tim Martin Dance Europe about Blush, May 2009
CONTACT & BOOKING
GALLIM ADMINISTRATION
BOOKING
Andrea Miller
Artistic Director
andrea@gallimdance.com
IMG Artists
Carnegie Hall Tower
152 West 57th Street, 5th floor
New York, NY 10019
USA
Meredith (Max) Hodges
Executive Director
max@gallimdance.com
Lyndsey Vader
General Manager
lyndsey@gallimdance.com
Francois Leloup-Collet
Marketing Associate
francois@gallimdance.com
Matthew Bledsoe
Director, Special Projects
Touring Division
mbledsoe@imgartists.com
+1 212 994 3565
imgartists.com
Lauren Schulman
Development Manager
lauren@gallimdance.com
Design + Layout : Francois Leloup-Collet
General Inquiries
info@gallimdance.com
September 25, 2013
Collaboration, From the Beginning to the Final Box
By SUSAN REITER
In the high-ceilinged parish hall of a Brooklyn
church on a warm August afternoon, nine members
of Gallim Dance worked intensely, mostly alone or
in pairs, exploring intricate movement phrases as
Louis Armstrong’s “Kiss to Build a Dream On”
played over and over. One by one, all of the dancers
came forward to offer Andrea Miller, the highly
pregnant choreographer, their specific phrases and
gestures, as she surveyed, suggested and prodded.
Trying to make a point to Francesca Romo, who was
maneuvering around a cardboard box, Ms. Miller
made a reference to Mister Rogers. Ms. Romo, who
was born in Britain, responded with a blank stare.
The company was rehearsing “Fold Here,” Ms.
Miller’s newest and most ambitious work, which has
its world premiere on Thursday at the Alexander
Kasser Theater in Montclair, N.J. Commissioned by
Peak Performances, “Fold Here” marks the first time
that Ms. Miller has collaborated with designers and a
composer from the earliest phases of a work’s
development.
She drew inspiration from Raymond Carver’s 1983
short story “Cathedral,” which made a powerful
impression when she first read it. In the plot, a
couple is visited by a blind man, the wife’s longtime
friend. The husband seems the outsider of the trio
during a dinner. But in a remarkable closing
sequence, the husband tries vainly to describe a
cathedral to the blind man, who then guides the
husband’s hand, enabling him to draw one.
“I got attracted to the idea of trying to figure out what something is,” Ms. Miller said during an interview at a
Manhattan restaurant. “And that’s where the piece got started. In that situation where the narrator has to explain
to a blind man what something is, and attempt to express its essence, he must figure out what its form is. That
effort really exposes him. I saw it as pushing him outside of his comfort zone — almost like asking him to do an
artistic feat, a creative exercise that he couldn’t access. “The story, for me, opened up questions that I feel when
I’m making work: Can you tell what something is? How do you learn about what it is? How has the artist
chosen to communicate what it is? So I took the idea of a cardboard box — which I see, in this piece, as parallel
to a human — interchangeable with a human. Is there a way to define or to understand what the essence of this
box is? Is it just six planes connected by corners? Is it still a box if it’s ripped apart? If it’s soaked? If it’s
crushed? And it’s the same with people. How do you get to know who they are, what they are? Is it possible?”
It has been a rapid trajectory for Ms. Miller, 31, a Juilliard graduate, since she returned to New York from Tel
Aviv, where she danced with the Batsheva Ensemble for two years. She began showing her choreography in
out-of-the-way spaces, working with Ms. Romo from the start, and other dancers. Two works Ms. Miller
presented at the Joyce SoHo, “I Can See Myself in Your Pupil” (2008) and “Blush” (2009), raised her profile
with their visceral, go-for-broke physicality, and her gift for locating the beauty in the grotesque. Brimming
with primal energy and set to dynamic, unexpected musical selections, they announced a new choreographic
voice.
Early on, Ms. Miller hoped to form a company of her own, even as she was busy with commissions from
various troupes. Gallim (“waves” in Hebrew) was started in 2007. Jedediah Wheeler, the artistic director of
Peak Performances, recalled that Ella Baff, the director of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, who presented
“Blush” in 2009, said that Ms. Miller was one to watch. “There’s an athleticism and a vernacular that are almost
folk, in some ways — she blends a lot of activities into one gesture,” Mr. Wheeler said about Ms. Miller in a
phone interview. “She likes her audience; that’s evident from the moment she gets on stage with her work.”
Helping to program City Center’s 2010 Fall for Dance festival, he selected Gallim for the opening night. The
company presented a 20-minute excerpt from “Pupil.” Other troupes on the program included the Merce
Cunningham Dance Company and Miami City Ballet. Perched in a seat that night was Meredith Hodges, who
is now Gallim’s executive director. “I’d never heard of Gallim before, but I Googled it during the intermission,
and the name stuck in my mind, indelibly,” she said.
Ms. Miller’s 2010 “Wonderland,” a work for 12 dancers exploring the concept of pack mentality, brought her to
the Joyce Theater, marking a further maturity with its dramatic urgency and the lunging power of its ensembles.
