The Flea Theater presents
Nina Winthrop and Dancers
in their premiere of
MINORITY
May 15-17, 2008

New York, NY, April 14, 2008 – The Flea Theater presents Nina Winthrop and Dancers’ premiere of Minority, choreographed by Nina Winthrop in collaboration with dancers
Renée Archibald, Charlotte Gibbons, Jennifer Lafferty and Jessica Ray and featuring
many guest artists. With costumes by Ms. Winthrop, lighting design by Jared Klein and an original score by Jon Gibson, Minority presents a world that is both lonely and crowded, solitary and entangled – a place where individuals and groups can stand out or be absorbed by a crowd as they navigate an encroaching audience.

Minority will be performed at The Flea Theater, May 15-17, 2008 (Thursday – Saturday at
7 pm).  Tickets are $15 ($12 for students and seniors).  Reservations can be made by calling 212-645-6462.  Payments can be made at the theater in cash prior to the performance.

NINA WINTHROP was thrilled to choreograph Violet Fire, an opera presented at BAM’s Next Wave Festival in October 2006.  The opera, by composer Jon Gibson and librettist Miriam Seidel, and directed by Terry O'Reilly, received its world premiere at the National Theater of Belgrade in July 2006.  Ms. Winthrop is the curator of the past three seasons of Dance Conversations @ The Flea. She also curated the dance film showcase Dance on Film/Film on Dance at Symphony Space in 2004.  She was awarded a Bessie Schönberg Choreographers’ Residency at The Yard in 2004, a Dancenow/NYC’s Silo Artist Residency in 2005, and participated in the Schönberg Choreographers Lab at DTW in 2005.  She is on the Board of Directors of New Dance Alliance and was on the selection panels for the 2007 Bessie Schönberg Choreographers' Residency at The Yard and the 2007 Wave Rising Series.  In the process of creating her dance pieces, Ms. Winthrop has collaborated with a diverse group of artists, including musician/ composers John Cale, Steve Sacks, Jon Gibson and Gary Lucas; set designers David Auden and Manuel Lutgenhorst; sculptor Jene Highstein; costume designers Lenny Steinberg, Anita Evenepoel and Naoko Nagata; filmmakers Judy Lieff, Morleigh Steinberg and Maria Antelman; and lighting designers Spencer Mosse, Peter West, Nicole Pearce and Oguri, among others.  A graduate of Bennington College, she danced with Wendy Perron, Susan Rethorst, Yoshiko Chuma, Sally Silvers and Kei Takei, with whom she toured the USA and Japan, and studied with Erick Hawkins, Merce Cunningham and Deborah Hay. In 1989 she began developing her own work, and worked with Alison Chase of Pilobolus on Cedar Island, presented at The Joyce Theater in 1991, the year she formed Nina Winthrop and Dancers.
                                                                                   
JON GIBSON is a composer, multi-wind instrumentalist and visual artist who has taken part in numerous landmark musical events over the past three and a half decades, performing in the early works of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, and Philip Glass, with whom he continues to perform in various configurations, along with a host of other musicians, choreographers and artists including Merce Cunningham, Nancy Topf, Lucinda Childs, Nina Winthrop, Tania Mouraud, JoAnne Akalaitis, Simone Forti, Elisabetta Vittoni, Thomas Buckner, Peter d'Agostino, Harold Budd, David Behrman, Frederick Rzewski and Moacir Santos. His own solo and ensemble music has been performed by himself and others in many venues throughout the world. Recent projects and performances include a new CD on the Tzadik label (Criss X Cross), and music for the documentary, Transformation: Building the RMA (Rubin Museum of Art). His opera, Violet Fire, composed in collaboration with librettist Miriam Seidel and directed by Terry O'Reilly, is about the inventor Nikola Tesla. It received its world premiere at the National Theater of Belgrade, and was presented at BAM’s Next Wave Festival in October 2006.  Mr. Gibson’s music can be heard on various labels and he appears on recordings by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Alvin Curran, Frederick Rzewski, Arthur Russell, Barbara Benary, Harold Budd, Annea Lockwood, Peter Zummo, David Behrman, Garrett List, Randy Raine-Reusch and Robert Ashley. His visual work, which is closely related to his work in music, manifests itself in various media, including drawings, videos, books and prints, and has been exhibited internationally in solo and group shows. www.jongibson.net

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Press kits and digital images are available upon request.