Performances

Corrupt(ed) + Ordinary

Focus on Creation

Jun 4, 2022

Orsolina28 Art Foundation's summer festival dedicated to emerging talents in contemporary dance returns to the Open Air Stage.
Young international artists will bring to the stage notes of their new choreographic works to share with the audience of Focus on Creation in absolute preview.

Free admission | Performances begin at 19:30

Corrupt(ed) – Madison Hicks


Corrupt(ed) studies the relationship dynamics of two female identifying people. It explores the many stages to a toxic relationship. It was inspired by studying and observing relationship dynamics in American society. This work will be challenging gender norms along with work, family, and romantic relationship dynamics. Together, we will create an expansion on “Corrupt(ed)” that amplifies the toxicity of relationships in America. I will treat this work as a magnifying glass on relationships of all kinds, specifically focusing on the traumas we carry in and out within our bubble of society.

Dancers

Originally from Dallas, graduated from Booker T. Washington HSPVA in 2014. She received her BFA from The Juilliard School in May 2018 and her MFA in Choreography in 2021 from California Institute of the Arts. Madison is a freelance creator, performer, and educator. In 2022, she received the Orsolina28 “Call for Creation” residency for her project, “Corrupt(ed)”. Madison was one of eight choreographers chosen for The Jacobs Pillow Ann and Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellowship in 2021. She is a company artist with Sidra Bell Dance New York. She is the Director and Founder of Moving Forward Dallas, an innovative dance intensive and Non-Profit Organization for young artists. She is the Resident Choreographer for New York Dance Project and has been commissioned by companies such as Ballet Arkansas, Avant Chamber Ballet, Mash-Up Contemporary Dance company, Ballet Project OC, Orange County School of the Performing and Visual Arts, Water Street Dance Milwaukee, and Lindenwood University to create new work. She has presented work at Boston Dance Festival, LA Dance Festival, Palm Desert Choreography Festival, and others. She premiered her recent solo work “Sparkle with a K” at The Navel Theater in Downtown Los Angeles in 2020. She has been a guest choreographer for Booker T. Washington HSPVA Rep II Ensemble, The University of Texas at Austin, Center of Creative Arts, Houston MET Too, San Diego Civic Center, and The Windward School along with rigorously teaching artists of all ages. Madison is currently a faculty member for Steps on Broadway and REVEL Dance Convention. She was full-time company member with LA Dance Project under the direction of Benjamin Millepied for the 2018/2019 season. She has performed works by Nacho Duato, Jiri Kylian, Emily Molnar, Kyle Abraham, Ohad Naharin, Peter Chu, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Aszure Barton, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Benjamin Millepied, and Pam Tanowitz.

Is a freelance dance artist, performer and creator based in Tel Aviv, Israel. She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts under the direction of Lily Weiss, and later received her BFA from The Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College (SUNY) in New York in 2018. During her time in New York, Alex worked and performed with choreographers including Troy Ogilvie, Doug Varone, Guy Shomroni & Yaniv Abraham, and Bombshell Dance Project. Alex recently worked with choreographers Omri Drumlevich and Andrea Costanzo Martini on two separate creations that premiered as part of Curtain Up Festival in Tel Aviv, Israel. She is a returning guest artist with Dance Arts Faculty in Rome, Italy as a creator, teacher, and mentor. Currently, Alex is dancing with On Mending, a project crafted and directed by Emilie Leriche and Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern.

(she/her) is a movement artist based in New York City with a deep interest in collaborations across multiple artistic mediums. A native of Tokyo (Japan), she began training in classical dance forging a strong interest in the performing arts. She received her BFA in dance at the Juilliard School in New York City in 2019.
Mio is currently a performer with Sidra Bell Dance New York, Company Stefanie Batten Bland. She also serves a dance collective BODYSONNET as an artistic associate.
In New York and Tokyo, she has worked with a choreographer, Maleek Washington, Kyle Abraham, Mariko Kakizaki, Celia Rowlson-Hall among many others.
Mio continues to nurture her own multidisciplinary art by collaborating across mediums with artists like, American artist Dan Colen, visual artists Shana and Robert ParkeHarrison, cello player Ken Kubota, jazz pianist Isiah Thompson, High Line Nine Gallery in Chelsea Manhattan among many others. She’s expected to be certified Ilan Lev Practitioner in 2022.

