FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 9, 2009
Washington, DC—CityDance Ensemble has been named a finalist for the DC Mayor’s Arts Award in two categories: Excellence in an Artistic Discipline and Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education. Selected by a blue ribbon arts panel on behalf of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, CityDance was chosen as a finalist from a list of 91 eligible nominees. The Mayor’s Arts Award is the most prestigious honor given by the District of Columbia to individual artists, arts organizations, and patrons of the arts. Award recipients will be selected from among the finalists and announced live from the stage at the Mayor’s Arts Awards Ceremony on Monday, March 23, 2009 at 6pm at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
CityDance company member Jason Garcia Ignacio was also named a finalist for the DC Mayor’s Arts Award in the category of Outstanding Emerging Artist. In addition, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts recently selected Mr. Ignacio, in partnership with CityDance Ensemble, for The Millennium Stage Local Dance Commissioning Project, a program that supports the local dance community by nurturing the creation of new dance work and presenting that new work to a wide audience. Two local choreographers or companies are given the Commission Award each year to create a new work of at least 20 minutes in length. Mr. Ignacio’s work, titled The Mountain, centers on the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in his native Philippines and is set to a musical score created from sound data of volcanic seismic readings interpolated into recognizable musical elements through a complex series of computer algorithms. The Mountain is a part of CityDance’s ongoing efforts to bring art into the dialogue about climate change. Mr. Ignacio has been working with Dr. Domenico Vicinanza, a network engineer at DANTE in Cambridge in the UK and formerly at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, to create this music through the process of ‘seismic sonification. Mr. Vicinanza created ‘seismic sonification’ with the intent of using music and art as a tool to help expand our ability to predict earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The piece will be presented on the Millennium Stage in September 2009 along with the world premiere of CityDance Artistic Director Paul Emerson’s Crush.
“CityDance’s commitment to Green Practices, and to using art as a tool to foster awareness and spark dialogue, is a critical part of who we are and what we do,” notes Mr. Emerson. “What we are learning is that this effort is opening doors creatively and collaboratively across the world. Domenico’s work is ground-breaking, and to have the opportunity to partner with him, and with DANTE on this project is a measure of how much art can bridge boundaries. Those bridges are critical if we are going to make an impact where climate change is concerned. The fact that Jason, as an artist from Manila, can find inspiration through this, and can create an idea of such resonance that it warrants a Kennedy Center commission, is inspiring for all of us.”
About Jason Garcia Ignacio
A CityDance company member since November 2007, Jason Garcia Ignacio originally hails from the Philippines where he began his dance training at the age of 12. He trained at Ballet Philippines, Philippine Ballet Theater, Steps Dance Studio, and was a member of Earth Savers Dreams Ensemble for five years. In 2001, Jason continued his dance training in New York City with a scholarship at Ballet Hispanico, where he also served on the faculty as a teacher. He was a fellowship student at The Ailey School and toured nationally with the Martha Graham Ensemble. He has performed with the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company, Diversity of Dance, Cortez and Co., Connecticut Ballet, Zig Zag Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Verb Ballets, and was an apprentice for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He has also performed in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats as Mistoffolees at Carousel Dinner Theater, Maine State Music Theater, and West Virginia Public Theater.
About Domenico Vicinanza
Composer, network engineer, and researcher, Domenico Vicinanza studied piano, percussion, and composition. He currently works as network engineer at DANTE, in the field of multi-domain network monitoring and he is an active composer. His focus is always on the richness of the information coming from the Nature. He first introduced the sonification of seismic signals (in particular coming from active volcanoes) as a scientific tool, co-working with geophysicists and volcanologists. His experiences also include the application of grid technologies for music and visual arts chairing the ASTRA (Ancient instrument Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) project for the reconstruction of musical instruments by means of computer models on GÉANT2 and EUMEDCONNECT (www.astraproject.org). As a composer he has taken part in several concerts, festivals and webcasts. Performances include: "Observatorium" (with P. Parisi) at Lenbachhaus Munich, "See wall" at Radio Arte Mobile (radio broadcast), "Switch On" at the French Institute "Grenoble" Naples, "Live text sonifications" webcast at World Year of Physics celebration CERN (Geneva), and "In Chat" (with M. Mazzella) Gallarate Modern Art Museum.
About CityDance Ensemble, Inc.
CityDance Ensemble, Inc. is the parent organization to CityDance Ensemble, an award-winning contemporary repertory dance company; Early Arts, an arts outreach program for youth reaching thousands of students each year; CityDance Education Centers, facilities committed to excellence in dance training for youth and adults; and FilmWORKS, a creator and presenter of dance-on-camera. The mission of CityDance is to advance the appreciation for and participation in the art of dance through excellence in performance, education, film, and artistic innovation.
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