WHILE YOU WAIT...
While You Wait… is a series of site-specific virtual dance installations. The project is a multidisciplinary collaboration between choreographer Navarra Novy-Williams and 360° video artist and composer Carlos Johns-Dávila. While You Wait… pioneers the use of 360º video and VR technology to fill non-traditional performance spaces with zero-footprint virtual dance installations. While You Wait… challenges our sense of reality and reimagines the relationship between audience and performer by asking timely questions about our use of technology and the nature of our physical interactions in space.
While You Wait… 2.0 is being created in collaboration with 7 dancers living in Northern Manhattan and will be shot in Inwood Hill Park in August/September 2020.
Carlos Johns-Davila
(b. 1995) is a Peruvian-American composer, electro-acoustic musician and immersive media maker. Inspired by the writings of Antonin Artaud and Wallace Stevens as well as the cinematic illusionary in films by Georges Méliès he creates 360º videos to combine dream-like hallucinations at play with reality. He adopted the Moog Theremini as his main instrument to cue visuals and sound by gesture.
He began his artistic career at Interlochen Arts Academy and studied composition at Temple University in Philadelphia. He dug into the DIY production culture between amateur and professional artists, to then continue at an Arts Management & Entrepreneurship Master's program by The New School. His program allowed him to shape the learning outcomes of his studies to become an industry leader with his genre-defying hybrid craft.
He is interested in the solutions technology can provide the arts for opening avenues of accessibility and human expression. He currently works with 3-Legged Dog's Executive Artistic Director, Kevin Cunningham on producing large scale immersive works around the world.
Navarra Novy-Williams
Navarra Novy-Williams is a New York City-based dance artist and educator. Navarra works collaboratively with artists across disciplines who are exploring the boundaries between audience and performer, creating new theatrical spaces for dance, and asking critical questions through movement. She has danced professionally with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, the Batsheva Ensemble, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, zoe|juniper, the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Richard Siegal's Ballet of Difference.
Navarra teaches Gaga, ballet and improvisation at the Juilliard School, NYU Tisch, Sarah Lawrence, SUNY Purchase, Fiasco Theater Conservatory, Movement Invention Project, MOVE(NYC), SU-CASA, and Dance Project of Washington Heights, et al.
Navarra has presented live work and virtual/dance on film at the United Palace, the Danza Highbridge Festival, The Asbury Park Dance Festival, STUFFED at Judson Church, The New School, and The New York City Quarantine Film Festival.
She holds a BFA in Dance from the Juilliard School and a MA in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship from The New School.
Collaborators
India-born, U.S.-raised choreographer Parijat Desai creates hybrids of contemporary, Indian classical and folk dance; theater; and other forms to challenge ideas of cultural purity and nationalism. She also leads Dance In The Round, sharing circle dances from Gujarat, India, as a vehicle for community well-being and engagement. Parijat is an AIR with Center for Performance Research and BRICLab. Her work has been presented around the U.S., India, and Canada including at La MaMa, Danspace Project, and CUNY Dance Initiative; Skirball Cultural Center and California Plaza (LA); Asian Art Museum (San Francisco); The Dance Centre (Vancouver); and National Centre for the Performing Arts (Mumbai).
parijatdesai.org | FB: Parijata Dance Company | IG: @parijatdesai
Photos from O.O.F. (studies in the opposite of fear)
Waverly Fredericks is a rising Sophomore of The Juilliard School in New York City. Recently
featured in Dance Teacher Magazine’s May/June Issue “From Young Professional to Juilliard”.
Born and raised in New York City, He started his professional training at Dance Theater of
Harlem and later moved on to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and
Performing Arts. During his 4 years in high school, Waverly was apart of the Inaugural Class of
MOVE|NYC|’s Young Professionals Program under the direction of Chanel DaSilva and Nigel
Campbell. He also trained in The Junior Division Program at The Ailey School under the
direction of Tiffany Barnes. Over the summertime, Waverly has received training at Ballet
Hispanico, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and The Juilliard Summer Intensive.
