the modern dance awareness society

dance dance everywhere

Category Archives: art, dance performance, installation/intervention, street performance, dance market research, public art


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picnic and dance

tmdas in collaboration with Regina Nejman & Company presents 

Neighbors 5

created and performed despina and regina

music live and recorded julian rozzell

Continuing a long term exploration of site specific works, Despina Stamos and Regina Nejman, have created a series of concise duets inspired by their own shared proximity and distance. 

Ms. Stamos, a dancer of Greek heritage, and Ms. Nejman who grew up in Brazil, negotiate a common ground as they explore the various spaces that have brought them together.

Join them as they create an energetic conversation  through movement that will be performed both live and online. 

As these are lunchtime performances, please feel free to bring your lunch.

June 28+29th

12:30-1:30pm

Anita’s way 134 west 42nd 

the modern dance awareness society is a collaborative, improvisational, site-specific dance project begun in 1998 by despina sophia stamos and wen-shuan yang. To date, tmdas has produced 28 works that have been performed in spaces outside of dance venues. tmdas invites dance colleagues to work collaboratively on short term site projects. Many thanks to Regina Nejman of Regina Nejman & Company for co-creating this season’s Neighbors 5, Chashama for their support and Julian Rozzell for his music.

bios

Regina Nejman grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is based in NYC where she has been creating her own choreography since 1993 and created Regina Nejman & Company in 1997. Her work has been presented by LaMama Moves, Jacob’s Pillow, Dixon Place, Joyce SoHo, Symphony Space, The 2002 and 2005 New York International Fringe Festival (where Regina received the Outstanding Choreography Award for the premiere of The Velocity of Things), DTW, Danspace Project, Merce Cunningham Studio, Dança em Foco, and other venues. Her Company toured to Brazil in 2006 and 2007 (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo) where the company received standing ovations. She has received support from The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Greenwall Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council/Creative Engagement 2020 and MCAF; Meet the Composer; space grants from 92nd StY, Queens Museum of Art/ToPaz, Abrons Arts, Joyce Theater Artist-in-Residence and DTW Outer/Space. Regina received commissions from Princeton University Program in Theater and Dance twice, New Jersey City University, The Yard, and a Dixon Place Mondo Cane Commission. In 2012, Regina created Architecture Runway through a space grant @chashama’s ‘Anita’s Way’. Regina taught dance at Princeton University, Wesleyan University, Harvard Summer Dance, NYU Common Hour Class, LaGuardia Performing Arts High School among others. Regina is a Teaching Artist at CAE and a per diem dance teacher at NYCDOE. Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times described Regina as “a modern dance choreographer with a piquant imagination and visual sense to match” and “teeming with life”. Deborah Jowitt of the Village Voice described “the intriguing dance sequences” and Tobi Tobias mentioned “postmodern tactics can benefit from an infusion of the color, pulse, and spirit Nejman absorbed in her native Brazil. Regina received her BA from SUNY/ Empire State College and her MFA in Dance at Hunter College. In 2020, Regina dived into filmmaking, inspired by the work of Maia Deren, creating Pandemic which premiered at Dixon Place TV on November of  the same year. In April 2022, Regina premiered her thesis project Slaying the Dragon/ dances created during the time of the pandemic combining both mediums in an immersive gallery-type walk-through performance at Hunter College.

website: https://reginanejman.com/

blog: https://reginanejmancompany.blogspot.com

facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/reginanejmancompany

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reginanejman/

Despina Sophia Stamos is a dancer/choreographer/ Pilates instructor (https://tmdas.org/somaflux/) living/teaching/making in NYC since 1989. Her work has been presented at such venues as Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, PS1 and in Brazil, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Puerto Rico and Italy.

From 2006- present, Stamos collaborates with refugees and local dancers in Athens, Greece in a project titled passTRESpass. Since passTRESpass 2016 , we have annually produced a transnational dance dialogue performed with and for refugees in New York City and Athens, live-streamed at Anita’s Way in the bustling heart of Times Square.

Stamos performed with Chen and Dancers, Hikari Baba Dancers, Anahi Galante, Fly by Night, the National Caravan Theater, Felix Ruckert, Simone Forti, Zendora Dance Theater, Aspasia Yaga, Wendy Osserman Dance Theater, Blum Dance Theater, Marija Krtolica, Vanessa Walters, the Daisy Spurs, Time Lapse Dance, Abigail Levine, Daria Fain, Mikerline Dance Company and the Missile Dick Chicks.

In 2019, Stamos co-created “Displaced Herstories and the Persistence of Bodily Memory” with Marija Krtolica and Florence Benichou, a dance inquiry into hysteria and performance.

