OH COURAGE!

Choreographed by Sonya Tayeh
Original Music by The Bengsons
Associate Choreographer: Jenn Freeman
Set Design by Rachel Hauck
Costume Design by Márion Talán de la Rosa
Costume Construction by Victoria Bek
Lighting Design by Asami Morita
Lighting Adaptation by Tsubasa Kamei
Performed by Graham Feeny, Eddieomar Gonzalez-Castillo, Eleni Loving, Jesse Obremski, Jordan Powell, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, Zack Sommer, Madi Tanguay

Premiere
November 2, 2021
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY

OH COURAGE! was made possible by the generous support of Andrew A. Davis and the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, and the Omomuki Foundation.

Sonya Tayeh is a New York City-based, Tony Award-winning choreographer and director. Since paving her professional career, her work has been characterized as a blend of powerful versatility and theatrical range. 

Selected credits include: Moulin Rouge! The Musical,, Hulu’s Up Here, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window , Is It Thursday Yet? , Gatsby , Sing Street , Martha Graham Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre/What Becomes of Love film, Unveiling with Moses and dancers (Fall For Dance/City Center), Rent Live! , The Lucky Ones, Face the Torrent for Malpaso Dance Co. (commissioned by The Music Center in Los Angeles), You’ll Still Call Me By Name (commissioned by New York Live Arts and Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival), Martha Graham Dance Company’s Lamentation Variation Series

Tayeh has directed and choreographed for world-renowned music artists including Miley Cyrus , Florence and the Machine and Kyle Minogue.

She has gleaned many accolades for her versatile work, including a Tony Award, two Emmy nominations, a Drama Desk Award, an Obie Award and two Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Choreography.

sonyatayeh.com

Gibney Company, led by Artistic Director Gina Gibney and Director Gilbert T Small II, commissions and performs works by renowned and emerging choreographers from New York and around the world who are committed to exploring connections between the rigorous, often superhuman physicality of contemporary dance alongside responsive, humanistic storytelling. Presenting a broad range of aesthetics and techniques, Gibney Company has an unrelenting focus on artistic excellence and social integrity.

In January 2020, Gibney received a generous lead gift to support the transformation of its professional dance company. In the 2020-2021 season, the company doubled in size and made its debut at The Joyce Theater. In the 2022-2023 season, the company commissioned and premiered Ghost Town by Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond at its second season at The Joyce Theater; restaged and premiered Ohad Naharin’s work YAG 2022 at New York Live Arts; embarked on an eight-city U.S. tour including performances at DANCECleveland and TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND; and premiered Johan Inger’s Bliss at New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival.The 2023-2024 season features one new commission by the choreographic team of Jermaine Spivey and Spenser Theberge; featured performance of Sonya’s Tayeh’s OH COURAGE! at the 20th Fall for Dance Festival and Fall for Dance North Festival; and international tour stops at prestigious festivals including in Toronto, Holland and Victoria,British Columbia. The company returns to The Joyce Theater in New York City for its season finale May 7-12, 2024.

Since its expansion, the company has commissioned eight new works from a wide range of choreographers including Rena Butler, Alan Lucien Øyen, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Sonya Tayeh, Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond (Out Innerspace), and Yue Yin; and performed acclaimed repertory by Twyla Tharp, Sharon Eyal, Johan Inger and Ohad Naharin.

Gibney Company’s model for a 21st century dance company supports sustainable careers for dancers and healthy working relationships for artists and collaborators. The company members, known as artistic associates, advance the quality of the organization’s artistry through performance and deepen its community engagement through Moving Toward Justice Fellowships designed to address social issues and inequities in the dance field.

Gina Gibney,
Founder,  CEO and Artistic Director

Gina Gibney (she/her), a nationally recognized leader and entrepreneur in the field of arts and social justice, is the founder, director and CEO of Gibney, a New York City-based arts organization dedicated to dance and social action. Gibney is known for pioneering innovative new programs which connect the arts with the broader community. Her work has impacted the lives of thousands of domestic violence survivors through programs like Move to Move Beyond, an evidence-based program that offers the transformative power of movement to survivors of gender-based violence and their families. Her Moving Toward Justice incubator uses art as a tool for activism and social impact with a focus on entrepreneurship, social engagement, and mobilization alongside artistry. Other innovative programs include the Dance in Process Residency. One of the first programs of its kind, the residency provides extensive, holistic support for mid-career New York-based dance artists who are in the middle stages of work on a new project.

