Staibdance
company dance artist 2013-2024
Ararat
ARARAT, staibdance’s latest multi-media work considers the history and resilience of the Armenian people following a genocide that claimed 1.5 million lives. Rooted in survivor stories, and parallel investigations toward newness, the trajectory of the work illuminates the countenance of the human spirit. Journey with us into the matter of becoming as we ask: When all things are new, how important is the old?
Premiere: October 26-28, 2023 Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Emory University
Choreography by George Staib in collaboration with the dancers
Lighting Designer & Set Designer, Gregory Catellier
Sound Designer & Composer, Ben Coleman
Video/Projection Designer, Milton M. Cordero
Costume Designers, Amelia Hayes, Jimmy Joyner, Rosalind Staib
Dramaturg, Amber Bradshaw
Rehearsal Directors, Nicole Johnson, Kristin O’Neal
Wardrobe Supervisor, Faith Fidgeon
Company Artists, Anna Bracewell Crowder, Patsy Collins, Akeem Edwards, Faith Fidgeon, Bailey Jo Harbaugh, Henry Koskoff, Chrystola Luu, Zac Pritts, Kendall Ramirez, Amelia Reiser
fence is a journey into a messy world of power struggles and dismissed histories, and an examination of how "otherness" can rob our power or become its source. Founded upon dramatic, life-changing events encountered as a child in Iran, George Staib and his company embarked on their most political and socially driven work to date.
Staib's intensely physical movement vocabulary bonds with traditional Iranian dance, exploring unrest felt personally and globally. Through rich and compelling collaborations with musicians; composers; and scenic, lighting and digital designers, audiences become woven in the work, giving shape to the conversation around what takes your power and what gives you power.
fence has toured to the American Dance Festival at Duke University, Florida State University, the Alabama Dance Festival, Temple University and Oxford College.
Premiere: October 3, 2019 Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Emory University
Choreographer: George Staib in collaboration with Sarah Hillmer and the dancers Dramaturg & Rehearsal Director: Sean Nguyen-Hilton
Sound Designer & Composer: Ben Coleman
Lighting Designer: Gregory Catellier
Scenic Designer: Sara W. Culpepper
Costume Designer: Tamara Cobus
Technical Artist: Into Outof Studio
Dancers: Anna Bracewell Crowder, Nicole Johnson, Jimmy Joyner, James LaRussa, Britanie Leland, Chrystola Luu, Gianna Mercandetti, Laura Morton, Amelia Reiser, Virginia Spinks
FENCE
WISHDUST
w i s h d u s t turns a sharp lens to the aging process: how do the forces of free will and fate co-mingle with satisfaction and regret? Looking back on 50 years of life choices, Staib creates a fantasy world of alternate paths.
In an environment where sound, movement, light, and scenery create shifting dreamlike states, Staib finds parallels to his experience as an Iranian-born Armenian transplanted to rural Pennsylvania. “My American understanding of life was that we are charged to fulfill a destiny,” Staib explains. “My Armenian understanding was that ‘destiny’ had to fit into the scope of honorable occupations and traditions.” From this dichotomy, w i s h d u s t ponders willingness, determination, giving up, and wondering what could have been if things had been different.
Premiere: October 19-21, 2017
Choreographer: George Staib in collaboration with the dancers
Rehearsal Director: Sean Hilton
Dramaturg: Nicholas Surbey
Music: Ben Coleman, Richard Prior, Kendall Simpson, Vega String Quartet
Lighting Designer: Gregory Catellier
Set Designers: Gregory Catellier and Leslie Taylor
Costume Designer: Rosalind Staib
Dancers: Anna Bracewell Crowder, Nathan Griswold, Devon Joslin, Emma Lalor, James La Russa, Erika Leeds, Britanie Leland, Amelia Reiser, Virginia Spinks, Kathleen Wessel
Following staibdance's successful 2015 premiere of Attic comes Moat, an evening-length exploration of human migration and relocation for 13 dancers. With Moat, artistic director George Staib reflects on his memories of immigrating from Iran to a small Pennsylvania town during the Iran Hostage Crisis. Fueled by heightened anti-Middle Eastern sentiment in the United States, some locals reacted with hostility, throwing tear gas into the family's yard and bullying the kids at school. The family faced -- as many do -- the cultural assimilation conundrum: how much should/can people change to fit the surrounding culture? What traditions will they give up in the name of fitting in? What is too important and remains intact?
