Friends!!! Please Join Brooklyn Contra and the Old Stone House for a foray into folk dance beyond Contra with a day of Percussive Dance workshops and an evening concert!
We’ll be joined by three amazingly talented performers for the day: Aniya Danée, recently returned from the international tour of Hamilton, for an Introduction to Tap Dance; and the duo of Nic Gareiss and Simon Chrisman for an Introduction to Appalachian Flat Footing. The evening will conclude with a concert featuring Nic’s exquisite blend of Irish, Appalachian, English, and Canadian percussive dance melding in conversation with Simon’s enchanting hammer dulcimer.
An Evening of Percussive Dance!
Informed by 25 years of ethnographic study and performance, Gareiss’ work draws from many percussive dance practices to weave together a technique facilitating his love of improvisation; clog, flatfoot, and step dance vocabulary; and musical collaboration.
A child of the folk revival, Gareiss grew up being dragged to folk festivals in the Midwest. At these events Nic learned Appalachian, Irish, English, and Canadian percussive dance surrounded by fiddlers, banjo-players, balladeers, and folksingers. This mix of movement, instrumental melodies, and traditional songs from rural places has become the heart of Nic's creative work.
“...fluent, expressive dancing, whipping up a soft-shoe storm of subtlety and grace.”
— Laurence Mackin, The Irish Times
“Gareiss combined roots with a more modern inventive style that came to the fore in an impressionistic piece starting with a whisper of a shuffle...Gareiss moved like electricity was radiating out of every part of his body.”
— Stephen Cooke, The Chronicle Herald
“…a total joy to watch – music embodied in physique, gesture, movement and muscle; an eye-opener for the ear, as it were, such is the precision, detail and adventure of his sense of rhythm.”
— Paul O’Connor, Last Night’s Fun
“...imbricating sound and movement, Michigan-born Nic Gareiss queers the footfall, the fiddle, and the step, showing these ‘sounding together’ in homoerotic readings of traditional Irish dance and music.”
— VK Preston, Dance Research Journal
About the Artists
Nic Gareiss (he/they, percussive dance, vocals) and Simon Chrisman (he/him, hammer dulcimer, vocals) met in 2007 at a fiddle festival in the Californian redwoods and have been exploring sound and movement together ever since. Both leading innovators within their practices, Nic and Simon melt their unique approaches, weaving traditional percussive dance, instrumental tunes, improvisations, traditional songs, and new compositions through interlocking rhythms and dynamic textures. Well-known for his work with the groundbreaking new acoustic string bands Kittle & Co. and the Bee Eaters, Simon's music combines "chamber music’s finely calibrated arrangements with bluegrass’s playful virtuosity and pop music’s melodic resourcefulness." (Boston Herald) One of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch," Nic Gareiss has been hailed for his "dexterous melding of Irish and Appalachian dance" (New York Times). Together, Nic and Simon adventure into the world of time and timbre to create a breathtaking evening-length performance of song, instrumental music, and percussive dance.
Schedule:
2:30pm Intro to Appalachian Flatfooting
4:00pm Intro to Tap
5:20pm Dinner Break
7:00 Doors Open for Concert
7:30pm Concert
Fees:
Intro to Appalachian Flat Footing: $20
Intro to Tap: $20
Both Workshops: $35
Concert: $25
Whole Day: $55