Digital Program: Nail Biter | Beth Gill

In memoriam 

Rose-Marie Menes & Gus Solomons Jr. 

Beth Gill, Choreographer
Jon Moniaci, Composer
Baille Younkman, Costume Designer
Thomas Dunn, Lighting and Scenic Designer
Krista Smith, Associate Lighting Designer
Madison Ellis, Production Stage Manager
Michelle Fletcher, Manager

Performers:
Maggie Cloud, Jennifer Lafferty, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Marilyn Maywald Yahel and Beth Gill

Voice: Falu, Emily Eagen, Jeremy Lydic, Peter Sciscioli
Thrown Materials: Peter Kerlin and Jon Moniaci
Choir: Abby Ahmad, Ray Barr, Frank Bolton, Karen de Chabert, Layla Cobrinik, Hannah Fairchild, Louise Guerin, David Luther, Dan Morrow, Gabby Sherba, Netania Steiner

 

Nail Biter is co-commissioned by Walker Art Center, the Fisher Center at Bard and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Nail Biter was commissioned and developed, in part, by Fisher Center LAB, which receives funding from the Fisher Center at Bard’s Artistic Innovation Fund with lead support from Rebecca Gold and S. Asher Gelman through the March Forth Foundation. fishercenter.bard.edu

Nail Biter commissioning support from Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN) was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. The development of Nail Biter was supported by funding from the King’s Fountain and by CPR – Center for Performance Research’s Artist-in-Residence Program, which is made possible, in part, through Dance/NYC’s Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. This project was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.

My first dance teacher Rose-Marie Menes passed on from this world on September 9th, 2021, while I was in the early stages of dreaming Nail Biter. In her youth, Rose trained under George Mellinoff of the Imperial Ballet and later Madame Maria Swoboda, formerly of the Bolshoi Ballet. She was a principal dancer for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, under the direction of Leonid Massine, and performed with Chicago Opera Ballet, New York City Opera, and American Festival Ballet.

Rose’s school, Westchester Ballet Center, was my other home growing up in the suburbs outside of NYC. It was a sanctuary space for me and so many girls. On weeknights, we squeezed into the small dressing room above the office to shed our daytime clothes and become ballerinas. We shuffled into the beautiful large dance studio and found our spots at the barre. I can be back there in my mind in an instant…

The wooden floor beneath my slippered feet, worn and polished. The smooth wooden barre under my left hand. The other girls holding the barre, too, in front and behind me. No talking, just preparing. Rose enters, and everyone watches her. She is the center, the source, the idol, both loved and feared. She inserts a cd into the cd player, presses buttons, and then turns around to face us. Class, our ritual, has begun.

In 1999 I left Rose and the Westchester Ballet Center to study dance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. There I met Gus Solomons Jr., a legend, who had danced with Donald Mckayle, Pearl Lang, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham long before I met him. He had a historic dancing career that bridged modern and postmodern dance and then went on to become a choreographer, teacher and writer. Everything about Gus was larger than life: his voice, limbs and laughter. All of him filled the studio when he taught.

I was in fact terrible at Cunningham. I couldn’t pick up the combinations or master the quick physical transitions, but I loved being in Gus’ orbit. I remained a devotee of Gus long after I left Tisch. I rehearsed in his home studio and loved our brief catch ups whenever I was coming or going. Like the studio of my youth, Gus’ studio haunts my memory. The light spilling in from the large windows overlooking Broadway. Old pictures of Gus resting above the mirror. Another dusty cd player. I, like so many others, felt a deep loss when Gus passed away on August 11th 2023. I miss him and his laugh.

Both Rose and Gus were devoted to the lives of dancers. They found purpose in preserving the roots of their training and passing along this wisdom to others. I feel this kind of oral tradition within dance is central to why I am still doing it. The values of tradition and experimentation course through my work equally, because of the places I’ve trained and the people that have shaped me. This run of Nail Biter is in honor of Rose and Gus, the incredible lives they lived and how they inspired others.

