Crossing the Line Festival 2019FIAF Crossing the Line Festival 2019 FIAF
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Look Who's Coming to Dinner

Stefanie Batten Bland

Co-presented with La MaMa

DANCE

World Premiere
Thu, Oct 3 at 7pm
Fri, Oct 4 at 7pm
Sat, Oct 5 at 7pm
Sun, Oct 6 at 3pm

La MaMa
Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street, NYC

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“When it comes to tackling demanding subject matter, there are few choreographers as intellectually ambitious as Stefanie Batten Bland.”
— New York Resident Magazine, 2012

Jerome Robbins Award–winning choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland makes her Crossing the Line Festival debut with the world premiere of Look Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Inspired by the 1967 Stanley Kramer film in which a black fiancé meets his white soon-to-be wife’s family, the work pays tribute to those who paved the way toward acceptance in love and life. Set around a dinner table, seven dance theater artists explore questions of who we choose to break bread with, and whether long-held biases still shock.

The choreography is set to a new composition by Paul Damien Hogan. Originally developed as a work-in-progress for Juilliard New Dances 2018.

50 min
Tickets start at $20

View Production Credits
Choreography, Installation and Direction: Stefanie Batten Bland
Music: Paul Damian Hogan
Costumes: Shane Ballard
Lighting Design: Clifton Taylor
Stage Manager & Lighting Adaptation: Emma Rivera

Supported by and developed at Crojik’s Croft artist residency in Michigan and Juilliard School of Dance.

Performance Project University Settlement with special thanks to Jerome Robbins Foundation.

Stefanie Batten Bland
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Look Who's Coming to Dinner
Slideshow: Photo 1 © Kisha Bari; Photos 2-4 © JC Dhien
Sidebar: Photo 1 © Bogdan Mihai; Photo 2 © Sally Cohn
Stefanie Batten Bland © JC Dhien

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Stefanie Batten Bland

Stefanie Batten Bland is a Jerome Robbins Award winner whose interdisciplinary creative practice is embedded in human relationships. She interrogates the preconceived notions embedded within contemporary and historical culture, and situates her work at the intersection of installation and dance-theatre in live performance settings. Based in New York since 2011, Company SBB was founded in France in 2008, while Batten Bland was head choreographer at the Opéra Comique in Paris. The company is in permanent residence at University Settlement in Manhattan's Lower East Side and is regularly produced by La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club of New York City. Batten Bland has received commissions from Mona Bismarck American Center in Paris, Ailey II, Spoleto Festival (Italy), The Yard, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Singapore Frontier Danceland, TU Dance, Zenon Dance Company, Harlem Stage, Brooklyn Museum, and venues throughout Europe and Asia. She has created 12 dance cinema films. Recent credits include movement director for Eve’s Song at The Public Theater and choreographer for American Ballet Theater’s Women’s Movement Initiative (2019–2021). She is a 2019 fellow at New York University’s Center for the Ballet Arts. Batten Bland has been featured in The New York Times, Dance magazine, Dance Europe, and Marie Claire. In July 2019, she will complete her MFA in interdisciplinary arts with concentration in performance creation at Goddard College. Currently, Batten Bland is completing a dance-theater guidebook manuscript and lives in SoHo with her family.

Look Who's Coming to Dinner
Stefanie Batten Bland
DANCE
World Premiere
Thu–Sun, Oct 2–6
La MaMa

Stefanie Batten Bland

Stefanie Batten Bland is a Jerome Robbins Award winner whose interdisciplinary creative practice is embedded in human relationships. She interrogates the preconceived notions embedded within contemporary and historical culture, and situates her work at the intersection of installation and dance-theatre in live performance settings. Based in New York since 2011, Company SBB was founded in France in 2008, while Batten Bland was head choreographer at the Opéra Comique in Paris. The company is in permanent residence at University Settlement in Manhattan's Lower East Side and is regularly produced by La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club of New York City. Batten Bland has received commissions from Mona Bismarck American Center in Paris, Ailey II, Spoleto Festival (Italy), The Yard, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Singapore Frontier Danceland, TU Dance, Zenon Dance Company, Harlem Stage, Brooklyn Museum, and venues throughout Europe and Asia. She has created 12 dance cinema films. Recent credits include movement director for Eve’s Song at The Public Theater and choreographer for American Ballet Theater’s Women’s Movement Initiative (2019–2021). She is a 2019 fellow at New York University’s Center for the Ballet Arts. Batten Bland has been featured in The New York Times, Dance magazine, Dance Europe, and Marie Claire. In July 2019, she will complete her MFA in interdisciplinary arts with concentration in performance creation at Goddard College. Currently, Batten Bland is completing a dance-theater guidebook manuscript and lives in SoHo with her family.

Look Who's Coming to Dinner
Stefanie Batten Bland
DANCE
World Premiere
Thu–Sun, Oct 2–6
La MaMa