Reviewing the work in The New York Times, Alastair Macaulay wrote, “What is most memorable is the
dancers’ fervor and undeviating commitment, especially in the most bizarre passages: which makes
‘Wonderland’ both stirring and chilling.”
Last year, Gallim achieved a new level of stability. The search for a permanent home led to the Church of St.
Luke and St. Matthew in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, where the Rev. Michael Sniffen wanted his church to engage
more with the surrounding neighborhood. Gallim now rents the upper parish hall and office space. “Everyone’s
vision is that this is a partnership that magnifies the impact of both organizations,” Ms. Hodges said. Classes,
open rehearsals and a concert series are on the Gallim schedule.
So it was in a church that Ms. Miller oversaw rehearsals of “Fold Here,” a work in which a cathedral provides a
central focus, as she awaited another debut — that of her son, Mateo, born on Sept. 9 to the choreographer and
her fiancé, Juan Rengifo-Borrero. In early August, the company spent three weeks in the Montclair theater — a
luxurious technical residency that allowed for intensive work with her international collaborators, an
international group: the Israeli video artist Tal Rosner, the American lighting designer Robert Wierzel and the
British set designer Jon Bausor.
“The experience of ‘Fold Here’ has been so delicious, because we’ve had a lot of time to really work on it,” Ms.
Romo said. “It hasn’t been a quick process. There’s been a lot of play in making the piece. Working with boxes
has been very interesting. For me, there’s never been a moment of frustration. It’s made me love boxes all the
more.”
All they want to do is dance
A trio of rising-star choreographers—Andrea Miller, Brian Brooks and Kyle Abraham—
are taking center stage to shape the art form and build companies.
Miriam Kreinin Souccar
Buck Ennis
Andrea Miller (surrounded by her Gallim dancers) has the talent and business sense to succeed
in the world of dance.
Published: July 21, 2013
At New York City Center's Fall for Dance festival in 2010, choreographer Andrea
Miller watched from the audience as her little-known troupe performed with major
names like Twyla Tharp and Merce Cunningham. Her seat turned out to be a
good one indeed. As the audience stood and cheered for Gallim Dance, Ms.
Miller struck up a conversation with her neighbor, who just happened to be
financier Frederic Seegal. He was so impressed that he took the whole company
out to celebrate. He's now chairman of the group's advisory board.
"It was an incredible night," said the 31-year-old Ms. Miller, who graduated from
the Juilliard School in 2004 and danced with the Batsheva Ensemble in Israel for
two years before starting her own company.
The event was one of many serendipitous moments that have helped propel Ms.
Miller and Gallim (which means "waves" in Hebrew) to the forefront of the dance
world.
Ms. Miller is one of a handful of rising-star choreographers who, dance experts
say, are shaping this generation of the art form while trying to provide a more
stable environment for the community at large.
She shares the stage with two others who have been racking up accolades,
commissions and tours—Brian Brooks and Kyle Abraham—though Ms. Miller is
further along the road to success.
"These three are the leaders of the pack," said Joseph Melillo, executive
producer for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. "They are very strong personalities,
and their work reflects an idiom of today in terms of an extreme physicality being
used in dance."
CAPITAL IS SCARCE
Achieving success in the dance world is quite the workout. The average dancer
earns only $28,000 a year and has to take an average of four jobs
simultaneously to make ends meet, according to Dance/NYC, an advocacy
organization. Capital for new companies is getting harder to find as well. The
Greenwall Foundation, formerly a big dance funder, closed its arts program in
2011, and Altria, a major corporate funder, stopped donating to New York arts
groups in 2007 when it relocated its headquarters out of the city.
"Things have always been difficult for choreographers, and there's just a handful
that really emerge," said Arlene Shuler, president of City Center. "It's as much
business sense as talent to say who succeeds."
Ms. Miller possesses that rare mix of artistic talent and entrepreneurial acumen.
In just six years, she has started her own nonprofit company, found permanent
studio and office space in a large church in Brooklyn near BAM, and grown her
annual budget to $700,000 from just $3,000. A year ago, she hired an executive
director—Meredith "Max" Hodges—a former employee at the Museum of Modern
Art with an M.B.A. from Harvard University. She has seven permanent dancers
and six board members.
Ms. Miller, now seven months pregnant with her first child, takes as many
chances trying to build her avant-garde company as she does with the wild and
electrifying dances she creates. When she was just beginning six years ago, Jim
Herbert, chairman of First Republic Bank and a major dance aficionado, visited
five new companies looking to help a young choreographer get started. When he
came to Gallim, Ms. Miller boldly asked for a $30,000 donation. She didn't get the
full amount, but her pluck impressed Mr. Herbert, whose bank is now a major
supporter. Ms. Miller appears in ads for the bank and was featured in its annual
report.
"Andrea understands not only how to create compelling performances, but also
how to inspire and lead a team," Mr. Herbert said.
