La MaMa Presents Wilma Casal And Wolf & Swan in NY Premiere Of SHADOW OF A DRAGON WING

German dancer and choreographer Wilma Casal and her company Wolf & Swan will premiere a new evening-length program, Shadow of a Dragon Wing, September 12-14 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 East 4th Street, NYC), as part of Summer Shares at La MaMa. Shadow of a Dragon Wing comprises three works-Dust in My Wings, Ancestral Shadows, and Dragon Blood-performed by dancers Giacomo Bavutti, Wilma Casal, Amanda Egan, Sierra Kay Powell, Madeleine Kim and Hope K. Ruth, the actor David Bennent, and live musician Dorian Wallace. In the new program, Casal-who won acclaim across Europe as a ballet dancer and then came to New York to learn, and ultimately teach, Graham Technique-uses the #MeToo movement and the global rise of right-wing extremism as points of departure to explore the themes of power, fear, and injustice. She aims "to reclaim our power to act rather than re-act, and to boldly counter the misanthropy of the powers that be."

Performances of Shadow of a Dragon Wing will take place September 12 and 13 at 7:30pm and September 14 at 8pm. Tickets, beginning at $29 ($15 for students and seniors), can be purchased at https://www.wolfandswan.company/.

Casal had several questions in mind as she and her collaborators created Shadow of a Dragon Wing: How do we succeed in breaking out of social patterns in which women still play an inferior role? What responsibility do media and culture bear? What are the sources of fear-inducing populist ideas? Dust in My Wings addresses the growing prevalence of fascist leaders and governments around the world, with actor David Bennent performing a speech of the iconic film The Great Dictator. Ancestral Shadows, which imagines three women in the mirror seeing their female ancestors, aims to show women's struggle to free themselves from traditional roles. Dragon Blood is a feminist retelling of the epic tale The Song of the Nibelungs and a reflection on moral responsibility.

Shadow of a Dragon Wing features a wide range of recorded music-by artists including G.I. Gurdjieff, Georgette Dee, Dorian Wallace, Goran Bregović, Björk, Pat Metheny and Corin Arnold-and original music performed live by Dorian Wallace. The creative team also features Grace Ryung Kim (costume design), Taylor Frith-Brown (lighting design), and ann CAZ.L (projections).

Summer Shares at La MaMa makes La MaMa theatre spaces available to artists for non-curated productions.

Wilma Casal, the founder of Wolf & Swan, is a dancer and choreographer from Berlin. She has performed internationally with Dokumentartheater Berlin, Artnouveau 21 Dancers, Akasha Crew, Bolschoi Compania Eschschloraque, German Television Ballet, Brouqade Records Showcases, and Mosso Art Company. A graduate of the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance New York and the Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin, Casal is also a certified, specialized Gyrotonic Instructor, a medically-based Personal Trainer, and a certified teacher of Graham and ballet Technique.Her work has been presented at the Williamsburg Movement & Arts Center, Dixon Place, The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Hudson Guild Theater, Theater at Blessed Sacrament, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, as well as at the House of Russian Culture and Haus Schwarzenberg in Berlin. She is based in New York.

Wolf & Swan, suggesting both dichotomy and entity, aims to foster honest exchange among artists - and between artists and audiences. The company aims to tell stories, using Martha Graham Technique to help the collaborators access their inner voices, emotions, and elements of the soul, enabling their language to be clear and concise. a??