It's hard to believe that two months ago we were premiering Show Me Real at TADA! Theater and now in less than two months we will present Show Me Real at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. I am incredibly grateful and excited for the opportunity to share this production with a larger audience, particularly one as diverse and theatrically inclined as those that attend NYMF performances.
With not much time to regroup, we've got lots of work ahead of us to enter in the great company of NYMF and we are ready for the challenge! Please join Clare Cook Dance Theater in the fun and excitement in the months ahead!
Most Sincerely, Clare Cook Artistic Director, Clare Cook Dance Theater
A few notable links:
FUNDRAISING - We have two months to raise $8000. Please consider a donation and we will be thankful beyond words. You can make a tax deductible donation via New York Live Arts HERE. Or donate via our Indie Gogo campaign below.
TICKETS - General public tickets go on sale on June 15th for all NYMF performances. Purchase HERE. Show Me Real will be presented on Wednesday July 11 at 8pm and Saturday July 14 at 7pm & 10pm. We have a big 160 seat theater and we want a packed house at all three performances so come and bring a posse!
TRAILER - Check out the new Show Me Real trailer with footage from our March 23 & 24 performances at TADA! Theater.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES AS WE GET CLOSER TO THE FESTIVAL!
Over the next six weeks, much is planned for CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER. This posting can be your one stop shop to get info for all of the company's activities that are quickly approaching. Rehearsals for SHOW ME REAL have been moving right along, and every week I feel like we turn a new corner and understand more about the piece. It's surreal, rewarding and tons of FUN! I couldn't ask for a better group of collaborators and performers. The energy in the room is constantly creative, generous, and positively committed to bringing something genuine, honest and exciting to life! I do hope you'll come out to some of upcoming events and be sure to get tickets to a performance of SHOW ME REAL on March 23 & 24.
FIRST UP...A 1920s inspired fundraising event.
Speakeasy Soiree for SHOW ME REAL! SUNDAY FEBRUARY 19, 7-10pm Hourglass Tavern, 373 W. 46th St. at 9th Ave.
Special Appearance by DJ Michael Cumella playing music of the 1920s on a phonograph!
Come out to a night of 1920s revelry with Clare Cook Dance Theater in support of the company's upcoming premiere of SHOW ME REAL! We'll have music from the 20s, an old movie playing in the background, you can wear your favorite flapper accessory or Fedora hat, or if you're more comfortable in the year 2012, just come perfectly as you are.
This will be a FUN event where you can meet the cast and creative team, learn more about the show, and have a grand evening all around. And it will also be a FUNDRAISER to help cover some of the expenses of the upcoming production. We'll pass the hat and have some swanky raffle items too! Click here for more info about the event.
NEXT...for the kiddos.
GREAT GIRLS CREATE! - A dance and music workshop for girls Open to Girls, 1st-3rd GRADE SUNDAY MARCH 4, 2012, 12:30-3:30pm $35
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.
FINALLY...and most importantly...THE SHOW!
SHOW ME REAL Friday March 23 and Saturday March 24, 8:00pm TADA! Theater, 15 W. 28th St., NYC BUY TICKETS ONLINE
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 Performers: 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. The performance views the lives of three 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.
And be sure to check out this Behind the Scenes video of recent photo shoot with Beowulf Sheehan for SHOW ME REAL and then see the final photos in the gallery.
Happy New Year! It is with great excitement that I officially announce the establishment of CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER, my very own company (oh boy!) committed to creating and producing original dance theater projects. Over the last several years, I have been working simultaneously in the theater and modern dance communities of NYC, performing as a modern dancer and working as a choreographer for new musical theater productions, contemporary theater, and any other theatrical endeavors that crossed my path.
