Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company presents the New York City premiere of e-Motion at the La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival at The Downstairs Theatre at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, NYC.

e-Motion, a dance-theater collaboration between choreographer Daniel Gwirtzman and playwright Saviana St?nescu, explores AI, neuroscience and what it means to be human in a digital age. Gwirtzman creates a physical interpretation of St?nescu’s provocative text that brings conceptual ideas deep into the human body. The score is text, augmented by music composed by the late Jeff Story, a longtime collaborator of DGDC. The narrative duet, performed by Gwirtzman and Sarah Hillmon, follows the presentation of the AI creature for public consumption. The big launch. What could go wrong? Reviewing the premiere, The Ithaca Times wrote: “What e-Motion does well is to articulate the concerns (part ethical, part dystopian) of the bond between human and AI.”

e-Motion is presented in a shared program with Pat Catterson’s Tremor, a work for five dancers, and Then, a new solo. Join Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company in celebrating the 20th anniversary season of La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival in a performance that explores resistance and transformation. The full festival runs from April 10 - May 4, 2025.

About Daniel Gwirtzman

Daniel Gwirtzman celebrates thirty years as an NYC company director and choreographer. Since co-founding Artichoke Dance Company in 1995, “a welcome addition to the New York dance scene” (The New York Times), he has choreographed and performed without pause. Reviews from Artichoke’s debut concert earned him comparisons to Mark Morris, by Elizabeth Zimmer in The Village Voice, whose company he toured internationally with over several years as a guest.

A busy artist/scholar, Daniel Gwirtzman is deeply immersed in multiple arenas: as a producer, dancer, educator, and filmmaker, known for his blend of innovative and charismatic work. Collaborations blend genres and disciplines, take risks, involve community, promote optimism, and celebrate individuality and humanity. The New Yorker and The Village Voice describe him as “a choreographer of high spirits and skill,” and “an abundantly inventive artist with a subtle defiance of gender roles.” The New York Times writes “Mr. Gwirtzman does know that in dance less can be more. He can evoke strong feelings with a few gestures.” He has been awarded commissions, residencies and fellowships nationally and abroad. He is a professor at Ithaca College’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance and contributes nationally to the dance education field through his service as a Board Member of the National Dance Education Organization and as Chair of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance Alumni Board, his alma mater. Spring 2024 he was in residence at the Dora Maar Cultural Center in Provence, France where he produced the dance film Framing Ménerbes, which premieres this June in France and in NYC at the Dolby 88 Screening Room June 26 in Manhattan.

When: Friday, April 18th at 7:30pm, Saturday, April 19th at 5pm and Sunday April 20th at 3pm

Where: The Downstairs Theatre at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, 66 East 4th Street, NYC

Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for students and seniors, and $10 for La MaMa Members.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.lamama.org/la-mama-moves-2025/.

For more tickets and more information visit, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/framing-menerbes-film-screening-and-reception-tickets-1242414337729.

About Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company

Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company, known for its optimistic ethos, was formed in 1998. Since its inception, it has demonstrated a commitment to education operating with the philosophy and programming that everyone can join the dance. Incorporating dance and story into the film medium has been a consistent practice along with creating original programming for the stage. His repertory has earned praise for its humor, musicality, stylistic diversity, and accessibility. The Company’s acclaimed recent creation, Dance With Us, a free online educational resource received leadership support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and is designed to demystify choreography and increase comfort viewing and speaking about dance. The digital resource showcases the Company’s decade-long practice working in the dance for camera genre. Lincoln Center and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presented the Company in 2023 during its 25th Anniversary season in a stand-alone program called Everybody Can Dance. In the summer of 2024 DGDC was in residence at the American Dance Festival where it developed its newest evening-length dance Flashpoint. Highlights include performances at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Kennedy Center, Battery Dance Festival, Fire Island Dance Festival, Bryant Park, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Jazz at Lincoln Center.