VIM VIGOR DANCE COMPANY, with The Department of Dance at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, presents PUNCH LINE, with choreography by Shannon Gillen and Jason Reese C., in collaboration with Tzveta Kassabova.
PUNCH LINE will be presented on Friday, April 21, 2023 and Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 8:00pm in the Arthur Miller Theatre, 1226 Murfin Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109. Tickets are FREE and available at the door starting at 7:30pm. 
Through a prismatic lens of movement and radical storytelling, audiences will find themselves embedded in a world where stand up comedy meets human frailty and death. PUNCH LINE, by physical dance theater company VIM VIGOR, creates a living landscape from the distinctly human conundrum of knowing we are going to die. The sheer terror of ending combined with the electrified euphoria of feeling alive while we still can, PUNCH LINE laughs at death because what else can you do? Set against an original electronic sound score by Marshall Chadbourne, PUNCH LINE galvanizes the viewer into a cathartic experience of humor, angst and transcendence.
Concept, Direction: Shannon Gillen
Choreography: Shannon Gillen and Jason Cianciulli
Choreographic Collaborators: Tzveta Kassabova
Performance: Jason Cianciulli, Shannon Gillen, Tzveta Kassabova
Sound Score: Marshall Chadbourne
Costume Design: VIM VIGOR DANCE COMPANY
PUNCH LINE was made possible by a generous RCI grant from The University of Michigan. This work will tour to the prestigious b12 Festival in Berlin, in July 2023.
About the Artists:
Shannon Gillen is the Artistic Director of VIM VIGOR (us). Her creative work has been commissioned across the USA, Canada, Central America, South America and Europe. Projects include commissions by L.A. Dance Project, dance.films for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, fashion label Phelan for NY fashion week, Danceworks at the Lobero Theatre, Hubbard Street 2, Gibney Dance Company, Over het lj (NL), Jacob’s Pillow Festival, Boston Dance Theater at the ICA, Ruvuelo (CH), Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, Arts Umbrella (CA), the international Solo-Tanz Theater Festival (DE), the TIF theater (DE), de danseurs (NL), as a think big choreographer-in-residence at Staatsoper Hannover (DE) and at Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton where she was a choreographer in residence. Notable festivals and venues where her work has been seen include Springboard Danse Festival in Montreal, New York Live Arts, Prisma Festival in Panama, Judson Church, Pulse Art Fair/Art Basel, Bryant Park, NYC’s River to River Festival, Perry Mansfield, and the Joyce. Prior to founding VIM VIGOR, she danced with Johannes Wieland’s company at the Staatstheater Kassel in Germany. Gillen is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Michigan and is establishing Ann Arbor as a hub for contemporary practices with Vim Vigor open classes and annual winter / summer programming. Gillen is a graduate of The Juilliard School and earned her MFA from Tisch school of the arts at NYU.
Jason Reese C. is a Psycho-Physical Theatre Artist whose research is grounded in Floorwork, Partnering and Physical Theatre Methodology. He is a co-choreographer with VIM VIGOR and an MFA candidate at the University of Michigan. After receiving his BFA at SUNY Purchase Jason returned to the school to teach as an Adjunct Professor. Through VIM he has taught at various institutions including The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, the University of Michigan, Barnard College and Columbia University. Additionally he has collaborated with Shannon Gillen on creations for LA Dance Project, Gibney Dance Company, Boston Dance Theater and Springboard Danse Montreal. Jason previously was a Performer and Rehearsal Director with Sleep No More NYC.
Tzveta Kassabova is a Bulgarian-born choreographer, performer, costume designer, and installation artist named one of the ‘25 to watch’ in 2012 by Dance Magazine. At different times she has been a gymnast, physicist, and meteorologist. Her work has been presented in the US, Europe and Asia. Tzveta has received multiple awards for her performance and choreography. She deeply values collaboration and has worked with composers, visual artists, theater directors, video artists, dramaturges, and even engineers. Tzveta is thrilled to be teaching at the University of Michigan and cherishes the new direction in her artistic and pedagogical efforts applied to the realm of theater. She has always been fascinated by the concept of space, and is consistently trying to address it, noth in her choreography and design.