BLINK
International ensemble
WOOD STREET GALLERY
Pittsburgh PA
2012
T. presents is an international working ensemble of musicians, poets, dancers, and visual artists founded by educator and artist Gia T. Cacalano. (NYC- currently based in Pittsburgh PA). The ensemble is a democratic collective that collaborates through improvisation. The work is made and performed through an instant-composing approach to improvisation.
Next performances:
WOOD STREET GALLERIES,
Pittsburgh. PA (2017 TBD)
WINDHOVER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, Rockport. MA (2017 TBD)
TRIDENT GALLERY
Gloucester. MA (2017 TBD)
MOVEMENT RESEARCH nyc (2017 TBD)
T. presents by Vincent Cacialano
Collaborators
THE FREQUENCY OF
STRUCTURE AND FLOW
part two
International ensemble
WOOD STREET GALLERY
Pittsburgh PA
September 2013
CANDESCENCE-MAGNET
International ensemble
MOVEMENT RESEARCH
NYC
August 2015
Reviews
Coal Hill review www.coalhill.com
Adrienne Tottino April 3rd 2012
“BLINK” succeeded in many ways. Cacalano chose an ensemble with equal skill and matching style, while managing to showcase each dancer’s individuality. The show had a performative quality that is oftentimes missing in improvisation. The ensemble proved that to execute dance spontaneously at a professional level, one’s skills and technique must be honed.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette www.post-gazette.com
Jane Vranish April 3rd 2012
'Blink' blends dance with art and music to strike enlightening balance
"Her free-form company, Gia T. Presents, offered a triple- barrelled approach to "BLINK," which inhabited the Wood Street Galleries last weekend.
Pittsburgh Dance Examiner www.examiner.com
Adrienne Tottino April 3rd 2012
Gia Cacalano proves proficiency and ingenuity in 'BLINK'
" It might be an oxymoron to say that Gia Cacalano is both a throwback and an innovator, quietly claiming her place on the Pittsburgh dance scene. But part of me was transported to Greenwich Village circa 1963 Saturday night, where the Judson Dance Theater met in rejection of modern dance restrictions of the time."
New Examiner www.examiner.com
Adrienne Tottino April 13th 2015
"Gia Cacalano collaborates with international ensemble in a mesmerizing new work"
"Each time I have watched these artists, they seem to be moved by a force outside themselves. Every performance has a ritualistic quality, as if the planning part of their brains turn off, and experience in pure form takes over. The result is exceptional."
Axis entertainment www.examiner.com
Adrienne Tottino April 2nd 2013
"Gia T. Presents creates a striking multimedia collaboration. For Gia Cacalano and her international ensemble, technique and physicality reign supreme."
Post Gazette www.post-gazette.com
Jane Vranish September 10th 2013
"Gia T Presents a thoughtful new work. The movement was like a virus that quickly traveled from one dancer to another. So attuned were the dancers on all levels "
Professor Grisha Coleman
Associate professor of movement, computation and digital media.
School of Arts, Media and Engineering.
Arizona State University.
" The Gia T Presents ( T presents ) work was visceral, thick, attentive. The intensity at the start of the performance was gripping and the dancers continued to ' deepen the thickness of the space, the interaction - like a dog that holds on to that thing in its mouth digs deeper grinds down could not take my eyes away from the mystery of the questions they were asking"
Collaborators
Gia T. Cacalano
Gia T Cacalano is a veteran dance artist, performer, and educator currently based in Pittsburgh, PA. Gia spent her formative years receiving her training and education in NYC and danced with and alongside many of the leading American modern dance pioneers e.g. Graham , Anthony , Sokolow , Limon , and Ailey. Prior to moving to New York City, Gia studied and received her first formal dance training from Istvan and Anna Ament (choreographic institute ,Cluj , Romania ) in Virginia. Ms. Cacalano attended Marymount Manhattan college and during which time she held an internship at the Martha Graham school of dance and graduated with honors with a BFA in dance education. Gia later joined and worked with renowned choreographers Anna Sokolow, Mary Anthony (Honya Holm), and Bertram Ross, in choreography and composition pedagogy and performance lectures and presentations. Gia became fascinated by Butoh , and began her studies in workshops with Butoh artist Maureen Flemming and Poppo Shiriashi at La MaMa NYC . In 2002 Gia moved to Pittsburgh, PA where she began independent study and research in improvisation in collaboration with Vincent Cacialano (Katie Duck magpie music - dance) Amsterdam, NL .
Gia's current work and practice embodies her research in improvisation methodologies, looking at instant composition, choreography, and a stripped down approach to collaboration and relationships between live music and dance. Ms. Cacalano has performed, taught and presented work at Riverside Church NYC, The 92 nd street Y NYC, The Cunningham Studio NYC, Lincoln Center NYC, WOOD STREET GALLERIES Pgh. PA, The Kelly Strayhorn theater Pgh. PA, Pgh City theater of asylum , Manchester metropolitan university , UK , Carnegie Mellon University Pgh. PA, Movement research NYC and WVWC governors school for the arts to name a few. She is currently adjunct faculty at the university of pittsburgh school of education, physiology, and physical activity 2005- present. She is the founder of "T Presents international music/dance ensemble" and Pgh. ensemble "Frameworks". She is currently working as choreographic assistant for Grisha Coleman’s echo::system project, "treadmill dreamtime running in place" an immersive multi-media performance and installation that premiered at Yerba Buena center for the Arts. Ms. Cacalano's teaching practice involves her research in improvisation and making instant composition, working with sensory and environmental conditions, somatic and therapeutic release techniques and a release form of both American modern dance and ballet aesthetic.
