Silverlens is pleased to announce a dance performance choreographed by Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish inside the gallery on the occasion of the closing of External Entrails on January 7, 2023 at 7pm. The performance, featuring Jaryd Farcon and Jamaris Mitchell, will be directly inspired by the works in the exhibition from Southeast Asian artists Nicole Coson, Corinne de San Jose, Bernardo Pacquing, and Arin Sunaryo.

This performance reflects on the emotions that External Entrails evokes—a response to the unremitting socio-political aggressors (national and foreign governments, colonialism, erasure, and dissimulation) and environmental disasters (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, extreme floods, and monsoons) that Southeast Asia faces as one of the world’s most natural disaster-prone regions. Composed of three individual short vignettes coming together to create an arc, this new dance work by Roxas-Dobrish explores the idea of “External Entrails” through the lens of different emotions, all quintessential to the human condition. The piece depicts human emotion externally while encouraging viewers to look within.

Roxas-Dobrish also weaves the exhibition into her work through music and prop choices. One of the dances uses a newly created iteration of a song commissioned by artist Corrine de San Jose featuring an abstracted vocal recording of a female vocalist singing Nabasag Ang Banga (The Water Jug Broke), a song prominently used in the first Filipino feature length silent film called Dalagang Bukid (Country Maiden) which has now been lost to time, in addition to operatic vocals commissioned by the artist. De San Jose’s work explores the idea of loss and memory through sound and repetition—an attempt to grasp and rebuild from little fragments—as a sense of something that is integral and defining of our own identity that cannot be fully experienced again.

Also inspired by the pieces of Bernardo Pacquing, Roxas-Dobrish will incorporate ropes into the performance along with weaving in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach into the work. Bach was selected because Pacquing specifically cites Bach’s music as a strong influence in his work and is what he often listens to in the studio creating his art.

RSVP is required as availability is limited on a first-come-first-served basis. Please email rsvpny@silverlensgalleries.com.

About Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish

Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish started dancing at the age of five and became the youngest member of Ballet Philippines. She came to the United States as a teenager and studied at the Ailey School and then danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Joyce Trisler and other companies before joining Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1984. She was the First Filipina principal dancer with the company. The New York Times described her as “a cool, still, lyrical center of the Ailey Storm”. She was featured in 1997 for Dance Magazine’s cover article and named by Avenue magazine as one of the 500 most influential Asian-Americans. After leaving Ailey in 1997, she continued to guest for the Ailey company through the years and continues to teach at the Ailey School. She has also taught at Harvard, Sara Lawrence and other colleges. Elizabeth received the Ma-Yi Theater Award honoring her contributions to the Arts. She has choreographed for regional theaters as well as for Off Broadway shows in New York as well as being commissioned to create works Internationally and in the United States. She has created several dance films as well as for the 2020 Soho International Film Festival and for the The Philippines Fifth Wall Fest in 2021. Her most recent project was creating a work for the Ailey 11 dance company, which will premiere in 2023 in New York.

About Jaryd Farcon

Jaryd Farcon (Fords, NJ) is a multi-award winning dancer who has appeared on Dancing With The Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, and in recording music group BTS’s “Permission to Dance” United Nations General Assembly music video. He received his degree from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program and is a graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Mr. Farcon is a National YoungArts Foundation winner in dance and worked with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Julie Taymor. He trained in summer programs at Jacob’s Pillow, Orsolina 28, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, and Ballet Hispánico. Currently, he is dancing with Ailey II.

About Jamaris Mitchell

Jamaris Mitchell (Syracuse, NY) has appeared on The Late Night show with Conan O’Brien, in the 2017 Vogue Collections video, and the FX series POSE. She began her training at the age of 5 at the Center of Ballet and Dance Arts. Ms. Mitchell attended numerous Summer intensives including both The Ailey School and Hubbard Street Dance summer intensives. After high school she continued her training at The Ailey school as a Scholarship student. During this time she performed works by Matthew Rushing, Darrell Moultrie, and Ray Mercer and trained under Milton Meyers, Ana Marie Forsythe, Jacqulyn Buglisi and many others. She also has had the privilege to perform Alvin Ailey’s “Flight time” and danced in “Memoria” during AAADT’s Season before joining Ailey II. She recently finished her second season with Ailey II.