Ephrat Asherie
Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie is an American choreographer, dancer, director, and b-girl based in New York City. She is the founder and artistic director of Ephrat Asherie Dance (EAD), a contemporary dance company known for integrating street and club dance forms such as breaking, house, hip hop, waacking, and vogue into theatrical performance. Asherie is recognized for her contributions to the presentation of vernacular dance traditions on concert stages and for her exploration of the cultural histories of social dance.
Early life and education
Asherie earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Italian from Barnard College. She later received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where her research focused on the vernacular jazz roots of contemporary street and club dance forms.
Career
Asherie emerged from New York City's underground dance community, where she trained and performed as a b-girl. She has cited dancer and mentor Richard "Break Easy" Santiago as an important influence on her artistic development.
In 2011, she founded Ephrat Asherie Dance (EAD). The company's work combines street and social dance traditions with contemporary theatrical approaches. Its performances frequently draw upon breaking, house dance, hip hop, vogue, and other Black and Latine vernacular dance forms.
EAD's first evening-length production, A Single Ride (2012), explored the social dynamics of New York City's subway system through multimedia performance. The work received two nominations from the New York Dance and Performance Awards, commonly known as the Bessie Awards.
Among Asherie's most widely performed works is Odeon, a dance piece set to music inspired by Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth. The work brought together dancers and live musicians to examine connections among various street and club dance traditions.
Another major project, Underscored, incorporated oral histories from elders within New York City's underground dance community and examined the cultural lineage of social dance practices. The work premiered in 2022 and has toured nationally.
In addition to creating work for her own company, Asherie has choreographed and directed commissions for dance companies, festivals, universities, and presenting organizations in the United States and abroad. Her collaborators have included Michelle Dorrance, Rennie Harris, Doug Elkins, Bill Irwin, Buddha Stretch, and Gus Solomons Jr.
Artistic style
Asherie's choreography is characterized by the integration of street and club dance vocabularies with concert dance structures. Her work often emphasizes improvisation, musicality, community histories, and the social origins of movement practices. Critics have noted her ability to translate the energy and spontaneity of underground dance culture into theatrical settings while maintaining connections to the forms' cultural roots.
Awards and honors
Asherie received a Bessie Award for Innovative Achievement in Dance in 2016.
She has also received numerous fellowships, grants, and honors, including:
- Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Award
- New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
- New York City Center Choreography Fellowship
- Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship
- National Dance Project awards
- Jacob's Pillow Fellowship
Other activities
Asherie is a co-founding member of MAWU, an all-female house dance collective. She has taught and created work at universities and dance institutions throughout the United States and has contributed to scholarship and public discussions on the history and evolution of street and club dance forms.
See also
- Breaking (dance)
- House dance
- Hip hop dance
- Vogue (dance)
- Street dance