Mr. Brooks' goal is similar to Ms. Miller's—to create his own nonprofit company
that offers stable work for his dancers. His troupe, Brian Brooks Moving
Company, had its first season at the prestigious Jacob's Pillow in the Berkshires
in July. In the past year, he has quadrupled his annual budget to $400,000, and
last month hired his first employees, seven part-time staffers. He doesn't have
permanent studio space, and he runs his entire operation using Google docs and
his cellphone, but he is working with a fundraising consultant and developing a
board with the hopes of establishing his own 501(c)(3) nonprofit in a year.
"I want to provide a professional and well-compensated environment for
dancers," Mr. Brooks said. "I'm trying to push the field into a more functional
place."
The 39-year-old, who danced with Elizabeth Streb, has achieved a slew of highprofile commissions and accolades during the past couple of years. The Juilliard
School and the Vail International Dance Festival recently commissioned new
works, and New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan tapped him to
develop a duet for her. In October, his new piece, Run Don't Run, will be
presented at BAM's Next Wave Festival. Equally impressive, he is
choreographing Julie Taymor's highly anticipated production of A Midsummer
Night's Dream, which opens in November at the Theater for a New Audience.
Kyle Abraham, a 35-year-old former dancer with David Dorfman Dance and the
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, is also working on establishing a
nonprofit structure for his company, Abraham.In.Motion, which he launched in
2006. For now, his earned and donated income is funneled through New York
Live Arts, a nonprofit dance organization, where Mr. Abraham has been awarded
a coveted residency in which the nonprofit provides studio space, marketing
assistance, a grant and the benefits of having an umbrella organization.
Mr. Abraham's budget was $300,000 in 2012, up from $260,000 the previous
year. Last year, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater commissioned a new work,
which premiered at New York City Center in December. Mr. Abraham was also
chosen to create a duet for Ms. Whelan, someone he calls "dance royalty." And
he was among just 54 artists around the country to be named a United States
Artists fellow last year.
KNOWING THE PITFALLS
Caught on his cellphone while he was scouting for costumes for an upcoming
performance, Mr. Abraham had time to answer just a few questions. Dance
experts say he is not preoccupied with building a large nonprofit.
"Kyle is more interested in getting his work out there, not so much in developing
a company," City Center's Ms. Shuler said.
Despite their current successes, these choreographers know the industry's
pitfalls all too well.
Mr. Brooks said the 2008 financial crisis hit him so hard that he was ready to
"throw in the towel." His troupe didn't perform for more than a year, but he used
that time to develop a new piece. Then the Joyce Theater offered a booking in
June 2011, other venues began to call, and he was back on his feet.
"Things are great now, but touring is so volatile," Mr. Brooks said. "I'm working to
create sustainability."
Ms. Miller echoed her colleague's sentiment. "I would love to reach the point
where we have a stable operation, where we can make great work, provide artist
residencies, pay our dancers more and provide health insurance for them," she
said.
© 2013 Crain Communications Inc.
In
'Fold
Here,'
a
new
work
by
Gallim
Dance,
the
furnishings
are
existential
By
Robert
Johnson/The
Star‐Ledger
on
September
24,
2013
at
8:39
AM
Choreographer
Andrea
Miller
is
determined
to
touch
her
audience.
Hoping
viewers
will
respond
intensely
to
her
new
piece
"Fold
Here"—
which
her
company,
Gallim
Dance,
presents
this
week
at
Montclair
State
University—Miller
says,
"Smiling
on
the
inside
isn’t
enough."
Emily
Terndrup
of
Gallim
Dance
in
"Fold
Here"
|
Credit:
Tom
Caravaglia
Speaking
of
the
audience,
she
adds,
"They
should
move
around
in
their
seats.
They
should
get
uncomfortable.
They
should
laugh
out
loud.
They
should
feel
alive."
Miller
has
high
expectations
for
choreography,
especially
her
own.
It
isn’t
enough,
she
feels,
for
a
dance
to
be
beautiful.
Dances
should
be
revolutionary.
"There
needs
to
be
a
soul,"
she
says.
"There
needs
to
be
an
aggressive
effort
to
change
the
world."
A
graduate
of
the
Juilliard
School
who
went
on
to
apprentice
with
Israeli
choreographer
Ohad
Naharin,
Miller
has
been
making
work
for
her
own
company,
in
Brooklyn,
since
2007.
Yet
she
credits
her
idealism
and
her
interest
in
humanistic
themes
to
her
early
study
of
classic
modern
dances
by
the
late
choreographers
Doris
Humphrey
and
Charles
Weidman.
From
the
age
of
9
until
she
was
18,
Miller’s
only
teacher
was
the
formidable
modern
dancer
Ernestine
Stodelle,
who
immersed
her
students
in
the
works
of
those
American
masters.
In
her
studio,
a
remodeled
barn
in
Wallingford,
Conn.,
Stodelle
did
more
than
teach
her
pupils
steps.
