newMoves for Open Air

KST Presents

Featuring STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos
and Sidra Bell Dance New York

Friday, May 21, 6:00pm
PBT Stage at Flagstaff Hill, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh PA

Pay What Makes You Happy!

As we emerge from COVID-19 isolation, KST is delighted to present our first in person event since March 2020. As a part of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s Open Air: A Series in Celebration of the Performing Arts at Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park, KST Presents newMoves for Open Air, a COVID-safe and scaled back version of our annual dance festival! newMoves was established in 2008 and in fact the first edition of the festival featured companies STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos and Sidra Bell Dance New York!

This special consolidated edition of newMoves offers a shared program featuring new works in development from Pittsburgh’s celebrated STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos and New York trailblazers Sidra Bell Dance New York! In-between and in transition; after a year of in-door virtual exploration, SPdp&SS explores body-freedom through movement study focused on balance, pace, rhythm and space in INTERIM: untitled. Sidra Bell Dance New York will share a new untitled work created in collaboration with eclectic contemporary impressionist composer from New York City Dan Cooper and upcoming South Korean fashion designer Na Yeong Baek, who will debut a new collection entitled “Blank Slate” on the company.

Join us by purchasing Pay What Makes You Happy! tickets for the seated section in front of the stage (masks required). We are delighted to be able share new imaginative dance works with you in the early evening sun!

Click here to see PPT’s FAQ surrounding COVID-19 Protocols that KST will be following.

STAYCEE PEARL dance project and Soy Sos’ participation in this engagement is part of the PearlArts @ KST Mutual-Aid Residency. Sidra Bell Dance New York’s work is made possible by The O’Donnell Green Music and Dance Foundation, Dance/NYC Dance Advancement Fund, The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University Toulmin Creator Program 2021, Westchester County Business First Grant, ArtsWestchester Art$Challenge, Dance/NYC Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund, Artist Relief, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants COVID-19 Fund, ArtsWestchester’s Artist Relief Fund, Lizbeth Rodriguez, Business Advisor-SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER, Arts Business Collaborative, SBDNY Board of Directors, Friends, and Individual Contributors, The Libert Family (Pittsburgh, PA Stakeholder).

Photos by Umi Akiyoshi Photography and Kitopko Chargois

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Staycee & Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl are the co-artistic directors of STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos (SPdp&SS) where they create artful experiences through dance-centered multimedia works. In 2009, the duo debuted SPdp&SS at Kelly Strayhorn Theater where they served as resident dance company for 3 years. There they were afforded the resources to experiment and grow. The Pearls founded a dance organization and SPdp&SS parent organization, PearlArts, in 2012. They have produced several dance works including ..on being… and OCTAVIA, and are currently working on their National Dance Project supported work, CIRCLES.

SPdp&SS made it to Creative Capital’s radar for exploring identity with …on being… and earned New Sun Rising’s Vibrancy award in 2019. Previously, Staycee served as AD for Xpressions Dance. She began making solo work in NYC collaborating with musicians, poets and visual artists. Staycee recently choreographed a new work for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre that was set to premiere March 20, 2020 as part of Here + Now. This program was postponed due to COVID.

Herman is also the founder of Tuff Sound Recording, a Pittsburgh-based recording studio. His work has been featured in various independent films and documentaries. He has designed sound for numerous choreographers and produced for a variety of recording artists across genres.

The Pearls are proud to have initiated residency programs including Tuff Sound Apprenticeship Program and PearlDiving Movement Residency.

Sidra Bell is the founder of Sidra Bell Dance New York and a choreographer and educator who is currently a Master Lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, an Adjunct Professor at Marymount Manhattan College, a Lecturer at SUNY Purchase, an Adjunct Professor at Drexel University and an Adjunct Professor at Ball State University in Indiana. She has been an artist in residence at Harvard University, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgian Court University and Barnard College. Bell received a BA in History from Yale University and an MFA in Choreography from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. She is the founder and creative director of the award winning MODULE Laboratory, a New York City based immersive platform for movement and theater artists.

Bell has won several awards, notably a First Prize for Choreography at the Solo Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany and a National Dance Project Production Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been seen throughout the United States and in Denmark, France, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovenia, Sweden, Germany, China, Canada, Aruba, Korea, Brazil, and Greece.

Bell has created over 100 works notably for BODYTRAFFIC, Ailey II, The Juilliard School, Whim W’Him, Boston Conservatory at Berklee College, River North Dance Chicago, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Sacramento Ballet, Ballet Austin, Springboard Danse Montréal and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet School, among others. She was the first Black female choreographer for New York City Ballet in 2020 and will create a new stage work for the company in 2021.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES

STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos, INTERIM: untitled
Dancers: LaTrea Derome, Jessica Marino Mitcham, Chandler Bingham
Choreographer: Staycee Pearl
Sound Designer: Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl
Costume Designer: Kelly Lane

Sidra Bell Dance New York, new untitled work
Director: Sidra Bell
Company Artists: Marisa Christogeorge, AJ Libert, Kimie Parker, Sophia Halimah Parker, Uma Shannon
Composer: Dan Cooper
Musicians: Michiyo Suzuki (clarinet and bass clarinet), Scott Hoefling (alto saxophone), David Whitwell (trombone), Dan Cooper (guitar and bass), Geoffrey Burleson (piano), Matthew Kowalski (vibraphone), and Sacha Kloostra (drum set)
Costume Designer: Na Yeong Baek

AND CHECK OUT A PATIENT PRACTICE WORKSHOPS WITH JASMINE HEARN

Join us for a series of three interdisciplinary workshops this spring through which Jasmine Hearn and their mentors will share creative prompts and guide participants in an embodied experience of dance, text, and embodied sound.

Open to all. You will be asked to move.