She continues to dance with the Hungry March Band and the Stamos is founding member of the modern dance awareness society (tmdas.org) and a cofounder of Chashama.

fb: https://www.facebook.com/tmdas.org/

insta:https://www.instagram.com/despinasophia/

Julian Rozzell is a resident of New York City, residing in Brooklyn, NY. An accomplished actor, he recently performed in Shakespeare in the Park’s production of Merry Wives at The Public Theater. Most recently he was in the TONY nominated Skin of our Teeth at Lincoln Center. Julian enjoys performing and is proud to be the “soundsmith” in NEIGHBORS.

insta:https://www.instagram.com/jroz/


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performing again

Despina Sophia Stamos arrived in the US in 1970 from a quiet, farming village, on an island in Greece. To live between two cultures, the conservative traditional Greek, and the perceived “freedoms” of America, is to teeter between the two.

tiptoeing a tightrope

straddling an ocean

Two distinct experiences of understanding the world, often in conflict.

push and pull-a foot in each

balancing on both but as they diverge

tumbling into the liminal space between.

From the falls, into the seam, the magic of discovery

between here and here…

performed by Despina Sophia Stamos and guest artists Bianca Falco and Marija Krtolica

soundtrack compilation DSS

set collaboration with cast

The work is an exploration of the space and tensions betwixt two distinct cultures coexisting in one body. Performers will source memory, kinetic impulse and the performance site to create short interactive vignettes throughout the duration. Interactions upon consent only.

Set to the compiled soundscores of passTRESpass, a decade long project, with displaced people in Athens, Greece.

A dance performance situated in the liminal space between two concrete caverns

Anita’s Way

thursday and friday 6/3+4

5-630 pm

Athens 2016

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After a tumultuous beginning, passTRESpassAthens 2016 culminated in a wonderful workshop and performance of proximity as part of Outopias, an exhibition curated by Thanos Vovolis at the Benaki museum.

OutTopias, Benaki Museum Athens, Greece
September 24, 2016
passTRESpass Athens https://tmdas.org/passtrespass-athens/
The purpose of the work is to pose questions regarding how we negotiate boundaries on the different levels; human relationships, physical space, and cultural practices. Participants explore movement vocabulary with an emphasis on excavating and physicalizing particular psycho-geographies – personal stories and communal histories. As we are confronted with each other’s cultures, how can we successfully co-exist and flourish? What do we carry with us? What do we leave behind and how does that effect our environment?
As kinetic organisms moving about on a planet shrinking from population density and technological advances, we are colliding faster and harder; realities intersecting, borders shift. As the ground shifts, how do we make sense of where the pieces fall? How do we choose to rearrange them?
Thanks to Embros Theater, City Plaza and Benaki Museum for their support.
Despina Sophia Stamos
Panagiotis Andronikidis
Irene Siegel
sound and editing Maria Juliana Byck
camera Leon Taylor

Stay tuned for part 2, dis*place*ment, November 19 & 20 at 2pm at Anita’s Way, Times Square. dis*place*ment is a transcontinental dance conversation with the artists from City Plaza. All tickets proceeds will go to the cast in Athens.

upcoming finale

upcoming finale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Landing in Athens with Irene Siegel on August 24, we are immediately informed that an attack had occurred in a neighboring refugee center. Two gas canisters and a Molotov cocktail were thrown into the ground floor at 5:30 am, by fascist nationalists, causing a fire that burned the storage room. Luckily, no one was hurt.

img_0942 Many families were moved to the City Plaza Hotel, presently home to 400 people half of which are children. This event was frightening and further traumatizing to the people many who were there because their own worlds were crushed by bombs, DASH fanatics, smugglers and harrowing journeys.

 

 

City Plaza

Irene immediately translated for Arabic speaking  Syrian Kurds.

She was extremely invaluable providing much needed communication bridge. Slowly, we connected with various groups within the center.

 

 

 

 

Mohammad and our unaccompanied minors.

Mohammad and our unaccompanied minors.

 

 

Mohammad, a 14 year old traveling with his 16 year old brother Basir shows interest in our dance proposal. He brings his friends. They are beautiful performers. They are children who have made it to safety.

 

girls

 

girlsyoga and girls

 

 

 

 

 

 

For cultural reasons, the girls and women do not participate. We dance with them at the women’s gathering every Tuesday and Thursday from 7-10pm. Yoga for women at 7 all week. Joined by 16 yr old Alishba, whose grandfather was killed by the Taliban in Pakistan, Nisreen and Evine, two Syrian sisters, 16 and 14, Slava 13, Raida 10, occasionally Lava 14.

