At MANCC, Neumann worked with his dancers and composer Eve Beglarian to find form for his new dance work titled FEEDFORWARD through the exploration, expansion and combination of the rules of sports. Neumann is using the rules and tactics of different sports as “found algorithms” to determine the structure of this new ‘physical event’ which will premiere at Dance Theater Workshop in Fall 2007.
During his MANCC residency, David concentrated on two aspects of research for his new work, FEEDFORWARD: creating form and movement and, secondly, collaborating about the music composition. In order to build movement based on the rules and tactics of different sports as “found algorithms” to help determine the structure & movement of this new ‘physical event’, Neumann delved into his research through observation of the FSU Tennis Team’s competitive collegiate events and through the observation of a much different type of competition -- his dancers playing the Nintendo Wii. David originated movement from his research and structured a twenty-five minute section by the end of his residency. Composer, Eve Beglarian experimented with David and the FSU trombone quartet, comprised of students from the FSU School of Music, for four days in the recording studio at MANCC on a sixteen-part trombone composition, which will surface in or serve as inspiration for the final score.
COMMUNITY OUTCOMES
FSU dance majors worked with David for three weeks generating then manipulating movement about choreographic ideas according to the research he was doing. They then worked with David’s company dancers on building a group section for FEEDFORWARD.
To be able to work with a choreographer whose movement vocabulary is different from what I am used to and to be able to help influence the development of a professional’s new work were the two most beneficial parts of the collaboration. –Whitney Earnheardt, FSU Senior BFA student in Dance
I’d love the opportunity to work with David again if I move to New York; possibly auditioning for his company or asking him to help mentor me in my own choreography [as he so graciously offered as an option]. –Allison Shir, recent FSU graduate; BFA in dance
A Tallahassee Trombone Quartet, consisting of all FSU School of Music students, experimented with composer Eve Beglarian on creating twenty tracks of trombone compositions, which included a “trombone tennis match” to correspond with Neumann’s potential tennis section in FEEDFORWARD.
Continuing to work with Eve on the score would be a dream, but of course just attending the premiere at DTW in New York will also be an incredible opportunity to hear the influence of our creativity with the final piece played by the performing trombone choir. –Louis Lugo, FSU Ph.D candidate in Music
BIOGRAPHY
David Neumann is the artistic director or advanced beginner group, a multi-disciplinary dance-based collective centered in New York City. Drawing on his extensive experience in both dance and theater, Neumann believes in making dances from scratch bringing to full-body, gesture, work and proximity a delighted embrace of our contradictory lives. He utilizes experimental dance-making approaches with a humorous outlook and an inclusive layering of disciplines to create complex, through provoking dance works that push the form.
Neumann’s original work with advanced beginner group has been presented in New York at PS122, Dance Theater Workshop, Central Park SummerStage (where he collaborated with John Giorno), Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Celebrate Brooklyn, Symphony Space (where he collaborated with Laurie Anderson), Context Theater, La Mama ETC, the Downtown Art Co., and Toro Nada Theater. This season his work will be presented at the Walker Arts Center, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and Alverno College.
Neumann has been a featured dancer in the works of Susan Marshall, Jane Comfort, Sally Silvers, Irene Hultman, Cathy Weiss, Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar’s Big Dance Theater, and club legend Willi Ninja. He was a three-year member of Doug Varone and Dancers and an eight-year original member and collaborator with the Doug Elkins Dance Company, with whom he toured nationally and internationally.
Neumann is the recipient of two New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” awards, as a performer in 1991 and for his choreography in 1998. He was nominated twice for the Cal Arts/Herb Alpert Award and was awarded a 1993 Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship in the theater, a Joyce Theater Foundation Residency in 1999, two NYFA Build Grants (03 and 05), a Rockefeller MAP Grant in 2004, and a Colbert Foundation Award for Excellence in Choreography in 2001. Most recently, he was awarded a Meet the Composer co-commission with Eve Beglarian for their collaboration on FEED FORWARD, his newest endeavor.
COLLABORATORS
Matt Citron, dancer
Taryn Griggs, dancer
Kyle Pleasant, dancer
Chris Yon, dancer
Artists 
