See highlights from Company SBB/Stefanie Batten Bland’s Embarqued: Stories of Soil in a shared program that includes dancer Lloyd Knightand (Martha Graham Dance Company) with a look at his new solo and in-process collaboration with choreographer Jack Ferver and filmmaker Jeremy Jacobs. Stefanie will participate in a post-performance discussion with all of the artists, moderated by Jerome Robbins Dance Division Curator Linda Murray. Full Program details here.

A chat and conversation between Frank Hentscker and Stefanie Batten Bland about proscenium, immersive performance, and all the in-betweens in our new covid making times.

Free etnry, open to all.

Click here for more information

Click here for more information

Film screening of KOLONIAL followed by a conversion with Stefanie Batten Bland.

Tickets available on Southampton Arts Center’s website.

Check out Broadway World’s feature on the event!

Follow link below for more details:

A conversation between Choreographer/Director Stefanie Batten Bland, Assistant Professor Montclair State University, Dr. Neftalie Williams, Visiting Fellow of Race, Culture & Community, and Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies Yale University.

Led by Jennifer Newman Artistic Director of the Schwarzman Center Yale University.

For more details, follow link below:

https://schwarzman.yale.edu/events/dancing-about-architecture-navigating-symbolic-racism-theater-sport-and-culture

Preview performances to take place Wednesday, March 30 at 1:00 PM & 7:30 PM. An artist talk with Stefanie Batten Bland follows the evening performance.

Registration is free; doors open 30 minutes before performance start time.

Please follow link below for more information:

Film screening of “KOLONIAL” and discussion with the Director/Choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland and Cinematographer/Director Jean-Claude Dhien, moderated by Paul Sigh (Baryshinokov Arts Center Associate Presenter).

Produced by Mikhail Baryshnikov, the dance-cinema film KOLONIAL unites choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland , artist Conrad Quesen, Costume designer Shane Ballard, make-up artist Damian Monzillo, composer Grant Cutler, and Photographer Jean Claude Dhien together in a COVID futuristic installation. This collaboration stirs the many emotions of isolation, entrapment, extreme loneliness, desire to touch, to reach out, to escape, to be free of bonds that restrict life. The film compares the bondage of colonialism with the imposed bonds of the pandemic.

https://rsvp.neuehouse.com/kolonial

As part of RESTART Lincoln Center Company SBB will perform their critically acclaimed dance-theatre piece for one night.

Inspired by the 1967 Stanley Kramer film starring Sydney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, the work pays tribute to those who paved the way toward acceptance in love and life. Set around a transformative dinner setting, seven dance-theatre artists excavate interlaced universal traumas through imagery and ritual as they seek a seat at the table. 

Photo by Carlos Cardona

The Spring 2021 season of premieres commissioned by BAC includes a series of live-streamed talks with the artists about their projects and creative processes.

In conjunction with the premiere of Kolonial, choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland talks with writer and curator Eva Yaa Asantewaa.

Batten Bland and Yaa Asantewaa first connected through engagements with Gibney Dance, where Yaa Asantewaa currently serves as Senior Director of Curation and Editorial Director.

Kolonial is available to watch free, on demand May 3-17, Monday at 5PM ET until Monday at 5PM ET.

La Mama presents La Mama LiveTalks, conversations with artists, activists and thought leaders from around the country and around the world who join in discussions about art and life in times of crisis.

This conversation follows how choreographer and film maker Stefanie Batten Bland is moving through the pandemic with her company, her commission and in her new role as Casting and Movement Director for Emursive Productions to question casting biases.

Bland invites two friends and colleagues to join in a discussion about casting and performer biases pre-COVID and now. The virus and the racial/justice movement no longer allows the industry to hide in plain sight with its stereotyping and tonight we discover how SBB and guests Rena Butler and Maleek Washington ensure new habits reflect our new lives as our industry comes back better.

Featuring Stefanie Batten Bland, Rena Butler, and Maleek Washington. The evening is hosted by Ryan Leach.

For more information and to reserve your spot, visit http://lamama.org/livetalks-15/

A conversation led by Ryan White with Stefanie Batten Bland and two guests she is inviting to speak about casting and performer biases within the industry with regards to inclusion and equity. Her invitees are Maleek Washington and Rena Butler.

Photo by JC Dhien

Exact Date and Time TBD

Kolonial is the final product of several years of research between installation artist Conrad Quesen and choreographic artist Stefanie Batten Bland. 

Inspired by the racial/ethnic exposition parks primarily of Europe, North America and colonial Caribbean during the 1810s-1940s, this dance cinema piece examines how we create definitions to justify systems that exploit and oppress. Kolonial interrogates suppressed identity though physical posturing and gesture in a transparent zoo of present day cages.