—Beth Gill

Beth Gill is an award-winning choreographer based in New York City since 2005. Her multidisciplinary works are captivating, cinematic timescapes, the product of long-term collaborations with celebrated artists. Gill is the proud recipient of the Herb Alpert, Doris Duke Impact, Foundation for Contemporary Art, and two “Bessie” awards. She has toured nationally and internationally and been honored with (among others): Guggenheim Fellowship, NEFA’s National Dance Project grant, Princeton’s Hodder Fellowship, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Artist in Residence. 

Gill’s dances are serious, slow-moving, and chiseled, meditative experiences poised between performance and visual art. Paradoxically her work is both intimate and alienated, sensual and ascetic. She dreams and visualizes her dances, transforming her unconscious into iconographic choreography. 

Jon Moniaci is a composer, performer, and computer programmer. Interested in improvisation and live electro-acoustic performance, he has collaborated extensively with dance and performance makers. A frequent collaborator of choreographer Beth Gill, his score for her dance Electric Midwife received a 2011 Bessie New York Dance and Performance Award. He has also worked with Chase Granoff, Andrew Dinwiddie, Jeff Larson, Peter Kerlin, Anna Sperber, Marissa Perel, Alex Escalante, Mark Jarecke, Dean Moss, and Peter Jacobs. He plays music with Stephen Rush and Chris Peck in their project Crystal Mooncone.

Thomas Dunn designs lighting internationally, treating it as both a sculptural medium and a facet of stage design. Previous works with Beth Gill include Brand New Sidewalk, Catacomb, and New Work for the Desert. Recent credits with other artists include Difficult Grace with Seth Parker Woods; Mud/Drowning with JoAnne Akalaitis and Philip Glass; Most Happy in Concert with Daniel Fish; Epochal Songs with Muna Tseng and (posthumously) Keith Haring; Ocean Filibuster with Katie Pearl and Lisa D’Amour, and Is This A Room with Tina Satter. Other credits include works with: Jonathan Bepler, Wally Cardona, Steve Cosson, Annie Dorsen, DD Dorvillier, Trajal Harrell, Ted Hearne, Jennifer Lacey, Noémie Lafrance, David Levine, Molly Lieber, Ong Keng Sen, Zeena Parkins, Jay Scheib, and Eleanor Smith. Thomas is the recipient of a Kevin Kline Award for Outstanding Lighting Design as well as a Bessie Design Award for Outstanding Visual Design.

Krista Smith is a Philadelphia based Lighting Designer and Artist. Krista’s designs have been seen in New York at venues including: La MaMa, Ars Nova, New York Theater Workshop, and The Public Theater. Regionally includes: Dorset Theatre, Arden Theatre Co , Hartford Stage, Triad Stage, California Shakespeare Theater, and Yale Repertory Theater. Company Member of KrymovLab NYC. Krista received her MFA from Yale School of Drama and is a proud member of USA 829. www.KristaSmithLD.com

Baille Younkman is an artist, designer, and educator from Columbus, Ohio. After having studied fashion design and sculpture, Baille received her B.F.A from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She currently lives in Columbus, OH, where she is building her eco-art practice. Baille is an advocate for creative thinking, emotional intelligence, and slowing down to spend more time outside. 

Madison Ellis is a freelance Stage Manager and is thrilled to be working with Beth Gill on this project! Selected recent credits include Carmina Burana and Serenade with Nevada Ballet Theatre, Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center, Jazz in July at 92NY, and touring with the Gibney Company across the United States and abroad. Madison has served as the Production Manager at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance where she also earned her BFA in Design Technology.

Jordan Demetrius Lloyd is a dance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He studied at The College at Brockport after growing up in Albany, NY. He has collaborated with and performed for Karl Rogers, Beth Gill, Netta Yerushalmy, Monica Bill Barnes, Joanna Kotze, Tammy Carrasco, Catherine Galasso, Ambika Raina, and David Dorfman Dance. He is currently teaching at Rutgers University and his work has been produced by: New York Live Arts, BRIC, ISSUE Project Room, Baryshnikov Arts Center, BAAD!, Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church, and The Center for Performance Research. Recently he received the 2021–23 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. For more, please head to jordandlloyd.com.