Is a freelance dancer, passionate teacher, and versatile choreographer based in New York City. She currently works at The Juilliard School as the dance division’s first Rehearsal Assistant Apprentice, most recently serving as Rehearsal Director on Aszure Barton’s return to patience and assisting choreographer Caili Quan. She is a guest teacher at The Dalton School and has danced for Brian Brooks Moving Company since 2019.
A 2018 graduate of The Juilliard School, Taylor grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, training in various dance styles at both Bunker Dance Center and the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, where she graduated as Valedictorian in 2014. During her four years at Juilliard, she performed works by world-renowned choreographers including Crystal Pite, José Límon, Aszure Barton, Pam Tanowitz, and Ohad Naharin. Upon graduation, she was awarded the Juilliard Career Advancement Fellowship. Since then, Taylor has worked as rehearsal assistant to Peter Chu on several projects, was commissioned to choreograph for Juilliard’s 2019 Summer Dance Intensive, and has performed across the country with Brian Brooks, including at The Meany Center in Seattle and at Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.

21, was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After training in Oklahoma and Texas, he moved to New York City where he is currently a third year at The Juilliard School under the direction of Alicia Graf Mack. While at Juilliard, he has trained under notable faculty such as Fransisco Martinez, Risa Steinburg, Terese Capucilli, Milton Myers, Francesca Harper, and others. He has had the opportunity to learn and perform works by Amy Hall Garner, Sonya Tayeh, Norbert de la Cruz III, Donald McKayle, Andrea Miller, Ohad Naharin, and Aszure Barton. Griffin will continue his training at The Juilliard School and graduate from the program in May of 2023.

È un compositore e artista del suono di Perth, Australia, la cui musica spazia dai pezzi strumentali da concerto alla sound art e alle installazioni, e include collaborazioni con la danza, il cinema e il teatro. Il suo lavoro esplora la struttura, sia nel suono che in altre forme d'arte e cerca di orientarsi intorno e verso la struttura piuttosto che la melodia o l'armonia. Attinge da influenze molto varie: stili popolari come il metal, il jazz e la musica ambient, e stili 'artistici' come il post-minimalismo e la musica elettroacustica. I suoi lavori sono stati eseguiti a La Biennale di Venezia Danza (2018), al Montpellier Dance Festival (2018), al Kuala Lumpur International Composers' Series (2017), e in Australia, Nuova Zelanda e Stati Uniti. Si è diplomato alla Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts e ha recentemente completato un master al California Institute of the Arts, sostenuto da una borsa di studio Fulbright Postgraduate. È cresciuto in tutta l'Australia occidentale, dalla Danimarca al Kimberley e rimane un ragazzo di campagna nel cuore. Azariah vive e lavora a Boorloo (Perth), su Whadjuk Nyoongar Boodja.

Ordinary – Marco di Nardo & Juan Tirado, Frantics Dance Company


Ordinary - Reality is anything we can perceive using one or more of the five senses: taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight. It is possible, that reality is merely an ultra-high-tech computer simulation. All research is based on the “Simulation Theory” by the Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom. The idea behind this is how two human beings can fight, love and be loved, discuss and communicate the one with the other. The piece has deep research into how human beings are challenged from the environment where they are created, and how they find a way to deal with a basic problem of all the selfishness that characterize our species. DO WE LIVE IN A SIMULATION? The question has been hotly debated since the Enlightenment period. There is no definitive answer, but simulation theory posits the universe as we know it is an advanced digital construct overseen by some higher form of intelligence.

Dancers

Is an experimental dance company based in Berlin. Since 2015. Due to their similar artistic vision, the co-founders Marco di Nardo & Juan Tirado together with Carlos Aller and Diego de la Rosa, started their own research in merging and mixing vsrious arts such as, B-boying, Hip-hop, Acrobatics, and Contemporary dance. In 2020 they won the first prize in Burgos-New York and second prize in the 34th Hannover international competition with “Space”, a piece that got also invited later on to Mash 2021 (Israel). Their particular language is characterized by rapid changes, freezes, isolations, and explosive moves, all of it included inside a deep theatrical framework. They use all those elements integrated in order to convey to the spectator the deepest stories that dwell in their unconscious. Nowadays they share and tour around the world performing, creating and sharing their knowledge with the community.

