Commissioned by and produced in the Goethe-Institut Boston
Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.
Prompted by the Goethe Institut Boston to imagine a coming together again post COVID-19, Boston Dance Theater co-director Jessie Jeanne Stinnett teams up with videographer Ernesto Galan, costume and set designer Zane Kealey, composer Grant Stinnett, and the dance artists of Boston Dance Theater to envision a dance created for film. Inspired by documentary interviews sourced from 1989 Germany following the collapse of the Berlin wall, an event which sparked a complex process of healing and reunification, Stinnett and her collaborators explore connections between those stories and their experiences of the ongoing effects of the pandemic.
BOSTON DANCE THEATER
Under the co-artistic direction of Jessie Jeanne Stinnett and award winning, Dutch-Israeli, choreographer Itzik Galili, Boston Dance Theater (BDT) is Boston’s first contemporary dance repertory company with international ties at the leadership level. With a commitment to presenting works of socio-political relevance, BDT matches the talents of Boston-based dancers with those of acclaimed global choreographers, broadening the scope of contemporary dance practice and performance in our city. BDT is a registered 501(c)3 tax-exempt charity as of 2019.
CHOREOGRAPHER
JESSIE JEANNE STINNETT received a BFA in Dance Performance from The Boston Conservatory and an MFA in Creative Practice: Dance Professional Pathway from Trinity Laban Conservatoire, in conjunction with Independent Dance/Siobhan Davies Dance. She has performed for the Metropolitan Opera, Tate Britain, Prometheus Dance, Anna Myer and Dancers, Rebecca Rice, The Boston Baroque Opera, and Bard College’s SummerScape Festival. Jessie’s choreographic work has been described by Hannah Chanatry of WBUR as “conceptually driven performance that unpacks the complexities of being female, and pushes the academic boundaries of choreography.” Her work has been sustained in part by grants from The Boston Foundation with support from The Barr Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, and Fidelity Charitable.
DANCERS
ISVEL BELLO RODRIGUEZ received his Bachelor’s Degree in Contemporary Dance from University of Arts (ISA) and is a graduate from The National School of Modern and Afro Cuban Folklore (ENA), both located in Havana, Cuba. Isvel was a former dancer at Compañía Danza Espiral and MalPaso Dance Company from Cuba among other independent and experimental projects. His solo performance “Tokonoma” has been awarded with the Critic's Award in the National Competition of Solamente Solos and with the Ramiro Guerra Award, in Cuba. He has worked with choreographers such as Liliam Padrón, Osnel Delgado Relinde Moors, Trey McItyre, Ronal K. Brown, Rosi Herrera and has performed at several dance festivals in Netherlands, Mexico, Ecuador, France, Venezuela, Martinique, Canada, USA, as well as The Joyce Theater (NYC) and Ted Shawn Theater at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (Massachusetts).
OLIVIA COOMBS began her training in ballet under the direction of Jessica Wilson at Ballet Workshop of New England. Olivia then studied at the Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program for two years where she performed in works by Alonzo King, Maurya Kerr, Sidra Bell, Iratxe Ansa, Gregory Dawson, Kara Davis, and Erik Wagner. Olivia apprenticed with Dawson Wallace Dance Project in Denver for one season. She has also performed work by Ismael Ivo as part of a special research project at ImpulsTanz in Vienna, Austria and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
KHRIS HENRY is a native of Boston and is a BFA graduate of the University of Hartford at the Hartt School. He began his training at the Origination Cultural Arts Center and Boston Arts Academy. While a student, Khris has had experience with choreographers Nathan Trice, Catherine Young, Desmond Richardson, Dwight Rhoden, Norbert De La Cruz, Brain Arias, and Yoshito Sakuraba. After guesting with BDT in 2019 and early 2020, Khris joins BDT this season as a Core Member.
VIDEOGRAPHER
ERNESTO GALAN is a highly sought after Boston-based videographer and filmmaker. He is a regular collaborator with Boston Ballet and Boston Center for the Arts.
COSTUME & SET DESIGNER
ZANE KEALEY is a Boston based costume designer currently pursuing an MFA at Boston University. Her thesis work involves structuring the vocabulary used to describe fabric in motion. She has interned with Jacob’s Pillow and has upcoming work at Wheelock Family Theater in Boston and at The Theater Lab in DC.
COMPOSER
GRANT STINNETT is a pioneer of electronic, symphonic, singer-songwriter, and organically sampled music styles. His music transcends genre to create completely new and revolutionary sounds and aural landscapes. Grant's most recent work has been described as "vocally driven electro-symphonic journeys" as well as a "combination of Sting's vocal style with Hans Zimmer's orchestral grandeur, smashed together with Skrillex's aggressive cutting edge sound design, and a dash of Slap Bass to spark the fire"
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