A New Vision of Contemporary Dance

Islene Pinder-Founding Director, Carlos Fittante-Artistic Director

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Luhrs & Associates, Publicist, 201-592-9126, luhrsassocpress[at]verizon.net

Carlos Fittante, Artistic Director, 646-361-9183

BALAM to Premiere “Armide’s Revenge” in

COOL NEW YORK 2011 DANCE FESTIVAL

Carlos Fittante in Armide’s Revenge.

(January 21, 2011—New York, NY) – BALAM Dance Theatre (BALAM) returns to the COOL
NEW YORK DANCE FESTIVAL with two performances on the DUMBO waterfront of
“Armide’s Revenge” on Thursday, February 3 at 9 p.m. and Sunday, February 6 at 4 p.m. at the
John Ryan Theatre at WHITE WAVE, 25 Jay St., Brooklyn, New York.
COOL NEW YORK DANCE FESTIVAL, curated by Young Soon Kim, artistic director
of WHITE WAVE, is a two week contemporary dance festival offered free to the public that is a
part of New York City’s winter celebration of arts and park events. The festival showcases the
work of 60 dance companies from the New York City area and beyond.
“Armide’s Revenge”, BALAM’s newest solo, creates a theatrical dance ritual to present a
contemporary interpretation of a femme fatale archetype and love story performed by renowned
Baroque dancer and BALAM’s artistic director, Carlos Fittante. The solo presents a cutting-
edge fusion of the Baroque dance of Louis Pecour’s notated choreography played to Jean
Baptiste Lully’s exquisite music, the “Pasacaille de Armide”, performed with a mask and an
original dramatic monologue written by essayist and fiction writer Max Gordon that tells the
story of clandestine homosexual love.
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BALAM to Premiere “Armide’s Revenge” in
COOL NEW YORK 2011 DANCE FESTIVAL
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The BALAM History

BALAM offers a new vision of contemporary dance that emanates from a cutting-edge
fusion of diverse cultural dance styles and movement techniques. The company’s fusion
repertoire presents an opulent dance theatre that blends contemporary choreography, eclectic
music, striking masks, imaginative props, and vibrant costumes to create a performance that
appeals to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
In 1979, Islene Pinder, a Lehman College dance educator, founded the company and
brought the mesmerizing Balinese dance theatre style to New York audiences. Under the
directorship of Spanish-American choreographer Carlos Fittante, BALAM’s repertoire blends
boldly divergent movements genres, including ballet, Spanish, Lester Horton, Baroque, Latin,
Hip-Hop, drag, Noh, and karate, as well as Balinese.
BALAM has been featured at several distinguished festivals and venues, such as First
Night New York; Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors; La Mama Experimental Theatre, New York,
New York; Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Lee, Massachusetts, and many others. The company
has also appeared internationally at the Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar, Bali and the 2nd
Encuentro Internacíonal de Danza Contemporánea in Cancún, Mexico.
The company’s work has received critical recognition from the New York Times and
Village Voice. The Governor and people of Bali and the Indonesian Consulate of New York
have highly commended its performances.
For further information, please call 646-361-9183 or visit BALAM Dance Theatre on the
web at www.balamdance.org.
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