BRIDGE STREET THEATRE NOW A DANCE INCUBATOR

Six troupes to use residencies to create new works

Bridge Street Theatre, like much of the arts world on pause for the past 10 months, has begun hosting two-week residencies for small dance companies to develop new work that will go on to premieres in large markets.

Each of the six residencies will result in a free online video, shown at the end of the company’s stay, documenting the work done at Bridge Street. The first video, premiering at 7 p.m. Saturday, will feature the multimedia solo work “BABYLIFT” by movement and video artist Anh Vo. It is named after a 1975 mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the U.S. and other countries over three weeks in April 1975; one of the flights crashed, killingd 138 people, including 78 Vietnamese children. According to promotional material. “’BABYLIFT’ attempts to conjure the ghosts of the Vietnam War and confronts the afterlives of the Vietnam War (aka the Resistance War Against Imperialist America).” Vo is in residency at Bridge Street Theatre through Sunday.

The residency series is being underwritten by Charles Rosen and Duke Dang, who divide time between the Catskill area and New York City and are longtime supporters of Bridge Street Theatre. The first event at the theater, in spring 2014, was the exhibit of a 35-foot-tall balloon sculpture that earlier had been the centerpiece at a gala at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, where Dang runs the Works & Process performance series.

Dang ’s connections in the dance world led him to bring the residency idea, and funding for it, to Bridge Street, according to co-founders John Sowle and Steven Patterson. Dang is of Vietnamese descent, and the series is in memory of his and Rosen’s friend and mentor Anhtuyet “AT” Nguyen. A native of Vietnam, Nguyen championed dance and served on the boards of the New York City dance organizations Dance to Unite, Dorrance Dance and The Joyce Theater. BST residency artists were selected to honor Nguyen and to support Vietnamese dancemakers and alumni of Dorrance Dance and Joyce Theater, said Sowle and Patterson.

The companies, with a maximum of five members, will quarantine before coming to Catskill and live in apartments above the Bridge Street space, where they have access to an 84-seat black-box theater, flexible cabaret performance space and large-scale gallery, Sowle and Patterson said.

The videos will premiere at 7 p.m. on their respective dates, from Jan. 16 to April 10. They may be viewed on Bridge Street Theatre’s website (Bridgestreettheatre.org) and its Facebook page and Youtube channel. Full details are available at bit.ly/396z2jj. Future companies, residency dates and video streams: Jabu Graybeal, work in progress, Jan. 18-31, digital performance excerpt, Jan. 30; “SWITCH,” by the Layerhythm Experiment with Mai Le Ho, Feb. 1-12; digital performance excerpt, Feb. 11; Thang Dao, work in progress, Feb. 28-March 13, digital performance excerpt, March 12; “Chroma” (working title), by Adrian Danchig-waring, Norbert De La Cruz III, Joseph Gordon, Kristin Sztyk and Virginia Wagner, March 16-27, digital performance excerpt, March 26; “Trapped,” by Passion Fruit Dance Company/tatiana Desardouin, March 29-April 11; digital performance excerpt, April 10.

Provided photos Jabu Graybeal says he will use his residency at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill to “explore the marriage of my music and dance with my fellow friends and creatives.”

Choreographer Thang Dao plans to create a work for four dancers with digital and film technology during an upcoming residency at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill.

Passion Fruit Dance Company and founding choreographer Tatiana Desardouina will develop a work titled “Trapped” during an upcoming residency at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill.