Thryn Saxon: New Performances / Alison Cook Beatty Dance Company

New York-based choreographers Thryn Saxon and Alison Cook-Beatty present a shared concert of new and repertory works at Windhover Center for the Performing Arts,  Thursday, August 25th and Friday August 26th at 7:30pm.
 

Thryn Saxon and her company, SAXYN/DanceWorks will present her newest work-in-progress. The untitled contemporary dance uses the lens of Plato’s Symposium and the Celtic and Nordic folklore of Selkies (half-woman, half-creature) to investigate gender equity and the reductive forces of the western male-dominant cultural structure we live in.

The movement of the new work focuses intently on action and reaction and symbiotic response. Bodies gravitate toward and away from each other in an effort to synthesize our need for individualism amidst our yearning to rejoin with our other selves. Inspired by the seductive powers of the songs and incantations commonly associated with folkloric creatures, the piece will feature original compositions written and performed by composer Bre Short, evoking a haunting feeling of living memories and missing parts.

Saxon, an audience favorite, returns to Windhover after sharing her acclaimed choreography and performance of Shedding Velvet with Brad Beakes as part of Michael Trusnovec’s Glancing Backwards and Moving Forward program in 2021.

Joining Windhover for the first time, choreographer Alison Cook-Beatty and her New York-based modern dance company will perform several works from their repertory including Seele, which uses momentum, inertia, physical limitation, and dynamic experimentation to explore the complexities of the human psyche through an abstract presentation of the id, ego, superego; and Central Park Field, a work from 2020 originally set in a baseball field during the pandemic that reflects both the melancholy and despair of isolation and a transformative resolution through energy and stamina.

Tickets are $34 for general and accessible admission, and $24 for students, and are available at https://windhover.org/performances/. Performances happen rain or shine under the big tent on Windhover’s outdoor stage, located at 257R Granite Street, Rockport, MA. Seating begins at 7:00pm and audiences are welcome to bring refreshments. For more information about Windhover Center for the Performing Arts, please visit https://windhover.org/ or email windhover@verizon.net

About Thryn Saxon

Thryn Saxon is a dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and teacher from Miami, Florida. Saxon’s work has been performed at venues across NYC such as The Craft, GreenSpace, Gelsey Kirkland ArtsCenter and The Actor’s Fund Theater. Saxon has also had the privilege of teaching at the Cameron Dance Center in FL, DanceWave ASDI Summer Intensive, Connecticut College, Gibney Dance Center and Peridance Capezio Center. As a dancer Saxon has performed with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, John Zullo, Julia Ehrstrand, Rosie DeAngelo, TYKE Dance, NVD Projects and is also currently a performer at Sleep No More and dancer with Kate Weare Company with whom she has toured nationally and abroad. Saxon’s dance films have been screened at numerous festivals including LA Dance Shorts Film Festival, The MarDel Presents: Dance on Film Festival (nominated for Best Choreography), SPARK Dance Film Festival, Miami Screen Dance Festival and the ARTS TRIANGLE Dance Film Festival. Saxon was selected as one of 8 resident choreographers to participate in the Mare Nostrum Elements: Emerging Choreographer Series in 2019 and as one of the artists in residency at The Church in Mount Vision, NY for their Summer 2019 season. Saxon shares a choreographic project with her collaborator and co-choreographer Brad Beakes. Their piece “Remora” was awarded the Korea New Dance Festival Award in 2019 and will be performed again in May at The Perez Art Museum in Miami, FL. They were most recently selected as Associate Artists at the 180th Atlantic Center for the Arts Residency in New Smyrna, FL. Saxon has been featured in interviews for DanceSpirit digital magazine and {DIYdancer} Magazine.

About Alison Cook-Beatty

Alison Cook-Beatty attended the Boston Conservatory at Berklee where she earned a BFA in Dance with high honors and was the selected recipient of the Ruth Sandholm Ambrose Scholarship Award and the Jan Veen Scholarship. She moved to New York City and danced with the Paul Taylor Dance Company and Taylor 2, among other dance companies. In 2012, Ms. Cook-Beatty founded ALISON COOK BEATTY DANCE, a classically based modern dance company, based in New York City, whose mission is to create and share accessible and emotionally engaging dance for all. She has been commissioned by companies including Ballet Next, Carolina Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet School, The Boston Conservatory of Music at Berklee, Steffi Nossen School of Dance, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, New York University, and Marymount Manhattan College. She was awarded the 2013 sjDANCEco Award for Artistic Merit. Under her direction, the Company has grown into an artistically reputable and productive 501(c)(3) nonprofit dance company with local impact and international esteem. The company has performed throughout the United States, has been featured on ABC News for its prolific and creative efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was awarded grant support from Dance/NYC’s Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund, the New York Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council of The Arts. The Company is approaching its exciting ten-year anniversary with new works and performances slated for New York premiere.