CO-PRESENTS: MARCO + GIORDANA PROGRAM
FROM THE PRODUCERS —
Welcome to the first iteration of CO-PRESENTS: a new residency + performance platform that we have been working on for over a year and are so very proud of. We heard a community need for opportunities to present longer, more fully supported work, and this is our first try at answering that call to action. Through CO-PRESENTS, two previously featured CO- artists are granted a 40 hour rehearsal residency with competitive hourly rehearsal wages and two fully produced, split-bill performances - giving our growing CO- family the opportunity to expand upon or deepen work they may have started while in our orbit.
You may remember marco from SHOW1, activating the entry of the former 10 Degrees Arts + Events space in Georgetown, elegantly and abruptly draping their long, pink limbs over and around the railing for the duration of the four hour evening. More recently, you may recall Giordana from SHOW5; also activating a small space durationally while draped in pink (!!!) and later revealing a shimmery, easeful, mysterious dance. While the works they're sharing tonight are not necessarily continuations of SHOWS 1 & 5, we hope you can see or imagine how their respective artistries have unfolded to take them from then to now.
It takes a village to produce experiences like these, and we are so lucky you’re here in our corner, helping us provide platforms and visibility to individual Seattle dance artists. Thank you for witnessing and we hope you enjoy.
xo,
E + M <3
ps ~ mark your calendars for SHOW7 on June 7th :)
LAND acknowledgment
We acknowledge that we are on the unceded ancestral lands of the Duwamish people, the original stewards of this land. We are guests here. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish people that are still here, continuing to honor and bring to light their ancient heritage. Donate to the Duwamish tribe here.
PROGRAM NOTES
*this program includes bright lighting.
*please silence your cell phones.
to upada—it falls
created & performed by Giordana Falzone in collaboration with Agata Jedrzejczak
full credits here
sweetwaterdances
direction: marco farroni leonardo
movement: Akoiya Harris, Nia-Amina Minor, marco farroni leonardo
full credits here.
THE ARTISTS
Giordana Falzone is a freelance dance artist, improviser, and choreographer. As a performer, she has worked on performances and film with zoe | juniper, Alfonso Cervera, Maia Melene Durfee, Michele Miller, Charles Slender-White, and Robert Campbell among others. She holds a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts and has studied further with the José Limón Company, David Zambrano, and Countertechnique. Interested in moments that are alive and ever changeable, she seeks to explore the melody of the body and mind through physical rigor, imagination, duration, and multiplicity. She has presented work at the Seattle Center, the Cornish Screendance Festival, CO-’s SHOW5, and 12 Minutes Max.
Agata Jędrzejczak (dancer, performer, choreographer) - graduate of National Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow (AST) at the Department of Dance Theatre in Bytom. She participated in educational programs at Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology, and the Arts in Tel Aviv and completed the dance program with the José Limón Dance Company in New York City. Since 2014, she has participated in interdisciplinary projects, involving collaboration with artists from various fields of performing and visual arts. In her work, she focuses on education through dance.
marco farroni leonardo is a movement & performance artist, from Bonao, Dominican Republic & based in Seattle and New York. They hold a BFA in dance from The University of the Arts. Their work engages with themes and ideas around home, the body as archive, the Diaspora and memory. Artistic collaborations include nia love, dani tirrell, Nia-Amina Minor, Amanda Morgan, and Donald Byrd amongst others. They have presented work in various venues in Seattle including Velocity Dance Center, Wa Na Wari, Base Arts Space, 10 Degrees Arts, The School of Spectrum Dance Theater, The Aids Memorial Pathway, and 12th Ave Arts. marco is part of Wa Na Wari’s Seattle Black Spacial History Institute second cohort.
