May 10-11 | 8pm | $0-$40
Agora Artists' premier Split Bill presents 2nd Best Dance Company (New York) and connectivetissuedance (Dallas) in an intimate evening of physical storytelling.
This concert is presented in collaboration w/ Arts Mission Oak Cliff.
Saturday, May 11 | 11am-12:30pm
Contemporary and Stuff w/ Ryan Yamauchi & Courtney Barth
This class will warm dancers up through the energetic exploration of falling, spiraling, softening and expanding. We will use text and our voices in relation to our dancing bodies, and as a means of accessing uncensored improvisation. Class will end with a section of 2nd Best repertory that will be shared and reimagined in real time.
$15 | 📍 Arts Mission Oak Cliff | 18+
photo by Ingrid Holmquist
RED
This hour-long work walks the fuzzy, shag-carpet line between dance performance and narrative play, leaning into both text and movement to tell an abstracted version of a well known fictional story of survival: Little Red Riding Hood. By cycling through distinct characters, either true to the original story or entirely new, 2nd Best Dance Company will explore how we confront the many-faced “big bads” that lurk on our personal wooded paths. In RED (choreographed, written, and directed by Hannah Garner), four performers brave the unknown by way of spectacle, sentimentality, glamour, mortality, and answering the phone."
ABOUT 2nd Best
Founded in 2016, 2nd Best Dance Company creates, performs, and teaches physically rigorous, sometimes virtuosic, almost always slapstick dance-plays. Pursuing these interests our work has gone past the traditional dance proscenium to include collaborations in sculpture, animation, theater, film, and site-specific works. Past commissions have included Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Gibney Dance, GALLIM x CreateArt, Kizuna Dance, SUNY Purchase, Bard College, the Hartt School, among others. 2nd Best was a Resident Artist of Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (2022), GALLIM’s ‘Moving Women Residency’ (2021), Atlantic Center for the Arts (2021), and Triskelion Arts (2019). Recent credits include a new commission by Gibney, an upcoming dance film, movement direction for Snail Mail band (‘Valentine’ European tour, 2022), a continuous open class at Gibney Dance Center (NYC), and a tour of ‘RED’ to Montana and Washington. 2nd Best is currently on tour again (duh) from New York City and thrilled to be sharing RED with new audiences in Oklahoma and Texas.
Led by Hannah Garner, 2nd Best continues to seek multidisciplinary partnerships, explore limits of the body, and find solace in the humor of being human.
photo by Corey Haynes
collecting who we’ve been, sharing what we are
This piece incorporates memories of movement, discussions, and past relations between us. Experimentation of how we can let our collection of memories, past and present, influence our relationship and the physical within the work. Recollecting of where we have been together, where we are now, and how we have constantly been intertwined. connectivetissuedance will premiere this original duet with New York-based guest artist, Maggie Joy.
ABOUT connectivetissuedance
connectivetissuedance (CTD) is a project based dance company based in Dallas,TX led by Alonzo Blanco and Dean Husted. Both artists earned BFAs from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (2017/2019). The duo's choreographic methods are influenced by their extensive time as touring artists with Sidra Bell Dance New York and Bill T. Jones Arnie Zane Dance Company. Blanco and Husted curate physical narratives enhanced by multi-media and design elements. Durational practice, physical rigor, world-building, and curiosity fuel connectivetissue's creative process.
Guest Artist: Maggie Joy (she/her) is a freelance dancer living in New York. A Dallas, TX native, Maggie is an honors graduate of Booker T Washington HSPVA. She received a BFA in Dance from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and studied internationally at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. Maggie is currently performing with Dual Rivet and cullen+them. She has presented work at DiMenna Center, the Olmsted Theater, and Arts on Site in a self-produced and curated performance. In addition to guest teaching at various universities and programs, Maggie is an Adjunct Professor at Adelphi University and on faculty at the School at Peridance.