WORLD PREMIERE
PRACTICE
Jonathan González
June 17, 7pm
La Plaza at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center, 114 Norfolk Street
All events in the River To River Festival are free and all are welcome.
In PRACTICE, Afro-Diasporic cultural idioms are interwoven through dance, sound, speech acts and design to incite the critical through-lines of creolized expressive arts formed within the greater Caribbean and Turtle Island.
Performed within the historic open-air setting of La Plaza at The Clemente Soto Veléz Cultural Center, this one night engagement invites audience members into the performative practice as party-goers to celebrate the gift of gathering, and hold space for the long emancipatory uses of culture by African-descendants in the supposed “New World” for radical place-making and liberation.
Food and drinks will be available for purchase.
Food provided by Que Chevere, drinks provided by Teatro La Sea and The Clemente.
Collaborators
Jonathan González, Choreographer
Rudy Gerson, Production Designer
William “DJ Embe” Catanzaro, Composer, Sound Designer, Musician, Percussionist, DJ
GENG, Composer, Sound Designer/Engineer
Karlala Soundsystem - Karl Scholz, Sound Engineer
Ali Rosa-Salas, Performer
Marguerite Angelica Monique Hemmings, Performer
Dani Criss, Performer
Jordan Lloyd, Performer
Fana Fraser, Performer
Maria Torres, New York Latin Hustle Dance Advisor
Chris Walker, Carnival/MAS Dance Advisor
Joiri Minaya, Original Artwork for Mesh
Willie Udell, Fabrication Consultant
Mixes by
Akeema-Zane
Zen Jefferson / DOVECAKE “Afrocelestial Meditation”
Yesenia Rojas "Tierra Olorí"
Co-commissioned by LMCC and The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center with support of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
Presented in partnership with The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center, with additional support from Brooklyn Academy of Music and Dance & Performance Institute, Trinidad & Tobago
Presented with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
Jonathan González is an artist working at the intersections of choreography. Their practice examines conditions that figure Black life through research-based processes synthesized through performance usually generated collaboratively. Their writings have been published by Contact Quarterly, Cultured Magazine, deem journal, and Angela's Pulse. In 2019, González was a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” nominee for Breakout Choreographer. Their work ZERO (Danspace Project, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, 2018) was nominated for a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award for Outstanding Production. They have received fellowships from the Art Matters Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Jerome Foundation, and have been an artist in residence at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, and Loghaven Artist Residency.
A devotee of dance ever since its origins, the High Jewelry Maison is today strengthening its commitment to the arts with Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
This initiative, guided by the values of creation, transmission and education, is dedicated to supporting artists and institutions in presenting choreographic heritage, while also promoting new productions.
Since autumn of 2020, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels has forged a number of international partnerships in support of dance companies and institutions.
In addition, events such as the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival, which took place in London in March of 2022, strengthen these bonds by offering periodic international encounters focused on choreographic performance, combining contemporary repertoires and original creations.
Finally, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels supports awareness-raising initiatives focused on culture and dance for audiences of every stripe, professionals and amateurs alike.