BAX is very excited to announce the 2011/12 BAXco Directors:
Pene McCourty and Donna Costello

About BAXco

BAXco, BAX’s youth dance company, is a repertory company that performs work by professional choreographers both guest and faculty and is a pre-professional model for young dancers wishing to expand their experiences in the dance community. The company members are also ambassadors for BAX programs, performing throughout NYC and beyond.

The 2011/12 BAXco Company is co-directed by long time BAX faculty members, Pene McCourty and Donna Costello, and will be comprised of DPW II and III students. BAXco is also open to outside dance students. Audition is required.  Company class and rehearsals are held on Fridays from 4:30-7:30pm. Guest choreographer for the 2011/12 year will be BAXco Co-Director Pene McCourty!

Requirements and How to Audition

Company members are experienced dancers and must audition.

Company members are required to:

• Be strong, young dancers between the ages of 13-18
• Commit for the whole season (from Oct. 1-May 1)
• Take at least 2 dance classes per week (at BAX or outside of BAX) in addition to BAXco.

BAXco Guest Choreographers

BAXco Guest Choreographer 2011-2012
Pene McCourty

Pene McCourty is an arts administrator, educator and interdisciplinary performing artist who uses movement as her base. She has worked with several locally and nationally known dance performance companies and community arts organizations. As a performer and teacher she was a member of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Marlies Yearby’s Movin’ Spirits Dance Theater and Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group.

As an educator, Pene has created, taught and facilitated movement, dance and theater workshops in numerous schools, senior centers and universities within the New York City area and beyond for the past 13 years. She is a trainer for the National Center for Creative Aging and was the Performance Director of Elders Share the Arts creating/directing Continuum Dance Collective-a cross-generational performance and teaching collaborative.

As an art maker, her work has been presented at St. Mark’s Church, Joyce Soho, Chicago’s Links Hall, Towson University and San Francisco State University. She has also worked collaboratively with percussionist Leon Parker, writer Suhier Hammad and composer Tigger Benford.

Pene is currently the Director of School Settlement Association.

BAXco has worked with many of NYC’s most contemporary and provocative choreographers including:

Donna Costello (Guest Artist 2009-2010)
Faye Driscoll
Monica Bill Barnes
Shannon Hummel
Hattie Mae Williams
Nami Yamamoto

BAXco 2012 Performances

BAXco will be performing at Dancewave’s Kids Café Festival: “Kids Go To College” on Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 3:00 PM at the Kumble Theater, located at Long Island University Brooklyn Campus. Tickets are available through the Kumble Theater Box Office, (718) 488-1624 & kumbletheater.org.

BAXco had successful performances at Dancewave’s Kids Café Goes to College Festival last year at the Kumble Theater and at the Triskelion Arts, located in Brooklyn, NY as a special guest of the Emily Faulkner Wind Up Circus .

Past Performance Venues

BAXco has performed in NYC and beyond at BAX, BRIC Studios, the WOW Cafe, the Kumble Theater, the Kimball Theater in Virginia, and with the Shenandoah Contemporary Dance Theatre and members of the Virginia Repertory Company in Virginia.

BAXco Will Perform at Your Event

Call Maya Visco, Education Director, at BAX 718.832.0018

Photo Credit:DPW III 2007 by BAXstaff