Black Moon (La Lune Noir) Act I
tags: Dance, Dance New Amsterdam, Holly Daggers, Major Andres Scurlock, Monstah Black, wetcircuit
| September 15, 2011 | ||
| 8:00 pm | ||
| September 16, 2011 | ||
| 8:00 pm |
Black Moon (La Lune Noir) Act I
Monstah Black and Major Andres Scurlock
at DANCE NEW AMSTERDAM
THURSDAY and FRIDAY September 15–16 at 8:00pm
Post-show discussion on 9/16 moderated by Matthew Morrison
Tickets: $17 general, $12 DNA members, $14 students/seniors, $12 advance
FREE Preview: THUR September 8 at 12:15pm
DNA’s 2nd Floor Gallery, brief Q&A to follow
GALLERY The Anatomy of Black Moon opens with a reception and panel discussion, September 8 at 7:00pm
“In “Black Moon (La Lune Noir),” at Dance New Amsterdam, the protagonist is a monstrous black creature, the glam-fabulous performer Monstah Black, who has refashioned the modernist landmark from the perspective of an African-American artist in a country led by a black President.”
– THE NEW YORKER
Black Moon (La Lune Noir)
A world premiere
Choreographer: Monstah Black
Dance Company: Motion Sickness (Artistic Director, Monstah Black)
Composer and Music Director: Major Andres Scurlock
Video Installation and Lighting Designer: Holly Daggers
Artist’s Description
Black Moon (La Lune Noir) is an interdisciplinary/multimedia cabaret operetta based on Arnold Schoenberg’s melodrama “Pierrot Lunaire,” rewritten from an African-American male perspective and musically re-imagined through popular genres such as Afrobeat and house, deconstructing classical and contemporary forms to infuse the work with emotional power. The work is an electric experience visually and sonically.
Dance New Amsterdam is supporting the development of Black Moon (La Lune Noir) through a 2011-12 residency. Black Moon (La Lune Noir) was funded, in part, through Meet The Composer’s MetLife Creative Connections program.
Artist Bios
Monstah Black studied choreography/performance at Virginia Commonwealth University receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and his motion picture debut playing the role of choreographer/dance instructor for a porn film starring Jeff Stryker. Following his undergraduate education, Black began choreographing for happenings in nightclubs, art galleries, black boxes and warehouses in Washington D.C. His ensemble, Bedrock Goes Kaboom, terrorized the nation’s capital with cross-dressing madness and ballistic/physical theater, leading to a role as choreographer for a music video for D.C.-based go-go band EU.
Receiving generous support from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities for his one man show The Acid Box Cabaret, Black toured along the East Coast. Following his one man show he began to create ensembles incorporating musicians and strippers, fusing rock and roll, funk and glam with the dance and visual art. Out of this came the site-specific, funk apocalyptic spectacle Delicious Hunger, Hunger Delicious, an opera featuring psycho burlesque and screaming shamans performed at The National Theater. Simultaneously, Black toured internationally with The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and Maida Withers Dance Construction.
Relocating to New York, Black started building shows with music composition as the foundation. His work has been commissioned by Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center, Blackout Arts Collective, Muse Dance Theater, Rowan University Dancers, Edgeworks Dance Theater, Jane Franklin and Dancers, Topaz Arts, Dixon Place and Movement Research and Nicholas Leichter Dance (currently touring The Whizz). Monstah was a recipient of a Dance Theater Workshop Studio Residency where he debuted Motion Sickness (a dance company) alongside his band The Sonic Leroy.
He has received support from American Music Association’s Music For Dance and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for the creation of his show Submerged In Blue. Black works seasonally with Cabaret Cataplexy, a sexy variety show he co-produces with his glam partner Ashley Brockington and Queer Arts Impact. Coming soon is the release of The Blacks debut album recess, a music venture he fronts with his life partner Manchildblack Black. He holds a Masters in Fine Arts in New Media Art and Performance. monstahblack.com…
Major Andres Scurlock’s piano playing is both powerful and commanding with elements of true lyricism. Born in Washington D.C. and raised in New York City, Major has cultivated a personal sensibility as a pianist and composer that has set his work apart from others. He has proven himself as an accomplished pianist with both BM and MM degrees from the Juilliard School under the instruction of Jerome Lowenthal. He’s currently a member of Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program Piano Faculty where he’s been teaching for more than ten years. Scurlock’s additional studies include the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and the International Piano Festival in Israel. He’s appeared in Piano Master Classes hosted by Leon Fleisher and Abbey Simon. Scurlock is also known for his abilities as a keyboard player, fulfilling his love for funk, soul and rock in the New York City club scene.
As a composer, Scurlock’s works have been performed nationally with great acclaim, and he has worked with various choreographers including Hope Boykin and Desmond Richardson. While attending Juilliard, he was awarded a full tuition scholarship from The Fabian Foundation and William Patscheck Piano Scholarship for both his degree studies in Piano Performance. He has appeared at The Blue Note, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Aaron Davis Hall and The Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharpe Theater. As a producer and curator, he has produced a series of concerts with several artists including Living Colour, Vijay Iyer, Imani Uzuri and Barry Harris. Scurlock has collaborated with various vocalists such as Marlon Saunders, Alvin Crawford, Monstah Black and the Sonic Leroy, and Martha Wash. Scurlock has strong belief in giving back to the community and has been highly active in New York City’s arts education scene. He has been awarded a New York Congressional Honor for his services in Arts Education. He is currently completing his operetta titled Black Moon to be performed at Dance New Amsterdam in New York where is a composer in residence.