Vincent Cacialano
My work reflects an interest in the collective process and experimentation. Inspired by contemporary art traditions, I combine dance and live art approaches, developing personal languages of expression. Attention to the structural realities of the human body in motion is a strong focus in the invention of movement material. Subverting and de-constructing formal composition approaches, I look for ways to push physical, intellectual, technical and performance limits, to complicate and unravel, rather than disregard, traditional approaches to contemporary choreography. Using Improvisation as an approach to performing, structures are devised with complex physical and theatrical options. Performers work with chance and choice, making vulnerable, un-scripted and serendipitous, non-linear compositions, and creating meaning through random associations and unexpected occurrences.
My work has been presented throughout Europe, S. Korea, India and The United States by The Dance Place DC, The Melkweg Amsterdam, Movement Research NY, The Green Street Theatre Boston, Die Werkstaat Dusseldorf, Axis Art Centre, Busan National University Art Centre and Curating Knowledge. Commissioned by The National Theatre of Scotland, The School for New Dance Development, The European Dance Development Centre and Effecto Venezia and has received support from The National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Council England, The Podium Kunst, Amsterdam Funds for the Arts, The Dutch Embassy and Institute For Performance Research MMU.
I co-founded Magpie Music Dance Company in 1995 with Katie Duck (Groupo) and Michael Schumacher (Forsythe). Magpie worked as a regularly funded collaborative group touring their critically acclaimed instant compositions throughout the Netherlands and in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. Through my affiliation with Magpie I have performed with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Kirstie Simpson, David Zambrano, Pauline DeGroot, Benoit Lachambre, Julian Hamilton, Misha Mingleburg, Andy Moore, Han Benick, Michael Moore and Mary Oliver.
I am a Senior Lecturer and Program Leader at The Manchester Metropolitan University (06) and I am a member of the editorial and advisory board of The Dance and Somatic Practices Journal (08). I have been teaching in Higher Education since 1993. From 1993-06 I was a tenured lecturer at The Amsterdam School of The Arts’ School for New Dance Development, Jazz Theatre and Modern Dance Departments. I have been a member of the artistic leadership team of The School for New Dance.
I am currently working with Katie Duck in Duck Projects and Dr. Sharon Smith (Gob Squad) in The Blue Stocking Social Club. I have worked as a performer in subsidized projects in The United States, The United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France and The Netherlands for Susan Rethorst, Thomas Lehman, Ria Higler, Maida Withers, Allesandro Certini, Ctharlotte Zerbey, Katrina Brown, Lesa McLaughlin, Sharron Wyrrick, Anno Dijkstra and Max Factory.
My education is in Modern Dance, studying with Alwin Nikolais, Erick Hawkins, Debra Riley (Dunn), Martha Curtis (Koner) and Chris Burnside (Lewitsky) and dancing in works by Meg Harper (Cunningham) and Sharon Kinney (Taylor). I hold a Master of Fine Arts in Dance emphasizing Composition and Body-Movement and Alignment Theory. As an M.F.A. student I was a George Washington University Fellow. I also hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University, including Acting and Voice for Stage. I graduated from both institutions with honors. www.vincentcacialano.com
Wendell Cooper
Wendell Cooper is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on the intersection of urban arts (Vogue, Rapping, Video Projection) and consciousness studies. Founder of Complex Stability, he performs as Mx. Oops, a transhuman, gender-bending, genre-bending, urban arts shaman. A certified yoga instructor (500hr RYT) and practitioner of Thai Yoga Massage, he is also trained in various forms of energy healing. Originally from Pittsburgh, he is a graduate of George Washington University (BA) where he studied dance and religion. Cooper has been in residence at the Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China; as a Studio Series artist in residence at Dance Theater Workshop; at the GoDown Center in Nairobi, Kenya as a Cultural Envoy of the U.S. State Department; and with Nicholas Leichter Dance at the Dialogue du Corps Festival, in Burkina Faso. He was recently adjunct faculty at Hunter College and has been a panelist/judge at Ms. Gay Maryland America, and at the Isadora Festival in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. He has performed his work at various New York City venues including: Center for Performance Research, Harlem Stage, The Box, La Mama, Joyce Soho, Santos Party House, Galapagos, and with Gordon Voidwell at the Apollo Soundstage Theater & the BAM Cafe. In the past he has worked with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, in Grisha Coleman's Echo::System, Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, the Magpie Music Dance Company (NL), and with Nicholas Leichter Dance. He is currently in the midst of an Integrated Media Arts MFA at Hunter College, and teaching full-time at Lehman College’s Multimedia Performing Arts BFA Program within the City University of New York. In the fall of 2016, Cooper will release a full length rap album as Mx. Oops along with a series of multimedia performances. www.mxoops.com
Alan McDermott
Alan McDermott studied Art and design in Colchester UK, then Graphic design at Middlesex University during which time he also trained at the Dance Centre, Covent Garden, London. After some time of working as a freelance illustrator/graphic designer and being involved in various dance, performance and community arts projects, he went to study at The School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam where he studied movement through somatic practice, technique and composition and later trained as a Feldenkrais practitioner. He teaches the Feldenkrais Method, does design work, architectural illustration, film, installation and visuals for live performances. Alan is currently an associate lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and is working on "The Animation Project" in collaboration with Vincent Cacialano. Alan is also a collaborator in The Blue Stocking Social Club project with Dr. Sharon Smith and Vincent Cacialano and "T.presents" with Gia T, Vincent Cacialano and Wendell Cooper. He has worked as a Community Arts Worker, using the visual arts and movement with adults with learning difficulties, in performance workshops with hearing impaired children and on site specific combined arts workshops and performances in rural communities and schools. He has taught Movement Research and the Feldenkrais Method in the U.K. The Netherlands (Amsterdam School for the Arts), Italy and Illustration and Design in the UK.
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