Marielis Garcia, a Harlem based, Dominican American dance artist holds an MFA in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice. She has performed and toured with Brian Brooks (NY), Helen Simoneau (Winston-Salem, NC), Peter Kyle Dance (NY), iKapa (Cape Town, SA), and Douglas Dunn and Dancers (NY), among others. Her work has been presented by Appalachian State University, Salem College, Howard Community College, University of North Carolina Greensboro and Bard College at Simon’s Rock. In 2014, La MaMa theater awarded Marielis with a three-week residency, supporting and presenting a new work in Spoleto, Italy. In 2017, she was a University of North Carolina School of the Arts Choreographic Fellow. Marielis has been a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council grant recipient for 4 years. She has presented her work throughout the US and abroad including Dixon Place, Judson Memorial Church, the Garment Arts Alliance Festival and Aaron Davis Hall, for which she has been awarded a CUNY Dance Initiative award. She has had residencies at Kaatsbaan International Dance Center (Tivoli, NY), Dance Initiative (Carbondale, CO), Chashama (NY), North York Arts Center (Toronto, Canada) and many more. She and Canadian artist David Norsworthy have been developing and performing a work that is an emergent collaborative creative process entitled Possibilities of Dialogue. Since 2009, Marielis has also been a visiting teaching artist in NYC public schools through The Leadership Program. Marielis is co-director of STUFFED: Dinner and Dance, a free quarterly community event that serves a warm meal and dance performance at Judson Memorial Church. She is honored to be the Dance-Artist is Residence at the University of Maryland starting fall 2020. www.marielisgarcia.com
Alex Jenkins has danced live and in film with artists of many genres including the San Francisco Symphony, the Mckittrick Hotel, Navarra Novy-Williams, Bill Hayward, Kara Davis' project agora, BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance, Fountain 3 Films, and others. In 2018, she was an original cast member in the Mckittrick Hotel's immersive dinner production, The Lost Supper, and has since made regular appearances in the Mckittrick's performance parties. The California-native is the recipient of an Isadora Duncan award for Outstanding Performance in an Ensemble for her work in the collaborative performamce, Terra Incognita (San Francisco, 2011).
Laura Mead grew up in Austin, TX (Tonkawa and Comanche land) and Berkeley, CA (Ohlone land). She received her BFA from Juilliard. Laura originated the principal role of Betsy in Twyla Tharp's Broadway musical Come Fly Away, and received an Astaire Award nomination for her performance. She served as Dance Captain on a national tour of Tharp's Movin' Out. She has also performed with American Repertory Ballet, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, the Metropolitan Opera, Morphoses, Post:Ballet, Los Angeles Dance Project, and the Seattle Opera. She danced for Jessica Lang Dance from 2012 to 2019 and has staged Lang's work on schools and companies all over the country.
Kianna Moye is a dancer and choreographer based in New York City. She holds a BFA in Modern Dance Performance from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2015, Kianna co-founded Borne Dance Company, a team of collaborative artists who's mission advocates for Eating Disorder awareness and positive mental health through art. She co-directed the company until 2018. Kianna has since then pursued a career in dance video work and aims to create a more accessible, inclusive and safe space for dance artists and enthusiasts online. She currently freelance choreographs for indie pop artists and performs at cultural events alongside her twin sister Ari, in their dance troupe, Ari。Ki.
Thomas A. Woodman is a movement artist from California. He came to New York City to attend The Juilliard School, where he graduated in 2018 with President Joseph W. Polisi’s ‘Artist as Citizen’ award for his community involvement and service. Thomas continues his artistic exploration as a Co-Leader of The Moving Orchestra, which brings together an eclectic mix of musicians and dancers from across New York City to present improvisation-focused performances. Thomas is very excited to be working alongside such wonderful artists and to be undertaking his second project with Navarra Novy-Williams and Carlos Johns-Dávila.
SUPPORT
Our work engages local communities and supports artists directly as we seek to spread the joy of dance deeper and further. If you are interested in supporting our pursuit, please consider a donation here via Pentacle's unique project form and select lead artist Navarra Novy-Williams.
All contributions over $35 will be thanked with a cardboard viewer for 360° video mailed to your home so you can watch our work.
Thank you!
While You Wait… 2.0, a virtual dance installation in Inwood Hill Park, is made possible in part with funding from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation and administered by LMCC, and Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by LMCC.
UMEZ enhances the economic vitality of all communities in Upper Manhattan through job creation, corporate alliances, strategic investments, and small business assistance.
LMCC serves, connects, and makes space for artists and community.