In 2008, Gibney was inducted into the Vanity Fair Hall of Fame for “making art and taking action.” She has served as a trustee of the national dance advocacy organization Dance/USA and received its Ernie Award in 2017 in recognition of her role as a changemaker in the field. She is a founding member of the board of directors of Dance/NYC and is a member of The Women’s Forum of New York. She was included in Dance magazine’s 2017 list of the Most Influential People in Dance Today and was named to the Out100 2016 list of influential members of the LGBT community. In 2018 she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, Case Western Reserve University.In 2019 she was awarded the Floria Lasky Award from the Jerome Robbins Foundation and the Plus Factor Award from the string quartet ETHEL. Gibney is a frequent panelist and speaker on topics of dance, entrepreneurship and arts-community partnerships. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Photo by Stephanie Diani

Gilbert T Small II
Company Director

Gilbert T Small II (he/him) joined Gibney Company in 2020 as curatorial director of training and company rehearsal director and was promoted to company director in 2022. He is a mentor to many emerging artists in New York and abroad and serves as guest faculty for institutions internationally, cultivating relationships and connections across many demographics and communities. Previously, Small was a leading artist with the internationally acclaimed Ballet British Columbia under the leadership of Emily Molnar. During his 10 years with the company, he worked with choreographers William Forsythe, Crystal Pite, Medhi Walerski, Emily Molnar, Cayetano Soto and others, and took on the role of rehearsal director for the company’s fall 2017 season. He received a Bachelor of Fine Art from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance in 2009. While at Purchase, he studied abroad at Codarts in Rotterdam, an opportunity that shifted his perspective, pushing him to investigate and explore the multifaceted nature of the art form. Originally from Baltimore, Small began his formal training at the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Photo by Nir Arieli

Martin Wechsler is a dance curator, producer, administrator and educator. He served as the director of programming for The Joyce Theater in New York City from 1996 to 2017. In this capacity, he selected more than 40 dance companies to perform each season, as well as overseeing The Joyce’s commissioning and artist residency programs. He has served as an adjunct lecturer in the Master’s of Arts Program in Arts Administration at Baruch College, a panelist for numerous grant-making foundations and a guest speaker on dance programming and arts administration for academic institutions and professional associations. He has been involved with Dancers Responding to AIDS since its inception, and has served on the benefit committee of the Fire Island Dance Festival for many years. In addition to being the associate producer of New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival since 2019, he has been serving as the senior advisor for dance presentations at The Music Center in Los Angeles since 2020

Miriam Gittens
Miriam Gittens (she/her) joined Gibney Company as an artistic associate in 2022. Gittens was born and raised in Fresno, CA, and received a diverse dance education from The Dance Studio of Fresno. She graduated from The Juilliard School with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance in 2017, and joined chuthis under the direction of Peter Chu. In 2018, Miriam joined Ballet BC, where she had the extreme honor of performing works by Aszure Barton, Sharon Eyal + Gai Behar, William Forsythe, Marco Goecke, Johan Inger, Felix Landerer, Emily Molnar, Ohad Naharin, Out Innerspace, Crystal Pite, and Medhi Walerski spanning over four seasons. Miriam is thrilled to be a part of Gibney Company, and further developing her Moving Toward Justice Fellowship. @miriamgittens 

