About
Welcome to REVIVAL 4: Virtual!
Photo by Meg Goldman
We hope that you will join us for this interactive festival! Learn, watch, and participate with our multi-generational company, legendary guest artists and older adults sharing stories of legacy, connection and hope!
Over five days, we will bring sounds, visions and dreams and use our strengths as people AND as dancers to respond to this time.
Enjoy the dances, dive into the ways they came to be, sustained with their legacies, acknowledge the presence of the participants, in sound and image. Be inspired on your feet moving in an ALL TOGETHER dance workshop each day and hear the stories of the artists and their friends in a daily closing panel.
We are all looking forward to the summer months and beyond when we can put this pandemic behind us!
What to Expect
June 23-26
12–7 pm
Open access to the website – learn about the artists, behind the scenes of the process, and watch the dances they have created with the DVP company and neighborhood older adults.
5–6 pm
ALL TOGETHER DANCE workshop with mini LIVE performances with selected guest artists, DVP company and older adults on Zoom. Register in advance to participate.
6:15–7 pm
LIVE-streamed Q&A Panel with guest artists and special invited guests. Register in advance to participate with questions.
June 27
12–7 pm
Open access to the website – learn about the artists, behind the scenes of the process, and watch the dances they have created with the DVP company and neighborhood older adults.
6 pm - Final Closing Celebration
Finale performance and LIVE-streamed Q&A Panel with guest artists. Register in advance.
Schedule of Events
ABOUT NAOMI
Artistic Director Naomi Goldberg Haas has worked in concert dance, theatre, opera and film. She began her career performing with Pacific Northwest Ballet, founded the mixed ability dance company Los Angeles Modern Dance & Ballet (1989–2004), collaborated with Tony Kushner and Disney Animation, was a resident choreographer for the Mark Taper Form, nationally toured with KlezDanz, a collaboration with The Klezmatics. Most recently, she was awarded a 2019–2020 Fellowship from Dance USA for Artist Addressing Social Change.
ABOUT MYNA
Myna Majors Studied with the legendary Baba Chuck Davis, was a former member of The Titos Sompa Dance Troupe, the legendary Baba Olatunji Drum and Dancers, Bernard Dove and The Dovetts. An accomplished actress, having appeared on both TV and in Theater, she is also a 16yr member on The WNBA NY Liberty Timeless Torches. "If You Don't Love Yourself, You Can't Love Anyone Else!" Peace.
Q&A PANEL
Naomi Goldberg Haas
Myna Majors
Kathryn Grody (actor, writer, activist)
Mandy Patinkin (actor, singer)
Gloria Grayson-Black (WBNA NYC Liberty Torches)
ABOUT TINA
Tina Bush is a native of Bridgeport, Ct. Her credits include television, Stage and film: “Reading Rainbow”, The Jamison Project and “Alma’s Rainbow” and others. She directed the Bridgeport Ailey Camp program, was Rehearsal Director of ASPG, Choreographer for several PPAS recitals, “Crossing Over”, Ailey January Explosion, Ailey/Fordham BFA Freshman, currently setting a new work on The Ailey Student Performance Group as well as teaching the Horton technique.
ABOUT SHIRLEY
Shirley Black-Brown-Coward is a graduate of the Julliard School and an award-winning veteran performing artist of classical and modern, Broadway and liturgical dance. She is also a Master Teacher and received an Audelco Award for Best Off-Broadway Choreographer for Black Nativity by Langston Hughes. She was a founding member of George Faison’s Universal Dance Theater.
ABOUT GEORGE
George Faison Danced with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in the late 1960s and was the first African American choreographer to
win a Tony Award for his choreography of THE WIZ. He created George Faison Universal Dance Experience, choreographed and directed at
numerous regional theaters and is founder/artistic director of the Faison Firehouse Theatre, located in a former Harlem firehouse.
Q&A PANEL
Tina Bush
Shirley Black-Brown Coward
George Faison
Dyane Harvey (Force of Nature Principal Dancer)
ABOUT AUDREY
Audrey Madison has been a teacher, dancer, and choreographer since she was a teenager. In addition to studying ballet and modern jazz, Audrey was an original member of the Charles Moore Dance Theater having studied Dunham technique, and various Caribbean and African styles. During her tenure as a school-based educator with the NYC Department of Education, she created extensive dance programs for elementary and middle school students and produced talent showcases for school communities. Audrey is also founder and artistic director of her own company, MoJazz Dance.
