The Gauntlet

Bios

Sxip Shirey Sxip Shirey is a composer/producer/director/performer based in NYC. He is the composer and MD for the theater/circus arts production “LIMBO" and "LIMBO UNHINGED," developed by Melbourne based Strut N Fret Productions House, which brought him all over the world from The Sydney Opera House to South Bank Center in London to playing Madonna's Birthday Party in the Hamptons. Shirey teaches workshops in "Text and Object-Oriented Composition" at Norwegian Theater Academy, Fredrikstad, Norway, which Shirey considers "The Black Mountain College of NOW.” Shirey toured as the opening act for the Dresden Dolls, has collaborated often with Amanda Palmer, and was a member of the band Luminescent Orchestrii. Shirey has played Appalachian music for gypsies in Transylvania and gypsy music for Appalachians in West Virginia. Shirey has presented at TED (2008), is a 2011 United States Artist Fellow, and is currently an artist in residence at Brooklyn premier contemporary music venue National Sawdust. He wrote music for a short film, "Statuesque," written/directed by Neil Gaiman, starring Bill Nighy, which premiered on Christmas Day on SKY TV, UK. He created music for the app-version of Shaun Tan’s book “Rules of Summer,” NSW Lothian Children's Books, 2013.  Shirey has also served as artist-curator in residence at National Sawdust, bringing in artists including Taylor Mac, Rhiannon Giddens, Ned Rothenberg, Baby Dee, Sarah Angliss, Theo Bleckmann, Todd Reynolds, Basil Twist, The Quintet of the Americas, and Lady Rizo. Shirey is currently developing his immersive choral works, “The Gauntlet,” with his artist partner Coco Karol, worldwide. 
Coco Karol Coco Karol is a NY-based dancer/choreographer/ artist who makes cross-disciplinary performances that invite conversations between personal and shared experiences. A performer, choreographer, hospice volunteer, and dedicated teacher, Coco is interested in how we create meaning and connection to others. For her, dance joins poetic and physical experiences. She holds a BFA from Tisch Dance NYU and an MFA from Hollins University. Among the choreographers he has danced for are Chris Elam/ Misnomer Dance Theater, Cherylyn Lavagnino/  CLD, and Christopher Williams. Her choreography has been toured internationally and premiered in reputable New York venues such as Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Galapagos, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, and has been curated by AUNTS. She has worked with musicians including Bjork, Amanda Palmer, Ryan Lott, Sugar Vendil, Minna Choi/ MagikMagik, Lacy Rose, Alaina Ferris, and Inhyun Kim/ Ear to Mind; visual artists including Steven Sebring, Eve Bailey, Marcos Zotes, Benjamin Heller, and C. Finley. She teaches various dance and embodied inquiry techniques that she developed, including Movement Before Dialogue workshops such as, Gestures of Care, a movement and storytelling series for end-of-life care professionals. Ongoing works include ‘Movement Interviews’ (dance as inquiry), The Lullaby Project (oral histories/ physical archives), and The Gauntlet, community-inclusive choral performances with her artistic partner and husband, Sxip Shirey.

Program

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