DANCERS & COLLABORATORS SHOW ME REAL SUPPORT THE COMPANY WORKSHOPS
COMPANY MISSION
CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER is committed to creating and producing original dance theater projects that merge multiple art forms through artistic collaboration, as well as fostering the aspirations and talent of young performers committed to pursuing a life in the arts by facilitating educational workshops and mentoring opportunities.
A note from Artistic Director, Clare Cook
With great excitement for all that is coming and appreciation for what has brought me to this moment, I proudly announce the establishment of my own company, CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER, and the company’s first full-length production, Show Me Real, to premiere in New York City in March 2012. CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER is committed to creating and producing original dance theater projects that merge multiple art forms through artistic collaboration, as well as fostering the aspirations and talent of young performers committed to pursuing a life in the arts by facilitating educational workshops and mentoring opportunities.
In 2006, I moved to New York City from Louisiana to pursue my Masters of Fine Arts in Dance at New York University. I left Louisiana with a deep-rooted love for dance performance and an insatiable curiosity about how dance existed in a larger context – it’s historical and social relevance as well as the sheer size and scope of dance opportunity located in one place, NYC. Since 2006, I have had many fortunate opportunities as a choreographer and dancer in this great city. My choreography has been part of productions at the New York Musical Theater Festival, Ars Nova's ANT Fest, HERE Arts Center, Fringe NYC, Berkshire Fringe Festival, Planet Connections Festival (Best Choreography Award), the Bohemian National Hall and JCC in Manhattan as well as productions at NYU, Columbia University, and The New School for Drama. As a dancer, I’ve performed on notable stages such as Dance Theater Workshop, St. Mark's Church, Joyce Soho, La Mama, Duo Theater, and Webster Hall. Throughout all of these experiences, the desire to conceive, create, and produce my own work became stronger, and the network of talented artists and collaborators with which to make this reality expanded as well. Thus begins, CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER. --- Clare Cook, January 2012
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Conceived and choreographed by Clare Cook
Original Music and Lyrics by Amy Burgess
Dramatic Text and Lyrics by Gena Oppenheim
Lighting Design by Mike Inwood
Costume Design by Liam O'Brien
Dancers - Lori Byargeon, Halley Cianfarini, Clare Cook, Merrill Grant, Julia Kelly, Courtney Pruden
Clare Cook Dance Theater presents SHOW ME REAL, an evening-length dance theater piece that traces the experience of aspiring artists from the glamour and grace of the 1920s’ Ziegfeld Follies culture to the concert dance stage of 2012. Whether it’s leaving her small town to move to the Big Apple or learning those tricky tap steps as a child while twirling a baton in a sequined tutu, some things have not changed much. SHOW ME REAL views the lives of three real female modern dancers through the lens of a past era combining contemporary dance, original song, narrative, and video projection, revealing how much past is in our present.
FRIDAY MARCH 23 and SATURDAY MARCH 24
8:00pm
TADA! Theater - 15 W. 28th St, NYC (map here)
$20 - general admission
$15 - students / seniors
GET TICKETS HERE!
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Show Me Real rehearsal, Jan. 2012Lori Byargeon – Performer
Lori Byargeon holds an MFA in Dance from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she performed pieces by Deborah Jowitt, Camille A. Brown, and Kay Cummings as well as choreographed her own work. Byargeon, a native of Louisiana, graduated from Louisiana State University with a B.A. in French and a minor in dance. While in Louisiana she danced with Twin City Ballet Company and Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, and also choreographed and performed for the LSU Dance Ensemble. After working as company manager for David Dorman Dance, she now serves as office manager for Design Brooklyn. Lori also serves on the Dance/NYC Junior Committee. Lori dances with colectivodoszeta / carlos a. cruz velázquez, Clare Cook Dance Theater, and Choreo Theatro Company.
Halley Cianfarini - Performer
Halley Cianfarini is thrilled to be a part of Show Me Real! Originally hailing from the Berkshires, she completed her BA, Theatre/Dance, at Muhlenberg College. She most recently performed in Annie at Millbrook Playhouse (Sophie/Annette/Boylan/Usherette), Cats at Ocean City Theatre Company (Rumpleteazer), and at Dance New Amsterdam and Ballet Arts in Alden LaPaglia's Where the Wild Thangs Are. Original cast: Angelina Ballerina; The Musical (swing) in NYC; film debut: Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock; performed with Berkshire Theatre Festival, toured nationally with Chamber Theatre Productions, taught musical theater and improve with Barrington Stage Company.