She
taught
them
to
appreciate
choreography,
and
that
"the
human
experience
is
the
protagonist
of
the
work,"
as
Miller
says.
"Fold
Here,"
which
has
been
co‐commissioned
by
the
Peak
Performances
series
in
Montclair,
and
by
the
Dancers’
Workshop
in
Jackson
Hole,
Wyo.,
takes
a
Raymond
Carver
story
as
its
jumping‐off
place.
Yet
the
dance
does
not
follow
the
plot
of
Carver’s
story
"Cathedral,"
a
poignant
tale
of
blindness,
faith
and
the
power
of
the
imagination.
"Fold
Here"
does
not
even
offer
a
straightforward
narrative.
Miller
says
she
has
adapted
Carver’s
themes
to
her
own
ends.
In
the
dance’s
oblique
scenario
a
man
and
woman
who
might
be
husband
and
wife
appear
surrounded
by
their
furniture
and
other
material
possessions.
Gradually,
however,
this
recognizable
world
dissolves.
As
cardboard
boxes
replace
the
furniture
and
the
setting
becomes
abstract,
the
couple’s
relationship
is
reduced
to
its
spiritual
essence.
"We
watch
them
set
up
their
apartment,
to
see
if
that
domestic
structure
can
give
them
happiness,"
Miller
says.
"And
when
it
doesn’t,
we
watch
how
the
space
slowly
changes."
Miller
says
she
hopes
to
capture
an
elusive
element
of
human
life
and
make
it
visible
(photographer
Eadweard
Muybridge’s
stop‐motion
photographs
were
another
inspiration
for
this
dance).
The
choreographer
says
this
is
the
first
time
she
has
challenged
herself
to
work
extensively
with
props.
"Fold
Here"
has
a
set
designed
by
Jon
Bausor,
with
video
and
still
projections
by
Tal
Rosner.
The
elaborate,
hour‐long
production
also
features
a
commissioned
score
by
Andrzej
Przybytkowski,
which
Miller
says
she
uses
as
a
backdrop.
"It
doesn’t
matter
if
you
tell
stories
or
you
don’t
tell
stories,"
she
says.
"It
matters
if
you’re
courageous,
and
if
you’re
taking
big
risks."
Robert
Johnson
Gallim
Dance
Where:
Alexander
Kasser
Theater,
Montclair
State
University,
1
Normal
Ave.,
Montclair
When:
Thursday
and
Friday
at
7:30
p.m.,
Saturday
at
8
p.m.
Sunday
at
3
p.m.
How
much:
$20;
call
(973)
655‐5112
or
visit
peakperfs.org.
Review: Gallim Dance Co.
Article by: CAROLINE PALMER , Special to the Star Tribune
Updated: October 13, 2013
“Gallim dancers moved as if their bodies were molded for
the work in a brilliant performance.”
Some dance works generate a sort of crackling energy that transcends the boundaries of the stage. Andrea Miller’s
“Blush” falls into this category. On Saturday night the New York­based choreographer’s altogether brilliant troupe Gallim
Dance performed this pulse­quickening full­evening 2009 piece at The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University in
partnership with Northrop for the “Women of Substance” series.
Miller has made two contributions to the Zenon Dance Company repertory, so local audiences may be familiar with her
uninhibited kinetic approach inspired in part by a three­year stint with Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva Dance Company in
Israel.
But Miller is very much her own artist, one who draws upon a variety of movement sources to build a specific genre. In
“Blush,” for example, everything from organic Butoh to punk rock ferocity, Naharin’s rowdy GAGA style, a mutated form
of Greco­Roman wrestling and even hints of a Bob Fosse Broadway jazz strut come into play. It’s a testament to
Miller’s strong vision that these diverse influences not only coexist but also actively inform one another.
The Gallim members were all terrific in “Blush” on Saturday. Caroline Fermin, Francesca Romo, Emily Terndrup, Austin
Tyson, Dan Walczak and Daniel Staaf danced as if their bodies were specially molded for the work. They hunched and
crawled, their skin mottled with the same white powder used by Butoh performers.
But when the dancers weren’t drawn to the ground they leapt and grappled and vibrated as if someone plugged their
limbs into an electrical socket. Time and again these dancers found equal grace in both the beautiful and the ugly,
generously allowing every aspect of their humanity to be revealed over the course of the physically demanding work.
“Blush” is a stark piece, set against a black background in a space defined by white strips of tape.It isn’t based on any
sort of literal concept — there’s no overt focus on embarrassment or shame. In fact this piece reveals the very opposite.
Sometimes people blush with intense exertion or unchecked joy. They do so when called upon to act with courage by
drawing upon an unknown power from within. Miller and her dancers show what is possible when humans push
themselves to an emotional and kinetic brink. They dare to be brave and we all watch with wonder.
!
!
