MEDIA + PERFORMANCES

'“The intuitive gesture on the civic scale is not always a built one . . .”

Stephen Glassman Studio's practice extends beyond permanent structure into film, installation, and civic performance — works that occupy public space through time, voice, and moving image.

GHOST | STORY
2017

Ghost Story follows four dancers in search of a narrative as they prowl the interiors and exteriors of Bjarke Ingels' new "court scraper" VIA 57 West in NYC, responding to the building's architecture and scale with movement.

An 8-minute site-specific dance film shot entirely at VIA 57 West. Architecture by Bjarke Ingels Group. Fashion by Issey Miyake. Directed by Sarah Elgart.

Presented at: Cannes International Film Festival · NYC Design and Architecture Film Festival · Berlin Fashion Film Festival · San Francisco Dance Film Festival · Dance Camera West Film Festival

Includes excerpts: C+C · Gust · Drones Two Ways

Credits

Produced by: Stephen Glassman Studio
Executive Producer: Stephen Glassman
Directed by: Sarah Elgart / Arrogant Elbow
Producer: Aaron Slavin
Dancers: Chelsea Bonosky, Albert Esquilin aka "The Ghost of NY", Charissa Kroeger, and Storyboard P
Red Figure: Taylor Ennen
Fashion: Issey Miyake
Choreography: Sarah Elgart & the dancers
Cinematography: Victoria Sendra
Music: Chapelier Fou "Darling, Darling, Darling" (L. Warynski) published by Ici d'Ailleurs: icidailleurs.com
Editing: Steve Pyne & Sarah Elgart
Hair & Make Up: Nikki Fontaine
Camera Assists: Arielle Knight & Katie Green
Still Photography: Matt Butterfield & Cary Tijerina
Crew: Taylor Ennen, Lenin Fernandez, Summer Gan, Zane Gan, Chris Makens, Sarah Grace Mariani, Sylvie Rae, Whitney Schmanski, Elizabeth Shew, Cassy Surianello, Freesia Torres

Filmed entirely at VIA 57 West, a development of The Durst Organization
VIA 57 West architecture by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)
Sculpture: Flows Two Ways by Stephen Glassman Studio
Landscape Architecture: Starr Whitehouse

Special thanks: The Durst Organization, the entire VIA 57 West Staff, Charlotte Desplan, Samantha Shaw, Issey Miyake, Zari Awodein, Gilbert Aguado & Soho Grand Hotel, Axis Connect, Fallout Entertainment

FLOWS TWO WAYS (Time-lapsed Installation video)
2016

A time-lapse video documenting the one-month installation of Flows Two Ways, the Studio's monumental outdoor sculpture for Mid-town Manhattan's new "superblock" development, VIA 57 West, commissioned by The Durst Organization.

Scaling eight stories at sixty by sixty feet, the work was commissioned to complement the main entrance to VIA 57 West — the torqued tetrahedral residential and mixed-use "court-scraper" that marks Bjarke Ingels Group's first project in the Americas, and has become a signature icon on Manhattan's west side skyline.

The title is derived from a loose translation of the Hudson River's Native American name Muh-heah-kun-nuk — river that flows both ways — and serves as a metaphor for two forces that are separate yet connected: the river and the city. Flows Two Ways marks the studio’s first permanent New York City work.

To develop the technologically complex sculpture, Glassman and his engineering, architecture, and design teams crafted a layered construction and anchoring system, effectively a panelized façade. The layered eight-story, 32,000-pound jig-saw puzzle is composed of a stainless-steel mounting matrix embedded into the existing shear wall, 35 interlocking aluminum panels, nearly 400 sixty-foot pipe clusters rolled and flowing in three axes, and faceted metal "boulders." A sophisticated sliding plate system largely floats the 16-ton piece off the building, accommodating thermal expansion and forces generated by wind, rain, snow, and ice loads.

Engineering: Arup · Fabrication: Milgo Bufkin Industrial · Installation: American Signcrafters · Photography: Chun Y Lai · Music: Romare

URBAN ECHOES
April 17, 2016 · Skid Row, Los Angeles

The intuitive gesture on the civic scale is not always a built one. Urban Echoes is a civic voice installation, an art action, a happening — raising human voices in song from Skid Row to echo throughout the cityscape. At golden hour on April 17th, music of the spirit was sung by an assembled volunteer choir from the street, windows, and rooftops of Skid Row, Los Angeles.

Produced by Stephen Glassman Studio with Urban Voices Project and Sarah Elgart / Arrogant Elbow

Credits

Conceived and Produced by: Stephen Glassman
Choral Director: Leeav Sofer
Associate Music Director, Vocal Improviser: Kate Richards Geller
Choreographer: Sarah Elgart / Arrogant Elbow
Film: Kevin Schlanser
Administrative Director: Brian Dyer
Performance Coordinator: A. Moret
Assistant Choral Choreographer: Zoe Rappaport
Community Advisor and Urban Sage: Christopher Mack

Music
Processional — Medicine Melody
Ave Maria — César Franck
Wings of a Dove — traditional, inspired by Rhiannon's arrangement
Amen — spiritual, inspired by Otis Redding's arrangement
All music arranged by Leeav Sofer

Singers
Sharon Chohi Kim · Pat Loeb · Megan Morrow · Fran Hartshorn · Toti O'Brien · Jonathan Gordon · Nima Norouzi · Michelle Sargean · Sarah Briuer Boland · Andre Powell · Kristy Baltezore · Jonas Sills · Catherine Menard · Brian Dyer · Alison Lewis · DeAna Brown · Andre Pittmon · Hortensia Tamayo · Katherine Lansing · Trevor Davis · Emily Hope · Myra Boime · Ilana Summers · Jody Gol · Laetitia de Lagasnerie · Margot Page · Dan Goldman · Christopher Mack · Kate Richards Geller · Leeav Sofer · Katrina Miller · Emi Macuaga

Dancer: Alyssa Allen

GHOST STORY: Teasers, Trailers, Tableaus . . .

Short vignettes and creative variations from the film’s footage high-lighting special moments of performance, choreography and sculpture

GUST juxtaposes the street dance of “Storyboard P” and “The Ghost'“ with the dramatic VIA 57 artchitecture

DRONES TWO WAYS fly-by cinematography highlighting the experience of the sculpture — it’s luminous color, detail and craftsmanship

C + C features the dancers Chelsea Bonosky and Charissa Kroeger