Grain: A Dance Performance and Conversation

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Grain explores the beauty, history, and ecological relationships between people and sand through original choreography and sound score. The costumes are made from clear, geometric structures containing colored sand. As the dancers and musicians move, you can see and hear these sonic sand instruments interact with a sound score that includes drumming, singing, looping, and pre-recorded tracks. 

Both Confluence and Grain examine the history and precarious future of sand, the influence of water on sandscapes, and collaborations amongst artists. These themes will be explored in an open conversation amongst all six artists that invites the audience to share their own questions and reflections around these topics. Afterwards, all are welcome to linger over refreshments to continue enjoying the exhibition. 

Choreography: Meagan Woods, in collaboration with Shawn Brush

Dancers: Shawn Brush + Meagan Woods

Costumes: Meagan Woods

Music Composition: Paul Pinto

Music Arrangement and Performance: Paul Pinto + Joe Bergen

About the Artists:

Joe Bergen is a musician, educator, composer, and arts administrator focused on building diverse and equitable music communities. He is the Co-Artistic Director of Mantra Percussion, Director of Percussion at the New Jersey Youth Symphony, Director of Percussion Studies at Caldwell University, interim Percussion Ensemble Director at Kean University, and music education faculty at Montclair State University. Joe has premiered over 100 new works, released over a dozen albums, and has performed for film, TV, radio, and video game soundtracks, has toured North America, Asia, and Europe. He lives in Jersey City, NJ.

Shawn Brush is a NY-based dancer and choreographer. He is a company member with DanceTactics Performance Group and Falcon Dance, and currently works with Amber Sloan, Meagan Woods, and Dishman + Co. Shawn has performed with The Dance Exchange, Maya Orchin, Laura Peterson Choreography, Stefanie Nelson, The New Collectives, and Artichoke Dance Company. His own work, in collaboration with his partner Molly McGrath as Brush/McGrath(works), has been presented at Arts on Site, Art House Productions, Judson Church, Dixon Place, Triskelion Arts, Green Space, and a good friend’s wedding. Shawn has taught at various universities and schools including The Dance Exchange and Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a BFA in Dance in 2015.

Paul Pinto is a Jersey City based multi-disciplinary dabbler making opera-theater, installation, video art and durational performance. Sometimes with his bands thingNY and Varispeed. Some highlights: the operatic monodrama MANO A MANO with Kristin Marting, Meredith Monk's Indra's Net, Patriots with Jeff Young, Gelsey Bell's mɔɹnɪŋ, Whiteness with Kameron Neal, Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives, his first opera Thomas Paine in Violence with Joan La Barbara, Dave Malloy's Great Comet of 1812, Water Music (Con Vivo Music, Gold Bolus Recordings). He's currently writing the multilingual multimedia epic Estebanico, commissioned by the Perelman Arts Center. pfpinto.com

Meagan Woods is an interdisciplinary artist who works in dance, theatre, and costume design. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Simon Fraser University, and has been a guest lecturer at both her alma maters, as well as The New School, Pratt University, Montclair State, and Halifax University. Her work has been shown at Bryant Park, Lincoln Center, the TEDx Stage, and at venues across the US, Canada, Portugal, France, Taiwan, Norway, Greece and The Philippines. Meagan is also a collaborator with Moving Matter, a long-term research project that centers natural materials as guiding collaborative forces in the development of dances, costumes, and installations. She is a 2025 NJ State Council of the Arts Fellow. www.meaganwoods.com

Photography credit - Joey Sbarro