The Dance Complex is thrilled to welcome Monica Bill Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri from Monica Bill Barnes & Company for a BEE dance conversation- a conversation about creating, presenting and touring dance in nontraditional ways. Five years ago, the company gave itself the motto of “bringing dance where it doesn’t belong” and with each project has been striving to live up to this idea. Robbie and Monica are collaborative partners in making and producing all the company’s shows. This conversation is free and open to the public. Join us!
March 16th at 10:30AM, Workbar Central Square (45 Prospect St. Cambridge, MA)
Contact for More Information and to RSVP: Sarah Craver, Artist Services and Contracts Manager, sarah@dancecomplex.org
Cost: FREE
Courtesy of Celebrity Series of Boston, presenting Monica Bill Barnes & Company in Happy Hour at District Hall, March 12-16. Tickets & more information available HERE.
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Monica Bill Barnes & Company is a contemporary American dance company that brings dance where it does not belong. We create and produce each work entirely from its own rulebook—dancing to radio interviews on the biggest stages in the world, hosting a weekly show in a crowded office party, or leading a choreographed exercise routine in an art museum. Within each of these new contexts and borrowed environments, we constantly find humor in our awkward, everyday triumphs and failures. The company consists of a team of collaborators – Monica Bill Barnes (Artistic Director/Choreographer/Performer); Robbie Saenz de Viteri (Creative Producing Director/Performer) and designers Kelly Hanson (Set/Costume) and Jane Cox (Lighting). Together, this team creates the most unlikely experiences for every kind of audience.
Robert Saenz de Viteri (Creative Producing Director) has been working with MBB&CO since 2013. He began working in theater as an audio script assistant to Anna Deavere Smith. He has created performances and toured productions throughout the world with the Obie Award winning Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He has created, produced, and performed in Happy Hour, The Museum Workout and One Night Only with MBB&CO. Some of his other favorite projects include producing This American Life Episode 528, “The Radio Drama Episode” live on stage at BAM, directing Rachel Bonds’s Michael & Edie, and working in Norway to create The Spiritual Life of Modern America, based on the experiences of foreigners traveling in America today.
Monica Bill Barnes is a choreographer, performer, and the Artistic Director of Monica Bill Barnes & Company. Barnes founded MBB&CO in 1997 with a repertory of solos that could be performed anywhere. In 2013, MBB&CO gave itself the challenge to “bring dance where it doesn’t belong” and has been striving to follow this self-imposed motto ever since. The company has performed in venues ranging from Upright Citizen’s Brigade to The Sydney Opera House, and has been presented in more than 100 cities throughout the US and internationally. Recent company projects include The Museum Workout, a guided exercise tour of art museums made in collaboration with the author/visual artist Maira Kalman; Happy Hour, an immersive office party turned dance show; Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a show that combines radio and dance in collaboration with Ira Glass; and The Running Show, a new touring show inspired by the company’s award winning off-Broadway production that turns dance into a live sporting event.
