Celebrating 15 years at the Kasser Theater

Peak Performances

Montclair State University

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ELIZABETH STREB

message to Montclair State University

COMMUNITY

Take this moment to view the work by our Community of Artists.

15 Years at the Kasser

Celebrating The Arts
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w/ Executive Director Jedediah Wheeler

PEAK is in pause.

Like all performing arts series worldwide, PEAK Performances, a program of the Office of Arts+ Cultural Programming at Montclair State University serving the magnificent Alexander Kasser Theater, shut down to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Turning out our lights and closing our doors was shocking.

The PEAK staff is working remotely and listening to what we might not have heard before, amidst the noise of the everyday. As if inspired by John Cage's controversial piece of music 4' 33" - a composition positing that in silence we will hear our boldness - we are taking time to discover what newness will emerge bounded by caveats of social distancing.

Live performance will be embraced for its unique intimacy while achieving our goal of expanding audience appreciation for the new in and around us. As has been our custom, we go forward and take this moment to highlight the work by our Community of Artists.

Kate Soper: Wet Ink Archive 02 “Echoes, Mirrors, Roses"

Behind the scenes of a new/old Opera: The Romance of the Rose.

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Peak Community Highlights

A Series of Landscapes

A new online work of Opera-Theatre by ThingNY. Audiences are invited into a Zoom call where seven performers dive into the anxiety and serenity of this paradoxical moment, where yesterday’s action in the street, today’s paralyzing personal stasis, and tomorrow’s online wedding are all refracted through the bizarre filter of social and emotional distance.

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Susan Marshall: Frame Dances

Frame Dances (2008–2010) is an exploration of scale and mediation—a collection of dances and films exposing and theatricalizing the act of digital reproduction. How does the recorded mediate our experience of the live? How does the confined framing of the dance hide the labor of others working outside of the frame to make the dance possible?

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Douglass Dunn Teaching Zoom Technique

Choreographer Douglas Dunn invites you to free Zoom Technique Classes!

Join Today

Double Edge Theatre – 6 Feet Apart, All Together

Double Edge Theatre is dreaming and planning 6 FEET APART, ALL TOGETHER, a Summer Spectacle for the time of COVID-19. Box Office Opens June 15.

(Re)Live Arts Streaming | New York Live Arts

Every Thursday, we will be bringing you content from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and Live Arts archives!

Watch the Live Stream

Please consider supporting the extraordinary work that is offered at MSU through PEAK Performances. Thank you.

Donate to Peak Performances

For updated news, information, and resources for the Montclair State on COVID-19 please visit the website. https://www.montclair.edu/coronavirus/

News

Racial Justice: a message from President Cole
Last month, shortly after the killing of George Floyd, I sent a message to the University community about his death, expressing our University's unequivocal commitment to racial justice and equality. Today I sent our students a video message explaining in detail Montclair State's longstanding efforts to build an inclusive campus and do the hard work of preparing the next generation to go out and make the changes necessary to create a more just world.
Watch Dr. Cole's Address

PEAK's Partner, The Walker Art Center, Cuts Ties With Minneapolis Police Department
The museum announced it would stop working with the MPD until it “implements meaningful change,” including “demilitarizing training programs, holding officers accountable for the use of excessive force, and treating communities of color with dignity and respect.”
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THE NEW YORK TIMES: 6 Dance Performances to See in N.Y.C. This Weekend
Richard Alston at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J. (Feb. 20-21, 7:30 p.m.; through Feb. 23). Alston has been making vibrant, lyrical dances for a half-century and has been a pillar of British dance for nearly that long, serving as the artistic director of the Place, an important center of dance training and performance in London.
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THE NEW YORKER:Richard Alston Dance Company
Recently knighted, Alston has long been an establishment figure in British modern dance, admired for his detailed musicality and his old-school craftsmanship. So it was a bit of a shock when he announced, in 2018, that funding cuts were forcing him to shut down his company. For its last show in the U.S., at Peak Performances, in Montclair, New Jersey...
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