PRESS KIT & REPERTORY
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Grass is Green (2022)
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt
in collaboration with the performers
Performers: Kira Fargas, Tushrik Fredericks, Dominica Greene, Dasol Kim, Rebecca Margolick, Hadassah Perry, Chuck Wilt
Drag queen & live cellist/pianist: Rose Nylons
Costumes by Caitlin Taylor and Idel Dorleans and Rose Nylons
Rehearsal Directors: Jennifer Payan and Rebecca Margolick
Full length: 60 minutes
Available in proscenium, semi-round and full-round settings
About:
Grass is Green is an evening-length work for eight dancers and drag queen/live cellist/live pianist, Rose Nylons. Grass is Green considers cycles of destruction and rebirth both within humanity and the land we are a part of. The work embodies a cycle of rebirth, representations of Queer intimacy, and moments of communal joy, grief and connectivity. The work also embodies the connections between the shared reality of our Queer history - including the AIDS crisis of the 80s/90s- and the ongoing reality of wildfires throughout the world. These particular devastations are considered within Grass is Green in order to further understand what connects us to each other and the land we are a part of, as well as how to honor the continuous cycles of rebirth.
Grass is Green was co-commissioned by The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center for its world premiere. Grass is Green was created with support as an Artist in Residence at the 92nd St. Y's Harkness Dance Center, as an Artist in Residence at Brooklyn College through the CUNY Dance Initiative and as an Artist in Residence at Berkeley Ballet Theatre. The work received additional support from Marta Miller's Certain Bird Residency in Vermont, KT Nelson's RoundAntennae Residency in San Francisco, LITVAKdance in San Diego, and Evolution Dance Center in San Diego. The Canadian premiere was made possible by Mid Atlantic Arts through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Grass is Green was developed with the vital contributions of performers Tushrik Fredericks, Dominica Greene, Dasol Kim, Rebecca Margolick, Courtney Mazeika, Alisya Razman Adam, Kyle Filley, Maxi Canion, Jamal Abrams, Babatunji Johnson, Jennifer Payán and Haley Williams.
"GRASS IS GREEN BURSTS WITH JOY..."
- SF CHRONICLE
"(GRASS IS GREEN) IS A RICH WORK, ACCESSIBLE IN MOVEMENT STYLE, SOPHISTICATED IN DELIVERY WITH LOTS OF STAND OUT MOMENTS. IT'S UNPREDICTABLE, BUT ALL THE PIECES FIT AND ECHO THROUGHOUT..."
- JEN NORRIS, SF
Recent:
April 20-22, 2023
ODC Theater - San Francisco
April 25, 2023
Chutzpah! Festival - Vancouver
This engagement is supported by Mid Atlantic Arts through USArtists International in partnership with
the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. www.midatlanticarts.org
April 27-May 2, 2023
BC Movement Arts Society - Sointula, Port Hardy, and Campbell River, British Columbia
NYC Premiere:
September 22, 2022
The 92nd St. Y, Harkness Mainstage Series - NYC
World Premiere:
March 10 & 11, 2022
The Clarice-Smith Performing Arts Center - MD
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M. (2022)
Full length: 18 minutes
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt
in collaboration with the performers
Performed by: Styles Alexander, Jobel Medina & Chuck Wilt
Costumes by: Kat Sauma
Seasonal (2022)
Full length: 12 minutes
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt
in collaboration with the performers
Performed by: Kira Fargas and Hadassah Perry
Costumes by: Kat Sauma
If I were, would you still
(work-in-process) (2021-2023)
Full length: 30 minutes
Choreographed/Directed by Chuck Wilt
in collaboration with the performers
Performed by: Styles Alexander, Kira Fargas, Dominica Greene, Dasol Kim, Rebecca Margolick, Jobel Medina, Hadassah Perry & Chuck Wilt
Costumes by Chuck Wilt in collaboration with the individual performers
About:
Mirrors is a collection of new works by UNA Productions. Mirrors asks questions to intentionally deepen themes of Queer intimacy, experiences within the gender spectrum, and what it means to uncover our authenticity and experience life outside societal norms.
Mirrors currently includes M., Seasonal and If I were, would you still, which can be performed in any combination or as a full collection. The evening will also include fourth work Fans, a duet for two drag queens.
The works in Mirrors were created as an Artist in Residence of RoundAntennae 2021, Resident choreographer of Springboard Danse Montreal, with additional support from the Westlake School for Performing Arts, the California Arts Council and the Gibney Company ILLUME Award.
World Premiere:
November 11-12, 2022
Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center Theater
With support from Gibney Company x Springboard Danse Montreal's Illume Award
Past Showings of Excerpts:
October 9, 2022
AIR Showing, RoundAntennae at Zaccho Dance Theater, CA
June, 2022
Witness Showing:Springboard Danse , Montreal Canada
December 19, 2021
AIR Showing, RoundAntennae at Berkeley Ballet Theater, CA
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COLORING (beginning/ending with Melanie Charles)
Premiere:
March 8-9, 2019
ODC Theater, San Francisco
Past Performances:
October 4-5, 2019
Dig Dance Series at 92nd St. Y, NYC
November 10-17, 2019
Chutzpah! Festival, BC Islands and Vancouver
"The mood (of COLORING) is one of
radical vulnerability,” “Eloquent sincerity”
-DANCE ENTHUSIAST
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COLORING (2019)
Length: 60 minutes
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt
in collaboration with the performers
Performed by: Maximillion Canion, Kyle Filley, Dasol Kim Rebecca Margolick, Jennifer Payán, Courtney Mazeika Alisya Razman Adam, and Chuck Wilt
Drag queen & live cellist: Rose Nylons
Live vocalist & flutist: Melanie Charles
About: COLORING is an evening-length work for seven dancers and one guest drag queen/live cellist. Inspired by themes of identity and unity, COLORING asks the question “What do we have in common?” and draws inspiration from personal narratives, interviews and bodies of artwork from LGBTQ people.
