We are a collective of people who identify diversely as love, affirmation, humanity, creative, positive, multi-cultural, spirited, interfaith, catholic, AAPI, Ashkenazi, Japanese, integralist, Buddhist, female, multi-national, nature lovers, avid cyclists, born and bred New Yorkers and more.
We are BSP and we stand for the arts and equality!
Barkin/Selissen Project, a NYC-based contemporary dance company founded in 2009, blurs lines between the emotional and intellectual, dream worlds and waking states. With dramatic shifts from nuance to explosive athleticism, Artistic Directors Kyla Barkin and Aaron Selissen’s choreography infuses fresh perspective on complex subjects and cross-topic collaborations in areas such as mathematics, linguistics and human nature.
BSP has been recognized and supported by several outside organizations, including Ovation TV who aired a national public service announcement on behalf of BSP as part of their Stand for the Arts campaign, the NY Dance and Performance Awards (“The Bessies” & ALL ARTS) in a spotlight on DAW at the 2020 awards ceremony, and BSP has received generous grants from LMCC, DCLA, Simons Foundation, Dance/NYC, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Debs Foundation and more.
15 years of building dances has yielded over 30 pieces of repertoire, including 5 evening-length works and over 10 dance films presented at venues and festivals across the U.S. and abroad, including New Victory Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Gerald W. Lynch Theater, SUNY Stony Brook’s Staller Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, West End Theater, 92Y, Arts on Site, the National Math Festival, Tempe AZ Center for the Arts, Boston’s Dance Complex, Bryant Park, Fotografiska International Photography Museum, Touhill Performing Arts Center St. Louis, Uferstudios (Berlin, Germany), Edinburgh International Conference Center, Little Haiti Cultural Center, Flushing Town Hall, Dance St. Louis, Dixon Place, Booking Dance Festival, San Pedro Festival, Dumbo Dance Festival, American Dance Guild, Short Film Factory festival (Bucharest, Romania) and more.
The company often engages artists, scientists, and technicians to create work extending beyond the medium of dance itself to create a sum greater than its parts. Notable projects include a multiyear collaboration with musician/graphic design artist Lindsey Boise creating, “Resonant Imaging” and 2 evening length works, “SH2” and “Skyfire,” which incorporated 3D animation and interactive projection as integral components, and working with famed mathematician/philanthropist James Simons creating "Differential Cohomology; Dance of the Diagram", originally commissioned for the opening of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University. This timeless project has several incarnations notably at Jacob’s Pillow (2012), the National Math Festival Washington, D.C. (2019), and with the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater, NYC (2022), and culminated in public discussion regarding the intersection of Science and Art by a distinguished panel of experts; the author/inventor of the theory James Simons, Abel Prize recipient and mathematician Dennis Sullivan, acclaimed dancer/educator/author Emily Coates, STEM from Dance/Girls Rise Up founder Yamilée Toussaint Beach, and moderated by neuroscientist and television personality Heather Berlin, with special guest hosts Ira Flatow and founder of The Dance Enthusiast Christine Jowers.
BSP was part of the inaugural season of Sally Taylor’s ConSenses, an artistic game of telephone, creating a collaborative interdisciplinary multi-sensory experience with a national launch at the historic Grange Hall on Martha’s Vineyard where BSP’s dance film “Concrete Illusion” (soundscape by Reggie Watts) premiered.
BSP created a film with Falkor Systems and their autonomous “pet” drone that followed and “danced” with its partner, and also collaborated with Martinus Miroto via live 3D Hologram in Yogyakarta, Indonesia with artists from around the world including Japan, China, and the US. From 2017-2019, to meet audiences where they are/were, BSP created the "Titles Project", a series of short dance films released online where viewers engaged in dialogue and selected one film to expand for live performance.
Partnerships for education/outreach include STEM From Dance/Girls Rise Up, Hofstra University, SUNY Brockport, Wilson College, Sam Houston State University, Festival of the Moving Body, Limón Professional Studies Program, Hartford Performs/Communicating in Partnerships through Dance, Balance 1 Academy, Berlin, Germany, and more.
Collectively, Barkin and Selissen have danced with Janis Brenner & Dancers, Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, Isabel Gotzkowski, Doug Elkins, and Dance Kaleidoscope among others. Aaron was a long time member of the Limón Dance Company, and Kyla is a graduate of UCLA, a Fitness/Wellness Professional and master yoga teacher/therapist for over 25 yrs, and serves in the field of Social Justice.
Early in the pandemic, BSP established the Dancers Above Water Relief Fund providing financial and alternative support to dance artists suffering during Covid, and has since assisted over 75 individuals.
“Some groups...give strong performances, others offer new and intriguing choreography, astute musical choices or a deep emotional connection. BARKIN/SELISSEN, however, has the lot.”
-The Scotsman