Was born in Naples (IT) where he started his dancing career in 2003, dancing in the bboying scene of Naples, winning many national and international awards with the DBR Crew. And since 2013 he is the artistic director of Frantics Dance Company based in Berlin, and is Assistant Choreographer at Wang Ramirez at the Production" Au Revoir" at Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, and Ballet Du Capitol De Toulouse,and as assistant choreographer at Staatstheather Braunschweig, and has worked with: Panorama Dance Theather (CH), Southpaw Dance Co (UK), Theather Sthral Berlin (DE), and collaborated with other choreographers such as, Lorca Renoux, Besim Hoti. He has directed and choreographed at TANZWERK101- HF ZUB Zurich, Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts in Tilburg, Oliva Contemporary Dance Project, Verona.
He has worked as a guest teacher at: Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, Ballet Du Capitol De Toulouse, CCN Ballet Preljocaj, Staatstheater Kassel, Staatstheater Gorlitz, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Krakowskie Centrum Choreograficzne, A_Space Dance Studio Taipei, NunOff Barcelona, Contemporary Dance School Hamburg, Maison De La Danse Lyon, School of Performing Arts Malta, Dance Days Chania 2018-2019, DAF Faculty of Dance Arts Rome, Dublin Dance Festival 2019, HENNY JURRIËNS STUDIO Amsterdam, XI International Contemporary Workshop Prague 2019 and others.

Originally from Jaén, Spain, his background is strongly influenced by Breakdance, Martial arts and computer science. From 2014 until 2019 he has been a guest dancer of Johannes Wieland based in Staatstheater Kassel. During this period he also worked with Maxine Doyle, Sita Ostheimer and Helder Seabra. In 2016 he co-created with Diego de la Rosa and Young-Won Song a piece that won the Residenzpreis in the 31st Hannover Choreographic Festival. Afterward, he choreographed “you.IT.me” with them in January 2017. In October of the same year, he choreographed “13” with the company LPCP from Taiwan together with Frantics. In 2018 he joined Staatsoper Berlin as a guest dancer. In 2019 he choreographed “Vértigo” for Staatstheater Kassel and in January 2020 he created “El diseño” for the postgraduate students of DAF (Dance Arts Faculty) in Rome. In 2021 he won the International Solo Italia and in 2022 he became a performer of Punchdrunk International for the show 'The burnt city' in London. He is a guest teacher in Tainan University of Technology, National Taiwan University of Arts, Backstage pool center (Taipei), A_Space (Taipei), Dock 11, TanzRaumBerlin, B12 (Berlin), Hellerau, Studio Pro Arte, Marameo Berlin, Staatstheater Pforzheim and Staatstheater Kassel.

Born in 1994, trained at the Balletto di Toscana under the direction of Cristina Bozzolini, in 2013 she joined the group of research and choreographic experimentation "Antitesi" directed by Arianna Benedetti. In 2015, she joined the "Junior Balletto di Toscana" company for the production of Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by Davide Bombana. In 2016 she began attending professional courses at the D.A.F Dance Arts Faculty in Rome and the following year she joined the Spellbound Contemporary Ballet company (artistic director Mauro Astolfi - general director Valentina Marini). Teacher at the DAF in Rome and assistant to Mauro Astolfi in numerous workshops of the company's repertoire.

Born in 1997, started at the age of 15 her professional training in ballet and contemporary dance at DAF (Dance arts faculty) an international and professional dance academy in Rome. In 2019 she has been awarded with the first prize as performer at the “23 Internationales Solo-Tanz Festival Stuttgart”. In the same year she worked with C&C Company directed by Carlo Massari for the piece “Sisters”, performed in Rome. In 2020 she joined “Spellbound Contemporary Ballet” under the artistic direction of Mauro Astolfi and general direction of Valentina Marini.