Jennifer Lafferty is from Southern California. She started working with Beth Gill in 2010. She has been in the work of Sarah Michelson, Rebecca Lazier, Vicky Shick, Yasuko Yokoshi, Christopher Williams, Michou Szabo, Renée Archibald, Anna Sperber, Nina Winthrop, and Marilyn Maywald-Yahel. She has been involved with programming at Roulette (2014–17) and Weis Acres (2018).

Marilyn Maywald Yahel is a dance artist and Feldenkrais teacher based in New York City.  She has worked with Maggie Bennett, Milka Djordjevich, Beth Gill, Melanie Maar, Yin Mei, Steven Reker, Melinda Ring, Vicky Shick, and Katie Workum. She has presented her own works-in-progress and short-form solos throughout NYC. Marilyn is originally from Nashville, TN, and attended Arizona State University. She lives with her family in Putnam Valley, NY. 

Maggie Cloud is a performer and acupuncturist based in New York City. She has been seen in the choreographic work of Moriah Evans, Beth Gill, John Jasperse, Neal Medlyn, Sarah Michelson, Pam Tanowitz, Gillian Walsh, the Merce Cunningham Trust, and The Metropolitan Opera. Maggie has taught at Chen Dance Center, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and at the University of the Arts.

To Jay Wegman and NYU Skirball for presenting Nail Biter and making this homecoming happen! To Alberto Ruiz, Taylor Everts, Julia Thorncroft, Craig Melzer, Helene Davis and the entire NYU Skirball crew for your support, labor and care in the presentation of this work.

To Gideon Lester and Caleb Hammons at Bard Fisher Center for co-commissioning and championing my work so completely. To Philip Bither and Walker Arts Center for commissioning Nail Biter and believing in my work. To Lili Chopra, Shana Crawford, and LMCC for supporting the first iteration of Nail Biter.

To Sonia Werner and Dance Theater in Westchester for generously loaning us a scenic drop from
their repertoire.

To Barbara Pillsbury and King’s Fountain for their uplifting generosity and continued support.

To Alexandra Rosenberg, Anna Muselmann, and the Center For Performance Research for providing a nurturing workspace for the dancers and me.

To Michelle Fletcher for making everything possible even when it feels impossible.

To Thomas Dunn for bringing grand vision. To Baille Younkman for her incomparable taste and open heart. To Jon Moniaci, for decades of working together, pushing each other and for always making the work feel right. To Krista Smith and Madison Ellis for joining our team this month and diving in with grace.

To my remarkably talented dancers Jordan, Jennifer, Maggie, and Marilyn for holding and caring for these tender imaginings with such focus and dedication. You inspire and make this work possible.

NYU Skirball holds close James Baldwin’s dictum that “artists are here to disturb the peace.” Our mission is to present adventurous, transdisciplinary work that inspires yet provokes, confirms yet confounds, and entertains yet upends. We proudly embrace renegade artists who surprise, productions that blur aesthetic boundaries, and thought-leaders who are courageous, outrageous, and mind-blowing.

A roster of international artistic visionaries command our stage, often with North American or World Premieres, including directors Milo Rau and Toshiki Okada; choreographers Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Florentina Holzinger, and Faustin Linyekula; composers Du Yun, George Lewis, and John Zorn; the theatre ensembles Elevator Repair Service, Forced Entertainment, Gob Squad, Wooster Group, and Teatro La ReSentida; along with the dance companies A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Big Dance Theater, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance. Eminent scholars, authors, and paradigm shifters headline our events and have included Kwame Anthony Appiah, Judith Butler, David Chalmers, Angela Davis, Zadie Smith, and Slavoj Žižek.

NYU Skirball’s engagement programming supports the University’s academic mission with conjunctions of cutting-edge live art and practical, experiential curricular resources, including artists’ conversations, workshops, scholarly essays, and diverse public events. Our work promotes encounters with boundary-pushing art forms, enhances critical thinking, nurtures imaginations, and employs the performing arts as an essential means of teaching, researching, and lifelong learning.

