2007 OOTE Festival
nut/cracked
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www.thebanggroup.com
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DAVID PARKER AND THE BANG GROUP (pictured above and to the right) is a rhythm-based theatrical dance troupe serving Parker's intelligent fascination with the percussive possibilities of the dancing body. The work is wide-rangingly anarchic and subversive but based on an abiding love of formalism. Parker's brainy, funny dances specialize in percussive accompaniment formed by the dancing itself and thereby provide audiences an immediate physical/emotional connection to the work. The companyŐs recent work ranges from Nut/Cracked, a 21st century-neo-vaudeville version of The Nutcracker to ParkerŐs notorious duet for two velcro-clad men called Slapstuck. The Bang Group engages diverse audiences both internationally and at home with work that refuses to be categorized but takes off entirely on its own leaving audiences in stitches.
David Parker and The Bang Group have been presented in New York City by Dance Theater Workshop in five full-evening productions including a back-by-popular-demand engagement of Nut/Cracked in 2004 which was both a critical and popular success in an 11 performance run. TBG will return to DTW with a new evening-length work entitled Hour Upon The Stage in May of 2007. TBG has also been presented in two full-evening productions by Danspace Project at Saint MarkŐs Church. It appears regularly as part of DTWŐs Family Matters series and at DanceNow NYC at JoeŐs Pub at the Public Theater including in a special six-performance run of Nut/Cracked in 2005. The company recently celebrated its tenth anniversary season at The Thalia at Symphony Space. It has also appeared in New York at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Joyce Soho, World Financial Center's Arts and Events series, Town Hall, Symphony Space Dance Sampler and at numerous other venues.
Nut/Cracked has proven to be a break-out work for TBG. It was originally co-commissioned by DTW and the Carlo Felice Opera House in Genoa, Italy and received its world premiere in Genoa in November 2003 and its US premiere at DTW in January 2004. The creation of Nut/Cracked was also supported with a creative-residency at DTW and through Summer Stages Dance in Concord, Mass. It has since enjoyed a return engagement at DTW in 2004, a special run at JoeŐs Pub at the Public Theater in New York in 2005, and has appeared in full or in part on Family Matters at DTW, at the World Financial CenterŐs Winter Garden, BostonŐs First Night Festival, Concord Summer Stages Dance in both 2004 and 2006, Two Rivers Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, The New Haven Educational Center for the Arts in Connecticut and in the inaugural season of the Barnard/DTW project in November 2005. Modeled after the DTW production of Nut/Cracked which included several professional guest artists of renown as well as children from Ellen Robbins's dance classes (which take place at DTW), TBG goes to local communities and brings professionals and student dancers into each production as guest artists as we are doing in collaboration with Theater Offensive here in Boston.
Internationally TBG has been presented at numerous European festivals including The Holland Dance Festival (The Hague), International Biennale de Charleroi Danses (Belgium), Confrontations Festival (Prague), Dance Week (Zagreb), Divadelna Nitra (Slovakia), Belluard Bollwerk (Switzerland), Tanzesprache (Vienna), Nervi Estate Festival (Genoa), Ballett Umbria (Perugia), Invito Alla Danza (Rome), Tanzmesse NRW (Essen), Dutch Touch (Paris), OT301 (Amsterdam) and the Monaco Danse Forum (Monte Carlo). Domestic touring highlights include appearances in Philadelphia at the Annenberg Center (Dance Affiliates), Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Kaatsbaan Center in Tivoli, New York, Sushi in San Diego, Clarice Smith PAC at the University of Maryland, Boston First Night Festival, Fire Island Festival, JacobŐs Pillow Inside-Out Festival and the American Dance FestivalŐs Young Choreographers and Composers program.
The Bang Group has been generously supported by the Jerome Robbins Foundation (twice), Greenwall Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts (Build Grant 2001-2002), Arts International (three times), Fund for Mutual Understanding, Netherland-America Foundation (four times), 2wice Foundation, Hale Matthews Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Heathcote Foundation, Amy Sue Rosen Foundation, and various commissioning initiatives through Dance Theater Workshop and Danspace Project as well as by several private donors.
The Bang Group has served on the faculty at Concord Summer Stages dance each summer since 2000 and will return again this upcoming summer offering performances and mentoring for young choreographers. They have also taught at Pro Danza Italia in Tuscany for three summers and regularly conduct master classes in technique, composition, repertory and administration during residencies at colleges and universities throughout the United States and Europe. The Bang Group is also the first dance company in residence at the West End Theater in Manhattan where Parker hosts and curates work by a broad range of choreographers and companies from New York City and beyond in twice-yearly seasons since 2003.
Upcoming performances include new works for The Juilliard School in December, The Krannert Center in Champaign, IL in February and the premier of Hour Upon The Stage to be presented by Dance Theater Workshop in May. For more information, go to www.thebanggroup.com.
Photo Credit: Nicholas Burnham