Misnomer Dance Theater is a modern dance company based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 1998 by artistic director and choreographer Chris Elam, the company was an early proponent of using videos and the Internet to reach a broader audience. [1] It also experimented with motion capture technology, [2] as well as green screen technology to engage online viewers, inviting them to superimpose themselves into rehearsals and performances. [1]
An early 2002 review in Back Stage described Elam's style as "sculpt[ing] himself and his company of agile dancers into improbable shapes with body parts sprouting from unexpected places and intertwining into visually striking designs". [3] A 2008 review in The New York Times stated that Misnomer's performance of "Being Together", featuring three dances depicting ways of connecting, as "deal[ing] with the subject matter in all too earnest terms". [4]
Company is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth. The original 1970 production was nominated for a record-setting 14 Tony Awards, winning six. Company was among the first book musicals to deal with contemporary dating, marriage, and divorce, and is a notable example of a concept musical lacking a linear plot. In a series of vignettes, Company follows bachelor Bobby interacting with his married friends, who throw a party for his 35th birthday.
Christopher Walton Cooper is an American actor. He has appeared in several major Hollywood films, including A Time to Kill (1996), October Sky (1999), American Beauty (1999), The Bourne Identity (2002), Seabiscuit (2003), Capote (2005), Syriana (2005), The Kingdom (2007), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), The Town (2010), The Muppets (2011), Live by Night (2016), Cars 3 (2017), A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), and Little Women (2019). He also portrayed Sheriff July Johnson in the acclaimed miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), which became one of the most successful Westerns in history.
Studio 54 is a Broadway theater and former nightclub at 254 West 54th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, it served as a CBS broadcast studio in the mid-20th century. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager opened the Studio 54 nightclub, retaining much of the former theatrical and broadcasting fixtures, inside the venue in 1977. Roundabout Theatre Company renovated the space into a Broadway house in 1998.
David Ives is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is perhaps best known for his comic one-act plays; The New York Times in 1997 referred to him as the "maestro of the short form". Ives has also written dramatic plays, narrative stories, and screenplays, has adapted French 17th and 18th-century classical comedies, and adapted 33 musicals for New York City's Encores! series.
The August Wilson Theatre is a Broadway theater at 245 West 52nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1925, the theater was designed by C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim and was built for the Theatre Guild. It is named for Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson (1945–2005). The August Wilson has approximately 1,225 seats across two levels and is operated by ATG Entertainment. The facade is a New York City designated landmark.
The Gershwin Theatre is a Broadway theater at 222 West 51st Street, on the second floor of the Paramount Plaza office building, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Opened in 1972, it is operated by the Nederlander Organization and is named after brothers George and Ira Gershwin, who wrote several Broadway musicals. The Gershwin is Broadway's largest theater, with approximately 1,933 seats across two levels. Over the years, it has hosted musicals, dance companies, and concerts.
Capezio is the trade name of Capezio Ballet Makers Inc., an American manufacturer of dance shoes, apparel and accessories.
The Minskoff Theatre is a Broadway theater on the third floor of the One Astor Plaza office building in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1973, it is operated by the Nederlander Organization and is named after Sam Minskoff and Sons, the building's developers. There are approximately 1,710 seats in the auditorium, spread across an orchestra level and a balcony. Over the years it has hosted musicals, dance companies, and concerts.
The Todd Haimes Theatre is a Broadway theater at 227 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1918, it was designed by George Keister and developed by brothers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, for whom the theater was originally named. The theater is owned by the city and state governments of New York and leased to New 42nd Street. It has 740 seats across two levels and is operated by Roundabout Theatre Company.
The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theater located on Sixth Avenue between West 43rd and West 44th Streets in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The theater operated from 1905 to 1939 and was called the world's largest theater by its builders, with a seating capacity of 5,300 and a stage measuring 100 by 200 feet. It had state-of-the-art theatrical technology, including a tank built into the stage apron that could be filled with water for aquatic performances.
Rasta Kuzma Ramacandra was born on July 18, 1981, in San Francisco and is a dancer, martial artist, gymnast, and choreographer. Thomas is the founder of the Bad Boys of Dance and director and owner of the ShowBiz National Talent Competition. Thomas is a past winner of prestigious ballet competitions worldwide and has been a guest with numerous dance companies.
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1,499-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park on Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, US. The theater, which is largely underground due to Grant Park-related height restrictions, was named for its primary benefactors, Joan and Irving Harris. It serves as the park's indoor performing venue, a complement to Jay Pritzker Pavilion, which hosts the park's outdoor performances.
Benjamin Millepied is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States since joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He has also created choreography for the company, and choreographed pieces for other major companies. He retired from the NYCB in 2011.
Misty Danielle Copeland is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to a principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history.
Hip-hop theater is a form of theater that presents contemporary stories through the use of one or more of the four elements of hip-hop culture—b-boying, graffiti writing, MCing (rapping), and DJing. Other cultural markers of hip-hop such as spoken word, beatboxing, and hip-hop dance can be included as well although they are not always present. What is most important is the language of the theatrical piece and the plot's relevance to the world. Danny Hoch, the founder of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, further defines it as such: "Hip-hop theatre must fit into the realm of theatrical performance, and it must be by, about and for the hip-hop generation, participants in hip-hop culture, or both."
Chris Elam is the founding artistic director and choreographer of Misnomer dance theater, a dance and innovative arts company. Through Misnomer, Elam has also founded BookAFlashMob.com; SwiftFootProductions.com, BookADanceCrew.com; LocalDJforHire.com; and GoSeeDo.org, an engagement platform for booking creative experiences.
Valda Setterfield was a British-born American postmodern dancer and actress. She was noted for her work as a soloist with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and for her performances in works by her husband, postmodern choreographer and director David Gordon. She was described as his muse, and together they were called "The Barrymores of post-modern dance." Their son, playwright, theatrical director and actor Ain Gordon, has worked with Setterfield on a number of projects as well.
Camille A. Brown is an American dancer, choreographer, director, and dance educator. Four-time Tony Awards nominees, she started her career working as professional dancer with Ronald K. Brown's company in the early 2000s. In 2006 she founded her own dance company, the Camille A. Brown & Dancers, producing severals dance productions, winning a Princess Grace Awards and a Bessie Award.
The MCA Stage is the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago’s performing arts program. Founded in 1996 with the opening of the MCA’s new building in Chicago, Illinois.
SciTechDaily is a popular science website, containing sections on space, physics, biology, technology and chemistry. It was founded in 1998 by Vicki Hyde, originally as Sci Tech Daily Review, a companion site to Arts & Letters Daily. It became popular as a news aggregation site for science and technology content, featuring curated links with brief summaries to third-party sites such as NOVA: Science in the news; magazines such as The Discovery Channel, Scientific American, Popular Science; niche sites such as The Apothecary's Drawer,Brain.com, and the Glossary of Mathematical Mistakes; as well as international newspapers.