BROADCAST PREMIERE 21 DECEMBER 2022 @ 7P (EST)

THE DANCE UNION × MIDHEAVEN NETWORK proudly present “DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL 2022: THE DANCE UNION VIDEO PODCAST EP. #000”

The Dance Union Podcast captures timely and ephemeral conversations circulating within dance communities that support transparent discourse on a variety of topics including pay inequality, sexual harassment, abuse of power, tokenism, and much more.

Dark Night of the Soul is MIDHEAVEN Network’s annual Solstice Festival of art, music and crucial conversations to explore and understand the shadow, where all possibility (including rebirth) originates.

This special event broadcast will launch The Dance Union Podcast into a brave new chapter of storytelling, movement, and human understanding. Dance Union Video Podcast Episode #000 features dance performances by Tyrone Bevans, j. bouey & Jayson P. Smith with candid, insightful reflections on Punking & Waacking, a freestyle dance practice created during the 70s disco era by Black and brown queer youth with an emphasis on showing the music through movement.

Featuring DJ Rhetlaw serving fresh beats hot from the kitchen, this special meeting of hearts and minds also includes the first Live Performance Camera Obscura of the upcoming performance project, SATURN: A Revelation as part of j. bouey's S A T U R N world-building project. This cycle of walk-in performance installation immersions by George Del Barrio in collaboration with J. Bouey is in the early stages of development. Stay tuned for a live experience of SATURN: A Revelation in April 2023 by following the journey to SATURN here.

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Tyrone Bevans is dancer, choreographer, Illustrator and printmaker. He is currently dancing for The Fabulous Waack Dancers and Joya Powell’s Movement of the people. In the past Tyrone has performed and collaborated with artist such as Christal Brown, Chafin Seymour, Maya Orchin, Vessels, FunkanometryNY, Synead and Karla Garcia. As a mover Tyrone investigates space, risk, and play with one’s physical vernacular in order to access a personal freedom.

j. bouey is the founder of The Dance Union Podcast, initiating the NYC Dancers COVID-19 Relief Fund and The Dance Union Town Hall For Collective Action to support the dance community through numerous world-changing events. As a creator, j. is a recent 2021-2022 Jerome Fellow and is a 2022/2023 Movement Research Artist in Residence. j. bouey was also recently a Gibney 2021 Spotlight Artist, Artist-In-Residence at CPR – Center for Performance Research, and 2021 Bogliasco Fellow. J. was also a 2018 Movement Research Van Lier Fellow, and 2018 Dancing While Black Fellow. They were also a former dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and danced with Germaul Barnes’ Viewsic Dance, Maria Bauman’s MB Dance, Dante Brown, Christal Brown’s INspirit Dance, and apprenticed with Emerge 125 (formerly Elisa Monte Dance) under the artistic direction of Tiffany Rea-Fisher. Determined to manifest the dreams dreamt in their youth, J. is assuming this responsibility because these dreams sustained them when the sun didn’t shine or shined too bright to see.

Born 1976 in New York City and raised with the global immigrant community of Queens, George Del Barrio is the Founding Creative Director × Executive Producer of The Vanderbilt Republic (est. 2008) & MIDHEAVEN Network + Studio (est. 2020), as well as Creative Director × Executive Producer at Universe City NYC (2021-present).

As a 1st-generation American and all-media Creative/ Technical Director deeply versed in photographic physics, immersive curatorial design, and all phases of production, Del Barrio's practice is concentrated on archetype expansion. Every site response is architected by a resolute humanism; every invention, design, & transformation is in search of duende — meaning is not a discovery, it is a creation. Clients include The Keith Haring Foundation, Rutgers University, Textile Arts Center, MADERA, On The Revel, BARE Opera, Cardistry-Con & the dawning sunlight of an awakened mind. 

Jayson P. Smith (b. Bronx, NY. 1992) is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, & curator, currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Jayson has received support from New York Foundation for the Arts, The Poetry Project, Poetry Foundation, and The Conversation Literary Festival. Their writing appears in html.review, West Branch, boundary2, The Poetry Project’s Recluse, Gulf Coast, & The Offing, among others.

Jayson’s performance work has been featured in numerous venues throughout the U.S., such as Guggenheim Museum, MOMAPS1, Loft Literary Center, The Home School, & Ace Hotel NYC.

J founded & curates NOMAD Reading Series in Brooklyn, & elsewhere.

MELANIE GREENE is a choreographer, performer, writer, and organizer. She is no stranger to swirling on the edge of impossible… Swimming in the sea of the minority. Conjuring creative offerings around the U.S and abroad, she has received generous support from Keshet, MANCC, Marble House Project, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, Movement Research, Mount Tremper, New York Live Arts, Gibney Dance, Actors Fund, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dancing While Black Fellowship, Bogliasco Fellowship, and Brooklyn Arts Council. Greene has contributed written works to Dance Magazine and the Dance Enthusiast, and is a co-organizer of the Dance Union. While she is utterly drained by the 'grant grind', Greene remains surprisingly optimistic, leaning in abundance, and strategies of new futures. Stay tuned.

RHETLAW is a DJ/Musician Living in Brooklyn. Mixing elements of Soul, Afrobeat, Funk, Hip-Hop, World Music, Speeches and Poetry through Electronic mediums, Rhetlaw crafts abstract yet dynamic experiences. By using techniques pioneered by DJ legends along with the latest of Audio technology, Rhetlaw creates groves from the beat up, on the fly and in the moment, allowing no two performances to be the same. His songs touch issues from wellness to personal challenges and achievements. Utilizing his talents as a DJ and Producer, he aims to combine his instrumentation with his unique brand of turntabilism. His goal is to heal himself as well as others through the celebration of Dance and Song.

MIDHEAVEN NETWORK is a brave, generative space of healing and for the building — not “rebuilding” — of a fully inclusive society. MIDHEAVEN exists in paradox: FROM many, one.

THROUGH live arts programming from A GLOBAL phalanx OF performance, visual art, social justice, human development and cinema/ digital/ VR voyagers, MIDHEAVEN will ADVANCE COURAGEOUS, loving & possibility-driven VISIONS to the world.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR × EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GEORGE DEL BARRIO

ART DIRECTOR AL-KHABIR RICHMAN

DIRECTOR OF AUDIO ADRIAN MARTINEZ

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY BRIAN GONZALEZ

CAMERA OPERATOR IAN CHEN

COMPOSER + ASSOCIATE PRODUCER BANDIT LU

©2022 MIDHEAVEN NETWORK

“Remember the Power of the Pause”