Merrill Grant – Performer
Merrill Grant has sung Cinderella at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall with the Little Orchestra Society. She has also sung at the Kennedy Center and various concerts for the New York Ziegfeld Society around New York. Merrill's solo cabaret act on Shirley Temple and the leading ladies around her at Twentieth Century Fox in the 1930's received rave reviews at The Metropolitan Room in New York, and the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland where she won a "Best of Fest" award. She enjoys working with composers and has originated lead roles in staged readings of over 20 new musicals in New York as well as roles at both the New York Fringe and New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF). Lead roles in regional productions include: West Side Story, The Fantasticks, Guys and Dolls, Chorus Line, Wizard of Oz, The Mikado as well as operetta concerts in Austria. Merrill has studied at Butler University, University of California Berkeley, the American Institute of Musical Studies in Austria, and the Yale Cabaret program.
Julia Kelly – Performer
Julia Kelly grew up on the Virginia coast of the Chesapeake Bay and now hails from Brooklyn. She may owe her early fascination with human expression to her mother’s piano and the American movie musical, or maybe a previous life. Julia holds a B.A. in Dance and Theater, summa cum laude, from Barnard College, Columbia University, and a certificate from the Professional Studies Program of the Limón Institute. She has had the good fortune to dance the work of Martha Graham and Paul Taylor and professionally perform the work of Doris Humphrey, Anna Sokolow and José Limón – in solo performance and recently on the Limón Dance Company’s inaugural tour to China. She has also enjoyed contemporary projects with Geraldine Cardiel, Clare Cook, Alan Danielson, Betsy Miller, and VIA Dance Collaborative’s Adrienne Westwood and Katie Swords, among others. Julia is a company member with Riedel Dance Theater and is a founding member of Benn Rasmussen’s Ardent August.
Courtney Pruden – Performer
Courtney "Coya" Pruden is a recent graduate of University of South Florida with a degree in theater and minor in dance. During her college career she played lead and supporting roles in "Metamorphoses", "The Shaughraun," "Anything Goes," and an original work "Inertia: The Musical." She has trained extensively in ballet by greats like Pavel Fomin of Sarasota Ballet, Trinette Singleton, and renowned instructors from the Jeffrey Ballet School (NY), with prevalent experience in jazz, tap, modern, and aerial. Aside from her love of the arts, she is an avid outdoor recreationist and enjoys studying foreign languages and cultures.
Amy Burgess – Composer
Amy Burgess is a composer/lyricist/book writer living in New York City. Her musical theatre work has been seen at Godspeed Musicals, the Duplex, and other various New York venues, as well as on the west coast in Portland and Seattle. She received her MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program in 2008, and was the recipient of the Lew Wasserman Scholarship. Amy’s recent theatre projects include THE SNOW QUEEN, a modern musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale (with Rob Hartmann), SWEET CASSANDRA: A GREEK ROCK OPERA (with Sean Mahoney) which was workshopped at New Georges in 2009, HUNTINGTON HARTFORD (with Gena Oppenheim), and WELCOME TO REALITY!, a musical reality show satire produced by the PLU School of Arts and Communication in May 2006. Amy has also arranged music and developed creative programs for Camp Broadway® and served as Director of Programs and Events for their 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 seasons. A native of Portland, Oregon, Amy served as composer-in-residence for the Portland Symphonic Girlchoir’s fifteenth anniversary season (2004-2005), and has written choral music for PLU’s Choir of the West (2005-2006). She was commissioned in 2008 to write two choral pieces with orchestra for St. Mary’s Academy and the State of Oregon’s 150th Anniversary Gala in April 2009, and for Peg’s 20th anniversary gala in June of ’09. Amy’s many choral works have been performed in the United States, Europe and Canada. As a performer, Amy’s credits include: SOUTHERN COMFORT (2010 Lincoln Center Songbook Series), POP! (Valerie Solanis, NYU/SCAN Richmond-Shepard Theatre, 2008), OKAY! (Music direction, Second Generation 2008, Here! Arts 2009), FOLLIES (music assistant, City Center Encores! 2007), and numerous cabarets, readings, workshops, studio demos and concerts in NYC and beyond.
