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| Harkness Dance Center 2004-2005 Performance Season |
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| Tickets/Registration: 212.415.5500 |
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| Media Contact: Michael Grant, 212.415.5435, email |
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| HARKNESS DANCE CENTER 2004 - 2005 PERFORMANCE SEASON |
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| 92ND STREET Y HARKNESS DANCE CENTER |
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| Renata Celichowska, Director |
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92 ON 42:
The 92ND STREET Y HARKNESS DANCE PROJECT
At The Duke on 42nd Street
Annual Contemporary Dance Festival — 11TH Year
SUNDAYS @ THREE
Informal Previews of New and Reconstructed Works
Special Events
THE POSSESSED: HASIDISM IN THE ARTS
Pearl Lang Speaks with Village Voice's Deborah Jowitt
Annual "Breaking Ground" Interview with Dance Pioneers
GOTTA DANCE: JEWS IN AMERICAN DANCE
Nina Spiegel, Ph.D., Dance History and Modern Jewish History
Presented by the 92nd Street Y Simon Center for Adult Life & Learning
The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center receives major support from the
Harkness Foundation for Dance and additional major support from the Arnhold Foundation. |
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| New York, NY, August, 2, 2004—The centerpiece of the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center's 2004-2005 season is the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Project. The annual five-week contemporary dance festival features a different New York-based company each week. This year's festival kicks off on Wednesday, February 16, 2005, at The Duke Theater on 42nd Street, the series' home for the last five years, and continues through March 20. As it does each year, the Dance Center offers two informal performance series, the monthly Sundays @ Three and bi-weekly Fridays @ Noon. The Sundays @ Three programs, which begin Sunday, October 3, offer audiences previews of new and reconstructed works by emerging and veteran choreographers, as well as the rare opportunity to speak with established choreographers at monthly performances. |
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| Finally, as part of the its special year-long celebration of Jews' contributions to American life over the last 350 years, the Y offers Gotta Dance: Jews In American Dance, two talks by Dr. Nina Spiegel, an historian of both dance history and modern Jewish history. |
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| 92 ON 42: THE 92ND STREET Y HARKNESS DANCE PROJECT AT THE DUKE ON 42ND STREET |
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| Wednesday, February 16 — Sunday, March 20 |
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| [Performances take place at The Duke Theater on 42nd Street. Tickets are $20 per performance for adults and children, $16 for members of groups of 10 or more, and $15 for students and seniors with I.D. Call 212.415.5552 for information.] |
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Week 1: February 16 - 20 (no Friday performance)
Keigwin + Company: Natural Selection — NEW YORK PREMIERE
Larry Keigwin's witty work explores relationships in the context of pop culture, using a movement style at once physically unrestrained and finely controlled. With nods to Broadway, burlesque and downtown, Keigwin brings a light touch to dark subjects in dances that leave audiences and critics wanting more. The go-for-broke company presents the New York premiere of Natural Selection, a full-company work that received its world premiere this past summer at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina. The program also includes expanded Mattress Suite and two early works in their New York premieres. |
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Week 2: February 23 - 27 (no Friday performance)
Zvi Dance: Territories — WORLD PREMIERE
Israeli-born choreographer Zvi Gotheiner draws on his personal experience of land-based conflicts in Territories, a dance-theater work that deals with space and its division, seen here in its world premiere. Enacting game-like competitive rituals, the dancers present a conflict of wills that ultimately bespeaks a yearning for belonging. The music, arranged by Scott Killian, includes his own original composition as well as traditional music from the Middle East. The lighting is by Mark London and costumes are by Naoko Nagata. |
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Week 3: March 2 - 6 (no Friday performance)
Bridgman/Packer: Under the Skin — NEW YORK PREMIERE
The acclaimed duo of Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer present the New York premiere of Under the Skin, a new work in which the dancer-choreographers are accompanied by dynamic video projections. The images serve both as virtual dance partners and illustrations of unspoken thoughts, intentions and desires. Composer/saxophonist Ken Field, of the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, contributes a score of "urban tribal" brass sounds, and video editors Jim Monroe and Peter Bobrow create the electronic images. |
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Week 4: March 9 - 13 (no Friday performance)
Roxane Butterfly's Worldbeats: Hoofalogie — WORLD PREMIERE
BeauteeZ'n The Beat is the music and dance ensemble led by Roxane Butterfly, the only female tap artist to receive a New York Dance and Performance Award, or "Bessie." Her newest production, Hoofalogie, blends video with spoken word, electronically-mediated tap, singing and other rhythmic movement. The program features an exciting lineup of internationally-recognized guest artists and music by jazz innovator Graham Haynes. Butterfly, as she was dubbed by legendary tapper Jimmy Slyde, moves freely between jazz and world music scenes. In performance, her showmanship is matched only by the wildly inventive mix of musical traditions on display, from Afro-Cuban and hip hop to contemporary jazz and funk. |
