Above and Beyond Dance and Kate Weare Co.
to Take the Stage at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus

- Dance companies to perform at the Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts -

Brooklyn, N.Y. – The Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts at Long Island University is the setting for a pair of widely diverse dance companies – Above and Beyond Dance and Kate Weare Co. – to showcase their dance styles.

The Kumble Theater is located at the University’s Brooklyn Campus on the corner of DeKalb and Flatbush avenues in Downtown Brooklyn.

Above and Beyond Dance will present "Seeking" on Friday, February 29, at 8 p.m., Saturday, March 1, at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 2, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20; $10, students. For more information, visit www.aboveandbeyonddance.com.

This innovative performance melds modern dance and tango with stilt, acrobatic and aerial work. Artistic Director Chriselle Tidrick founded Above and Beyond Dance to explore the untapped potential in the fusion of dance and circus arts. Members include the stilt-dancing duo, Friends in High Places (Mark Mindek & Coralie Romanyshyn); Martin Løfsnes, former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Company; Tomomi Imai, whose dance work has been presented from New York to Tokyo; dancer/aerialist Emily Smyth Vartanian; Luis Gabriel Zaragoza, former dancer with the Martha Graham Ensemble; and tango dancers Anabella Lenzu, Todd Carroll and Pawel Cheda.

The Kate Weare Co. will perform on Wednesday, March 5, at noon at the Kumble Theater. This event, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Campus Dance Department’s “Afternoons at LIU” series.

A young choreographer described in The New York Times as helping to define the next generation of dance makers, Weare was awarded a 2006/07 Joyce Soho Residency. In May 2007, the Kate Weare Co. won the final round of The A.W.A.R.D. Show! (a series in which the audience votes on the best modern dance). Weare was also recently nominated for a 2008 Alpert Award in the Arts.

Weare received her B.F.A. in Dance from CalArts in 1994 and has since presented work in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Belgrade and Vienna. She has twice been commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop, and has presented work at Joyce Soho, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, The Kitchen, The 92nd St. Y, The Puffin Room, Judson Church and La Mama.

The Dance Department’s “Afternoons at LIU” concerts are made possible by grants from Target Stores, the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and through the Office of Provost Gale Stevens Haynes. For more information, call (718) 488-3355 or the theater box office at (718) 488-1624 or visit www.kumbletheater.org.

Posted: February 7, 2008

Media contact: (718) 488-1015