Conversations with Roni Koresh invites esteemed artists from Philadelphia and beyond for a round-table discussion centered around a variety of topics. Hosted by Koresh Dance Company, these live conversations connect artists and curators in a space to exchange ideas, respond to featured works, reflect on current events and engage with your questions. Get to know these artists more intimately like never before. Online events will be prefaced with exclusive access to streamed works by both artists, to spark questions, comments, and themes for dialogue. Series will be streamed live on Koresh Dance Company’s Vimeo account. Questions are encouraged to be submitted in advance, but also welcomed live.  

Kicking off this virtual program, Koresh Dance Company presents Creativity in Times of COVID, inviting local Artistic Directors to discuss how they are re-imagining their work during these times of great limitations.

Be part of the conversation!

COMING UP…

Sunday, April 11 - 6:00PM

Featuring guest Kun-Yang Lin

Roni Koresh invites Artistic Director and Choreographer, Kun-Yang Lin from Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers (KYL/D) to join him in conversation. In preparation for their conversation both Mr. Koresh and Mr. Lin have shared promos of what they are currently creating this season with their dancers (video links below). Topics for discussion include isolation, hope, and humanity.  

Be part of the conversation! Watch the performance, submit your questions/comments & tune in!

//ANNENBERG PROGRAM - Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers

Described as "deeply spiritual and remarkable" (Dance Magazine) and known for lush works of poetic sensibility, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers shares a preview of their virtual performance at the Annenberg Center stage that will be streamed online on Thursday, April 22 at 7:00PM. The full program will reflect on the state of the world amidst a pandemic with prevailing messages of hope and unity. Lin seeks to illustrate how isolation can provide opportunities to reflect, grow and evolve, allowing us to form a deeper connection with all humanity.

// The light at the End of the Tunnel - Koresh Dance

Roni Koresh presents a preview of his latest film venture, The Light at the End of the Tunnel, edited by Sandy Mitchel. In this time of uncertainty and fear, examining the themes of perseverance and innovation, this work will premiere on both screen and stage – morphing from two dimensional cinema to come alive on stage in 2021. Movement is inspired by and set to a soundtrack of spoken word written and recorded by multimedia artist Karl Mullen. Mr. Koresh explores the path of the dance artist as they emerge from this time of social isolation and adapt to, (a currently undefined), ‘new normal’. Exploring questions include: What does re-emergence look like? Is it an on-off switch or a journey? Did we grow and develop, or just hit pause on life? Mullen’s captivating voice sets the rhythm and the temperament of the work; “Adrift in the vast multiverse we cling to hope. The Light at the End of the Tunnel”.

PReviously…

Sunday, NOVEMBER 1, 2020

featuring guest Brian Sanders

To kick off this series we had the pleasure of having guest Brian Sanders from Brian Sanders’ JUNK. In preparation for the conversation both artists shared works that cultivated topics of discussion including themes of mental health, athleticism, creativity in restricting circumstances, and how these artists respond to emergent issues with a new sense of perspective and clarity.

// - JUNK

Sanders shared a work which intentionally has no title. “The less I give in words, the happier I am”, says Sanders. The work was created as part of a live streaming event for the 2020 Fringe Festival in Philadelphia. Performed by JUNK member Jess Adams, the work is a solo created during both the intensity of COVID and the BLM protests. Three white ceramic urinals hang mounted at various heights on a tall cinderblock wall. A female performer navigates the space. The imagery and dichotomy of function and gender bend our minds in unpredictable directions. Sanders states, "You can feel anything from despair to hope when watching. What’s important for me is that you see and feel. I felt like an unfeeling slab from everything that was happening; I didn’t know how to feel. This piece is where I started chip away at the stony surface”.