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Week 5: March 16 - 20 (no Friday performance)
PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER: Thaw — WORLD PREMIERE
Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig present the world premiere of Thaw, the latest episode in what the artists describe as "an eternal quest for a divine rhythm in the mundane." Known for their site-specific projects, the choreographers transform The Duke Theater's balcony and other architectural features to create a wonderland of exhilarating shifts in perception. The program is completed by A Curious Invasion: 42nd Street Remix, a large company work with straw bales. |
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| SUNDAYS @ THREE |
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Preview performances of new and reconstructed works by emerging and veteran choreographers. Post-performance discussions with the artists.
[Tickets, at $10 per performance, can be purchased at 212.415.5500. Reservations held until 15 minutes before curtain, can be made at 212.415.5552.] |
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Sunday, October 3, 3:00 pm
Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company: Odyssey 23
Choreographer Carolyn Dorfman presents a new work celebrating the 350th anniversary of the landing of the first Jews in America. Set to original music by Greg Wall and Cecelia Margolis, Odyssey 23 chronicles the physical, emotional and spiritual journey of Jews fleeing persecution for the promise of freedom. By turns reverential and questioning, humorous and joyful, the work offers a vivid portrayal of coming to America. The Company will also perform excerpts from The American Dream, part of Dorfman's acclaimed, evening-long work Mayne Mentshn (My People). This performance is one of more than 50 events the 92nd Street Y is offering to celebrate the 350th anniversary of Jews' arrival in America. For more information, see
www.92Y.org/350. |
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Sunday, November 7, 3:00 pm
Alexandra Beller: You Are Here and Other Possibilities
Alexandra Beller, a veteran of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and her company present Why Things Fall, a response to the events surrounding 9/11 that explores different ways of experiencing the tragedy of war. The company also performs You Are Here, which asks the question, "How do we know, for a fact, that we are really here?" Praised for choreography of uncommon intelligence and elegance, Beller is known for her winning mix of athleticism and sensuality. |
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Sunday, December 12, 3:00 pm
Misnomer Dance Theater: Dedos de Caracol (Toes of a Snail)
When Chris Elam arrived on the downtown scene with his company, Misnomer Dance Theater, the excitement was likened to that of Mark Morris's early days in New York. In his new piece, Dedos de Caracol (Toes of a Snail), the choreographer uses highly physical dance punctuated by bursts of staccato, taut motion to investigate the various ways people communicate. Inspired by Elam's journeys to such far-flung locales as Bali and Brazil, the dances on offer revel in the possibilities of the human body as a site for cultural exchange. |
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Sunday, January 16, 3:00 pm
IN HONOR OF MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
Dancers in the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company: Bodily Abode II
In a unique commemoration of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 10 dancers from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company take the stage to perform their own distinctive work. The extraordinarily passionate and intelligent short pieces bring the Company's rich fusion of dance and theater to a new level. As a result of a close, ongoing collaboration between the contributing choreographers — a highly diverse ensemble of artists — the afternoon should make for a moving tribute to King's vision. |
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| SPECIAL EVENTS |
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| [Tickets at 212.415.5500] |
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Sunday, October 31, 7:30 pm, $25
Annual "Breaking Ground" Interview with Dance Pioneers
THE POSSESSED: HASIDISM IN THE ARTS
Pearl Lang Speaks with Deborah Jowitt
Renowned choreographer Pearl Lang has created over 30 dance works on Jewish themes. A film version of her 1975 dance/theater piece The Possessed, based on Ansky's classic tale The Dybbuk, was commissioned by the 92nd Street Y. After a screening of the film, Ms. Lang speaks with Village Voice chief dance critic Deborah Jowitt about how mystical Hasidism is a thread that links many Jewish works of art. |
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Part of Celebrate 350: Jewish Life in America, 1654-2004, 50+ Events Celebrating Jews' Contributions To American Life
GOTTA DANCE: JEWS IN AMERICAN DANCE
Two Talks by Nina Spiegel, Ph.D., Dance History and Modern Jewish History
Presented by the 92nd Street Y Simon Center for Adult Life & Learning |
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Tuesday, March 15, 7:30 pm, $20
JEWISH DANCE IN AMERICA
American Jewish dancers have explored, negotiated and wrestled with their Jewish identity on stage. Through video, lecture and discussion, Dr. Nina Spiegel explores the works of great Jewish choreographers including Pearl Lang, Sophie Maslow, Jerome Robbins, Anna Sokolow and Helen Tamiris. In an attempt to answer the question "Is there a unique Jewish voice in American dance?"