 

Nur's journey

Nur’s journey

Nur, a young mother from Homs, shows us her neighborhood on Google maps, satellite view. She traces with her fingers the different areas around her home belonging to different warring factions. She zooms into the bombed building remains a few doors from her own family’s home, while cradling her infant.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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passTRESpass 2015: Sharing our experience in Athens

passTRESpass rehearsal 2015

passTRESpass rehearsal 2015

We have just returned from Greece, and as you might imagine, the situation this year provided inevitable challenges to mounting passTRESpass. Despite the hurdles, we are pleased overall with the impact our project continues to have on refugees in Athens. We had 5 American and 1 Greek facilitator this year. Irene Siegel, Lorene Bouboushian, and Karl Cooney were new to the project in 2015. Their dance, language, and logistical skills were a huge asset to our work. Despina Stamos, Panagiotis Andronikidis, and Jill Woodward returned to the project.

A steady influx of refugees from Syria and other places continued to arrive daily in the midst of one of the worst European financial meltdowns since World War II. We touched many more people but not always in the lengthy workshop process that we’ve done in previous years. We gathered a group of participants who joined us as we created performances in various plazas, known as platias, in Athens.

Lorene dances with the children of Lavrio Refugee Camp

Lorene dances with the children of Lavrio Refugee Camp

We performed at 8 locations where immigrants tend to gather, including one refugee camp just outside the city. This compound was a temporary home to hundreds of recently arrived Syrians, including around 150 children. When our dance was finished we were delighted to have the children and adults share some of their own movement games with us.

Because Irene speaks Arabic and French, we were able to communicate better with refugees than ever before. Lorene’s background as a children’s dance educator was immensely helpful as we found ourselves interacting more and more often with families and children. In all of these locations, we incorporated the audience members into our dances, and invited them to join us at the next place.

A few refugees and Greek community members had the time and wherewithal to join us in building a performance piece. We were scheduled to present work at the Athens Anti-Racist festival, but the festival was cancelled because it was a direct conflict with the last minute unprecedented referendum announced by the government. Instead, we joined with a local theater group and presented a 30 minute dance piece for an audience at a cultural center the night before the referendum.

Platia Viktoria with the recently arrived Afghan immigrants

Platia Viktoria with the recently arrived Afghan immigrants

We are all improvisers in our movement work, and we drew on those skills to adapt our project and improvise logistically everyday throughout the three week workshop period in Athens. Even people we touched only briefly told us how much our presence meant to them, and we are extremely gratified that we were able to have those interactions.

We look forward to sharing our more of work through video in progress, and meanwhile if you’re interested you can see our final performance below.


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Proudly announcing our 2015 Benefit Gala

We are beyond thrilled to invite you to our upcoming Benefit Gala on May 11, 2015. Enjoy amazing views from the 48th floor of the Bank of America building. Our Athens collaborators will join us for a transcontinental live-stream dance performance, sharing a taste of what passTRESpass will offer this summer.

Tickets are $50, click to buy!

Can’t come but want to support? Donate here!

Tax-deductible sponsor packages are also available – contact despinasophia at hotmail.com.

Gala invite

 

 


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news from Athens

Lots of good news from Athens!
Panagiotis Andronikidis has been making connections with the Immigrants Social Center in Exarhia, Athens as well as Piso Thrania. They have facilitated showing the  2009  documentary to potential participants and to date, we have 30 people interested in participating. The workshop will take place in Exarhia this year. We will be performing the final work at the Anti-Racist Festival.

Jill Woodward has created a trailer for last year’s project that we are just beginning to share online. We would love to hear your impressions of the work!

Thank-you for the support we have received for the project thus far, though we are still quite a distance from our goal. Please look for our fundraising letter in the mail! Your support has been vital to the project.

Sincerely,

Despina Stamos

To donate by check:

Please make all checks payable to The Field.

Write Despina Stamos / mdas in the memo line.

Donors should mail checks directly to:

Despina Stamos

400 West 43rd St. 38-c

NYC, NY 10036

To donate by credit card:

Go to www.thefield.org/t-sponsoranartist.aspx

Enter Despina Stamos / modern dance awareness society

Click “Contribute” and follow the prompts

the modern dance awareness society is a Sponsored Artist of The Field, a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization serving the New York City performing arts community. Contributions made to The Field and earmarked for Despina Stamos/mdas are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information about The Field contact: The Field, 161 6th Avenue, New York NY 10013, (212)691-6969, fax: (212)255-2053,www.thefield.org. A copy of The Field’s latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from The Field or from the Office of the Attorney General, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.

 

 DSCN5537


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Updates 2013

Lots to report! passTRESpass 2013 in development!

May 20- June 10, 2013

The situation in Greece has intensified for our participants. It is both daunting and critical to continue our work there. Last year, we were challenged by the loss of the Kypseli Agora. That challenge led us to a different work approach- we rehearsed across from the Acropolis and in various local sites as well as creating a stage piece shown in two locations.