Gena Oppenheim – Writer
New York City native Gena Oppenheim’s work has been presented by William Finn at Barrington Stages and countless cabarets and schools around New York. Human Interest, a one-act musical for which she wrote book and lyrics was performed at NYU in the Spring of 2008, and received the Mel Silverman award for excellence in bookwriting. Ms. Oppenheim got her inspiration for her musical soap opera Queen Bea: A Soapsical after working for three years in the writing department of the ABC daytime drama “ONE LIFE TO LIVE.” Gena received her BA in American History from Barnard College and her MFA from NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. She currently teaches second grade at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York.
Mike Inwood – Lighting Designer
Mike Inwood is an independent lighting designer based in New York City. Previous design for dance productions include Amber Funk Barton include Threefold at the Scotiabank Dance Centre and 5ive Solos Later at the Firewall in Canada. In New York, Mike recently designed Paradigm Shift at St Mark’s Church, featuring choreography by Gus Solomons Jar, Carmen de Lavallade, Kate Weare and Kyle Abraham. Mike’s work has been seen at The Merce Cunningham Studio, The New York Musical Theatre Festival, HERE Arts Centre, Ars Nova’s ANT FEST, Nice People Theatre (Philadelphia), the Utah Festival Opera, and theatres throughout Central America and Europe. Mike holds a MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts and an Emmy Award for his work on NBC Television’s coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. www.mikeinwood.com
Liam O’Brien – Costume Designer
New York: Kutsukake Tokijiro (Flea), Rusalka and Onegin (Opera Slavica), Machinal (Actor's Studio), The Rats are Getting Bigger (FringeNYC), The Laramie Project (The New School), Born of Conviction, One Flea Spare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Secret Narrative of the Phone Book, and Below the Belt. L.A.: Angel's Flight and Meetins on the Porch. San Diego: Gross Indecency, Lot's Daughters, and Breaking the Code; I Think I like Girls and Ladybird (La Jolla Playhouse). Assistant Design: How to Succeed...(Broadway) Gazillion Bubbles (tour) Expendables II (movie). Patte & Billie award for Ten Human Beings. MFA in design from UCSD. Former Costume and Set design Professor at Colorado State University. Wardrobe for many Lincoln Center and Broadway shows including: Henry V, King Lear, Light in the Piazza, Coast of Utopia, Cymbeline, South Pacific (Lincoln Center Theatre); Dracula, August:Osage County, Shrek, Elf, Baby it's You, Godspell (Broadway).
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CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER is a member of New York Live Arts' Fiscal Sponsorship Program, making all contributions to the company 100% tax-deductible through New York Live Arts. In order to bring Show Me Real to the stage with full production values, rehearsal space, community outreach activities and funds to compensate all involved artists, the company needs your support. Your donation would make this premiere performance possible and would also give the company a foundation to continue making dance theater work into the future.
or donate via check.
Please make checks payable to ‘NEW YORK LIVE ARTS’ with CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER written in the memo line
and mail checks to 46-06 Skillman Ave. #2F, Sunnyside, NY 11104
FUNDRAISING LEVELS
FRIEND
$25-$99
Listing in all company performance programs and the company website.
Donna & Nelson Robinson
SUPPORTER
$100-$299
Listing in all company performance programs and the company website.
Receive behind-the-scenes e-newsletters throughout the production process.
Sherman & Patricia Cook
Steve & Nell Cook
Delarue Dance Centre
Leslie Sandlin
Joan Simon
PARTNER
$300-$499
Listing in all company performance programs and the company website.
Receive behind-the-scenes e-newsletters throughout the production process.
Two tickets to Show Me Real performances (March 23 & 24, 2012).
Invitation to an open rehearsal of Show Me Real in NYC.
Marcie & Tony Aiuvalasit
Tommy & Ann Marie Hightower
Jennifer, Katherine, and Anna Lantier
Al Simon & Margaret Barrett-Simon
PATRON
$500-$999
Listing in all company performance programs and the company website.
Receive behind-the-scenes e-newsletters throughout the production process.
Two tickets to Show Me Real performances (March 23 & 24, 2012).
