City Parks Foundation is thrilled to partner with The Joyce Theater in presenting Dance Out!, a special collaboration for the 2008 season of CityParks Dance, featuring three breathtaking pieces throughout all five New York City boroughs for five days from July 16 – 20, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of The Joyce Theater.

Resonating with the energy and vibrancy of outdoor life, the three acclaimed pieces for Dance Out! (Dans le Jardin, Transports Exceptionnels and Contigo) will launch consecutively in East River Park in Manhattan on July 16 at 7:00 pm. From there, each company will tour separately and perform in parks throughout the city.

Dans le Jardin, an improvised dance created and performed by the Netherlands-based choreographer Michael Schumacher, is set to live music performed by cellist and composer Alex Waterman. Using the park as a backdrop and inspiration for his performance, Schumacher dances around and with his surroundings. Partnering with a statue, moving gracefully under a tree or exploding across the grass; the park, music and audience play equal parts as inspiration and observers for this improvisational piece.

Transports Exceptionnels, by Compagnie Beau Geste, is a unique and whimsical outdoor duet for one man and an excavator. Choreographed by Dominique Boivin and accompanied by the dramatic voice of Maria Callas, the dancer Phillippe Priasso meets, greets, and embraces a moving excavator; transforming the construction site into a stage, street into playground, and dance into a tentative balance between nature, man, and machine.

Contigo is a solo work combining acrobatics and dance by Portuguese choreographer Rui Horta and Joao P. Pereira Dos Santos, an accomplished acrobat and master of the Chinese pole. In this awe-inspiring piece that defies gravity, Dos Santos traverses a 20 foot vertical pole, flipping and spinning with brut strength and drilled precision.