The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) presents the fourth BAC Flicks screening of the season featuring Shot Backstage (1998) on Monday, June 29 at 7PM in BAC’s Howard Gilman Performance Space. The film, by Trisha Brown, was shot by Ms. Brown from the wings of the Teatro Principal in Valencia, Spain, during a performance of her piece For M.G.: The Movie, danced by the Trisha Brown Dance Company. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Ms. Brown.

Program Information
Monday, June 29 at 7PM
Shot Backstage (1998)
Choreography: For M.G.: The Movie
Choreographer: Trisha Brown
Camera: Trisha Brown
Dancers: Kathleen Fisher, Niki Juralewicz, Kevin Kortan,
Diane Madden, Stanford Makishi, Mariah Maloney,
Kelly McDonald, Wil Swanson, and Keith Thompson
Running time: 30 minutes
Post-screening discussion with Trisha Brown
Followed by a reception sponsored by Les Trois Petits Cochons

Tickets are $10 and are available for purchase beginning Wednesday, June 17, 2009. To purchase tickets call Ticket Central Box Office: 212-279-4200 / www.ticketcentral.com.

Baryshnikov Arts Center, Howard Gilman Performance Space, 450 W. 37th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10018. For more information, visit: www.bacnyc.org

Trisha Brown graduated from Mills College in 1958, studied with Anna Halprin, and taught at Reed College in Portland before moving to New York City in 1961. Immersed in what was to become the post-modern phenomena of Judson Dance Theater, her movement investigations found the extraordinary in the everyday and challenged existing perceptions of what constituted performance. In 1970, Ms. Brown formed her company and made the groundbreaking work, Man Walking Down the Side of a Building, one of many site specific works created in, around and hovering over the streets and buildings of her SoHo neighborhood. Her first of many collaborations with Robert Rauschenberg, Glacial Decoy, premiered in 1979, followed by Set and Reset in 1983 with music by Laurie Anderson. Ms. Brown has created nearly 100 dance works since 1961 including several operas. Increasingly recognized as a visual artist, her drawings have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions including Documenta 12 in Kasel, Germany, and as part of the Year of Trisha, a celebration of her entire body of work at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. On May 9th, an exhibition of her work opened at Sikkema Jenkins Gallery. Brown was the first woman choreographer to receive the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Other honors include the Brandeis University’s Creative Arts Medal in Dance, two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships, a New York State Governor’s Arts Award, and the National Medal of Arts. Ms. Brown was named a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France in 1988, elevated to Officier in 2000 and to Commandeur in 2004. She served on the National Council on the Arts from 1994 to 1997. She has received numerous awards, honorary doctorates and is an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

BAC Flicks, presented in partnership with La Cinémathèque de la Danse, is a series featuring culturally significant films and rare cinematic treasures that may not otherwise have the opportunity to be seen in the United States. A talk with special guest artists is included as part of each presentation. This series is made possible with support from the French Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs.

An independent association since 2005, La Cinémathèque de la Danse, directed by Patrick Bensard, regularly presents its programs at the Cinémathèque française, now located in the rue de Bercy (Paris). More than 500 films and 5,000 videos make up its collections; more than 3,000 missions and events have been organized in France and abroad; and 50 or so full-length films have been presented with panache at the Palais Garnier-Opéra National de Paris and at the Théâtre de Châtelet. La Cinémathèque de la Danse is devoted to images of every style and form of dance – be it classical or modern, learned or popular, related to western orchestral music or Egyptian music, based on Kabuki, Samba, hip-hop, or flamenco. La Cinémathèque de la Danse also houses Jean Rouch’s priceless ethnographical accounts and the jazz films that make up the Jo Milgram collection.

Patrick Bensard studied philosophy at the Sorbonne and psychoanalysis at the Université de Vincennes. In 1979, he co-founded the magazine Empreinte(s), the first periodical dedicated to contemporary dance. In 1982, while he was Artistic Director for the Châteauvallon dance festival, Mr. Bensard was enlisted by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to establish and direct the Cinémathèque de la Danse as part of the Cinémathèque française. He is the writer and producer of two documentaries, Le Mystère Babilée (2000) (Arte), and Lucinda Childs (2006) (Arte and Lieurac Productions), which are films dedicated to two great dance icons of the 20th century, Jean Babilée and Lucinda Childs. He was nominated Chevalier of Arts and Letters in 1996 and Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 2004.

The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) opened its doors in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen in November 2005. BAC serves as a creative laboratory, meeting place, and performance space for a vibrant community of artists from around the world. BAC is also dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary, innovative work at low or no cost to ticket buyers. The organization recently purchased a 299-seat theater in the performing arts complex; the facility will undergo renovation in 2009 to be transformed into the state of the art Jerome Robbins Theater. Scheduled to open in 2010, the theater will serve as an organic extension of the existing center, featuring multi-disciplinary work, emerging talent, and international artists, and including artist-centered activity that fosters creative exploration. For more information, please visit www.bacnyc.org.