AMERICAN REALNESS Begins Tonight at the Abrons Art Center

American Realness, which The New York Times says has established itself as "spunky, smart" and "a stronghold of forward-thinking, category-defying performance ," opens tonight, taking over all three theaters at the Abrons Arts Center. Tickets are selling fast, so buy yours today.

The exciting 2013 program features New York premieres from BodyCartography Project with Zeena Parkins (co-presented with PS 122's COIL Festival), Frankfurt-based American dancer/choreographer Tony Rizzi, and New York's own Jeanine Durning. In addition, American Realness welcomes encore engagements from Trajal Harrell, Maria Hassabi, Neal Medlyn, Keith Hennessy, Jack Ferver, and Faye Driscoll.

American Realness 2013 takes a closer look at the immediate relationship between music and dance with a series of collaborative presentations from choreographers and musicians/composers. Performances will include festival favorite Miguel Gutierrez with the ecstatic sounds of Mind Over Mirrors aka Jaime Fennelly. The festival pairs musicians Chris Cochrane and Jassem Hindi with new collaborators Jen Rosenblit and Enrico D. Wey for performances crafted specifically for the festival's program.

The 2013 SHOW & TELL series will feature sneak peeks at forthcoming works from Jennifer Monson, Juliana May, and Tere O'Connor. Through the American Realness 2013 exhibition program, festival-goers will be invited to participate in The Flowchart Project: Mapping a History of Contemporary Dance and Choreography, presented by The Bureau for the Future of Choreography, in which they will be invited to add to the collective authorship of a giant flowchart mapping choreographic practice from 1960-2020.

And of course, American Realness would not be complete without an evening of excess. This year, the festival has invited independent dance organizers and activists AUNTS to take over all three performance spaces at the Abrons for AUNTS realness, an all-night extravaganza of unabashed experimentation. If it all feels like too much, fear not! Ann Liv Young's alter ego Sherry will be swinging by the Abrons with The Sherry Truck to offer you a pink latté and a touch of Sherapy, her own fabulously unlicensed form of festival overload therapy.

Get yourself down to the Abrons Arts Center. Stay downtown for a day or two or three or all 11! American Realness is serving you some of the best contemporary performance of today. Be sure to fill up your plate and come back for more!

For more information please visit http://www.abronsartscenter.org/