Photography by Daniella Jaeger (kickstarter.com)

The Frontrunner Gallery presented its first opening on January 21st showcasing a fundraiser for the upcoming film, music, and dance production The Black Magic Piano.  Over 100 people attended, entertained by a lively ensemble of dancer, music, and film.

The multifaceted production led by music composer Doran Danoff, dance choreographer Elizabeth Wilkinson, and film director Edward Symes, was accompanied by a series of dance portraits exhibited on the gallery walls by photographer Leah Overstreet.

The Invitation

The fundraiser began with an introduction and account by the group of the remarkable two year timeline resulting in the night’s showcase:

Two years ago, filmmaker Edward Symes arrived in New York City and moved into a tiny Greenwich Village sublet.  Over the course of one month, he wrote a series of love songs on the black grand piano that took up almost the entirety of his studio apartment.  Considering strongly that he could be onto something, he paired with composer Doran Danoff, and the two developed and recorded the songs together.  The project found its name, Danoff recalled when he made the comment that, “not being a songwriter, Teddy must have fallen into some ‘black magic’ to have written the songs”.  It was the antique grand piano, he claimed, sworn to have once lived at the Rainbow Room, that was the culprit.

From Left: Romina Rodriguez-Crosta, Lucy York, and Grace Converse

Danoff recalled when he made the comment that, “not being a songwriter, Teddy must have fallen into some ‘black magic’ to have written the songs”.

What resulted was not only a music album produced by Danoff himself featuring a myriad of musicians and sounds from electric guitars to clarinets (recorded in 2009 at Seaside Studios in Brooklyn) but also an indie film produced by Here and Now Films (Symes’ NYC based production company) and a series of dances choreographed by Elizabeth Wilkinson.  “Having a background as a composer for dance,” Danoff explained, “I was inspired to incorporate dance and movement in the film. We brought choreographer Elizabeth Wilkinson on board and she helped us make that a reality. Teddy started to call it an opera. We laughed at him. Elizabeth became the final mind to bring our ideas into a sensible framework where music, film, and movement could harmonize together.”

Looking for a New York theatre for the dancers to rehearse and eventually be filmed posed a new challenge to the team.  The solution, eventually, was found in a D-I-Y black box theater housed in a Bushwick loft, “I moved almost all of my life into a loft in East Williamsburg for the course of 6 months in 2010,” Symes recalls.  “Elizabeth had the idea of hanging black canvas on the walls and taping black vinyl to the floors to create a black box theatre for the dancers to dance in.  The majority of the filming took place in the loft and on the streets of New York.”

From Left: John Shaw (bass), Doran Danoff (piano), David Butler (drums), Edward Symes (vocals), and Jon LaDeau (guitar)

Two weeks prior to the fundraising show, a short video invitation was released that quickly found its way around facebook, picking up interest in many corners of the web including kickstarter.com where the group was looking to raise money to cover the film and music album’s finishing costs.

On the night of the performance, kickstarter.com blog writer Daniella Jaegar, based in New York, attended the event.  After seeing the video and fundraising page,  she took photos to include in a blog entry that would feature on kickstarter’s homepage the following week.  By the end of April, the group reached their goal thanks to over 40 online contributors.

The Cast Ensemble of the Black Magic Piano:

Actors: David Bly and Lucy Struever York

Dancers: Lucy York, Grace Converse, Romina Rodriguez-Crosta, Samantha Robinson

Musicians: David Butler, Shawn Hennessey, Mark Karwan, Jonathan Kemp, Jon Ladeau, Steve Lewis, Doran Danoff, John Shaw, and Edward Symes.

Cinematographers: Bentley McBentleson, Malcolm McLean