Throughout the work, dancers crawl through, rearrange, sift, and throw 200 pounds of red rubber mulch, constantly delineating space then destroying it and moving on. They claim, shift, then reclaim place, sometimes out of the necessity, sometimes frustration. Performed in the round at Emory University's Performing Arts Studio, Moat invites viewers into a natural, messy, and constantly evolving world.
In a parallel motif, the work raises questions of self-protection; what is the difference between insulation and isolation? When a drastic event or change forces us to construct a protective shell, what are the consequences? Barriers shut out negative outcomes but they also hold those inside prisoner. It becomes as hard to get out as it is to let people in.
Premiere: June 3-4, 2016
Choreographer: George Staib in collaboration with the dancers
Sound Designer & Editing: Kendall Simpson
Lighting Designer: Joseph R. Walls
Scenic Designer: George Staib
Costume Designer: Claire Molla
Dancers: Anna Bracewell Crowder, Christopher Hall, Sarah Hillmer, Sean Hilton, James La Russa, Emma Lalor, Erika Leeds, Britanie Leland, Caitlin McCoyd, Claire Molla, Danielle Pata, Amelia Reiser, Kathleen Wessel
MOAT
ATTIC
In creating Attic, Staib asked dancers to consider how and where they hold, carry, store, and often bury remembrances of the past. Inspired by his own memories of pre-Revolutionary Iran — a culturally-rich yet dangerous and politically unstable place — the choreographer pits the celebratory against the terrifying. Many images are adapted from the traditional Persian festival Nowruz, a spring celebration that marks the start of the Persian calendar’s new year with symbolic rituals of rebirth, cleansing, and goodwill toward others.
Set in the round, with audience members on the stage and dancers surrounding them, Attic is an immersive, often unsettling work. Experiences accumulate, perspective shifts, and the audience is gradually folded into a world altered by memory’s fuzzy lens.
Premiere: January 22-24, 2015
Choreographer: George Staib in collaboration with the dancers
Rehearsal Director: Sarah Hillmer
Sound Editing: Kendall Simpson
Lighting Designer: Gregory Catellier
Set Designer: Gregory Catellier
Costume Designers: Claire Molla & Rosalind Staib
Dancers: Anna Bracewell, Emily Cargill, Andra Gold, Sean Hilton,Britanie Leland, Caitlin McCoyd, Julio Medina, Claire Molla, Danielle Pata, Amelia Reiser, Nicholas Surbey, Kathleen Wessel
SNAP
When do we decide enough is enough? How long can we live with the desire for change before taking that first harrowing step? Amidst growing racial and socio-political tensions in the United States, staibdance creates an anachronistic world designed to illuminate the cyclical nature of human behavior. The costumes — mid-18th century undergarments — conjure images of French courts under Louis XIV’s reign and the political unrest that led to the storming of the Bastille. Set to a musical score ranging from Handel to the experimental electronic sounds of COH and Cosey Fanni Tutti, s n a p focuses a sharp lens on political and personal upheaval and investigates the often quiet, unnoticed moments before history is made.
Premiere: November 14-16, 2013
Choreographer: George Staib in collaboration with the dancers
Sound Editing: Kendall Simpson
Lighting Designer: Ari Shaw Faber
Scenic Designer: George Staib
Costume Designer: George Staib
Dancers: Anna Bracewell, Crystal Delgiudice, Andre Lumpkin, Caitlin McCoyd, Claire Molla, Danielle Pata, Lacey Pinson, Amelia Reiser, Sofia Saraceno, Kala Seidenberg, Nicholas Surbey, Erik Thurmond, Kathleen Wessel
