Animus Movement presenting ‘Bloodflow’
Anna Paterson Dance Company presenting ‘Figures in Motion’
Dance Visions NY, Inc. presenting ‘Portals: Forging the Elements’
Kayla Yee presenting ‘In 50 Years’
Meghana Murthy and Aparna Shankar presenting ‘Nirmale | Shyamale: The dualities within’
Niusha Karkehabadi and Jack Murphy ‘FairyTale’
Reframe Dance Theatre presenting ‘Eat the Cake’
Shannon Harkins presenting ‘Shell and Shadow’

PLAYBILL

Animus Movement
Choreography by Rebecca Allen, Larah Pamplin & Bethany Kellner
Animus Movement is a project-based dance company that focuses on providing artists a chance to “perform” through dance films and other alternative mediums. The company was born out of the cage of the pandemic with the purpose to continue providing opportunities for artists to move freely and share their craft and love of dance to audiences. The company loves to collaborate with their dancers, as well as other choreographers, musicians, visual artists and beyond. In the last two years Animus has created three dance films, performed at multiple festivals and co-produced a show at Ballet Arts, City Center NYC and New York Live Arts.

Anna Paterson Dance Company
Choreography by Anna Paterson
Established in 2019, Anna Paterson Dance Company is a queer dance and performance group which strives to share life experiences through the dance medium. APDC explores ideas such as age, class, gender identity, and sexual orientation, through humanistic movement and connection. Our mission is to spread the joy of movement and help audiences see themselves reflected within dance. Anna Paterson’s work has been described as “authentic”, “quirky”, and of course “camp”. Through these stylized works, APDC brings audiences into the community with loving embrace.

Dance Visions NY, Inc.
Choreography by Beth Jucovy
Beth Jucovy, is founder, artistic director and choreographer for Dance Visions NY presenting Isadora Duncan repertory and related contemporary works. Ms. Jucovy’s full length, often interdisciplinary programs have been presented extensively at universities, festivals, theaters, museums, schools, libraries and often at gardens throughout the NY metropolitan area and beyond.

Kayla Yee
Kayla Yee (she/her) is a dance-theatre pracitioner dedicated to environmental art-ivism. “In 50 Years” was first presented in NYCFringe, and other downtown festivals. Credits include: “Hot Lips” (NACHMO Productions), “Crossing Nature” (Move to Change Festival), “Tanya’s Lit Clit” (Experimental Bitch Presents), and “Check All That Apply” (WestFest Dance Festival).

Meghana Murthy and Aparna Shankar
Aparna Shankar and Meghana Murthy are professional Bharatanatyam dancers who have come together to explore and enjoy their love for dance. The duet have performed over the last four years across various shows in NYC including Spark Theater Festival, Enjoy! by Creative Performances, and Balance Arts Center Fall 2022 Showcase.

Niusha Karkehabadi and Jack Murphy
Their work challenges perceived beauty and gender roles in fashion, in character, and physical partnering itself in a way that a variety of participants in society can engage with. Jack as a queer starlet and Niusha as a Persian American pleasure activist (in the foreground of identity). Our work acts as a reminder for audiences to allow joy, creativity, and fantasy into their everyday and not so everyday lives.

Reframe Dance Theatre
Choreography by Nathan Forster & Michelle Lukach
ReFrame Dance Theatre was founded by Nathan Forster to create opportunities that shed light on the unknown and reframe the familiar through accessible performance. The founding of ReFrame Dance Theatre was spurred by an interest in the dissonance between ourselves, the world around us, and contemporary performance practice. We seek to rectify this by promoting and providing opportunities for audiences to engage with dance experiences on their terms; and through fresh performance that reflects who we are as human beings sharing a planet.

Shannon Harkins
Shannon Harkins is a New York City-based dance artist. Upon graduating from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Dance, she has presented choreography in the Young Voices in Dance program at Battery Dance Festival in 2022, and Norte Maar’s collaborative series, Counterpointe, in March of 2023. She strives to create work that combines enhanced classical technique with added nuances, theatrics, and humor.

8 in Show is made possible, in part, with private funds from the Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and public funds from the NY State Council on the Arts with the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the NY State Legislature.