Akoiya Harris is a movement artist based in Seattle Washington. Her work uses a queer Black gaze to explore ways communal and personal stories can be interwoven into dance works. She has collected oral histories on behalf of Wa Na Waris Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute, and Black Collectivity. Akoiya has also participated in the Black Embodiments Studio Arts Writing Incubator. As a choreographer, she has shown work at the Seattle Art Museum, Wa Na Wari, On The Boards, Friends of the Waterfront, Velocity Dance Center, The Moore Theater, and more. Akoiya is a founding member of Black Collectivity, a group that explores memory and culture through embodied responses. Following a matriarchal lineage of teachers, Akoiya is a dance educator working with youth at Ailey Camp and Pacific Northwest Ballet. She has also performed with Spectrum Dance Theater, Will Rawls, Zoe|Juniper, Third Rail Projects, The Congregation, and SoloMagic.
Nia-Amina Minor is a movement artist, choreographer, curator, and educator originally from Los Angeles. Her work focuses on the body and what it carries using physical and archival research to explore memory and history. She approaches her practice as an imaginative space grounded in rhythm where improvisation, Black vernacular movement, and choreography meet. Nia-Amina has received regional and national commissions for her choreographic and film work and has a working background as a performer and dramaturg. She is co-founder of Black Collectivity, a collaborative project that explores and celebrates memory and culture through embodied responses. As a performer Nia-Amina has worked with artists such as Zoe Juniper, Will Rawls, Alice Gosti, dani tirrell and Amy O’Neal. From 2016-2021 she was a Company Artist at Spectrum Dance Theater under the direction of Donald Byrd and in 2021 she was recognized as Dance Magazine's 25 Artists to Watch. Nia-Amina has also provided dramaturgical assistance to choreographers Jade Solomon-Curtis (Keeper of Sadness 2023) and Donald Byrd (Grief 2022). As a curator, she has developed programming at On the Boards, Wa Na Wari, Velocity Dance Center and Base. From 2014-2016, she was a co-founder and curator of Los Angeles based collective, No)one Art House. As an Educator, she has taught, guest lectured, and been a visiting artist at CalArts, University of Washington, Saddleback College, Cypress College, and UC Irvine. Nia-Amina received her MFA in Dance from UC Irvine and a BA from Stanford University and is based in Seattle.
The World Is Yours, Always [known as TWIYA] is a multimedia artist, musician, social entrepreneur and storyteller from Seattle, WA. Growing up between Seattle and Baltimore, she began her journey as a solo music artist in 2017. Her soulful vibes have graced the air waves of local station KEXP-FM Seattle and rocked crowds at local Seattle hot spots. Coupled with her chill demeanor and velvety vocal arrangements, this artist has a way of commanding the energy around her, and the world is truly hers (and yours) during every show. The singer-songwriter debuted her first studio project XChange in August 2018, building a steadily growing fan base that she lovingly calls, "The Afronauts". She appears as a central character in the documentary, Anatomy of Wings, which won best documentary feature at the BLACK FEMME SUPREMACY FESTIVAL in 2020. TWIYA is currently writing for her first episodic screenwriting project.
CREW & Partnerships
CO-PRODUCERS | Emma Lawes & Maya Tacon
LIGHTING DESIGN | Trevor Cushman
LIGHTING CONSULTANT | Amiya Brown
DJ / SOUND OPERATOR | Calico
HOUSE MANAGER | Jordan Macintosh-Hougham
DESIGN | Ryan Hunt
BAR | Wide Eyed Wines
THANK YOU
THANK YOU to Whim W’Him Contemporary Dance Center for hosting our rehearsal residency for this project and donating 50 hours of free/subsidized studio space to CO-PRESENTS artists.
THANK YOU to River, our hosts for the performance, for providing accessible rental rates for creative endeavors to flourish.
THANK YOU to our friends at Velocity Dance Center, YAW Theater, Seattle University, University of Washington and Dance Church for lending your equipment and helping us transform an unconventional space into a place where dance can exist.
THANK YOU to tonight’s helping hands: Benjamin Mueller, Nikki Flores, Alissa Pegram, Robert Reinert, Hilary Grumman, Symone Sanz, Libby Watson, and Andy McShea.
THANK YOU to our community of donors and supporters whose contributions make events like this possible.
