<BACK TO PROJECTS

CLICK HERE FOR POSTCARD

Since 1997, as a co-curator of Dance Theater Workshop’s highly popular Family Matters series, Keely has the opportunity to showcase an imaginative mix of dance, music and theater, bringing together an array of multi-talented artists with an audience ranging from toddlers to teenagers. Family Matters is unusual in its ability to encompass and incorporate diverse disciplines, subjects and talents into one format. Family Matters presents artists who specialize in making work for children as well as those who are creating original work for this audience for the first time. Additionally, the shows feature young performers, often the children or students of the participating artists. The series also strives to reflect the community it serves by offering programs that include artists of different race, gender and age.

Each show is conceived around the idea of a particular theme such as folklore, fables, super-heroes/heroines, transformation, waterways, travel, food, colors or animals. etc. With a mix and match approach, material is selected to create a collage of related ideas. At a typical performance, you could see traditional Chinese dance, a stand-up comedian, a roller-blade duet, home-made musical instruments, acappella accompanied tap-dancing and singing puppets, albeit not usually all at once! The series also features a special “house band” for each show.

Among many others, participating artists have included: Storytellers Charlotte Blake Alston and Alice Eve Cohen; Musicians Shlomo Pestcoe, Rachelle Garniez, Baba Israel, Roy Nathanson and Phillip Johnston; Pupeteers James Godwin & The Elementals; tap dancers The Young Hoofers; Cartoonist David Mandel; and Choreographers David Neumann, Doug Elkins, Rokafella, Roxanne Butterfly, Jennifer Monson, Zvi Gotheiner, Sally Silvers, H.T. Chen, Goldhuber & Latsky, David Parker and Reggie Wilson.



Program for Young Audiences

(2001, Trio featuring singer/songwriter Rachelle Garniez and performers Keely Garfield and Lawrence Goldhuber, with audience participation. 15 minutes.)

A Mermaid, King Neptune and a Pirate fathom the depths, surfacing with siren semaphore, sea shanties and shipwrecked tales.

Premiere: Family Matters at The World Trade Center Plaza Stage (New York, NY), August 11, 2001
Commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop’s Bessie Schönberg/First Light Program with funds from The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.