Current Showcase is a recurring performance series dedicated to emerging artists. Our showcases are free and open to the public.
MISSION STATEMENT:
Our goal is to provide a free platform for emerging performance artists to showcase their work to the public, meet fellow artists and potential collaborators, and build their audience network in a supportive environment. We support artists of different performance mediums, including dance, music, and theater, to allow cross over and meaningful interaction across artistic disciplines.
HISTORY:
We are two dancers & choreographers (Debbie Mausner & Falls Kennedy) who saw a need for emerging artists to present their work for free in New York City. We saw a need for performance art to be made more accessible and open to the public. We also saw siloes between artists of different disciplines, not being able to connect in repeated, meaningful ways.
We founded Current Showcase in 2018 and have produced six showcases thus far. Our showcases have been presented in theaters, studios, and public outdoor spaces, as we have evolved and discovered different ways to support and present emerging artists.
LATEST:
Our latest showcase, Current (Take.7) was a site-specific performance that worked like a museum, in which audience members were able to "choose their own adventure,” and move along from one performer to the next as desired. Fifteen emerging choreographers showcased their work simultaneously throughout the 1hr 45 minutes, while audience members came and went throughout the space. Each site in the space presented different spatial and environmental elements for the performers to interact with. Current provided ushers to guide audience members to see every artist location if they prefered a guided tour. Everyone joined at a final location for a full artist bow and audience applause. Take.7 was made possible in part by funding from the Masterworks Arts Community Grant and the Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Grant.
Take.7 took place on September 17th, 2022 at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 3.
Meet the Founders of Current Showcase
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To the talented designer of our incredible website: Allison Costa
To our genius identity and design consultants: Helen Sywalski Prisco and Michael Prisco
To the amazing photographers of our various showcases: Joseph Colin Williams, Emile Osborne, Kathryn Butler, and Joshua Bryant-Gainer
To the invaluable volunteers who have made these showcases run: Lexie Thrash, Katya Sapozhnina, Annelise Eileraas, Brian O’Shea, Gabi Woods, Allison Costa, Augie Sherman, Kennedy Thomas, Maya Keleher, Carolyn Silverman, Sophia Visscher-Lubinizki, Sarah Marazzi-Sassoon, Zoe Novello, Jamie Rieger, Campbell Ives, Julia Van Riel, Grace Whitmore, Rae Su, and Elle Nalt
To the incredible, growing Current Showcase intern team: Jingjing Han
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Founder, Dancer, Choreographer
Debbie Mausner is a dance artist from Brooklyn, NY. She holds a B.A. in Dance with a minor in Art History from Barnard College. While at Barnard, she performed in works by Pam Tanowitz, Lucinda Childs, Trisha Brown, Mark Morris, Joanna Kotze, and Caitlin Trainor. Since graduating, she has performed and collaborated with Trainor Dance, Lu Dai, Stefanie Nelson, Heather Bryce, Carolyn Silverman, JACKS | Lexie Thrash & Kelsey Kramer, Madelyn Sher, and visual artist Eric Gottshall.
Debbie’s choreography and film work have been showcased through Gibney Showdown, Triskelion Arts (Collabfest & WAXworks), 100 Grand, Spoke the Hub, Brooklyn Ballet, Greenspace, Jump/Cut Film Festival, The Plaxall Gallery, Fireplace 409, and Dance Complex. She was a 2021-2022 Artist-in-Residence at Union Street Dance, and has been selected as a site-specific choreographer for the Women in Dance Leadership Conference in 2022.
In addition, Debbie currently works as a Program Coordinator at Ballet Tech. Previously, she has had the joy of teaching creative movement to children at Dancewave, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Mark Morris Dance Center, as well as throughout public schools in NYC. She also dabbles in dance film and production, both independently and through Dancio (dancio.com).
Her favorite thing about producing Current Showcase is meeting new artists, and watching real time interactions happen between performers and pedestrians who serendipitously become audience members.
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Founder, Dancer, Choreographer
Falls Kennedy is a nerd who loves books and was fortunate enough to attend Barnard College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. There, she reveled in studies of, among other things: Medieval women adventurers, digital humanities, sound-based translation, and dance. Through Barnard, she had the opportunity to perform work by Caitlin Trainor, Chase Brock, Doug Varone (staged by Hsaio-Jou Tang), John Heginbotham, Kevin Wynn, Mark Morris, and Twyla Tharp.
Since graduation, Falls has presented her own work as a solo performer and with an evolving group, Mary Falls Kennedy and the Movement Accomplices. Her work has been presented with NACHMO, Hatch, Current Showcase, Barnard College Reunion, Triskelion Split Bill Series, WAXWorks, and Dixon Place Virtual Exposure. She has also performed works by Caitlin Trainor and Colleen Thomas Dance.
Today, she lives in Brooklyn, infiltrates the corporate world as a tech consultant, dances, and creates dances. She is a student of Mestre Alegria of Capoeira Luanda, under the name Cisne. Her favorite thing about producing Current Showcase is the opportunity to bring art into public spaces and to create new communities of artists.