WWW.GALLIMDANCE.COM | 304 W 75TH ST 6B NEW YORK NY 10023 | INFO@GALLIMDANCE.COM
WWW.GALLIMDANCE.COM | 304 W 75TH ST 6B WWW.GALLIMDANCE.COM | 304 W 75TH ST 6B NEW YORK
NY 10023 | INFO@GALLIMDANCE.COM
NEW YORK NY 10023 | INFO@GALLIMDANCE.COM
!
WWW.!!
!
Left to right: Arika Yamada,
Francesca Romo, Troy Ogilvie,
Dan Walczak (seated), Jonathan
Royse Windham, and Caroline
Fermin of Gallim Dance
WWW.GALLIMDANCE.COM | 304 W 75TH ST 6B WWW.GALLIMDANCE.COM | 304 W 75TH ST 6B NEW YORK
NY 10023 | INFO@GALLIMDANCE.COM
26
A P R I L 2 0 11
NEW YORK NY 10023 | INFO@GALLIMDANCE.COM
!"#$#%%&$'&$!"#$%&'"(")*#%($)&")*+,-'.%/$/)01'2"*',&$'#$0-,+'3'*%/(!
!
Choreographer
Andrea Miller
pushes the
boundaries with
her company,
Gallim Dance.
BY SUSAN REITER
It was the kind of honest, exhilarated audience response that is palpable and undeniable. For two nights in September, the most
vocal reaction during a Fall for Dance opening program that included works by Twyla
Tharp and Merce Cunningham went to
Andrea Miller’s Gallim Dance, performing
excerpts from her 2008 work I Can See
Myself in Your Pupil. Amid this A-list program, Miller’s piece clearly electrified the
packed City Center crowd, many of whom
had been unaware of her work before.
Chances are they haven’t forgotten
Miller’s name since witnessing her dancers
tear into her juicy, eccentric, impassioned
movement with demonic abandon, accompanied by an infectious international music
compilation. Women in pouffy party dresses of hot pink and chartreuse, and men
looking like they’d started out dapper but
had long left elegance behind, erupted into
spasmodic fits. They flung their limbs,
twisting and wrapping their bodies in unexpected, almost dangerous ways, suggesting a
desperate need to connect.
The Fall for Dance performances
brought Miller’s work to its largest New
York audience yet. A month before, she had
graduated from the intimate 75-seat Joyce
SoHo, where both Pupil (2008) and Blush
(2009) had premiered, to a shared evening at
Photographed by Matthew Karas
DANCE MAGAZINE
the Joyce, where she unveiled Wonderland,
her most complex and powerful work yet. A
dozen feral, androgynous dancers in sleek
gray costumes flirted with danger and distortion in this exploration of the animalistic
instinct to follow the pack—and the price of
breaking out from the crowd. The 45-minute
dance exemplified Miller’s gift for mining her
dancers’ individual abilities and extending
their potential, as well as her underlying
structural savvy and sensational instinct for
raw yet sophisticated ensemble movement.
“It’s like investigating places you didn’t
think your body could go,” says Francesca
Romo, the dancer who has been with Miller
the longest and is Gallim’s associate director. “We always try to work in a safe environment, but not putting limits on your
body, and not restricting yourself in your
mind. Taking that lock off your mind really
releases a lot of things in your body. It’s
been interesting to find what the body can
do, and how far it can go.”
At just 29, Miller has an authoritative
choreographic voice, one that draws on
influences as diverse as Ohad Naharin, contemporary visual art, and current political
developments. Her manner may be demure,
but that shouldn’t fool anyone; she is a
focused, disciplined, and prolific choreographer. The Salt Lake City native, daughter of
27
!"#$#%%&$'&$!"#$%&'"(")*#%($)&")*+,-'.%/$/)01'2"*',&$'#$0-,+'3'*%/(!
Miller’s
! fashion sense is as
quirky as her movement. The
outfit is by Sportmax, shoes
are by Nicole.
a Spanish mother and a Jewish-American
father, trained in Humphrey-Weidman
technique with Ernestine Stodelle and
Gail Corbin after the family moved to
Connecticut when she was 9. She graduated from The Juilliard School in 2004,
having begun choreographing there and
making artistic connections that would
resonate further down the line.
“Juilliard was the perfect place for
me. It opened my world up to so many
other dancers—seeing that what they valued was so different from the things that
were important in my dance school,”
Miller said last January following a
rehearsal at Manhattan’s sleek and spacious Jewish Community Center, where
her company is in residence three days a
week. She arrived with her strong modern background, which included some
Graham and Limón, but had not studied
much ballet. “I had to catch up to everybody else, who had been doing ballet for
most of their lives. I really wanted it, but
I got bad grades. It was a big struggle.”
Gallim dancer Caroline Fermin was a
Juilliard freshman when Miller was a sen-
28
ior, and recalls her as being very focused
on choreography even then. “I remember
her work being very dramatically loaded,
but well crafted. She already had a strong
voice,” Fermin says, adding that her
freshman classmates who were cast in
Miller’s works “were a little scared of
Andrea. They’d come back from rehearsal
and say, ‘She’s so intense, so wild.’ ”
Miller’s future direction was sealed
when Ohad Naharin staged his Minus 7
for Juilliard during her sophomore year. “I
knew from the first rehearsal that I wanted to work with him,” she recalled.
