WeisAcres
537 Broadway #3
New York, NY 10012

Free admission

Join us for an evening curated by Catherine Galasso.

A cross-generational gathering and performance event that celebrates New York performance history and the contemporary question of archiving through the recreation of works by seminal downtown artists Andy de Groat and Jim Neu.

The evening includes readings of two short scenes written by Jim Neu, a live re-performance of Andy de Groat's Rope Dance from 1974, followed by a structured improvisation with young dancers and former Andy de Groat collaborators.

Jim Neu works performed by Jess Barbagallo, Joshua William Gelb and Keith McDermott.
Andy de Groat Rope Dance performed by Rachel Berman, Christine Bonansea, Patrick Gallagher and Buck Wanner.
Discussion and improvisation by former Andy de Groat collaborators (special guests to be announced.)

Catherine Galasso is a choreographer and media artist based in Brooklyn. Her cross-disciplinary works have been performed at Joyce SoHo, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Danspace Project, Dixon Place, among other venues. In 2014 she began a project of recreating works by former members of the Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds, a group formed by Robert Wilson which was active between 1968 and 1975. Catherine is the daughter of composer Michael Galasso and dancer Liz Pasquale, also original members of the School of Byrds.

Andy de Groat was born in 1947 in the United States into a family of Dutch, Italian, French, German and English origins. Whilst studying at the New York School of Fine Art in 1967, he met the director Robert Wilson. He joined his troupe as a dancer, then as a choreographer for all the productions from Deafman Glance in 1971, A Letter for Queen Victoria in 1974 to Einstein on the Beach in 1976, created for the Avignon Festival. In 1981, he received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation in New York for his choreographic research. He created new works in succession for red notes/cie andy de groat, including several for Jean Guizerix, Wilfride Piollet, Jean-Christophe Paré, the Choreographic Research Group of the Opera of Paris (GRCOP), the Scala in Milan, Ris et Danceries, the Ballet du Nord (Roubaix) and Wah Loo Tin Tin Co, a Montauban-based company of young performers. Today, his work totals over sixty creations that have been presented in around twenty countries and periodically goes back to questioning the repertoire and the heritage of dance. His company has worked regularly on lyrical productions since 1988, in particular on The Magic Flute (Mozart), with Robert Wilson at the Opera Bastille, Paris, The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky), with Alfredo Arias for the Aix-en-Provence Festival of Lyric Art and at the Operas of Lyon, Gênes and Montpellier, Aida (Verdi) and Klaus Michael Grüber at the Amsterdam Opera.

Jim Neu has written over 25 plays which have been presented at Dixon Place, PS122, Danspace Project, Soho Rep, Westbeth Theater Center, often at La MaMa and also in various cities here and abroad. Dixon Place presented ALONE TOGETHER in 2004 and 2005, THE BIG LIP AND OTHER BALKTALK in 2000 and works-in-progress versions of many of his plays. He has collaborated with choreographers such as Douglas Dunn, Yoshiko Chuma, David Woodberry, Cathy Weis and Charles Moulton and wrote screen plays for Andy Horn’s films, DOOMED LOVE and THE BIG BLUE.