This year, Panagiotis Andronikidis, director of ELANADISTIKANOUME, our co-facilitator is coordinating an effort to extend our outreach. Participants from previous years that continue creating with  ELANADISTIKANOUME will be assisting this year’s production by leading some of the exercises  in rehearsals with the new participants!

Stay tuned for more details!

Also, somaphrase 2013 will take place in Andros island July 1 through 7.

Come join us!!!!!

Our first local call for participation

Ανοιχτή πρόσκληση για συμμετοχή στο πρότζεκτ
PASStresPASS 2013Οι ομάδες χορού ELANADISTIKANOUME με έδρα την Αθήνα και The Modern Dance Awareness Society (TMDAS) με έδρα την Νέα Υόρκη, προσκαλούν για συμμετοχή μετανάστες και ντόπιους που θα τους ενδιέφερε να λάβουν μέρος στην διαδικασία δημιουργίας παράστασης με θέμα την μετανάστευση, τα σύνορα και τα δικαιώματα.
Το κύριο μέρος του πρότζεκτ θα πραγματοποιηθεί από 20 Μαίου εώς 10 Ιουνίου, με καθημερινές συναντήσεις στην Αθήνα. Τον συντονισμό του πρότζεκτ έχουν οι Despina Sophia Stamos (TΜDAS) και Παναγιώτης Ανδρονικίδης (ELANADISTIKANOUME).
Καλούμε ομάδες μεταναστών, μαθητές και δασκάλους να πλαισιώσουν το πρότζεκτ συμμετέχοντας με τον τρόπο που μπορούν. Επίσης μουσικούς, χορευτές, ηθοποιούς, video artists και φωτογράφους που θα ήθελαν να συμμετέχουν.
Η παράσταση θα παρουσιαστεί στο Αντιρατσιστικό Φεστιβάλ και σε άλλα φεστιβάλ και εκδηλώσες στην Αθήνα και στην επαρχία.
Η προτοιμασία του πρότζεκτ έχει ήδη ξεκινήσει από την ομάδα ELANADISTIKANOUME με σταθερές συναντήσεις μια ή δύο φορές τη βδομαδα, τα Σαββατοκύριακα.
Για συμμετοχή: Παναγιώτης 6940004843(SMS). neropan@gmail.comΠληροφορίες και Υλικό από προηγούμενα κοινά πρότζεκτ
Despina Sophia Stamos (TΜDAS)
https://tmdas.org/
Παναγιώτης Ανδρονικίδης (ELANADISTIKANOUME)
http://panandronikidis.blogspot.gr/
Τrailer της ταινίας που γυρίστηκε κατα την προετοιμασία του πρότζεκτ PASStresPASS 2009 από την Jill Woodward :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2161FBk7SU0
Παράσταση PASStresPASS 2009 (Αγορά Κυψέλης)
1ο μέρος: http://youtu.be/WtcOS3q8NVg
2ο μέρος: http://youtu.be/9Vt-Uu4BhhE
3ο μέρος: http://youtu.be/3OLUmW-la7E
PASStresPASS 2007: http://youtu.be/WJCwdZ5uzCg
Proximity 2010: 15o Αντιρατσιστικό Φεστιβάλ
http://elanadistikanoume.blogspot.gr/2010/07/proximity-performance-15.html
ELANADISTIKANOUME:http://elanadistikanoume.blogspot.gr/
passTRESpass 2012(κριτική)
PASStresPASS Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PassTRESpass-Athens/90902723244?ref=hl


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update Summer 2012

Preparations continue for  our two residencies in Greece.

In Andros, we are planning to interview and offer on-site improvisations to elders of the island. We have been offered a van so that the workshop will have transportation to villages and coastlines that are difficult to reach, giving us the opportunity to really bring the work to the audiences that really never see it. In exchange, the village elders will tell us stories of life on the island. This will be a part of the source material that we will use, along with the environment to make our final performance on the 31st of August.

Athens, on the other hand, is going through tumultuous times. There are reports of anti-immigrant violence. One of our former participants was attacked this past year.  There is , sadly, much despair about what the future holds.Even long time residents are struggling with the new laws. Our plan is to create a safe, creative environment for the participating immigrants.

7/30/2012

Inspiring…sigh. Last week Panagioti set up another rehearsal/site workshop at Micro Kavouri Beach. We were joined by Abdul, Sedat, Vicky, Patricia and three documentarian collaborators, Tristan, Damien and Elena. The site, a popular beach near Bouliaghmeni has a small island with the ruins of a fort about 300 feet from the shore. This was the space for our investigation.

 

It was breathtaking to see Abdul transformed into a snake/crocodile, Sedat softening into a rock wall, Patricia exploring crab-ness as Vicky became the sea. The experience was truly beautiful! Thank-you Panagioti for making it happen! The healing aspects of working in nature excite me. I will be posting Damien’s photos!