Motivated by a sense of urgency to find commonality at this time in history, the work includes research on the lives and work of queer people and is intended to bring awareness to commonalities of humans, regardless of identity or background. COLORING is structured as episodic dances, which become more colorful over time.
The premiere of COLORING was made possible in part by the Opportunity Fund at ODC Theater supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Created with support as a choreographic fellow for the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab, made possible by generous support from the Ford Foundation, created (in part) during the Tisch Summer Residency Festival at New York University, with support from KT Nelson's RoundAntennae Residencies and Marta Miller’s Certain Bird Residency. Wilt created COLORING, with additional support, while an Artist in Residence at the Launchpad through Dance Initiative (CO) and as an Artist in Residence at the 92nd St. Y’s Harkness Dance Center. Excerpts of COLORING have been performed for Movement Research at the Judson Church, The Spectrum Dance Festival (CO), Create : Art (NYC), and for 92nd St. Y's AIRS during APAP.
Deserts (2017)
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt
Performed by 5 company dancers & 6 guest dancers*
Length: 75 minutes (with intermission)
4 Dances: Atacama, Bronco, Cadet, and Fatima
Atacama: 11 minutes
Originally performed by Daniel Alwell, Kyle Filley, Rebecca Margolick, Jennifer Payán, Maximilion Canion*, Mitchell Christie*, Sarah Esser*, William Noling*, Holly Sass*, and Sherah Shipman*
Bronco: (two duets) 20 minutes
Originally performed by Kyle Filley & Chuck Wilt, Rebecca Margolick & Jennifer Payán
Cadet: 10 minutes
Originally performed by Chuck Wilt
Fatima: 30 minutes
Originally performed by Daniel Alwell, Kyle Filley, Rebecca Margolick, Jennifer Payán, and Chuck Wilt
Works can be performed individually or consecutively as an evening-length performance
World Premiere: July 14-15, 2017 Jack Crystal Theater, NYC
About:
Deserts is an evening of dances reflecting on human connection. The four works included in Deserts are chapters of a whole and were made within two years.
Atacama is an ensemble work: six guest performers alongside the company. The work was inspired by the Atacama desert, the driest in the world.
Bronco consists of two duets. Each journeys through the development of connection between two people while questioning masculinity and femininity.
Cadet is a solo performed by Wilt that was inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe’s book ‘Polaroids’, and is an exercise for the self on acceptance. Cadet is considered an introduction to Fatima.
Fatima is a work for five dancers that is inspired by Paulo Coelho’s book 'The Alchemist.' The work invites the audience through scenes of play, peace, defeat and power.
"UNA’s Deserts is a unique mode of dance presentation...it reads as an EP, or a collection of essays – each segment at once complete and limitless in potential."
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A GIRL (Restaged in 2018)
Length: 20 minutes
Choreographed by Roy Assaf
with Rehearsal Assistant Ariel Freedman
Solo performed by: Rebecca Margolick, Jennifer Payán and/or Chuck Wilt
Premiere: October 2018, Presented by Dance Initiative at the Launchpad
Soloists may perform consecutively for a 40-60 minute version
Available for proscenium
Can be adapted for gallery or museum settings
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SELECT COMMISSIONS // FILM
still be here (2023)
Created with Post Ballet / Berkeley Ballet Theater / Kronos Quartet
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt,
in collaboration the performers
have we met (2022)
Created with the Springboard Danse Montreal Participants
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt,
in collaboration with Rehearsal Assistants Dominica Greene, Dasol Kim & Courtney Mazeika
as well as the performers
Created as a Resident Company at Springboard Danse Montreal, 20th Anniversary
Undertow (2021)
Created for the Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt
in collaboration with the performers
Ebb (2020)
Created (virtually) for NYU Tisch Second Avenue Dance Company
2021 Senior Class (NYC)
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt,
in collaboration with Artistic Associates Jennifer Payán & Kyle Filley
as well as the performers
Belong Not (Rightfully Ours) (2020)
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt,
in collaboration with the performers
Rehearsal Assistant: Kyle Filley
Performed by Post Ballet/Berkeley Ballet Theater & the San Francisco Girls Chorus
Music composed by Aviya Kopelman
Premiere: YBCA as a part of the Rightfully Ours Concert, for the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment
Commissioned by the San Francisco Girls Chorus and the Israel Institute
Mural (2019)
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt
in collaboration with the dancers
Performed by the Alvin Ailey Fordham BFA Seniors (Class of 2020)
Commissioned by The Alvin Ailey School
Radiant (2019)
Choreographed by Chuck Wilt
in collaboration with the dancers
Performed by LITVAKdance Company (CA)
Commissioned by LITVAKdance