Eddieomar Gonzalez-Castillo
Eddieomar Gonzalez-Castillo (he/him) joined Gibney Company as an artistic associate in 2022. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Modern Performance from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance in 2019 and studied at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, Australia with a concentration in Classical Ballet. Throughout his training, he has performed repertory by Jose Limón, Shannon Gillen, Ana Maria Lucaciu, Kimberly Bartosik, Tom Weinberger, and Crystal Pite. The start of his professional journey led him to work for companies such as Visceral Dance Chicago and Bocatuya. In 2021 he joined Alejandro Cerrudo on his self-produced work It Starts Now, and most recently he was seen in the national tour of Fiddler on the Roof, performing choreography by Hofesh Shechter. A South Florida native, Gonzalez-Castillo began his formal training at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts and Florida School for Dance Education. @Eddieomar.Gonzalez 

Graham Feeny
Graham Feeny (he/his) joined Gibney Company as an artistic associate in 2022.  He was previously an apprentice with Chamber Dance Project and most recently danced with BalletCollective and staged Justin Peck’s Become A Mountain for BalletX. Feeny is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he performed works by Marco Goecke, Bobbi Jene Smith, Justin Peck, Trisha Brown, Jamar Roberts, Paul Taylor, and Ohad Naharin. Additionally,  he has participated in training programs with NDT, Arts Umbrella, and Springboard Dans Montreal where he studied works by Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, Alan Lucien, Sharon Eyal, and Paul Lightfoot, among others. Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, Feeny began dancing at age two and trained in all dance styles for many years at Company C Dance Club. @grahamfeeny 

Eleni Loving
Eleni Loving (she/her) joined Gibney Company as an artistic associate in 2022.  A 2022 graduate of The Juilliard School, Loving is a 2022 Princess Grace Honoraria Award winner and was presented the Artist as Citizen Award by Juilliard President Damian Woetzel. In 2022, Loving helped lead the first Juilliard improvisation residency for Ballet Tech by teaching their 6th grade class. She worked with Shamel Pitts and TRIBE Collective appearing in Calvin Klein’s 2022 “This is Love” Pride campaign and collaborated with Francesca Harper for her work in Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum. Her Moving Toward Justice Fellowship, BEYOND THE SCOPE podcast, aims to highlight the multiplicity of dancers as people and foster the awareness that dancers have agency in moving into whatever passions they might have, either after a performance career or alongside it. Loving is a native of Dallas and began her training with Dallas Black Dance Academy. She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, supplementing her training with programs at The Dance Theatre of Harlem, Arts Umbrella, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and others. @eleni.loving 

Jesse Obremski
Jesse Obremski (he/him) joined Gibney Company in 2018 as a guest artist and became an artistic associate in 2019. He joined the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company at the age of 19 and has since then worked with Helen Simoneau Dance, Peter Stathas Dance, WHITE WAVE, Kate Weare Company, Brian Brooks Moving Company and The Limón Dance Company (soloist and principal), among others. In 2018, he founded Obremski/Works, which has been presented internationally with an emphasis on dance films and AAPI support fellowships. For his Gibney Moving Toward Justice Fellowship project, Obremski founded OUR PATHS, which cultivates greater communal empathy through podcasts, video interviews, written articles, festival and workshops. A native of New York City, Obremski began his studies at The Ailey School, studied at Jacob’s Pillow and Springboard Danse Montreal, and is a graduate of The Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and The Juilliard School. @jesse_obremski and @obremski_works

Jordan Powell
Jordan Powell (she/her) joined Gibney Company in 2022 as an artistic associate after graduating from the University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. At USC she performed works by Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Doug Varone, Ohad Naharin, Barak Marshall Hope Boykin and Jermaine Spivey, among other influential choreographers. She has done additional intensive training at Jacob’s Pillow, The Juilliard School, BalletX and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. As a dance educator, Powell has taught at Everybody Dance LA! and Project Dance in New Jersey. Powell is originally from Freehold, NJ. @jordannpow 

