Catherine Galasso is a choreographer and multi-media artist based in Brooklyn. Since 2006, Catherine has created six evening-length cross-disciplinary dance works that are cast-specific, as well as numerous performances for dance venues, galleries and museums. Her works have been performed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Bibliotheque National de France Paris, Harvard University’s Carpenter Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Joyce SoHo, Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Dixon Place, BAX, and the International Theater Festival in Pristina, Kosovo. Residencies include Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center (2013), ODC Theater San Francisco (2006-09), Headlands Center for the Arts (2012), Atlantic Center for the Arts (2008&2010), Chez Bushwick (2013), and Studio ZonaD in Bucharest, Romania (2014). Catherine has been awarded mentorships with artists such as Monica Bill Barnes (2008), Wally Cardona (2010), and Ralph Lemon (2011). Born in New York and raised in Italy, Catherine received a painting degree from the art high school in Venice Italy, and a BA in Film from Cornell University. Her father is Michael Galasso, the award-winning composer for theater, film and dance. Catherine is a 2015-16 Extended Life Artist through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and her next evening length work, Decameron Now, will premiere on Governors Island in June 2015.
Andy deGroat was born in 1947 in the United States into a family of Dutch, Italian, French, German and English origins. Whilst studying at the New York School of Fine Art in 1967, he met the director Robert Wilson. He joined his troupe as a dancer, then as a choreographer for all the productions from Deafman Glance in 1971, A Letter for Queen Victoria in 1974 to Einstein on the Beach in 1976, created for the Avignon Festival. In 1981, he received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation in New York for his choreographic research. He created new works in succession for red notes/cie andy de groat, including several for Jean Guizerix, Wilfride Piollet, Jean-Christophe Paré, the Choreographic Research Group of the Opera of Paris (GRCOP), the Scala in Milan, Ris et Danceries, the Ballet du Nord (Roubaix) and Wah Loo Tin Tin Co, a Montauban-based company of young performers. Today, his work totals over sixty creations that have been presented in around twenty countries and periodically goes back to questioning the repertoire and the heritage of dance. His company has worked regularly on lyrical productions since 1988, in particular on The Magic Flute (Mozart) with Robert Wilson at the Opera Bastille, Paris, The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky), with Alfredo Arias for the Aix-en-Provence Festival of Lyric Art and at the Operas of Lyon, Gênes and Montpellier, Aida (Verdi) with Klaus Michael Grüber at the Amsterdam Opera. He was nominated Officer in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in ’85, and Commander in 2000.
This project is an intergenerational collaboration between choreographers Andy deGroat and Catherine Galasso. Galasso recreates a selection of deGroat’s dances from different points of his career, for performances in New York City in December 2015.
Andy deGroat emerged as an important New York choreographer in the 70s, and he is known for numerous collaborations with Robert Wilson, including his choreography for the original Einstein on the Beach in 1976. deGroat and his company Red Notes have been based in France for the last 30 years, where he was nominated twice for the National Order of Arts and Letters.
Galasso was exposed to deGroat’s work through her parents, who met on tour with Robert Wilson’s Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds in the 70s. deGroat continued to collaborate with Catherine’s father Michael Galasso, the acclaimed composer for theater, film, and dance, for many years after. Several of the pieces that Catherine is recreating (Rope Dance Translations, Fan Dance, Stabat) include original scores by Michael Galasso.
On January 25 at The Watermill Center, Galasso will present excerpts from Stabat, Swan Lac, and Hiroshima, performed by Rachel I. Berman, John Hoobyar, Anne Lewis, Sarah Sandoval, Austin Selden, and Connor Voss.