Trash cans….pogo sticks…discarded soda bottles. Brian Sanders’ JUNK dance ensemble is known for their ingenious use of found objects and clever inventions that bridge the gap between dance and physical theater. Brian Sanders’ JUNK will bring its special brand of dance magic to Rutgers University-Newark on Wednesday, March 26, 2014, 7 p.m. in Found Objects: A Symposium on Modern Dance & Physical Theater with Brian Sanders’ JUNK at Bradley Hall Theater, 110 Warren Street, on the Rutgers University-Newark Campus.
Presented by the Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience, the Symposium will feature JUNK’S touring production, “Patio Plastico,” which uses a collection of objects from pogo sticks to broken ladders to create a dynamic and evocative show. Following the performance, artistic director Brian Sanders and company performers will host a post-concert discussion with members of the audience. The symposium is free and open to the public.
Brian Sanders was choreographing and performing both nationally and internationally with MOMIX before founding JUNK. Sanders built his signature style by creating inventive, off-the-wall choreography with found objects and other discarded debris giving way to the troupe’s name, JUNK. His choreography blends traditional dance theater with an originality and physicality that has given the company its reputation as the most exciting company in Philadelphia. Dance Magazine cites Sanders' work as “accessible, technically flawless, and thrilling comic dance turns.”
The Dance Symposium Series is mounted by The Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience, an interdisciplinary academic center that offers the Newark metropolitan area the finest thinkers and artists engaged with key issues of modern life. Currently, the Institute hosts the only semi-annual dance symposium series on the Rutgers-Newark campus. Former dance programs have included Middle Eastern, Indian, African, and Afro-Brazilian, North African, Flamenco, Cambodian, South African, Hip-Hop, Contemporary, and Bharatnatyam dance.
Found Objects: A Symposium on Modern Dance & Physical Theater With Brian Sanders’ JUNK is presented by the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers University-Newark. The Symposium is supported in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and administered by the Essex County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs; by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by The Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; by an ArtStart Project Grant from the Newark Arts Council; and by the Cultural Arts Programming Fund at Rutgers-Newark. For more information, visit the Institute’s website at ethnicity.rutgers.edu
MEDIA CONTACT: Marisa Pierson (973) 353-3896
