White Wave Dance to Present 2023 DUMBO Dance Festival Opening Night Gala This Month

The 2023 DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL will kick off with WHITE WAVE's Opening Night GALA Celebration on Thursday, June 22nd at 7:00 pm.

By: Jun. 01, 2023
White Wave Dance to Present 2023 DUMBO Dance Festival Opening Night Gala This Month
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White Wave Dance to Present 2023 DUMBO Dance Festival Opening Night Gala This Month

On Thursday, June 22nd, WHITE WAVE Dance will celebrate their 22nd Anniversary season of the DUMBO Dance Festival with a GALA Opening that heralds the most anticipated four-day festival of contemporary dance in the greater New York City region, as well as its 35th anniversary as a company.

"This is a festival about opportunities," says Young Soon Kim, Artistic Director of White Wave Dance. "The DUMBO Dance Festival provides an opportunity for over 300 performing artists to showcase their work. Further, it offers New York audiences the chance to participate in one of the most diverse displays of leading-edge choreography and excellence at an affordable price."

GALA Opening Night: June 22 at 7PM

This year WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company celebrates its 35th Anniversary!

The 2023 DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL will kick off with WHITE WAVE's Opening Night GALA Celebration on Thursday, June 22nd at 7:00 pm. The evening will be hosted by Jessica & Carmine Marinaro, the Co-Chairs of the Gala Host Committee.

GALA HONOREES

Jennifer Muller (1944-2023)

We mourn Jennifer as a seminal creative influence for over 50 years, first performing for José Limón and Louis Falco, and then, launching her own company, Jennifer Muller/The Works. Ms. Muller built JMTW to such renowned success that it was dubbed the "American ambassador of dance" by the NY Times after countless international tours.

DANNI GEE

Former Principal Dancer with Philadanco and Alvin Ailey, and current Director of Programming for The Joyce Theater.

WHITE WAVE Dance will be honoring Jennifer Muller, a seminal creative influence for over 50 years, performing for José Limón and Louis Falco, and launching her own company: Jennifer Muller/The Works, and building JMTW to such renowned success that it was dubbed the "American ambassador of dance" by The NY Times after countless international tours, and Danni Gee, Former Principal Dancer with Philadanco and Alvin Ailey, and current Director of Programming for The Joyce Theater, who has championed and supported WHITE WAVE's artistic vision for many years.

Gala Performance

Their opening remarks will be followed by five stunning contemporary dance troupes: Battery Dance, Yoshiko Chuma & The School Of Hard Knocks, Buglisi Dance Theatre, Jennifer Muller / The Works, WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company.

After the performances the audience will enjoy an open bar, party food, and music to feed your soul, fabulous raffle gifts (including gourmet wine baskets, "Dinner for Two" at local DUMBO eateries, and much more)!

All Festival Tickets, besides the GALA, are now on Sale: $30 in advance / $25 students & seniors

Tickets are $100 and $250 (VIP seating) per person; all proceeds raised will directly offset WHITE WAVE's production costs for our 2023/24 Season.

GALA & Festival Tickets can be purchased at https://whitewavedance.networkforgood.com/events/56063-2023-dumbo-dance-festival

Performance schedule & more info at www.whitewavedance.org

Questions? Please contact WHITE WAVE at wwyskdc@gmail.com or call at 718-855-8822!

2023 DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL: June 22-25

Committed to developing dance as an important art form, WHITE WAVE scours the globe in search of the most innovative of today's dance makers, both emerging and established, and brings them to Brooklyn for one extended weekend. For four nights and three days, dance lovers will experience a veritable cornucopia of the best of contemporary dance. DDF is committed to advancing the best of dance by providing on-stage and behind-the-scenes opportunities for 55 dance troupes from across America and around the globe, allowing audiences to experience, first-hand, the incomparable vitality of the New York dance scene.

2023 DDF features 55 contemporary dance troupes combining over 300 artists who will present solo, chamber, and full-scale works. Dancers from across the United States, and internationally from Italy, Germany, Japan and South Korea will join the New York's active dance community to offer the full range of new directions in dance in the 21st century.