// RAIN - KORESH DANCE COMPANY

Mr. Koresh showcased an excerpt titled “Rain” from Koresh Dance Company’s Sense of Human, with musical collaboration by Nick Kendall (Time for Three), Greg Smith and Karl Mullen. Sense of Human is a search for human emotion in the purest, rawest, most guttural state. The work delves into themes of perception, focusing on how we as people choose to wear carefully chosen facades that disguise, redirect, and hide the basic yearnings by which we exist. Sense of Human focuses on our obsessiveness to portray a desired self-image and how when we finally remove those masks, our true identity is revealed. In the piece Koresh uses “command of characterization and solid storytelling” to connect the dancers with audiences.

Meet the artists

Roni Koresh | Ronen (Roni) Koresh was born and raised in Israel. He received early dance training from his mother, a folk dancer in the Yemenite tradition, and from teachers Alida Gera, Micha Deri, Nira Paz and Moshe Romano. Koresh joined Martha Graham’s Batsheva 2 Dance Company before enlisting for 3 years in the Israeli army. In 1983, he moved to New York to study with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He began performing with Shimon Braun’s Waves Jazz Dance Company in Philadelphia, and in 1991, founded Koresh Dance Company in Philadelphia, followed by the Koresh School of Dance in 1993. Koresh has established a repertoire of over 60 works and develops 2 to 3 new works each year. These have included commissions for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Giordano Dane Chicago, GroundWorks Dance Theatre, Las Vegas Contemporary, Odyssey Dance Theatre, Spectrum Dance Theater, the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Celebration, the dancers of MADCO (commissioned for St. Louis’ New Dance Horizons series), Point Park University, Jacksonville University, East Carolina University, and Giordano Dance Chicago, as well as mentoring students at performing arts high schools across the country.  Koresh had been on the faculty at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts for 30 years since 1986, teaches master classes across the country, and participates in festivals including Jacob’s Pillow and the Northwest National Dance Project. Recipient of a Philadelphia dance community Rocky Award from FringeArts and Dance/USA Philadelphia, Koresh is an avid collaborator and supporter of emerging artists. His interdisciplinary works have been supported by multi-year fellowships and grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Brian Sanders | Growing up in Princeton, NJ as a brother of six, Brian’s reckless fun was easily channeled once he found his love for gymnastics and classical dance. Inspired by the inventiveness of shows like Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ and Pilobolus on Broadway in the 1970s, Brian resolved to become a choreographer in his own right. At the time, he was unaware that he would eventually sustain an extensive working relationship with one of the founding members of Pilobolus, Moses Pendleton, who also founded MOMIX in 1980. Sanders went on to choreograph and perform worldwide with MOMIX for ten years. 

In 1992, Sanders founded JUNK as a new platform for creativity and the performance experience. His recent creative visions with JUNK include partnering with renowned mural artist Meg Saligman to launch critically acclaimed Figmago and choreographing Pennsylvania Ballet's tour de force, Chicken Bone Brain. Sanders recently launched a new Virtual Reality and Performance Experience, in collaboration with Drexel University, which premiered at the 2019 Philadelphia Fringe Arts Festival in the fall of 2019 entitled, 2nd Sanctuary. 

Kun-Yang Lin | Kun-Yang Lin is the founding Artistic Director of Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers (“KYL/D”) & co-founder of KYL/D’s CHI Movement Arts Center in Philadelphia. Taiwan-born Lin probes at the limits of national identity, drawing upon Eastern philosophy while expanding the perimeter of Western contemporary dance. Lin has won numerous awards in Taiwan and been widely recognized in the U.S. for both his dancing and choreography including, in 2002 by BackStage, which named him “the year’s most promising choreographer in NYC.” Lin has been on the faculty of The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard, H.B. Actor’s Studio, Peridance International Dance Center and The Limón Institute and he offers master classes and workshops throughout the U.S. and abroad.  Currently, Lin is Professor of Dance at Temple University. Lin received his MFA from New York University’s Tisch School (on full scholarship) and his BFA from Taiwan National University of the Arts.