Discover the Art of Dance at the Becket Arts Center with an Inspiring Evening of Dance and Community
Join us for a showcase of local and regional dance artists: Debra Wanner & Jack Magai, Pele Bauch, Aviva Geismar, Jess Ames, and Louise Heit. Each artist will present a short new work offering a mix of themes and styles. Also welcome poet, Benjamin Gantche.
Whether you are a longtime dance enthusiast or just looking for an inspiring evening out in the Berkshires, this performance offers something for everyone.
General Admission: $20
Member Price: $15
Card To Culture Price: $10
Photo: (top left )Debra Wanner & Jack Magai - "Pearl" (top right) Louise Heit: Entanglement: Steven's Stuff (bottom right) Aviva Geismar - "Words, Words, Words" (bottom left) Pele Bauch - “Ka Wai Ola / the living waters”
BIOS
Ka Wai Ola/the living waters
Pele Bauch is a choreographer who often weaves together dance, theater, and installation design. With modern dance as her base, Bauch’s experimental work draws from her studies in oli (Hawaiian chant) and hula. She has been “weekending” in Becket since early childhood when her parents bought land to camp on. Bauch’s work has been selected for presentation at many New York venues, La MaMa, Chocolate Factory, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Women in Motion, and more. She was honored to be selected for the inaugural Wehiwehi cohort of Native Hawaiian performing artists, 2025, and the Western Arts Alliance Native Launchpad, 2023. She has received residencies from the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Joyce Theater Foundation, and Dance Theater Workshop. Funders include the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Brooklyn Arts Council and Harkness Foundation for Dance. Pele resides in her hometown, New York City, on the unceded land of the Lenape people.
Entanglement: Steven’s Stuff
Louise Heit (Dance Artist/choreographer) previous work seen in NYC at GreenSpace, Center for Performance Research, Union Street Studio, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, 92Y/Fridays at Noon, streets and gardens of NYC and at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London. Louise performed with Adaptors Movement Theater (Bessie Award-winning), Pink Inc., toured internationally - performing puppetry with Marquis Studios. She holds a BFA: NYU - dance and experimental theater, MA: Laban Centre, London and is a Certified Movement Analyst, NYC. Currently she teaches at the Becket Arts Center and through Together in Dance in NYC. She has received several awards from the Brooklyn Arts Council to lead creative aging modern dance classes for older adults. Many thanks to Jess- friend and duet partner for her patience and artistry to allow this piece to evolve, Gary Meister - collaborator for the sound design, friends, family and children; Molly and Marty, for their loving support.
Jess Ames (dancer) is thrilled to be performing in her fourth piece choreographed by Louise Heit. She danced with Risa Jaroslow and Dancers for two years; Kriota Willberg’s Dura Mater for 10 years; performed in Mercy with Meredith Monk at BAM; in several works by Elizabeth Keen, and more. Jess studies (and loves!) ballet with Kelly Slough and Elisa Clark. She works as a freelance ASL Interpreter, and will be interpreting the musical “Girl, Interrupted” this summer at the Public Theater. She ran her first marathon in Rehoboth Beach last Dec. She thanks her wife Barb for her immense love and support.
Gary Meister is a sound designer, composer & music producer who’s worked extensively in film, TV, podcasts, theater & dance. His credits include Joe’s Violin (Oscar Nom.), In The Dark (Pulitzer Prize), The New Yorker Presents (Amazon), Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill, Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, Sesame Street, Fork In The Road, Death Row Stories (CNN), and additional projects for HBO, Showtime, Amazon, NBC, CBS, TED, VH1, MTV, etc. He’s also a member of the Balinese gamelan ensemble Dharma Swara, with whom he’s played sold-out shows at NY Philharmonic and Central Park’s Summerstage.
Words, Words, Words
Aviva Geismar is a New York City-based dancer, dance educator, choreographer and artistic director of Drastic Action, a contemporary dance company. For more than 30 years she has been creating a body of theatrical dances, rooted in full-bodied physicality and an interest in social justice. Her dances have been performed in many prominent venues throughout the US and Germany including the Millenium Stage at The Kennedy Center, Inside/Out at Jacob’s Pillow, Dance Theater Workshop and Haus der Berliner Festspiele. From 2006-2010 she led “Dancing to Connect,” an intercultural performance and education project, developed in collaboration with Battery Dance company which brought Drastic Action to numerous cities across Germany. “Dis/Location (Fort Tryon)” explored the immigrant experience in Washington Heights. “Dis Place” investigated geographic and cultural displacement in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Rooted in the rise of anti-democratic leaders, “Just Stand By” explored the factors leading to bystander society versus upstander culture. Aviva is a Professor and Coordinator of the Dance Program at Queensborough Community College/CUNY. Thank you to Louise and the Becket Arts Center.
Pearl
Jack Magai has written, choreographed and directed performances intended to increase audiences’ awareness of their surroundings. Recently his day job as an arborist has led him to study the evolution of attitudes about nature and has steered his artistic work towards settings in post-industrial sites. He studied dance and literature at Bennington College.
Debra Wanner creates interdisciplinary, inquisitive, imagistic works about notions of being. Her work has been presented in the US and abroad. She has taught dance, improvisation, The Feldenkrais Method® and early childhood movement at colleges, schools, and movement centers. Debra has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and New York Foundation for the Arts. She has danced with numerous choreographers, including Aviva Geismar, was a founding member of Stephanie Skura and Company, as well as in Skura’s Two Huts and Surreptitious Preparations for an Impossible Total Act. Recently, Debra performed at A Galère of Poetic Autopsies at the Park Theater, with Teresa Smith at The Arts Society of Kingston, and in Choreography on The Edge, with Jack Magai. An audience member once said of Debra’s work, “I felt nauseous, sad, exhilarated, comforted, and impassioned. I believed everything you told me-even your lies.” Debra lives and works in Catskill, New York.
Debrawannerdance.comFeldenkraisinsights.com
Jack and Debra would like to thank Joan Finkelstein, Alan Kifferstein and The Wheelhouse Studio, Joe Lowery, Thomas McManus, Jimmy Garver, members of the Contemplative Dance Practice, and Louise Heit and the Becket Arts Center.
Kate Hamilton is a sculptor based in the mid-Hudson Valley. Her practice explores the architecture, experience and nature of garments. The scale of her work ranges from palm-sized to room-sized. Hamilton’s kinetic sculpture has been installed in museums, galleries and alternative spaces (including aloft at the Albany International Airport and underground in the Widow Jane Mine, Rosendale, NY). Her costumes, sets and sculptures have been installed in art performances, festivals, operas, and concerts in various places including New York, Berlin, Canada, and Zurich. Currently, her work is installed at The RE Institute, in Millerton NY.
@katehamilton42
Benjamin Gantcher is the author of The Coronation of the Ghost, Snow Farmer, and Strings of Math and Custom