In this anniversary year, the roster of companies includes:

Julia Ramirez + dancers, Elise Knudson plus, Ballet Hartford, Brooklyn, Amos Pinhasi, Ramona Sekulovic, Suzzanne Ponomarenko Dance, Columbia Repertory Dance Company, Li Chiao-Ping Dance Company, TalubaDance, Dmitri Peskov and Jung Ah Yoon, Zehnder Dance, Freespace Dance, Animus Movement, Company | E, University of Arizona School of Dance, Earth&Rainbow, American Swiss Ballet Company, ella mccauley dance, Fellow Travelers Performance Group, Alfonse Napolitano, Alexandra Tiso - Moments in Movement, University of Kentucky Dance, Koin & Co, Ali Koinoglou, NU-World Contemporary Danse Theatre, Tec Dance Company, Andamio, The Kingdom Dance Company, KT COLLECTIVE Dance Company, Alison Cook Beatty Dance, Leiphia, MONICA FARNE' DANCE COMPANY, More Fish, RyderDance, Six Degrees Dance, Smutek Dance, The DynamitExperience, and Special invited companies for Gala Opening night Battery Dance, Yoshiko Chuma & The School Of Hard Knocks, Buglisi Dance Theatre, Jennifer Muller / The Works, and WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company.

SPECIAL PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITES:

This year at the 2023 DUMBO Dance Festival, White Wave Dance is pleased to announce we will be selecting TWO outstanding companies to have the opportunity to perform at the 2024 New Dance Festival in South Korea, and the 2024 Detroit City Dance Festival. Both of these highly regarded festivals will provide companies with another fantastic opportunity for further exposure, promotion and performances. All companies participating in this year's festival will be carefully considered and will be notified after the festival.

In our commitment to presenting dance for all, the 22nd Annual DUMBO Dance Festival is proud to announce the following events in our exciting 2023 program:

2023 DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL Performance Schedule:

GALA OPENING NIGHT

Thursday, June 22 @ 7 PM

Battery Dance, NY

Yoshiko Chuma & The School Of Hard Knocks, NY

Buglisi Dance Theatre, NY

Jennifer Muller / The Works, NY

WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company, NY

Friday, June 23 @ 7 PM

Li Chiao-Ping Dance Company, WI

Neta Kinetics, NY

Suzzanne Ponomarenko Dance, NY

Dmitri Peskov and Jung Ah Yoon, UT/Korea

American Swiss Ballet Company, NY

Amos Pinhasi, NY

Elise Knudson plus, NY

Fellow Travelers Performance Group, LA

Tec Dance Company, NL

Saturday, June 24 @ 4 PM

Animus Movement, Colorado

TalubaDance, NJ

Zehnder Dance, MA

NU-World Contemporary Danse Theatre, NY

Andamio, San Jose

Columbia Repertory Dance Company, SC

Ramona Sekulovic, Germany

Ballet Hartford, CT

University of Arizona School of Dance, AZ

Saturday, June 24 @ 6 PM

The Kingdom Dance Company, NY

Ali Koinoglou, NY

Smutek Dance, MI

Company | E, DC

Zehnder Dance, MA

KT COLLECTIVE Dance Company, NC

Earth&Rainbow, JAPAN

Columbia Repertory Dance Company, SC

WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company, NY

Sunday, June 25 @ 4 PM

MONICA FARNE' DANCE COMPANY, ITALY

University of Kentucky Dance, KY

ella mccauley dance, Virginia

Six Degrees Dance, NY

More Fish, NY

Leiphia, CA

Freespace Dance, NJ

Alexandra Tiso - Moments in Movement, PA

Koin & Co, NY

GRAND FINALE

Sunday, June 25 @ 6 PM

Julia Ramirez + dancers, NJ

American Swiss Ballet Company, NY

WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company, NY

RyderDance, NY

Alfonse Napolitano, NJ

Alison Cook Beatty Dance, NY

The DynamitExperience, NY

Tec Dance Company, NL

Each companies BIO and piece info, please visit www.whitewavedance.org.