Invitation to an open rehearsal of Show Me Real in NYC.
Admission for two girls to an upcoming dance workshop (December 2011 in Louisiana, March 2012 in NYC).
Joanie Autin
Beth & Howard Clark
PRODUCER
$1000 and above
Listing in all company performance programs and the company website.
Receive behind-the-scenes e-newsletters throughout the production process.
Four tickets to Show Me Real performances (March 23 & 24, 2012)
Invitation to an open rehearsal of Show Me Real in NYC.
Admission for two girls to an upcoming dance workshop (December 2011 in Louisiana, March 2012 in NYC).
An exclusive and customized dance workshop for up to six young dancers with CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER.
Andrea Bills & Dan Abrams
CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER is a fiscally sponsored member of New York Live Arts, Inc., a non-profit tax-exempt organization. Contributions in support of CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER‘s work are greatly appreciated and may be made payable to New York Live Arts, Inc., earmarked for “the New York Live Arts member project of CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER”. A description of the work and current project activities for which such contributions will be used are available from CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER or New York Live Arts, upon request. All contributions are fully deductible to the extent allowed by law. (Note: A copy of New York Live Arts’ latest annual financial report filed with the New York State Department of State may be obtained by writing to the N.Y.S. Dept. of State, Charities Registration, 162 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY, 12231, or to New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street, New York, NY, 10011)
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Open to Girls, 1st-3rd GRADE
SUNDAY MARCH 4, 2012
12:30-3:30pm
$35
Red Bean Studios, 320 W. 37th St. , NYC 10018
TO REGISTER: Email ccdt@claremcook.com or CALL 337-654-2537
GREAT GIRLS CREATE! is a dance and music workshop encouraging personal expression, individuality, self-esteem, and collaboration. Students will spend the afternoon creatively exploring their favorite activities through music and dance and will ultimately create their own short dance theater pieces. GREAT GIRLS CREATE! is an extension of programming for Clare Cook Dance Theater’s upcoming production of SHOW ME REAL. It will be led by Clare Cook, Artistic Director of Clare Cook Dance Theater,
and Leah Miles, Co-Founder of MiCo Arts.
Clare Cook is a choreographer and Artistic Director of Clare Cook Dance Theater. Her work has been part of productions at the New York Musical Theater Festival, Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, HERE Arts Center, Fringe NYC, Berkshire Fringe Festival, Planet Connections Festival (Best Choreography Award), the Bohemian National Hall and JCC in Manhattan with productions for Opera Slavica, as well as productions at NYU (Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program), Columbia University, The New School for Drama. Clare holds an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Clare has taught dance for over nine years in various studios, workshops, and school programs in Louisiana and New York City regions. She has worked with children, teens, adults and professional dancers and actors in the areas of modern dance, ballet, jazz dance, dance improvisation, and creative movement idioms. In 2010, Clare joined the Louisiana State University Department of Theater faculty as a guest teacher of modern dance. Clare works as a dance and movement teaching artist with The Metropolitan Opera Guild and prior to this served as the Education Director for the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company.
Leah Miles holds a BA in Psychology from Salem State University (1994) and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from New York University’s Tisch School Of The Arts (2010). From 1995-2008, she ran a private piano and voice studio for students ages 11-18, taught music and theatre full-time at Collins Middle School in Massachusetts, and founded and co-directed Summer Stars, a performing arts camp for children ages 8-17. During the 2010-2011 school year, Leah served as an Artist In Residence at Salem State University along with business partner and collaborator, Donny Codden. Leah resides in New York City where she is a Teaching Artist for The Metropolitan Opera Guild, Arts Connection, TADA! Youth Theatre, and Arts Interface. She has also worked as accompanist for The Camp Broadway Chorus with Amy Burgess, which performed with “Broadway on Broadway” and also with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall in the fall and winter of 2010. In addition to her teaching career, Leah is a working musical theatre writer (book and lyrics) with composer Donny Codden. Their shows Everyone’s Waiting and Providence: A Musical Comedy, have had several productions and staged readings in New York City, Minnesota, and Massachusetts since April of 2010. In March of 2010 she co-founded with Donny Codden the counseling service, MiCo Arts, which provides college guidance and coaching for high school students pursuing undergraduate programs in the Theatre Arts. Leah is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America and ASCAP.
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