MM2 Modern Dance works with Milan, Italy based MM2 Band and Megan Mazarick
What is in a name? For MM2 Modern Dance Company, it was the revision and remake of its former existence as Music & Motion Dance. No longer geared towards teens or pre-professional dancers, MM2 Modern Dance emerged in 2009 as a professional dance company with a paid cast in their twenties, who hold advanced college degrees and training in dance. MM2 Dance has since developed as an incubator, providing support, space and opportunities for new emerging dance artists, who wish to explore the choreographic process, in order to cultivate and introduce new work to new audiences.
The name MM2 has numerous meanings from the short form for square millimeter, to a class of force fields and even a video game. But apparently, half way across the world in Italy, there is a train station named Milan Metro Line 2 [MM2]. It is from this train station that an Italian rock band MM2 Band had formed in 1999. The group’s music has taken hold in the international market and MM2 The Band has performed to sold out audiences.
Through a series of email correspondence between MM2 Dance and MM2 The Band, a unique collaboration began to be developed. MM2 dance would set choreography to a song, Poker Cheater, by MM2 The Band. This virtual project would be recorded to video and then be mixed to create a unique music video, which will play virtually as well as at live performances on both continents.
MM2 Modern Dance has hired notable choreographer and dancer Megan Mazarick [MM] to assist with the project. Megan, who now resides in Philadelphia, was originally from Raleigh, North Carolina. She received her BFA in Dance from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her MFA in Dance from Temple University. She has been an active dancer, choreographer and teacher in the Philadelphia region since 2004. Her awards and honors include Independence Fellowship, Live Arts Brewery Fellowship and the Ellen Forman Memorial Award. Her work has been presented at the Live Arts Festival, nEW Festival, Philadelphia Dance Projects, Community Education Center, Temple and Drexel Universities, Oberlin Dance Center, Southern Theater, Dance New Amsterdam, Triskelion Arts, Goose Route Dance Festival, Rowan University and The North Carolina Dance Alliance. She recently co-produced the new dance series Post-Op at the Painted Bride and is Co-Director of the nEW Festival as well as senior lecturer at the University of the Arts.
The dancers of MM2, having recently taken a workshop and master class with Megan, felt a natural rapport and saw the launch of this new international project as a natural fit for continuing to work and collaborate with her.
At the same time that this collaboration was being planned, MM2 Dance Company embarked on a most successful tour in Toronto, Canada under a grant from the WHW Foundation. The group joked about going to Italy as well in light of this new international project. Through appeal to several private corporate foundations, both here in the United States as well as abroad, MM2 Dance was awarded $25,000 to make this a reality. So in Summer of 2013, MM2 Dance will be performing and taking dance classes in Italy.
It is the company’s hope that they will be able to match schedules with MM2 The Band to offer a live performance of their collaborative video, scheduled for release in late October. MM2 The Band also hopes to be able to come to the States as well at some point in the future to share their talents and music as well.
To follow MM2 The Band, be sure to visit their website at http://www.mm2band.com
To hear the song Poker Cheater go to http://soundcloud.com/mm2band/sets/mm2band-ten-1
To view video clips from the filming go to https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2053ux86gjj3ehp/T9_Ju5o4k4
FINAL VIDEO RELEASE 2013
POKER CHEATER