ABOUT WHITE WAVE

Formed in 1988, WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company (WHITE WAVE) strives to inspire audiences through multi-dimensional dance productions reflecting themes and philosophies both modern and timeless. Our mission is to be a potent stimulus for change and expansion of the dance/arts world through the production of dance concerts, classes, residencies, and education. Artistic Director Young Soon Kim's vision is expansive, challenging the threshold of dance, music, theater and visual art, surging forward to create new possibilities. Ms. Kim creates works of vision and movement language in reverence and awe of novelty that challenge and broaden the boundaries of dance. We provide both emerging and established choreographers/companies with a NYC venue where they can congregate, create, rehearse and present new dance works through our festivals.

www.whitewavedance.org.

Mission and a brief history of WHITE WAVE

Founded by Korean-born Young Soon Kim in 1988, the WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company is dedicated to inspiring audiences through multi-dimensional dance productions reflecting themes and philosophies both modern and timeless. We constantly strive to be a potent stimulus for progress and evolution within the dance/arts world. By producing dance concerts, festivals, and educational activities, WHITE WAVE Dance provides both nascent and seasoned choreographers/companies with an encouraging environment where they can create, collaborate, and present new works in the undisputed capital of world dance, New York City.

WHITE WAVE created DDF in 2001 in response to the dance community's need for performance opportunities that would not only present, but also produce, the work of rising choreographers at minimal expense for the artist. The festival is now recognized as New York's most prestigious gathering of pioneering choreography, encouraging experimentation, creativity, and originality.

To date, WHITE WAVE Dance has proudly presented over 3,000 choreographers/dance companies and over 22,500 performers to a total of more than 90,500 audience members.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Young Soon Kim, Artistic Director of WHITE WAVE Dance, is a nationally and internationally acclaimed choreographer, whose work has been hailed for its exhilarating, visually stunning, and emotionally rich phrases and textures.

In addition to her role as a performer and Artistic Director, Ms. Kim created a series of dance festivals soon after inaugurating the WHITE WAVE John Ryan Theater in DUMBO, Brooklyn, in 2001.

She has since become one of the most recognized producers/curators in New York City. Ms. Kim has also served as a juror for New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in 2006 and for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2014.

After the World première at the 2017 La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, WHITE WAVE Dance's Canadian première of "iyouuswe" (read as I-You-Us-We-two) at the 2018 Vancouver International Dance Festival was a resounding success! WHITE WAVE presented "Eternal NOW" at our enormously successful 2019 tour to Korea and China. In Gwangju, Korea, we performed at a special event at the Asian Cultural Center, one of the most prestigious arts complexes in all of Asia. There we participated at the Opening Celebration of the 2019 FINA World Championship Masters' Games, a sporting event that rivals the Olympics. Following that, we flew to China to perform at the Ningbo Cultural Plaza, as part of a China-US Cultural Exchange program. Dazzled sold-out audiences greeted us at every performance!

During the Summer/Fall 2021, Young Soon Kim continually created "iyouuswe II, A Dance Film" and a stage version of the production.

In October 2021, WHITE WAVE Dance presented three free performances of their newest production, iyouuswe II (I-You-Us-We-Two), on October 9 and 30, 2021 at DUMBO Archway, and two shows at the Home of WHITE WAVE Dance at 5pm as part of the City Artist Corps Grant Initiative.

"iyouuswe II, A Dance Film" was selected as finalist for the 2022 Cannes International Film Festival, Paris International Short Festival, Vancouver Independent Film Festival and an OFFICIAL SELECTION at the 2021 London International Short Film Festival, Espoo Digi-Dance International Film Festival (Finland) and Experimental, Dance, Music Film Festival (Canada).

"There are people who simply have a lot of energy, and the Korean-born choreographer Young Soon Kim is clearly one of them." - Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times

Please visit www.whitewavedance.org for more information about the

OPENING NIGHT GALA and DUMBO Dance Festival.




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