Brooklyn College Welcomes Australia's Expressions Dance 1/10

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College welcomes Australia's Expressions Dance Company, performing the New York City premiere of their multimedia dance theater piece, Score!, on Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 8pm. This performance is the second of four international dance performances that make up Brooklyn Center's World of Dance series.

Score!, a new multimedia dance-theatre piece, takes its inspiration from Mikhail Fokine's ballet Petrushka and reality television. The fairground puppeteer is transformed into a slick, Ryan Seacrest-esque TV host with his dancing puppets now contestants in a glitzy reality TV competition. The ultimate prize is a partner for life, the ballerina. Packed with striking physicality, Maggi Sietsma's choreography is enhanced by live footage, video projections, and spoken word to create a unique world that is both uproariously funny and devastatingly tragic.

About the piece, Ms. Sietsma commented, "Being famous is suddenly something we are being told anybody is capable of achieving. This modern lie is promoted by marketing companies, and the very fabric of our society is changing as we become puppets of the marketing industry. Score! is set in the world of reality TV - a world where, according to the TV marketing gurus, if you aren't famous, you're a failure. I have created parallels with the story of Petrushka through the characters of Petrushka, the Ballerina, the Blackamoor and the Puppetmaster."

The performance will be followed by a discussion with Artistic Director Maggi Sietsma and members of the company.

Expressions Dance Company was founded in 1984 by Maggi Sietsma and Abel Valls. Queensland's leading contemporary dance company, Expressions is acclaimed for its high caliber and compelling brand of dance theatre. Expressions pushes the boundaries of dance and theatre, creating meaning with powerful imagery and movement by combining dance, dialogue, and visual media. The Company has toured to over 15 countries, and was the recipient of the Sidney Myer Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts, and two Drovers - Australia's touring awards, for Tour Innovation and Management Excellence. It had achieved national and international recognition through its extensive touring program, and has performed in the United States,Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland,China, Japan, Mexico, and New Caledonia. www.expressions.org.au

As founder, director, and choreographer, Maggi Sietsma has created over thirty works for Expressions Dance Company including the highly successful and internationally acclaimed Alone Together, Vanities Crossing, and Virtually Richard. Ms. Sietsma was awarded an Asialink fellowship to choreograph and teach for the Beijing Modern Dance Company and the Beijing Dance Academy in China, and was also awarded a Centenary Medal for her work with dance and society. General Manager, Abel Valls has created original scores for many of the Company's works.

The artistic team for Score! includes Maggi Sietsma (choreographer), Jennifer Flowers (drama consultant), Tanja Beer (set & costume design), Nick Tomlin (lighting design), and Abel Valls (sound track).

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' 2008-09 World of Dance series also includes Argentina's Estampas Porteñas performing Tango Fire, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, and Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada performing the New York premiere of their new, full-length ballet Don Juan.