Jie-Hung Connie Shiau
Jie-Hung Connie Shiau (she/her) joined Gibney Company in 2020 as an artistic associate and was selected as a Gibney Choreographic Fellow for the 2022-23 season. For her fellowship, she created a new work that was presented at Gibney Center in New York in November 2022. As a dancer, choreographer and educator, Shiau has worked as a collaborator with an array of companies, including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, AIM by Kyle Abraham, Gallim Dance, Helen Simoneau Danse, MeenMoves, Adam Barruch/Anatomiae Occultii and Kevin Wynn Works. Her choreographic work has been presented at New Choreographer Project in Taipei, Taiwan, Loyola University, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago summer intensives, Earl Mosley Diversity of Dance, Little Island Dance Festival, SUNY Purchase Spring Concert, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s 43rd Virtual Season. Shiau’s film Greener Grass was a semifinalist in the London International Web & Shorts Film Festival 2021. Her Moving Toward Justice Fellowship project with Gibney is BODYHUES, a platform to promote self-caring and self-loving practices as a means of fighting body shaming culture. Born in Gainesville, FL, Shiau was raised in Tainan, Taiwan. @jiehungshiau 

Madi Tanguay
Madi Tanguay (she/her) joined Gibney Company as an artistic associate in 2023. Previously working with the TL Collective in 2019, she has premiered several works by Micaela Taylor including MISFIT and BlueNav. Interested in a career that expands across many mediums, Madi graduated from UCLA with highest honors in World Arts and Cultures B.A.  and International Development Studies B.A. Creating a relationship between research and artistic practice, she produces multi-disciplinary work across dance, music and film. Tanguay’s artistic abilities have been recognized by The YoungArts Foundation and The Music Center’s Spotlight. Through mentorship by Bret Easterling, Spesner Theberge, Jermaine Spivey, Pau Aran, and Ella Rothschild; she has begun to explore her own choreographic inquiries through community-based and collaborative practices. @tang_uay

Jake Tribus 
Jake Tribus (he/him) joined Gibney Company as an artistic associate in 2020. He is a 2020 graduate of the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance under the direction of Jodie Gates. Tribus’ past training includes intensives with Netherlands Dance Theater, Batsheva Gaga Technique, The Juilliard School and Complexions Contemporary Ballet.. Tribus has performed on stages including The Joyce Theater (with Gibney Company and the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance), The Shed (with A Quiet Evening of Dance by William Forsythe), the Kampnagel International Summer Festival (premiering Where There’s Form by Aszure Barton), and in 2022 the Fire Island Dance Festival (choreography by Akira Uchida and Micaela Taylor). He has also performed in music videos and onstage for artists including Taylor Swift, Lorde, Backstreet Boys and Janet Jackson, among others. Tribus is the recipient of a 2022 Princess Grace Award in Dance. He most recently was a lead actor and dancer in Daytripper, a film directed and choreographed by James Whiteside in partnership with All Arts (a program of PBS). His Moving Toward Justice Fellowship project with Gibney, Converge2Emerge, aims to magnify emerging choreographic voices in New York City through career mentorship, financial resources and artistic collaboration. He is originally from Raleigh, NC. @jake.tribus 

Zack Sommer
Zack Sommer (he/him) was born in San Diego where his creativity and love for movement led him to dance at an early age. He passionately pursued his dance career, cultivating his skills at Danceology Performing Arts Campus and currently nearing the completion of his senior year at The Juilliard School, where he will graduate with a BFA in Dance in May 2024. His repertoire at Juilliard includes performances of works by distinguished choreographers like Medhi Walerski, Aszure Barton, Ohad Naharin, Jamar Roberts, Rena Butler, and Tiler Peck.. Sommer is fortunate to have been named a SPOTLIGHT Grand Prize Finalist and a National YoungArts Foundation Award Winner. Recently, he performed as a guest artist with Ballet BC in their first program and is thrilled to be contributing to Gibney Company as a guest artist. @zacksommer_

Chelsea Factory exists to provide responsive partnership to NYC-based artists from historically excluded communities. Launched as a pop-up initiative in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Chelsea Factory has quickly become an essential resource for artists, of all creative disciplines, at inflection points in their careers. We provide a range of support customized to our partners, including subsidized rehearsal and performance space, production support and mentorship, and free community programming. In today’s rapidly changing world, we are committed to invigorating an inclusive and sustainable arts sector that long outlasts Chelsea Factory’s physical infrastructure. chelseafactory.org