Dr. Spiegel discusses how these dancers addressed critical themes for Jewish immigrants, including the place of ritual and tradition, the immigrant experience, the effects of the Holocaust on the Jewish psyche and people, isolation, community, and integration. |
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Tuesday, March 29, 7:30 pm, $20
DANCING JEWISH LIFE
Dancing your way through the Jewish experience is an unrecognized means of understanding Jewish culture, society and history, with the style and content of particular dances providing insight into the social, cultural and religious lives of Jewish communities. Using a combination of lecture, video and discussion, Dr. Spiegel explores the role of dance in particular Jewish societies in America, Europe and Israel. |
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| ABOUT THE 92ND STREET Y HARKNESS DANCE CENTER |
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| In 1935, what is now the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center provided a home for the fledgling modern-dance movement. Over the following decades, every great modern dancer
and choreographer choreographed, performed or taught at the Y, building the foundation for modern dance as we know it. These talented individuals included Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Hanya Holm, Pearl Lang, Anna Sokolow, Sophie Maslow, Alvin
Ailey, Pearl Primus, Lester Horton, Merce Cunningham, Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, Erick Hawkins, Mary Anthony, Robert Joffrey, José Limon, Katherine Dunham, and Donald McKayle, to name but a few. |
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| Today, through performance opportunities, workshops and other programs for dancers, choreographers and dance educators, the 92nd Street Y continues its support of emerging and established artists like David Parsons, Zvi Gotheiner, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Ohad Naharin, Keely Garfield, Neil Greenberg, Bill T. Young, Maia Claire Garrison, and Sean Curran. At the same time, the Y's dance program reaches out to the larger community through a wide range of classes for adults and children in virtually every dance form. Troupes for young people in tap, hip-hop, modern dance and ballet, and the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Project, an annual contemporary dance festival, allow both emerging and established artists a chance to present their work. |
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| ABOUT THE 92ND STREET Y |
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| The 92nd Street Y unites culture and community service in one multifaceted institution. Founded in 1874 by a group of visionary Jewish leaders, the Y is dedicated to enriching the lives of the 300,000 people of every race and faith who, each year, visit its three facilities — the historic headquarters on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Makor, on the Upper West Side, and the Rockland County campgrounds. Visitors come to the 92nd Street Y to hear music of all kinds; to listen to writers read from their work; to explore Jewish culture; and to gain insight from public figures and experts in every field. Programs for children and adults help them navigate each stage of life, an extensive adult-education curriculum includes instruction by renowned authors and artists, and an unusual wellness initiative offers both a wide range of fitness activities and the opportunity to learn from the nation's leading healthcare professionals. Committed to sharing its programs with all New Yorkers regardless of economic circumstance, the 92nd Street Y provides over $1 million in scholarships every year and reaches out to 7,000 public school children with fully-subsidized arts programs. For more information, visit
www.92Y.org/PRESS. |
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© 2008 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association
All Rights Reserved. |
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