Green Space Presents Take Root With Catey Ott Dance Collective and David Appel

Green Space has announced a diverse roster of artists for its signature programs this November. Take Root will present an evening of work by Catey Ott Dance Collective and David Appel on November 16th and 17th, and Fertile Ground will showcase works-in-progress by multiple dance artists on November 18th.

TAKE ROOT, now in its 10th season, nurtures dance artists at established stages in their careers, pairing them in a split bill or full evening-length program. This monthly series supports dance makers' experimentation and growth by providing our venue, Green Space, along with full technical and marketing support to present their work to the NYC public.

November 16th and 17th, 8pm
Advance sale tickets: $17 online at www.GreenSpaceStudio.org
Tickets purchased at door: $20 cash, $22 credit card

Catey Ott Dance Collective's concert entitled "Effervescence" embodies the spirit of positive energy within an external world of chaos. The show includes a solo for Catey Ott Thompson called ORGAN-ized to a piece written by Louis Vierne in 1914, a trio to a contemporary fugue played on a 250 year-old organ, and a full-bodied dancing quartet to modern music by Brooklyn-based composer Randall Woolf. These dance pieces are inspired by works of art in the permanent collection at Marquette University's Haggerty Museum of Art with a set design by Milwaukee-based artist Meghan McKale. The underlying themes are inspired by Zen Buddhism and the writings of author Brene' Brown on vulnerability and love, which also paired with Woolf's music as inspiration for McKale's artwork. Catey Ott Thompson's movement vocabulary is contemporary yet technical and is filled with spirals, quick weight-shifts, and a myriad of emotional drives that tell the story of finding positive forces within a turbulent world. The Milwaukee dancers include Catey Ott Thompson, Danielle Allen, Julia Y. Edwards, and Natasha Posey. It is an honor and delight to share this body of work with NYC at Green Space in LIC. Collaborators: Visual artist Meghan McKale and composer Randall Woolf.

In David Appel's new, as yet untitled piece, the existence and activity of three people in a space brings unique and particular qualities to how that area can be filled, charged, re-configured, and perceived. Yet we live in the world, things happen, and it does affect how we organize ourselves to move together. We start with three articulate individuals repeatedly engaging each other, primarily through their dancing. At the same time, members of a second group come and go, shadowing them and offering support, commentary, bits and pieces culled from our everyday goings-on, and sheer nonsense. As in the rest of our lives, there are known signposts, and the prospect of the unexpected; here, we play off the preconceived and the improvised. Over extended time, simple encounters or strategies set in motion intriguing chains of events, and the cooking pot reveals a cornucopia of delectable morsels. The work will be performed by Jenni Hong, Ava Heller, Randy Burd, Allison Knuth, Efrén Sánchez, Kelley Donovan, and David Appel.

Catey Ott Thompson, director of Catey Ott Dance Collective since 2005, has a BFA and MFA in dance from UWM under the direction of Ed Burgess, Marcia Parsons, Janet Lilly, and Simone Ferro. Catey now resides in Milwaukee after dancing in NYC for 14 years for Soundance, Heidi Latsky, Allyson Green, Sean Curran, Bill Young, Li Chiao-Ping, Eun Jung Choi, Aviva Geismar, Chris Ferris, Shannon Hummel, Carrie Ahern, and many others. She toured to Slovakia and Budapest with Allyson Green and to France with Carrie Ahern. Catey studied ballet with Christine Wright for 12 years at Gibney Dance Center in NYC. In Milwaukee, she danced for Danceworks Performance Company, Wild Space, Milwaukee Opera Theatre, and others. She has been a personal trainer (AFAA), yogi, and Pilates (Kane School of Core Integration) instructor since 2000, and worked for Park Slope Yoga Center/Devi, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Brouk Moves in NYC for many years. She currently teaches contemporary modern, ballet, dance history, composition and choreography, and repertory as Marquette University, Milwaukee Ballet, and Danceworks, is a guest artist at Pius XI High School, and directs MKE Dance Theatre Network. Catey Ott Dance Collective (CODC) originated in 2005 in Milwaukee, resided in NYC from 2007-2012, and now calls Milwaukee home. The collective has performed over 100 works at various venues throughout New York City and Milwaukee during this time. The New York theaters include Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, 92Y, Dance New Amsterdam, Green Space, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Williamsburg Arts neXus, Spoke the Hub, Solar One, The Flea, Gibney Dance Center, and Muller/The Works Studio, among others. In Milwaukee, CODC has performed numerous times at Danceworks Studio Theater, MKE Fringe Festival, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, Marquette University, Lake Arts Project, Pius XI High School, and other concert events. CODC tours to NYC annually while creating new and exciting works and events in the Milwaukee area.

David Appel is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher whose work has been presented in a range of contexts throughout North America, Europe, and in Mexico since 1973. Part of the early post-Judson generation that transmitted and transformed those artists' innovations, he has since primarily followed his own path, while performing along the way with Simone Forti, Steve Paxton, City Dance Theater of Boston, as an instigator and/or part of several dance/music collaborative and improvisation groups, and with many other individual artists in various media. He has received a number of grants and awards, including three NEA Choreographers Fellowships, and has been invited to festivals in both the United States and abroad. The ongoing and linked touchstones of Appel's pursuits are a fascination with the body's capacity to be more subtly expressive, the ways we find to move together, and our connections to and within the world around us.