ABOUT SANDRA
Sandra Rivera has had an extensive career as a dancer, choreographer and educator. A founding member of Ballet Hispanico, she performed as a principal dancer creating a number of roles in the company’s repertory. Since 1990 she has choreographed and performed contemporary dances with thematic content that reflects the Latino experience in the United States. Artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine with the Omega Dance Co. where she served as director. Her solo dance portraits and choreographies have been presented at El Museo del Barrio, the Caramoor International Music Festival and the Abrons Art Center,the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, Aaron Davis Hall and the 92 Street Y. She is on the faculty of Ballet Hispanico School of Dance and performs and is a teaching artist for Dancers for a Variable Population. BA in Dance in the Latino Diaspora; CUNY’s Baccalaureate for Unique & Interdisciplinary Studies.
Q&A PANEL
Audrey Madison
Sandra Rivera
Marie Rosenberg (Charles Moore Dance Theater and MoJazz Dance)
Kiri Avelar (Associate School Director of Ballet Hispanico)
ABOUT ELLEN
Ellen Graff danced with the Martha Graham Company, appearing in New York, and touring internationally. She has performed in Broadway musicals and for many years was a regular on the Carol Burnett Show. Graff has taught at colleges and universities across the country, and has a Ph.D in Performance Studies.
ABOUT MARNIE
Marnie Thomas Wood joined the Graham Company in 1958, performing and teaching for Graham until invited in 1968 with husband/partner, David Wood, to establish the Dance Major at the UC Berkeley. She served as Director of the Graham School and. currently she teaches there and at Adelphi University.
Q&A PANEL
Ellen Graff
Marnie Thomas Wood
Oliver Tobin (Martha Graham Dance Company archivist)
6 PM – LIVE FINALE PERFORMANCE followed by a LIVE-streamed participatory Q & A panel with guest artists.
Photos by Meg Goldman
About Dances For A Variable Population (DVP)
Founded in 2005 by Naomi Goldberg Haas, Dances for a Variable Population (DVP) promotes strong and creative movement among adults of all ages and abilities. The organization’s programming includes: a multigenerational performance company that engages community members as participants and audiences; MOVEMENT SPEAKS® and Dances for Seniors, free, community-based programs for low-income, minority and culturally underserved older adults in four boroughs of NYC; performance and choreographic opportunities for older professional dance artists; and Variable POP® Dance and Fitness classes, offered year-round to adults of all ages and abilities. DVP’s site-related performances have been presented in some of New York City’s most iconic public spaces, including The New York Botanical Garden, Times Square, Washington Square Park, and the High Line. DVP has also performed at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and internationally in Poland and British Columbia. DVP is a member of the National Dance Education Organization and The International Dance Council in UNESCO, Paris. The company currently receives a funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs , the NYC Department for the Aging, among others.
About the Artistic Director
Naomi Goldberg Haas (Artistic Director) is a dancer, master teacher, choreographer and founding artistic director of Dances For A Variable Population (DVP). With DVP, Ms. Goldberg Haas has created site-related public performances at many of NYC’s most iconic public spaces including Times Square, Washington Square Park, the Whitehall Ferry Terminal, and the High Line. She also leads DVP’s education programs, including the organization’s free community-based dance workshops that have served over 5,000 seniors at 45 senior centers since 2009.
Ms. Goldberg Haas has worked in concert dance, theatre, opera and film and has collaborated with the Klezmatics, Pulitzer prize winning playwright Tony Kushner, resident choreographer at the Mark Taper Forum, Long Beach Opera, Milwaukee Skylight Opera and Disney animation. She studied at the School of American Ballet, Barnard College, Columbia University, holds an MFA from Tisch Dance at NYU, and began her career with the Pacific Northwest Ballet. She founded the successful mixed ability company Los Angeles Modern Dance and Ballet (1989 to 2004). In 2012, she received the Gibney award for “ART + ACTION”. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council awarded her the 2014 Presidents Award for the Performing Arts. She served on the Arts, Media and Culture Committee as appointed by the Mayor’s Office for Age Friendly NYC (2015-2018). Most recently, she was awarded a 2019-2020 DANCE/USA Fellowship for Artists Addressing Social Change with funding from the Doris Duke Foundation.
Naomi is a leader in the field of creative aging. She presented her work with older adults throughout NYC and across the country and has published articles about her community-based dance programs MOVEMENT SPEAKS® in the national journals such as Dance Education in Practice and her work has been featured in numerous other publications and news coverage from WABC News and PIX 11 TV. She has presented this work at various conferences such as National Dance Education Organization, Teachers College, Columbia University and Face to Face/NYSCA. She is currently working on a book about MOVEMENT SPEAKS®: a dance program for older adults.
Production Team
Naomi Goldberg Haas, Artistic Director
Magda Kaczmarska, Producer
Ezra Bloom, Sound Designer, Composer, Associate Producer
William Kitchings, Video Production Lead, Associate Producer
Lizanne Hart, Graphic and Website Designer