Performances

March 5, 2013

CHWITADAE 

March 26, 2013

SHEETAL GANDHI in BAHU-BETI-BIWI: Daughter-in-Law, Daughter, Wife

A vibrant, acute, and richly rhythmic solo performance encompassing dance, music, and stories, Bahu-Beti-Biwi explores the traditional roles of Indian women, focusing on the daughter-in-law (bahu), daughter (beti), and wife (biwi). In a tour de force, acclaimed triple-threat performer Sheetal Gandhi depicts these iconic characters, revealing the complex tensions between freedom and compromise, desire and longing, duty and love. With a performance style rooted in the storytelling traditions and rhythmic punctuations of Kathak dance, Gandhi mines the text and subtext of centuries old North Indian women’s songs to re-imagine the lives of women in the past and her present. Bahu-Beti-Biwi features an original score from composer Joe Trapanese, whose works have been praised by the New York Times as “precise and evocative [with] wistful, ringing melodies.”

Flier » 

April 9, 2013

PERCASIAN: Asian Percussion Concert with Christopher Graham, Center for Dance, and Department of Asian and Asian American Studies

Sounds and ideas from Asian cultures–ranging from gamelan to the I Ching, from the qanun to the Zen koan–are central to twentieth-century percussion repertoire. Experience and explore these cross-cultural connections in an evening of Asian and Asian-inspired compositions from John Cage, Tan Dun, and James Tenney, performed by Christopher Graham of the Stony Brook University Music Department, and other members of New York's acclaimed Iktus Percussion. Adding to the rhythmic and timbral feast offered by Iktus is newly commissioned choreography by Malini Srinivasan of the Stony Brook University Department of Asian American Studies and Alison Russell and Joya Powell of the Stony Brook Center for Dance and Somatic Learning.

Christopher Graham
Chris Graham is a freelance percussionist living and working in the Tri-State area. He has performed with a variety of groups at Columbia University, Princeton University, Queens College, William Paterson, Tenri Cultural Center, Issue Project Room, The Knitting Factory, New York Fringe Festival, Pasic, Symphony Space, and Carnegie Hall. He has worked and performed with notable groups such as Newband, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and Mantra Percussion Group and is a co-founding member of the Iktus Percussion Quartet. Previous teachers include Raymond DesRoches, Dr. Dominic Donato, Tom Kolor, Joseph Pereira, and Eduardo Leandro. Website »

Snow In June
Choreographed by Alison Armbruster-Russell, Joya Powell, and the Dancers
Danced by The Stony Brook Performance Dance Ensemble 2013: Kayla Cannon, Jenna Cerbone, Rebecca Cokeley, Gabriella Franza, Michelle Fuller, Clairangelique Guirand, Jennifer Jeng, Anna Koskol, Tayla Littles, Timothy Magalona, Nerricka Nalundasan, Scott Petersen, Melony Rhoden, Francesca Thomas, Regina Zambrano

The Center for Dance, Movement and Somatic Learning presents the Performance Dance Ensemble every spring semester at Stony Brook University. Founded in 1994 by dance faculty member Randy Thomas, the Center's Performance Dance Ensemble joins other dance performance collaborations offering undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to perform. Some of these sites include:  NYC ; East Hampton at Guild Hall; Mexico City at the Teatro de la Danza; Washington DC at the Annual Human Rights Festival; Almada, Portugal at the Dance and Community Festival; Connecticut College's Gala ACDF concert; numerous American College Dance Festivals; the Staller Center for the Arts and on-site community performances throughout Long Island since 1987. Most recently, SBU dance minors performed at the "Cognitive Futures of the Humanities" International Conference in Bangor, Wales in early April, 2013.

During the past three years, Alison Armburster-Russell (2011, 2013) and Joya Powell (2012) have shared the direction of the Center's Performance Dance Ensemble. They have both built a strong and powerful ensemble for students to engage in the creation of exciting artistic work. Together, they have taught students the delightful range of performance and process, built from various styles of practice and application. This collaboration with Musician Christopher Graham, the Wang Center and the current PDE cast continues their work together. Congratulations to all!

Presented with the Stony Brook University Music Department and Center for Dance and Somatic Learning.

 

 Fifth Annual Asian American and
Pacific Islander Heritage Month

MAY 11, 2013 Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, 12-6 pm FREE Admission; 4:30 pm, Multi-Cultural Program & Presentation of Awards to Distinguished Individuals

The Suffolk County Asian American Advisory Board, Suffolk County Office of Minority Affairs, Wellbrook Foundation, Inc., Charles B. Wang Center and co-sponsored by Holiday Inn Express Stony Brook,  Brookhaven National Laboratory, Center for Chinese Learning at Stony Brook, Suffolk Community College Asian Cultural Club and Mathematics Club, Girl Scouts of Suffolk County, Street Wise Pro Talk Show -WGBB 1240 AM Radio cordially invites you to the Fifth Annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration, established to promote cultural awareness of the Asian Pacific American communities and celebrate the diversity of Long Island’s population, will be held at Stony Brook's Charles B. Wang Center.

Featured will be multi-cultural booth display, arts and crafts, costumes, dance, featured presentations, vendor and corporate displays and workshops.  There will be multi-cultural dance and musical performance, open theater, Presentation of Awards for distinguished individuals and Awarding Ceremonies for the Social Harmony contest.  

FREE admission from 12-6 PM at the main lobby.  At 1:30 pm we will featuring AAAB Youth Orchestra and multi-cultural featured presentation at 4:30 pm admission $15 entrance.  The Wang Center Theater seating is limited, First Come, First Serve. Multi-cultural performance tickets are sold at the entrance, please visit our website at www.scaaab.org   

Media contact:    

Jim Liu, Publicity Chair                     (631) 675-6504        jingxliu@yahoo.com