Lazer Eyes
9:15pm doors • 10pm show
About
Lazer Eyes is a dazzling, one–of–a–kind electronic dance-opera that weaves together the old and the new. Originally a fully produced concept album by New York–based creative collaboration Van Broh, Lazer Eyes pays heed to classical form while using a variety of EDM styles. Amanda + James has adapted the album into a multidisciplinary, tongue–in–cheek satire of the digital era. Telling the story of a young coal miner who strikes a magic meteor, the sparks of which leave him with lasers for eyes, Lazer Eyes follows his journey as he becomes a hero, defending the world against the savvy media mastermind Reflektor, who is bent on enslaving the world one digital screen at a time.
Produced and Adapted by Amanda + James
Written and Composed by Van Broh
Choreographed and Directed by Amanda Hameline in collaboration with dancers
Video Design and Assistant Directed by Nicholas DiMichele
Art Directed by Shakeil Greeley
Illustrations by Anthony DiLonardo
Narrated by James Danner
Costume Design by Amanda Hameline
Dancers: Nicholas Alselmo (LAZER EYES), Kristina Bermudez, Sara Ciampa (LEILA), Kristi Cole (Rehearsal Director), Anna Hull, Michael Parmelee (REFLEKTOR)
Learn more at: amandaplusjames.com/project/lazereyes
Tickets
The Artists
Kristina Bermudez is a freelance modern dancer and choreographer based in New York City. She studied ballet at Walnut Hill School of the Arts and continued to earn her BFA cum laude from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee as a Jan Veen Scholar. At the Boston Conservatory, she worked with Dwight Rhoden, Francesca Harper, Zoe Scofield, Danny Buraceski, Jodi Melnick, and Diane Arvanites. She has also worked with Katie Glasner and Jennifer Rawe on Twyla Tharp’s Eight Jelly Rolls. Current collaborative company projects include Robin Aren/TRAC, Hannah Q Dance, and Lauren Beirne Dance Works. Aside from creating her own independent work and curating pop-up performances in NYC, Kristina has recently worked as a freelance artist on projects including Transmissions, curated by artist Nick Mauss at The Whitney Museum; West Side Story with The Encore Musical Theater Company; a project at Philadelphia’s Metropolitan Opera House; a project with Bill T Jones; and, most recently, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Ivo van Hove’s Broadway developmental lab of West Side Story.
Sara Ciampa (LEILA) is a New York City–based performer, teacher, and choreographer. She received her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Kent State University. Sara has been a company member of the Amanda Hameline Dance Company since 2014. Sara appeared as a dancer in Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and has also performed for Sara Rodriguez, Rachel Hettinger, Lilleth Glimcher, Dream Tiger Productions, Leanne Schmidt, Leslie Guyton, and Barbie Diewald. She recently performed for Miami RAW, and other performances include venues such as Raw Artists Queens, Peridance, Koresh Dance, Triskelion Arts, 92y, and Arts On Site. Sara has been on faculty with Bridge for Dance for three years and MA Dance as a choreographer, educator, and judge for the past twelve years. In addition to performing, Sara is a trainer at Body by Simone and a Pilates Trainer at Gramercy Pilates.
Kristi Cole is a freelance dance artist from Columbus, Ohio with a BA in Dance and Political Science from George Washington University (cum laude, 2013). At GWU, Kristi had the privilege of working with Maida Withers Dance Construction Company and Vicky Shick in addition to choreographing and performing in the Capital Fringe Festival (2011). For her excellence as a performer, Kristi received the Elizabeth Burtner Theatre and Dance Award. Additionally, she received a Luther Rice Fellowship to conduct independent dance research, for which she was awarded first prize in the creative arts. In New York, Kristi has collaborated on site specific and proscenium works, as well as film. She has had the pleasure of working with Donofrio Dance Company (2014–present), Lauren Beirne Dance Works (2015–2017), Georgina Bates, Brick by Brick Dance Projects (2017–present), and Spaces of Fontana (2018–present). Kristi began collaborating with Amanda + James in October 2017 for the creation of Lazer Eyes. Aside from freelancing, Kristi is currently pursuing her own choreographic endeavors in addition to teaching private Pilates sessions.
Anna Hull is a dance and movement artist, currently based in New York. She received her early training in her hometown of Prescott, Arizona. In 2014, she graduated as a Bella Lewitzky award winner from Idyllwild Arts Academy in California. Anna graduated with a BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts in 2017. Over the past few years, Anna has trained at various programs, including Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Multiplex Dance Company, and Ate9. In 2016, she studied at the American Dance Festival and performed in a new work by LeeSaar. Most recently Anna had the opportunity to travel to Tel Aviv to participate in the Gaga Intensive. Anna is currently freelancing in New York as well as indulging in her own movement based studies and projects.
Michael Parmelee (REFLEKTOR) is a Brooklyn–based dance artist. He received a BA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Hope College (Holland, MI) and an MFA in Dance Choreography from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), where he was a Graduate Student Instructor, a Rackham Merit Fellow, and a Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Scholar. Michael values improvisation and process over product, and is interested in the relationship between pleasure and identity. He has been a guest performance and teaching artist at Universidad Autónomo de Querétaro (Querétaro, Mexico), and was recently dance faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (Twin Lake, MI). His work has been shown in the HOT! Festival at Dixon Place, JACK, and the Westfest Dance Festival. Michael currently performs with the Queens–based company Project 44, and recently performed with Ishmael Houston-Jones, Chris Cochrane, and Dennis Cooper in Performance Space New York’s revival of THEM (1986).
Nick Alselmo (LAZER EYES) is a 2015 graduate from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a BFA in Contemporary Dance. Nick’s passion for choreography has led him to show work throughout New York City for the past three years; in April 2017, he presented a new work, Mobile Sanctuaries, at New York Live Arts as a recipient of the New Choreographer’s Grant presented by Eryc Taylor Dance, Inc. He received the Innovative Choreography Award at Ballet Inc.’s The Series, Vol. 1 in July 2016. He recently self-produced an evening–length production of his work Igloo in June 2018 at Arts on Site, and premiered his new solo Box Springs at Mouthfull, presented by Of Bones this past November. Nick freelances as well, and has performed with Abarukas, Chris Choreography, vessels, Spaces of Fontana, violetsound, and Johnnie Cruise Mercer/The RED Project NYC, and he joined The Nash Conspiracy as a company member in September 2018.