“When he comes forward with his ideas,
it can really resonate. For a lot of people—and for myself, for sure—they
change your brain. It made me feel like
the things I wanted to believe about
dance could actually exist, and were truths
for him too.” She delved deeper into his
process when he selected her and others
from Juilliard to participate in presentations at the Guggenheim Museum and
Kaye Playhouse. Upon graduation, she
headed for Tel Aviv to join his Batsheva
Ensemble, Batsheva’s junior company.
A P R I L 2 0 11
!"#$#%%&$'&$!"#$%&'"(")*#%($)&")*+,-'.%/$/)01'2"*',&$'#$0-,+'3'*%/(!
During two years with the group,
she originated a role in George and
Zalman, a work for five women; performed in Kamuyot; and was one of the
Ensemble members who joined the main
company for Telophaza during the 2006
Lincoln Center Festival. “When I was
there, the two companies were mixing
quite a bit,” Miller said. She observed
company dynamics closely, storing away
information for future use. “There’s a
certain level of authority that doesn’t
exist there. You’re all on the same team.
At Batsheva, everyone was available to
teach and to learn from each other. And
I try to do that here.”
When Miller arrived at Batsheva,
classes in Gaga, the movement technique
Naharin has developed, were already a
daily regimen for both companies. “I
think what most impacted me while I
was there was Gaga—the way of accessing movement and physicality, of using
your intelligence to access sensations and
different textures. Gaga demands/invites
people to teach themselves how to investigate their imaginations. It has the end
!
appearance of looking like you’re moving
from your instincts, but truthfully it’s
becoming like a sophisticated animal—
who knows where your bones are, what’s
around them and behind them—and
looking completely aware and focused.”
A few opportunities to choreograph
were available through annual workshops.
formances at White Bird Uncaged in
Portland, Oregon, and Gallim’s first
overseas tour, to Spain. Romo, reflecting
on all that has been happening, likens it
to “an avalanche, running quicker down
the mountain, gathering momentum.”
This year began with Miller creating
a new half-hour work, For Glenn Gould,
“I feel like every piece I make
kills part of me.” —Andrea Miller
“I made horrible pieces while I was
there,” she laughingly acknowledges. By
2006, it became clear to her that she wanted to play more with choreography, and
by mutual agreement she left. She considered checking out the Brussels dance
scene. But while taking a Doug Varone
workshop that fall in New York, she met
Romo, who had recently arrived from
England after performing with Richard
Alston’s company, and they immediately
gravitated towards each other. “I watched
her for a week; I was too afraid to talk to
her, I was so blown away by her dancing,”
Miller said. “When I met Fran, it was like
a direct translation of my ideas into physical existence—a perfect match. So I didn’t
want to go anywhere after meeting her; I
just wanted to start dancing with her.”
Romo, trained at the Royal Ballet
School and attuned to Alston’s cool,
Cunningham-influenced style, was
immediately fascinated by Miller’s movement explorations. “It was such a switch
from what I was doing before. I think
my mind and body just eased into it. At
the beginning with Andrea, I was like a
sponge—absorbing. I had never done any
of this stuff—pushing my body to different places. And it was exciting.”
They co-founded Gallim (Hebrew
for “waves”), gathered a few more
dancers, and soon Miller’s work was getting seen around town. It started small—
a choreographic workshop here, a showcase there. Snow, a female quartet, was
presented as part of a Joyce SoHo program of works by a dozen choreographers, and led to the 2008 engagement
there where Pupil had its premiere. New
pieces poured forth at an intense pace
during 2009 and 2010—Miller was commissioned by Ballet Hispanico, Juilliard’s
dance division, Ballet Bern—and Gallim
performed at Jacob’s Pillow and Spoleto
Festival USA. Late last year brought per-
30
A P R I L 2 0 11
!"#$#%%&$'&$!"#$%&'"(")*#%($)&")*+,-'.%/$/)01'2"*',&$'#$0-,+'3'*%/(!
commissioned by Dance Theater
Workshop. Splitting her early January
days between rehearsals for that and
preparing Blush and Wonderland
excerpts for APAP showings, Miller
clearly felt time pressure as the premiere
neared. The touring schedule late last
year had left her less time than she ideally
wanted. “This is the first time that I feel
like my creative process has been sacrificed because of our performance schedule,” she remarked.
In the new dance, inspired by the
artistic distance Gould traveled between
his two vastly different recordings of
Bach’s Goldberg Variations, she was aiming for “a piece about self-awareness, and
not necessarily as much about my fingerprint as a choreographer; more about the
dancers I’m working with—who are
they, and what kind of choices they
make.” Fermin called it “a vehicle
through which we’re investigating different aspects of ourselves. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever done before.”
This spring finds Gallim in residence
at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, where
Miller will develop a new work that
involves very contemporary and high-tech
music. “Every new piece Andrea embarks
on is a new adventure,” Romo observes.