Holly Daggers is a visual artist and live-mix VJ. She performed as the onstage VJ for Microsoft’s XBOX KINECT launch in Times Square which featured game-inspired visuals on seven jumbo screens and more than 600 dancers in a flash mob concert.
In 2003, Daggers founded the live-media performance series EyeWash, which has produced more than 200 audio-visual collaborations. Her audience-interactive installations have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art and Chelsea Art Museum in New York. She performed concert visuals for Moby and toured with diverse music acts ranging from The Roots to Page McConnell to Hillary Duff. Holly was voted a “Top 20 VJ” by DJ Magazine (UK) two years in a row.
Her current projects include VJ residencies at Pacha NYC and R Bar in Manhattan, and upcoming dance/theater collaborations include 3D hiphop with Decadancetheater in the New York Fringe Festival and Black Moon at Dance New Amsterdam, based on a Schoenberg opera with Monstah Black and Major Scurlock.
Holly is supported by Edirol/Roland, Korg and Reflecmedia. Her portfolio and other visual interests can be found at wetcircuit.com…
Panel Discussion
America’s Black Arts Movement
Description
This panel will explore elements of the arts community with an emphasis on the music industry. A short comparison between the Blacks Arts Movement of The 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement and the Present Date Arts Community the impact of having a Black President.
Moderator
Matthew Morrison
Matthew D. Morrison, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, graduated *magna
cum laude*, Phi Beta Kappa from Morehouse College in May of 2003. While a
Presidential Scholar at Morehouse, Matthew studied violin, served as
concertmaster and assistant conductor of the AUC Orchestra, and studied
musicology and violin in Vienna, Austria. Prior to completing a Master’s in
Musicology at The Catholic University of America in 2008, Matthew taught
middle and high school orchestra in Atlanta, GA, ending with a program of
over 200 students. Subsequently, Matthew began doctoral studies in
Musicology at Columbia University, where he is the Editor-in-Chief *Current
Musicology*. He is a faculty member of the W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars Institute
housed at Princeton University, and is currently an Instructor on “black
music” at Vassar College. Matthew is completing a dissertation that
considers the critical intersections between race and sound, advised by
George Lewis.
Panelist
Jason King, PhD
BIO: Jason King is the Artistic Director of The Clive Davis Institute of
Recorded Music, an innovative leadership training program for aspiring music
entrepreneurs at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. The founding
faculty member of the program and associate professor, he has been teaching
classes on pop music history, the music business (marketing/branding) and
the social aspects of music technology for the last ten years at New York
University. He has brought numerous guests to the school, from De La Soul to
Alicia Keys to Raul Midon to JIll Sobule to Russell Simmons to Swizz Beats.
Among the events he has produced: a two-day “The Making of Public Enemy’s It
Takes a Nation of Millions” with Chuck D and Hank Shocklee; “Sylvester: The
Life and Work of a Musical Icon” (produced with Carolyn Dinshaw) with Martha
Wash and Kevin Aviance; “The Making of Afrika Bambaataa and SoulSonic
Force’s Planet Rock” with Arthur Baker and Fab 5 Freddy; Motown’s 50
anniversary series with Leon Ware and Raphael Saadiq. Professor King has
been a pop music critic for magazines like Vibe (2001-2008) and The Village
Voice (2003-2006); a playwright and director in theater (Crossroads Theater
Company, New Perspectives, etc.); as well as a record producer, and
manager/strategist for major label and indie artists (Jimmy Edgar, The Craig
Lewis Band, Asha Puthli, etc.) He also consults for record labels and music
technology start-ups; and has served as a live event producer, marketing and
branding consultant, and music supervisor. His pioneering approach to
teaching hip-hop and pop music in the classroom has been profiled on MTV,
BET, NPR, AOL and he has been invited to give lectures on popular music at
universities like Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, and MIT.
Jason is the author of The Michael Jackson Treasures, a 2009 Barnes and
Noble exclusive biography on the King of Pop, which has been translated in
more than 7 languages, and a book called Blue Magic, on the role of
metaphysics and energy in the music of artists like Jay Z, forthcoming from
Duke University Press. He has published numerous essays on pop culture, and
his blog entry “Michael Jackson: An Appreciation of His Talent” appears in
the Da Capo Press Best Music Writing 2010 compilation, edited by Ann Powers.
In 2010, he was invited to teach the inaugural class at the just-launched
NYU Abu Dhabi campus in the United Arab Emirates; and in the same year he
taught a 7 week post-graduate masterclass on Producing and Selling Music in
the Global Marketplace for the new MFA program in International Media
Producing at Tisch School of the Arts Asia in Singapore. Wrote the liner
notes for the forthcoming Luther Vandross compilation for Sony Music. He
holds a Ph.D from NYU.
Panelist
Pamela Sneed
is a New York-based poet, performer, writer and actress. She is the author
of *Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery*, published by Henry
Holt (1998). Sneed has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, The New
Yorker, The Source, Time Out, VIBE, Karl Lagerfeld’s “Off The Record,” and
on the cover of New York Magazine. In 2001, 2002, and in 2005 she headlined
the New Work Now Festival at Joe’s Pub/Public Theater and performed before
sold out houses. Sneed is a recipient of the 2006 Baxten Award for
Performance.
FMT’s 
