| about | past | present | press | media | support | contact |
The Common Foreign Language
of the Red-Haired People (2008)
Commissioned by the Baryshnikov Arts Center
This duet choreographed by Neumann and performed by Neumann and Mikhail Baryshnikov is a Samuel Beckett- inspired study on how men relate. With original music by Philip Glass.
Feedforward (2007)
Commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop, The Walker Arts Center,
Alverno Presents and supported by a tech residency at MASS MoCA, Premiered in October of 2007 at Dance Theater Workshop, NYC.
This interdisciplinary group piece explored and re-arranged the rules, tactics and behaviors of several sports in a moving, hilarious and complex romp with music for a live trombone choir composed by Eve Beglarian.
hit the deck. (studies and accidents) (2006)
Commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop for the 'Sourcing Stravinsky' Festival.Neumann shared the concert with Rennie Harris,
Linas Philips, Dayna Hanson, Cynthia Hopkins and Yvonne Rainer.
Hit the deck is a 15-minute dance piece for people and chairs exploring the collision of chance operations and "dancing to music." An unpredictable series of
musical and theatrical events sometimes relating to the music of Stravinsky with live piano accompaniment.
tough, the tough (2005)
Premiered at Danspace Project, St. Mark's Church in the Bowery, April 2005
Music and sound design by: Hal Hartley, Jane Shaw, Karinne Keithley,
David Neumann, Justin Kawashima and The Pockets. Costumes by Miho Nikaido. Original text by Will Eno.
tough, the tough was made possible, in part, with funds from the Danspace Project 2004-2005 Commission Initiative with support from The Andrew Mellon Foundation. Additional support was provided by The Multi-Arts Production Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and by The Moore Family Fund for the Arts of The Minneapolis Foundation. It was developed, in part, during an Artward Bound residency program at White Oak Plantation sponsored by The Field and made possible through Dancenow/NYC – The Silo Project. Commissioned by Danspace Project with major support from the Rockefeller MAP Fund.
Sentence (2003)
Commissioned as a work-in-progress by the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris in 2001, receiving its premiere in a three-week engagement at PS 122 in 2003.
Original sound design: David Neumann with Andy Russ and Flloyd Chambers Text: Will Eno
Described by the Village Voice as: "One of the funniest, most beautiful pieces ever to appear at the Whitney..." Sentence is an adaptable site-specific work of unpredictable events living on the cutting edge of contemporary dance.
Deep Six (2002)
Commissioned by the Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival
Original music by: Justin Kawashima with Dave Philips (bass) and Gary Seligson (drums)
Based on a dream of drowning at sea, Deep Six "tells its story" through allusions to the hula form and seductive theatrical effects. Six dancers move with a reluctant samba and more deeply physical expressions as the dance descends calmly to its end.
So That You Could See Us Coming (2001)
Premiered at Symphony Space, NYC
Original music by Laurie Anderson
Imagine the dioramas of early man found in the Museum of Natural History come to life.
Three hominids and the three graces interact in evolutions of eclectic movement themes
that reveal our proximity to the animal kingdom. The animal we come from, the animal
we are ashamed of, and the animals we anthropomorphize are evoked in a comparative
movement structure from biology to mechanics: movement histories and movement futures combine.
Pearl River (2001)
A collaboration with Stacy Dawson Stearns
Premiered at Context Studios, NYC; PS 122
Created for 8 performers that joyfully explodes the 70's kung fu genre film. Dubbing, combat, horseback riding and a deadly chopstick battle are among some of the highlights of this downtown hit.
Oyinbo (2000)
Premiered at PS 122, NYC
Sound design by Andy Russ
Joyce Theater Foundation Residency
A 45-minute dance for nine inspired by Appalachian culture. Hog calls, square dance calling, and farm hollerin' create an aural landscape where people dance, fight, get lost, and come together. As Deborah Jowitt of the Village Voice said: "I love the community's manners, the way people take each other in, shyly try to copy, get drunk, act up. The behavior is 'real,' but despite the verbal material, it's the dancing that makes this community come to life."
Collaborations with John Giorno (1999 - 2000)
Commissioned by Central Park Summerstage
Premiered at Central Park Summerstage and PS 122 (Completely Attached to Delusion)
A series of solos, duets and trios that interact with Giorno's poetry. Most of these short
dances were performed with Giorno reading his poetry live.
It's Gonna Rain (1998)
Premiered at Dance Theater Workshop
Music by Steve Reich
A solo danced to one of Reich's first landmark compositions of tape loops, this piece
explores possession, fanaticism: a person inside out. Losing sense of the boundaries
of the body to energies that infect and wail by, it is also inspired by the beauty of club
dancers 'taken' by the music.
Duck, You Sucker (1998)
Premiered at Dance Theater Workshop
Music and sound performed live by the band Fellaheen
(who received a "Bessie Award" for their performance)
Duck, You Sucker is a dance for 5 women who move through the imagery of the violent, ultra male spaghetti western. An
examination of the existential landscape where the only beauty is found in the "death scene."
Appropriate Behavior (1997)
Premiered at PS 122
Music: an historical survey of mostly African-American dance music.
Two NYC club legends (Archie Burnett and Bravo LaFortune) and Neumann dance through their personal histories of social dancing, bump into racial stereotypes and ignore them. At times portraying each other's parents and themselves, they end up together busting
moves they've shared over the years.
Dose (1997)
Premiered at PS 122
Music: Saturday morning TV, Tom Waits
A dark vaudeville solo in two parts: in the first, a sot drunk on TV attempts to have a bowl of cereal. The cereal is not into it. In the second, Tom Waits takes a dance class from Bob Fossecaught in a loop of seductions. A fountain of images appearon the
body from just as many influences.
Adirondack (1996)
Premiered at PS 122
Sound: recorded text from a live announcement of a regional hockey game, original and found music and sound effects.
Adirondack is a 45-minute multi-disciplinary piece for nine performers. Using the "live" event of a hockey game as a frame, this work explodes with the aggressions inherent in American culture. All at once a cocktail party, a hockey game and neither, it floats between
dance and theater, proseand poetry, illuminating the fragile trust between people.
Still (1995)
Premiered at PS 122
Sound: various samples emanating from on stage objects including a TV, an intercom, a radio and a refrigerator. The text dances the mind from
Samuel Beckett to Mr. Rogers with other daytime television dialogues.
Still is a one hour group piece that haunts the outskirts of perception, memory, consciousness and dreams.
Samuel Beckett meets Mr. Rogers. A poetic journey inside the mind set in the any day: memories as ghosts,
ghosts as others, others as oneself.