Court/Garden
2014
“Castro and her teeming band of collaborators…have gone all out here in an elaborate mash-up of Sun King spectacle with modern technology in which audience members are not only part of the mix but the whole point of it.”
— Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody, “Yanira Castro makes a spectacle of ourselves”
A spectacle in three acts, Court/Garden was a multimedia, dance, and live music performance. It took as its inspiration the court ballets of Louis XIV’s French Court as a metaphor for the 1% and the participatory practices of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Court/Garden delved into an operatic, spectacle-driven vocabulary to reflect on how we assemble and how our participation in the consumption and creation of images is a reflection of our role as citizens.
Court/Garden premiered at Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church and was commissioned for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s 2015 River to River Festival at Federal Hall. Court/Garden was presented by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council as part of the River To River Festival 2015 at Federal Hall National Memorial on June 19–20, 2015.
Read the Context Notes for Court/Garden by Susan Mar Landau
MANCC Choreographic Fellow Video: Court/Garden Research 2014
Team
Director, Choreographer: Yanira Castro
Performers, Co-choreographers: Simon Courchel*, Luke Miller*, Kirsten Schnittker, Pamela Vail*, Darrin Wright*, Leslie Cuyjet
*Original cast, in addition to former cast members Tess Dworman, Kimberly Young, co-choreographed Act 1
Installation/Lighting Designer: Kathy Couch
Costume Designer: Miodrag Guberinic
Dramaturg: Susan Mar Landau
Composer: Stephan Moore
Video Designer: Peter Richards
Cupids: Martita Abril, Toni Carlson
Cherubs: Stormy Budwig, Haley Fish, Emie Hughes, Presley Oldham
Perfumer: Jennifer Goodheart
Logo Designer: Lara Harris
Stage Manager: Bill Schaffner or Reilly Horan
Managing Director: Sarah A.O. Rosner
Premieres
Danspace Project, New York, NY, October 9–11, 2014 (World Premiere)
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, River To River Festival, New York, NY, June 19–20, 2015
Presentations
Redfern Arts Center, Keene State College, March 30, 2016
Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, April 7–8, 2016
City of Chicago DCASE at Preston Bradley Hall, March 24–25, 2017
Press
Interview with This Week in New York
Interview with Ivan Talijancic for The Brooklyn Rail, “Choreographic Wizardry of Yanira Castro”
Eva Yaa Asantewaa in InfiniteBody, “Yanira Castro makes a spectacle of ourselves”
Siobhan Burke for The New York Times, “A Spectacle Not Meant for Just Watching”
Erin Bomboy for The Dance Enthusiast, “Impressions of a canary torsi’s ‘Court/Garden/ at Danspace Project”
Funding
The creation of Court/Garden was made possible, in part, by the Danspace Project 2014-15 Commissioning Initiative, with support from the generous individuals who give to the Creation Fund. Danspace Project’s 2014-15 Commissioning Initiative was a core component of the Choreographic Center Without Walls (CW2).
Court/Garden was also made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Court/Garden was also supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Paisley Powell Elebash Fund, and Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. In addition, Court/Garden was made possible by a Jerome Foundation 50th Anniversary Grant, an individual artist grant from Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, and a canary torsi‘s Kickstarter backers.
The development of Court/Garden was made possible, in part, by the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography and by a 2014 LMCC Process Space artist residency. Court/Garden was additionally supported with a residency at Amherst College through the Theater & Dance Department and a 2013 space grant from Gibney Dance Center. The project was initially supported with a research residency with Baroque Dance practitioner Catherine Turocy at the former Dance New Amsterdam.
Court/Garden was presented by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council as part of the River To River Festival 2015. River To River was made possible with support from the Alliance for Downtown New York, American Express, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Westfield World Trade Center, and in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, as well as other underwriters.
Yanira Castro was a 2015-2017 participant in Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Dance Development program and Court/Garden was developed as part of the Extended Life Dance Development program made possible in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
General Operating support for Court/Garden was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
