CLOSE UP
CLOSE UP
An intimate duet of music and dance exploring identity, memory and resilience
CLOSE UP is an experimental work set in a layered jazz club where music and movement intertwine. The piece uses non-linear vignettes to allow time travel between colonial African, European, Créole Haitian, and Louisiana music and language of the past. The scenes then hold us in current Black American evolutionary expression; this duet, performed by Stefanie Batten Bland and Daniel Bernard Roumain, transports audiences to the past through memory and ancestry. In CLOSE UP, spirits shift and reveal the stories our bodies carry.
Collaboration between Stefanie Batten Bland & DBR, this work speaks in sense memories, thoughtfully examines the scars we carry while actively iving in a multi-dimensional body.
At this fragile moment in our world, this moving musical duet explores caring for one another and deep-rooted memories that reside within our bodies. It employs dynamic gestures in conversation with a rich musical tapestry of American, African American, Haitian and French Créole anthems.
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