ENCORE
Read the history of our acclaimed show Encore!
Read the rave review from our September 2018 KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival Performances!
Presenting a behind-the-scenes perspective, ENCORE gives audiences rare insight into a troupe of Broadway dancers preparing to go on the road under the pressure of a fastidious and demanding choreographer. During their final rehearsal, the cast goes through the rigorous and lightning-quick paces of one show-stopping number after another – set to classic jazz recordings – working through the uncertainty, headaches and hilarity of the intense process of making art, and raising the age-old question: will the show come together?
ENCORE’s exploration of speed, virtuosity, and non-stop movement challenges the stamina of its performers, as well as its audience’s expectations. ENCORE, alternating between the artifice of the stage, depicted through vibrant, theatrical numbers, and the reality of life in the studio, is a bit of feel-good escapism, designed to leave the audience humming and tapping. ENCORE lives at the intersection of concert dance and contemporary musical theater and is audience-proof.
THE ENCORE PROJECT
In 2017/2018 Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company celebrates the 10th Anniversary of our acclaimed signature show with a year-long plus tour. Encore, which premiered in 2007 at Manhattan’s Joyce SoHo, has been performed without pause by the Company, other professional companies, pre-professional training programs, and university and arts high school dance departments since then.
Encore: Christian von Howard from Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company on Vimeo.
Automobile Ride (Original Production) from Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company on Vimeo.
Chronology of Encore
2005: Character, developed and presented at The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
2006: Character performed at the ACDFA National Gala, The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
2006: Summertime and Indiana developed and presented at The University of WI, Milwaukee
2007: Encore set and performed at Fordham University/The Ailey School students, NYC
2007: DGDC premieres the opening of Encore as The Rehearsal, West End Theater, NYC
2007: Encore premieres at Joyce SoHo to tremendous critical and public praise, NYC
2007: Encore presented DRA/Broadway Cares’ Dancing at the Crossroads, Times Square, NYC
2007: Encore presented in The Joyce Theater’s 25th anniversary season, Family series, NYC
2007: Encore presented at The University of Michigan’s Department of Dance, Ann Arbor, MI
2007: Encore at The Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts, Long Island Univ, Brooklyn, NYC
2007/8: Encore Tour. Public school performances with Dept of Cultural Affairs grant, NYC
2008/9: Encore, In The Studio, NY City Center Studios, public lecture-performance series, NYC
2009: Encore performs sold-out run, official selection of New York Musical Theater Festival, NYC
2009/10: Encore set at La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts, The “Fame” School, NYC
2010: Encore presented by The YM & YWHA of Washington Heights & Inwood, NYC
2010: Eisenhower Dance Ensemble licenses Encore, wins national competition, Rochester, MI
2010/11: Encore set on students at The School of the Arts (SOTA), Rochester, NY
2011: Encore at Nazareth College Summer Dance Festival, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
2011/12: Encore set on students at Talent Unlimited High School, NYC
2011/12: Encore set on students at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, Queens, NYC
2012: Rochester City Ballet licenses Encore, Nazareth Performing Arts Center, Rochester, NY
2012: Character performed at Edinburgh International Fringe, Edinburgh, Scotland
2012: Encore’s Summertime Suite presented by Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, MA
2013/14: Encore set at The Joffrey Ballet School, performed at Salvatore Capezio Theater, NYC
2015: Encore set on Terspichord, Girls Preparatory School, Chattanooga, TN
2015: Encore set on University at Buffalo State University of New York students, Buffalo, NY
2015: Encore performed at American College Dance Association, Ohio University, Athens, OH
2015: Encore presented by Bryant Park Presents and Inception to Exhibition, Bryant Park, NYC
2016: Georgia Metropolitan Dance Theater licenses Encore, Marietta, GA
2017: Encore set on students at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
2017: Encore set on students at Florida School of the Arts, Palatka, FL,
2017: Encore set on Charlotte Dance Festival Repertory Ensemble, various performance, NC
2017: Encore set on PICTA Movement Collective, Beloit College, Beloit, WI
2017: Encore set on Georgian Court University, Lakewood, NJ
2017: Encore set on Troy University, Troy, AL
2017: Encore presented by Wassaic Festival, Wassaic, NY
2017: Encore presented by YourMoves Festival, Jersey City, NJ; DGDC featured guest company
2017: DGDC Encore Tour: various performances and public events from July through December including live streamed performances from Manhattan’s Columbus Circle, Pier 25 in Tribeca, and the historic Bethesda Fountain in Central Park
2018: Encore presented by KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival
Encore is both the title of Gwirtzman’s new dance suite and the response it’s likely to inspire. The name refers to the repetitions of rehearsal, as a fictional troupe of Broadway dancers prepares to go on the road, but there’s little tedium in Gwirtzman’s choreography, set to classic jazz recordings. Executing his tricky syncopations and intricate patterns at breakneck tempos, the dancers can’t help but smile.
The New Yorker
No matter how many dark pieces Daniel Gwirtzman has turned out since starting to choreograph in 1995, he’s clearly a not-so-secret jazz baby who’s also a fan of Broadway…I’m a pushover for dancers who can play themselves in unaffected ways-as these do extremely well.
Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice
I found myself grinning from one of the piece to the other. Gwirtzman has made a spring fling, showing us the underside of the dancer’s world, letting us feel the sensuality of the studio and glory in the music of the first half of the 20th century.
Elizabeth Zimmer, Gay City News
Summertime Suite from Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company on Vimeo.
The Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company pulled out all the stops with its performance of Encore, a riotous new full-evening piece of razzle-dazzle entertainment.
Lisa Jo Sagolla, Back Stage
Rose Room (Original Production) from Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company on Vimeo.
