Saturday, April 3, 2010, 4-6 pm
@ P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Ave (at the intersection of 46th Ave)
Long Island City, NY 11101
Saturday Sessions is hosted by Jaishri Abichandani (SAWCC) and features an afternoon of music and dance with DJ Ashu Rai from Sholay Productions, Ammr Vandal from the Parul Shah Dance Company, Samita Sinha and Julia Ulehula, and Bedstuy Ewe.
Experience the space between notes and movements, a dialogue without words between musicians and dancers. An afternoon of musical reflections and slow turns presented on Christian Marclays vinyl-record floor installation, 2822 Records (PS1), and in conjunction with the exhibition 100 Years (version #2, ps1, nov 2009).
Featured artists:
Ashu Rai is a resident DJ and co-founder of Sholay Events’ “Desilicious,” NYC’s monthly and queer South Asian dance party since March 2002. She has performed at many of New York’s premiere venues, including Limelight, Pachita, Club Shelter, Pyramid, Highline Ballroom, BB King’s and Rebel. She has also taken the Desilicious party and her signature mix of Bollywood-House music to Amsterdam’s Paradiso for the city’s India Festival and around the East Coast.
Ammr Vandal has been a member of the Parul Shah Dance Company for the last eight years.
The Parul Shah Dance Company is a talented group of dancers and musicians creating original works through the medium of Kathak, a North Indian classical dance. Based in New York, the company builds upon Kathak’s mythological storytelling roots to explore bold, contemporary narratives. Parul’s choreography reflects her own perspective as a highly trained Kathak dancer born and raised within New York’s hybrid community. The company’s signature works illustrate the paradoxical intensity and grace of Kathak movements, while preserving the emotive quality unique to Indian classical dance forms. The dance company has performed at prestigious venues such as Jacob’s Pillow, Fall for Dance at City Center, Lincoln Center, Summer Stage, Central Park, among others.
Samita Sinha is a vocalist, composer and sound artist who combines a contemporary vocabulary with her grounding in classical Hindustani vocal music to explore the possibilities of her voice. She has performed her solo and ensemble work at venues such as The Kitchen, Roulette, Le Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts, Issue Project Room, Blue Note, UC Berkeley, and Macalaster College, toured internationally with poet Sekou Sundiata’s music-theater work the 51st (dream) state, and performs as an improvising vocal instrument with jazz groups including Marc Cary’s FOCUS Trio and Sunny Jain Collective. Current projects include a solo performance, a duo collaboration with Marc Cary (a Hindustani/jazz/electronic/groove heavy project called ANATOMY), and a commission to compose a score for Fiona Templeton’s The Medead. She has received awards from NYSCA, Queens Council on the Arts, Fulbright Foundation, Urban Artists Initiative, and Millay Colony for the Arts.
Bedstuy Ewe is a percussion ensemble that performs traditional West African pieces of the Anlo-Ewe speaking people of Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Some pieces are several centuries old and due to strong beliefs and informal oral education, many pieces have kept their traditional integrity. The members of the ensemble are all disciples of master Ewe drummer Alfred Kwashie Ladzekpo whom they learned the music from. Bedstuy Ewe are based in Brooklyn.
> Amino Belyamani: Lead Drum
> Qasim Naqvi, Andrew Munsey: Supporting Drums and Shaker
> Ochion Jewell: Bell