For Miller, who stopped dancing a
few years ago, the choreographic process
is as intense as the resulting works tend
to be. “I always feel like every piece I
make kills part of me, destroys something—and then it also invigorates something else. It feels like a reincarnation—
like a very visceral, violent experience for
my body, to create.”
Susan Reiter writes about dance for New
York Press, L.A. Times, and Playbill.
ON THE WEB: See behind-the-scenes video of
Gallim photo shoot as well as performance footage.
Review: Gallim Dance
March 1, 2012
By Nancy Wozny
Lush, fierce dancing punctuated with thrilling bouts of kinetic wit characterized Gallim Dance’s
performance as the highlight event of the Jewish Community Center’s annual winter festival
known as Dance Month.
Andrea Miller, the choreographic force behind Gallim Dance, is on a meteoric career rise.
Thanks to Maxine Silberstein’s forward-thinking vision, she was able to secure the company
before they became too famous.
The evening launched with “Mama Call,” described as a collection of works that addresses
Miller’s Sephardic heritage, displacement, and recovering a sense of home.
It’s here that Miller struts her highly textured phrasing, keen skill for syncopated rhythms, nearcollision spacing, and breathtakingly risky partnering. There’s so much to see and take in, it’s
hard to blink for fear you might miss something. Miller’s style alternates between free-wheeling,
space piercing movement to more intimate phrases that take unexpected swerves.
Francesca Romo and Dan Walczak proved masters of nuance in the their riveting duet. “Mama
Call” concludes with a hauntingly delicate duet between Arika Yamada and Mario Bermudez Gil,
as he spins Yamada hovering over “home.”
The mood lightened considerably with “Pupil Suite,” a selection of excerpts from Miller’s “I Can
See Myself in Your Pupil,” set to the raucous music of Balkan Beat Box and Bellini. Troy Ogilivie
showed off her comedic flare as she tied herself into knots. Romo and Jonathan Royse Windham
rocked the house in their athletic duet. Jammed full of zany movement invention, “Pupil Suite”
never once fell into the generic quirky zone.
Both pieces packed ample punch, demonstrating Miller and her troupe’s fearless command of
space, quality and intention. The other fine dancers who contributed to one memorable evening
of dance included Tal Adler Arieli and Caroline Fermin.
THE THEATER LOOP
Gallim Dance a sharp vision,
full of vigor
Gallim Dance at the Dance Center of Columbia College. (Photo by Stephen Schreiber / October 12, 2012)
By Sid Smith, Special to the Tribune
11:22 a.m. CDT, October 12, 2012
Several years old, parts of it developed here in Chicago, "Blush" plays as the case
of a young choreographer grabbing her art and relating it to the sensibilities of
her generation in ways that ultimately appeal to a lot of the rest of us.
Andrea Miller, founder of New York-based Gallim Dance, performing through
Saturday at the Dance Center of Columbia College, is gifted at what she does, and
what she does is tricky to sum up. Her movement is highly theatrical and
sometimes Gothic, though to call it dance theater evokes an earlier era of less
abstraction than Miller employs--she doesn't rely on stage elements so much as
her own fevered imagination. She's a kind of neo-expressionist given to tortured
gestures and Dickensian deformity, blended with a fetching dose of classical form
refracted through a contemporary lens. She tosses in hints of Goth fashion and
myth that seem timely, but the great joy of "Blush" is that it's timeless, too.
Set in a black space somewhat resembling a giant boxing ring, it begins with a
startling, mesmerizing solo, darkly lit and intensely performed by Michael
Nameishi, gnarled, anguished and contorted. That danger and grotesque imagery
color the piece, the six dancers often copping slightly threatened and threatening
stances with each other. But Miller hardly relies on that tone alone--over and
over, she crafts eye-catching, original movement that vaguely suggests everything
from ballet to punk alienation, while often engineering startling constructs and
sequences all her own. An up and down hand movement turning the body into
impromptu scales is one motif, while another are the mangled hands that often
rest at the hips.
One duet between two men is a marvel of complexity, an interaction that sways
from homoeroticism to combat, only to evolve into its own mini-drama of love,
support, dependency, domination and escape--leaving Nameishi on stage alone
again, as if a prequel to the opening.
Miller, a sharp director, boasts both compression and vigor in delivering a sharp,
60-minute stage production, down to and including the sly, eclectic score
blending Chopin, Arvo Part and, especially, the pop group Wolf Parade, who
inspire a spell of raucous, very real and exceedingly welcome joy.
When: 8 p.m. through Saturday
Where: Dance Center of Columbia College, 1306 S. Michigan Ave.
Price: $26-$30; 312-369-8330 or colum.edu/dancecenter
Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune
Margaret Fuhrer
Associate editor, Dance Spirit and Pointe magazines
Posted: 06/12/2012
Uphill Battles: Gallim Dance in Sit, Kneel, Stand
Putting on a dance show is a Sisyphean task. No matter what heights the dancers reach
onstage one night, they begin the next night's performance at the bottom of the hill,
doomed to re-create the work from scratch. It's a grueling job. It's also a heroic one.
