The Wexner Center is closed November 23.
Have any questions?
(614) 292-3535
Contact Us
Past Performing Arts | Performing Arts | Dance
with Ohio State’s Crystal Michele Perkins and Momar Ndiaye
Virtual
Free for all audiences (registration required)
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact our accessibility manager at accessibility@wexarts.org or via telephone at (614) 688-3890. Requests made by September 16, 2020, will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the Wexner Center for the Arts will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
Catch a special virtual viewing of choreographer Abby Zbikowski’s recent evening-length movement work abandoned playground, and stick around for a postshow Q&A and conversation between Zbikowski, an Ohio State alumna, and Crystal Michele Perkins and Momar Ndiaye of Ohio State’s Department of Dance.
Inside the intimate stadium setup of abandoned playground, nine dancers rip through complex sequences of hyperphysical movement, pushing their capabilities and endurance. The Bessie Award–winning Zbikowski highlights each of her dancers' unique strengths in this evening-length work while simultaneously forging an intense ensemble connection through vocalizations and the channeling of communal energy. Like life, no overstated purpose is given, but as New York Times dance critic Siobhan Burke surmises, "the effort justifies itself."
Zbikowski’s bold, high-intensity, precisely rhythmic choreography emerges from her background of hip-hop, tap, West African, and postmodern dance styles; her deeply rooted punk aesthetic; and her close collaboration with her dancers.
Review: "'Abandonded Playground,' the punishing place where dance meets sport," New York Times
Abby Zbikowski created her company Abby Z and the New Utility in 2012. She is a 2020 United States Artists Fellow and received the 2017 Juried Bessie Award for her “unique and utterly authentic movement vocabulary in complex and demanding structures to create works of great energy, intensity, surprise, and danger.” In 2018, Dance Umbrella UK awarded her a “Choreographer of the Future” commission. A current artist-in-residence at New York Live Arts (2018–20), she was an inaugural Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence at Princeton University (2017–19) and worked in residence at Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, and the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics. Zbikowski is an assistant professor of dance at the University of Illinois, on faculty at the American Dance Festival, and has both taught and studied internationally. She has performed with Charles O. Anderson/Dance Theater X, Momar Ndiaye, and the Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project, and is slated to stage her latest project, Radioactive Practice, in Columbus in March 2021. Zbikowski holds a BFA in dance from Temple University and an MFA from Ohio State.
More on Abby Zbikowski and The New Utility
Crystal Michelle Perkins is a choreographer, teacher, and performer who served as the associate artistic director of the renowned Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC). Previous to her appointment, she was a dancer with DCDC’s touring company for nine seasons, served as resident choreographer, and was charged with maintaining an extensive repertory of masterworks by beloved African American choreographers including Donald Byrd, Donald McKayle, and Dianne McIntyre. In 2014, she received the Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council and the Josie Award, which recognizes exceptional performance in the art of dance. Ms. Perkins holds a MFA in dance from Ohio State, and a BFA in dance performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She is a member of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters inaugural class of Leadership Fellows, and a member of the OhioDance Board of Trustees. More about Crystal Michelle Perkins
Momar Ndiaye is an internationally recognized dance artist from Senegal who has taught and toured his work both in the US and abroad. Ndiaye has worked with many well-known choreographers from Africa, Europe, Asia, and America through the program Aex. Corps initiated by the Association Premier Temp in Senegal. Since 2010, Ndiaye has danced for Dakar-based choreographer Andreya Ouamba and was selected as a Dance Web participant at Impuls Tanz Festival in Vienna, Austria, in 2012. He has been developing work with his own company, Cadanses, since 2004 and has created and toured several staged contemporary dance works, including the evening-length Toxu, a finalist laureate in the Danse L’Afrique Danse Festival in St. Louis and Senegal. In 2016, he was selected to participate in two intercultural projects, Shifting Realities (Germany) and 1space (Slovenia and Portugal). Ndiaye received his MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he taught contemporary and traditional African dance forms as well as video dance documentation. More about Momar Ndiyae
MADE POSSIBLE BY Greater Columbus Arts Council American Electric Power Foundation The Columbus Foundation Ohio Arts Council Institute of Museum and Library Services Huntington Bank Nationwide Foundation
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Kaufman Development Cardinal Health Foundation
Past Artist Talks
Abby Zbikowski