We are NYU’s largest classroom. We want to feed your head.

 

NYU SKIRBALL FUNDING

NYU Skirball’s programs are made possible in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and by Howard Gilman Foundation; FUSED (French U.S. Exchange in Dance), a program of FACE Foundation in partnership with Villa Albertine; General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA; Collins Building Services; Korean Cultural Center New York; Marta Heflin Foundation; Harkness Foundation for Dance; Van Cleef & Arpels; as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Stage Pass Fund support.

Benefits include:
• Up to 30% off one ticket per show
• Advance notice of upcoming events
• Exclusive pre-sale tickets
• Subscription to NYU Skirball’s e-newsletter
• Personalized NYU Skirball Member card
• Member offers at local Greenwich Village restaurants and shops
(Fully tax-deductible)

All of the benefits Bosom Buddies receive, plus:
• Four passes to all NYU Skirball humanities event receptions
• Ability to secure premium house seats
($2455 tax-deductible)

NYU SKIRBALL ACADEMIC ADVISORY COUNCIL

Sheril Antonio
Senior Associate Dean, Strategic Initiatives, NYU Tisch

Ulrich Baer
University Professor

Una Chaudhuri
Divisional Dean for the Humanities &
Vice Dean for Interdisciplinary Initiatives

Anna Deavere Smith
University Professor

Michael Dinwiddie
Associate Professor, NYU Gallatin

Georgina Dopico
Interim Provost, NYU

Karen Finley
Arts Professor, NYU Tisch

Faye Ginsburg
David B. Kriser Professor, NYU Arts & Science

Lynn Gumpert
Director, NYU Grey Art Gallery

Sylvaine Guyot
Professor of French Literature, Thought, and Culture,
NYU Arts & Science

André Lepecki
Professor; Chair of Performance Studies, NYU Tisch

Julie Malnig
Associate Professor, NYU Gallatin

Judith Graves Miller
Professor Emerita of French and Collegiate Professor, NYU Arts & Science

Pamela Pietro
Arts Professor; Chair of Dance, NYU Tisch

Rubén Polendo
Associate Dean, Institute Of Performing Arts, NYU Tisch

J. Ryan Poynter
Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs & Chief of Staff

Karen Shimakawa
Associate Professor; Academic Associate Dean, NYU Tisch

Catharine Stimpson
University Professor

Justin Townsend
Arts Professor; Chair of Graduate Design for Stage & Film, NYU Tisch

Tomi M. Tsunoda
Associate Arts Professor; Chair of Drama, NYU Tisch

Bryan Waterman
Associate Professor, English Literature, NYU Arts & Sciences

Deborah Williams 
Clinical Professor, Liberal Studies

Julia Wolfe
Professor of Music Composition; Artistic Director of Music Composition, NYU Steinhardt

 

NYU SKIRBALL ARTISTIC ADVISORY COUNCIL

Kyle Abraham

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

David Lang

Elizabeth LeCompte

Eiko Otake

Annie-B Parson

Philippe Quesne

Alex Timbers

 

NYU SKIRBALL STAFF

Jay Wegman
Director

Emily Anderson
Supervisor, Lighting And Sound

Cliff Billings
Ticket Operation Specialist

J De Leon, PhD
Associate Director, Engagement

Brian Emens
Theater Technician

Taylor Everts
Company Manager

George Faya
Theater Technician

Angie Golightly
Theater Technician

Tara Hoey
Assistant Director, Finances

Jenny Liao
Manager, Operations

Craig Melzer
Box Office Manager

Kimberly Olstad
Director, Development

Jordan Peters
Front of House Supervisor

Alberto Ruiz
Production Manager

Don Short
Senior Supervisor, Lighting And Sound

Caroline Grace Steudle
Administrative Coordinator

Ian Tabatchnick
Director, Operations

Julia Thorncroft
Marketing Manager

Helene Davis 
Press Representative

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