Dancers understand its futility and commit themselves to it anyway. They enjoy the
process of the climb as much as the brief moment at the summit.
"One must imagine Sisyphus happy," Albert Camus says in his essay The Myth of
Sisyphus. Andrea Miller quotes the line in the program for Sit, Kneel, Stand, which her
company, Gallim Dance, performed last weekend at the Joyce Theater. The hour-long
piece investigates humanity's Sisyphean struggle -- the simple challenge of getting up
every day and doing things, knowing that we'll just repeat the process tomorrow -- and a
dancer's (and choreographer's) particular version of that grind. It's lighter and sweeter
than most of Miller's earlier works, leavened generously with humor. At times it's a tad
literal. (While there's no boulder, there is a tangled pile of chairs to be pushed around,
disassembled and reassembled.) But Miller has a talent for creating characters, people -or almost-people -- we empathize with. And her seven extraordinary dancers bring them
to life in full color.
Most colorful of all are the characters who might be proxies for Miller. In one of the
work's funniest scenes, Arika Yamada slinks through a languorous series of extensions
atop a line of chairs, while Jonathan Royse Windham flutters frantically around her,
muttering to himself, shoulders hunched -- a cartoon buffoon. He desperately wants to
provide the next chair Yamada will step on, but must go through an agonizing series of
small compulsive gestures to get that chair to her, taking the longest possible route to
every destination. Eventually Yamada happens to choose his chair, sending Windham into
a paroxysm of glee. But he's not happy for long: She wanders away again, and he twitches
tragically after her. Later Francesca Romo drags another dancer onto the stage,
attempting to puppet his unresponsive body into various shapes, demonstrating crazily in
her attempts to make him understand. "Pleeease?" she begs. "Like this? Elbow, knee?
Elbow, knee?" When Yamada enters, Romo begins a heartbreaking, hilarious effort to get
the two dancers to partner each other. She arranges the man's arms around Yamada;
Yamada slips out of them, ignoring Romo's wheedling cry of "Oh... madam? Madam!"
Miller knows the battle Windham and Romo are fighting. They're trying to communicate
the incommunicable, to capture something that can't be captured.
Gallim Dance in Sit, Kneel, Stand. Photo by Christopher Duggan.
These episodes alternate with dancier sections that feel bland in comparison. It's all
appealing choreography, complex, physical and ever-changing. It's just not distinctive.
Miller is far more sure of her theatrical personality than her choreographic one. I'm also
sad that the score -- a grab bag of nature sounds, electronic noise and short excerpts from
works by Beethoven and Ravel -- is relegated to the background. Miller can be a
gorgeously musical choreographer. Here music sets the mood and tone, but it's not the
impetus for any movement. The best parts actually happen in silence.
But these are quibbles. Sit, Kneel, Stand is sophisticated and touching; you think along
with it as well as laugh along with it. And it ends on a beautiful high. As the lights dim, the
cast begins a game of tag, panting and laughing. After all that pushing, they have a
moment of peace at the top of the hill, before their boulders roll down again.
-------A former dancer and choreographer, Margaret Fuhrer is an associate editor at "Dance
Spirit" and "Pointe" magazines.
ON THE POWER OF COMPETITION
The performance by New York’s Gallim Dance at the Pfalzbau Theatre Festival
was a sensation. For a whole hour the company chased around the stage in a
breathtaking frenzy: all together, one above all…their exuberant dynamics yet
precise organisation created an unstoppable pull into a physically sublime and
artistically and expressively danced “Wonderland”.
“Wonderland” visualises how the individual behaves within the group and how
the group works as a whole. With great confidence, Andrea Miller accesses
traditional configurations and movement patterns, assembles them in new
ways, transforms them and reinterprets them. Such as jumps and positions from
classical ballet, ritualised forms from ethnic dance, figurations from show
business and circus. Everything is seamlessly interwoven, wild and beautiful,
sometimes also aggressive or ironic, always highly aesthetic. The
choreographer’s capacity to create new motion sequences is practically
inexhaustible. She avoids the conventional instruments of group choreography:
movement and counter-movement, the proportion of the group and the
dropping out of the individual, subgroups such as Solo, Duo, Trio, Quartet.
The Solo, that is, the individual, is exchangeable and not actually detached
from the group. Mostly it’s catapulted out of the group, instantly pulled back,
and replaced by another. The infrequent Duos are combative. Only one shows
intimacy between man and woman. It’s a climax of short duration that cuts to
the quick and is a hint at how society struggles to unite couples permanently. It
is dominated, like the Wonderland group, by the power of competition. As a
texture stirred from the inside, it continually reforms. “Wonderland” is a
thrilling piece of dance. Its brilliant technique is dazzling; its existential severity
is profoundly unsettling.
Heike Marx, Rheinpfalz 12.2.2013