Moving at the Speed of Sound
an evening of dance and live sound
curated and produced by Nicki Marshall

Location: WOW Cafheater, 59-61 East 4th Street, between Bowery and 2nd Avenue (F/V train to 2nd Avenue, 6 train to Astor Place, or R/W train to 8th Street)

Date: March 23rd, 24th and 25th. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm. Question & Answer directly following performance on Friday 24th, moderated by Marya Wethers.

Tickets: $15 ($12 students/artists). Cash only at the door.

Reservations: 212-777-4280. For info visit www.wowcafe.org.

Six female choreographers share the stage in this evening of dance and live sound. From post-modern, African, and tap dance forms to live singing, text, percussion, and musical instrumentation, your visual and auditory senses will be delighted. These women have found the place where movement and sound meet.

New work by Colleen Hooper, Nicki Marshall & Helen Styring Tocci, Anne Mulvaney, Kendra Thomas, and Joliange Wright.



Kendra Thomas hopes to inspire discussions on racism within the audience with this dance based on Audre Lordes speech/essay, The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism, from her collection, Sister Outsider. Live drumming supports the unfolding of these powerful words, recorded by Chaney Sims, Kenya Sollas and Danni Willis, energetically interpreted by a solo dancer on stage.

In a duet by Nicki Marshall and Helen Styring Tocci race and gender meet in a tango. A play in power dynamic begins to take shape as one character sews the other to her, first with a foot, then a chin. The pull of need and desire are strong when left unchallenged. Professional singers Aileen Barry and Wes Webb contribute to this emotional landscape through an acappella score, created with Marshall and Tocci.

Colleen Hoopers An Outer Space Project is a movement and theater-based piece that centers around a fictional club of women (Kate Garroway, Erika Hansen, and Jolle Worm) who are both modern dancers and outer space enthusiasts. This female outer space club challenges the male dominated culture of space travel when they decide to explore space for their own creative and imaginative reasons. As the piece unfolds, the characters come face to face with the diminished role of the arts in this country. Scientific knowledge and personal inquiry come together in the characters quest for outer space that never leaves the ground. An Outer Space Project has the glossy sheen of a childrens book with the biting wit of a social satire.

Through a collaboration with a photographer, a videographer, four dancers, musician Motomi Igarishi, painter Kristin Barton, poet Liz Davis and the natural environment, Anne Mulvaney brings the feel of the natural world and the people moving within this world into a theater space. In Touch Elementals, the dancers are seen emerging from paintings into the woods and through waterfalls. These images unfold onto the stage in a dance that is about connecting. This unique and inspirational dance is performed by Yildiz Dinler, Tatiana Margitic, Anne Mulvaney, and Amy Verebay.
Joliange Wrights that time of night is an interaction between rush hour traffic, bustling sidewalks, a late winter setting sun, and a woman intrigued with the rhythm of it all. Experience the wonder of this everyday happening through tap improvisation and impromptu photography. Your walk home may never be the same.



Choreographer Bios

Born and raised in Delaware, Colleen Hoopers choreography has been presented in New York since 2002. She is excited to be presenting an excerpt of An Outer Space Project at WOW Cafheater. The full evening version will be performed at BRICstudio June 9-11 (visit www.colleenhooper.org for more). Hoopers work has been shown at Dixon Place, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, SWEAT Modern Dance Series, One Arm Red and the New Dance Alliance Performance Mix Festival at the Joyce SoHo.
She collaborates with Kate Garroway as The Roosters. Their work was featured at DTWs Fresh Tracks Series and the DanceNow/NYC Festival 2003-05. Hooper has danced with Red Dive, a Bessie Award winning site-specific creator of multi-sensory tours and events. She has worked as a teaching artist at the Red Hook Community Center and in arts administration, serving as the Press and Marketing Manager at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Hooper graduated from George Washington University in 2001 Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Dance and English.

Nicki Marshall and Helen Styring Tocci love to sing and dance. Their unique style of vocal movement developed from their common experience as post-modern dancers, a cappella singers, classically trained vocalists, African dancers, and yoga practitioners and teachers. In October of 2005, they self-produced an evening length piece, on a day which is every day, at WOW Cafheater. Their innovative works have also been presented at various venues throughout NYC including Dance Theater Workshop, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and University Settlement. They have received space grants from the Harkness Dance Foundation and the Dragons Egg Residency. Helen is co-founder of the VAROOM Group Dance Collective and has worked with Shannon Hummel/CORA, Red Dive Theater and Cline/Daniel Dance. Nicki currently dances for Movement for the Urban Village Dance Company and has recently been a member of CompanyAmyCox and Magbana Drum & Dance. They are both dance and yoga instructors who teach to children and adults all over NYC.

Anne Mulvaney a dancer, choreographer, and teacher is pursuing a unique approach to dance as a Healing Art, integrating the moving body, the mind, and spirit with Nature. She has trained in modern dance for 18 years, contact improvisation, and authentic movement for 12 years, and has studied intensively with Nancy Topf and Anna Halprin. She has been dancing with Sondra Loring & Company for the past 3 years and also performs with Hudson Valley Dance, Clyde Forth Visual Theater, and D.A.N.C./DanceArtsNatureCollective; confounded by Anne. Anne is the dance director of the Studio of Light, which offers a variety of classes in modern dance and healing movement, located in Woodstock, NY.
Kendra Thomas dances out of joy, and is grateful for the opportunity to share that with others. Originally trained in ballet, jazz and modern dance, Kendra began studying various West African dances in 1995. She has been a member of Umoja Dance, MZawa Danz, Harambee Dance Company and Magbana Drum & Dance. She holds a degree in Fine Arts and continues to paint, design and take photographs. She enjoys the buoyancy, grace, power, beauty, freedom, and harmony of all movements and arts.

Joliange Wright hails from Muncie, Indiana where she began tap dancing in 1980. After more than 20 years of study, choreographed performance, and street improvisation, she remains committed to the idea that rhythm and life are inseparable. Today her work strives to demystify and honor the tradition of rhythmic tap by presenting it in its rawest form - an improvised conversation with her environment. Her first full-length production, Too Late for the Gods, Too Early for Being, premiered at WOW Cafheater in October 2005.


see the whole postcard design by infinite art


WOW Cafheater is the citys only collectively run theater committed to women and trans artists. Now in its 25th year, WOW serves as a platform for performing artists at all career levels and in all disciplines in producing their own work. Its flexible, collective governance structure allows the organization to respond to the artistic and production needs of its members, ensuring that the work presented by WOW is always on the cutting edge of contemporary performance.