CLOSE UP
CLOSE UP
An intimate duet of music and dance exploring identity, memory and resilience
RSVP here to join us for the first ever showing!
🗓️ Date: January 11, 2026
⏰ Time: 12:15pm-12:45pm EST
đź“Ť Venue: Ailey Citigroup Theater
Close Up brings together three–time Bessie nominated artist Stefanie Batten Bland (SBB) and Emmy Award–winning composer and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) in an intimate new concert of music and dance, where sound and movement entwine to reveal the stories our bodies carry. Conceived as a musical and physical lullaby, the work recreates the immediacy of a speakeasy—where the danger and thrill of proximity and truth can cut like a dagger or cradle us with love and acceptance. Blending classical, jazz, and post modern influences into one expression, Close Up explores deeply rooted cultural narratives shaped by ancestry and memory.
Together, SBB and DBR celebrate the resilience of the human spirit, holding the beauty, humor, horror, and care within each body, and emphasizing the necessity of tenderness in turbulent times. Through this dialogue of bow and body, rhythm and resistance, they build a world both familiar and newly imagined: a sanctuary of sound, sweat, and grace.
ABOUT STEFANIE BATTEN BLAND
Stefanie Batten Bland (SBB), a global maker, 2026 NYSCA, 2025 New Music USA, a Dance Magazine Cover artist, and BAM Next Wave Commissioned artist, SBB straddles the artistic scenes of NYC and France. Born to a jazz composer father and a writer mother, she was raised in SoHo when it was led by artists. Batten Bland's artistic work deeply investigates contemporary and historical cultural symbolism, examining the body as a political statement and how our cultural identifiers shape systemic relationships. She creates proscenium, cinematic, and immersive worlds that respond to the human quest for belonging.
As the Artistic Director for Company SBB, Creative Casting & Movement Director for Life & Trust, she pioneered casting/lighting/performing approaches as Performance-Identity liaison for Sleep No More. Additionally, she founded the first immersive theatre summer intensive in the United States, CONCRETE.
Her extensive experience as a performer and collaborator includes work with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Tanztheater Wüppertal Pina Bausch, Italian photographer Paolo Roversi, Hungarian choreographer Pal Frenák, Jérome Savary at the Paris Opéra Comique, Georges Mombôye from the Côte d'Ivoire, and PunchDrunk. This rich artistic background fuels her strong commitment to experimentalism.
SBB’s work has been recently presented at Danse Lille (France), Spoleto Festival (Italy), Lincoln Center, and Bates Dance Festival... SBB has recently received Creative Capital, Harkness Foundation, Dance Advancement Fund, and NEFA grants—she is an associate professor at Montclair State University. You can find her on Instagram at IG: @sbb_land.
ABOUT DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN (DBR)
Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a Black, Haitian-American composer who sees composing as collaboration with artists, organizations and communities within the farming and framing of ideas. He is a prolific and endlessly collaborative composer, performer, educator, and social entrepreneur. “About as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets” (New York Times), DBR has worked with artists from Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones to Lady Gaga, as well as institutions including Brooklyn Academy of Music, Kennedy Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Sydney Opera House. Acclaimed as a violinist and activist, DBR’s career spans more than two decades, earning commissions by venerable artists and institutions worldwide.
Known for his signature violin sounds infused with myriad electronic, urban, and African-American music influences, DBR is a composer of solo, chamber, orchestral, and operatic works, and has composed an array of film, theater, and dance scores. He has composed music for the acclaimed film Ailey (Sundance official selection); won Emmy awards for The New Look of Classical Music and Art is Essential; released and appeared on 30 album recordings; and has published over 300 works.
An avid arts industry leader, DBR was the first Artistic Ambassador with Firstworks; the first Artist Activist-in-Residence at Longy School of Music; and the first Resident Artistic Catalyst with the New Jersey Symphony. He serves as a board member for the League of American Orchestras, and is a voting member for the Recording Academy GRAMMY awards.
DBR earned his doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Michigan and is currently a tenured Institute Professor at Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
Photo Credit Robert Torres