Julia Kelly and Clare Cook, work-in-progress showing, May 2011
I love both communities and truly believe the two disciplines inform each other on so many levels, but as I spent much time bouncing between the two worlds creatively, I started to feel that there was more overlap in style and aesthetic that could be discovered. Because so many new work applications / residencies / grants / workshops etc tend to emphasize one particular discipline over another, ideas often get distilled into one streamlined proposal that doesn't always allow for the flexibility of multi-genre projects, i.e. it's tricky to develop characters, narrative, include actors and singing with dancers and have it all resonate in a 10 minute dance festival performance slot. And, on the flip side, it's challenging to develop and perform large, physical dance movement phrases as part of a play in a tiny black box workshop reading scenario. If you fall into either one of these artistic folders, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Inspired by the old adage, "If you want something done right (or at least without restrictions), do it yourself.", I decided it was time for me to make my own work and find answers to my own creative questions about how the fully physical and abstract world of modern dance and more traditional modes of theater (scripted dialogue, character, narrative, song) can be developed side by side for the same project. Plus, I get to bring many of my favorite collaborators along for the ride!
The company will premiere it's first full-length dance theater production, Show Me Real, on March 23 & 24, 2012 at Tada! Theater in New York City. For this inaugural journey, I could not ask for a better team of performers, writers and designers. Rehearsals are in full swing and with each meeting the excitement builds and I sometimes feel like I need to pinch myself to believe it's all happening. Singing, acting, dancing, 6 performers from different backgrounds all trusting each other and trusting their role in this dance story is truly amazing!
Merrill Grant, Halley Cianfarini, Courtney Pruden in rehearsal for Show Me Real, Jan. 2012
SAVE THE DATE FOR Show Me Real MARCH 23 & 24, 2012 at 8pm Tada! Theater, 25 W. 28th St. NYC Purchase tickets here
Also, if you're interested in making a donation to CLARE COOK DANCE THEATER in support of our upcoming activities, your contribution is 100% tax-deductible as the company is fiscally sponsored through New York Live Arts. " Click here to donate online
SHOW ME REAL, a new evening length dance theater work (choreography by Clare Cook, text by Gena Oppenheim, original music by Amy Burgess) is seeking 2 female performers. Interested women should be from a musical theater background, skilled in singing and dancing (ballet, jazz and modern) and be interested in working in a collaborative creative process. Rehearsals begin mid-November with performances in NYC, March 23 & 24, 2012. Performance stipend offered.
Show Me Real is a project that has been stirring in my mind for several years now out of a desire to connect the worlds of contemporary dance theater and musical theater through the lens of 1920s glamour, grace, Ziegfeld girls, and “show business” and how it relates to today's culture and performance aesthetic. Plus, they'll be time steps, and singing, and improv, and dancing on the floor, and everything in between.
Audition Times: Thursday November 10, 7:00-9:00pm Saturday November 12, 5:00-7:00pm
Email cook.clare.m@gmail.com with your preferred audition date, along with a headshot and resume to reserve your audition spot.
This Fall brings my New York Musical Theater Festival (NYMF) debut as a choreographer, and I am quite excited to share the new musical, Jack Perry is Alive (and Dating) with the musical theater world of New York City! A shorter version of this show had a one night stand at Ars Nova in 2009 as part of ANT Fest, and will now be presented as an official selection for NYMF's Next Link Project. The show has developed quite a bit since 2009 with new songs and all new choreography for the wonderful cast of five actors.
ABOUT THE SHOW Jack Perry is a thirty-something Manhattanite seeking Crate & Barrel domestic bliss, aimless strolls down the aisles of Whole Foods, and neuroses to share with the right man. But despite attempts to set him up and settle him down, Jack finds himself out of luck and running out of time. In this day-in-the-life musical... bar-hop, cab-stop, and heart-flop with Jack as he tracks down the mysterious source of a late-night text message.
CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM Starring Jack Perry, Charles Baskerville, Melissa Joyner, Jake Loewenthal, and Josh Sauerman
book and lyrics by Harrison David Rivers and Daniella Shoshan music by Julia Meinwald directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh choreography by Clare Cook musical direction by Remy Kurs assistant director Dara Malina
Monday, May 28, 2012 at 12:37AM 
