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Doug Varone and Dancers 30th Anniversary Season

by Michelle Tabnick
January 19, 2017
New York City’s famed Doug Varone and Dancers celebrates the company’s 30th Anniversary Season with upcoming performances and intensives. For 30 years, Doug Varone and Dancers has devoted itself to the humanity and virtuosity of dance, reaching out to their audiences well beyond the proscenium arch. This philosophy has earned them the reputation as one of the most respected dance companies working today. Over time, the company has created an expansive legacy encompassing dance, theatre, opera, and film.

As we celebrate our 30th Anniversary, we continue to push audiences’ expectations of how they encounter dance. - Doug Varone

The season includes:
* January 18–22, 2017 – Dance Affiliates, Prince Theater Philadelphia, PA
* February 18, 2017 – TITAS Presents, Dallas, TX
* March 4, 2017 – Shenandoah Conservatory, Winchester, VA
* March 15, 2017 – Forbes Center for the Performing Arts at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
* March 29 – April 1, 2017 – Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Brooklyn, NY
* May – Aug. 2017 – DEVICES: Choreographic Intensive & Mentorship Program, Hunter College, New York, NY
* July 10-21, 2017 – Victory Dance, The New Victory Theater, New York, NY
* June 2017 – Summer Intensive Workshop, Purchase College, Purchase, NY
* August 2-6, 2017 – Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Ted Shawn Theatre, Becket, MA


“Doug Varone and Dancers command attention as soon as the curtain goes up. Rarely do you find a choreographer so dedicated to the full and generous complexity of the human spirit. Many choreographers can create interesting movement; few can make it mean so much.”
– CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“Varone has an unquenchable instinct for expressing the vagaries of the human heart.”
– ARTS JOURNAL

“This is a company of master dancers, performing masterly choreography.” – NEWSDAY


DETAILED SCHEDULE

Dance Affiliates, Prince Theater Main Stage, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
January 18–22, 2017, Wed and Thu at 7:30pm, Fri and Sat at 8pm, Sat at 2pm, and Sun at 3pm
Presented by Dance Affiliates/NextMove Dance, Doug Varone and Dancers will bring the Philadelphia premiere of ReComposed (2015), which is inspired by Joan Mitchell’s pastel drawings and set to an explosive score Dystopia by Michael Gordon. Another program highlight is Possession (1994) — a poignant, powerful and physically-thrilling work set to Philip Glass’ Concerto for Violin and Orchestra and based on A.S. Byatt’s novel. Attend a Post-Performance Chat after the Thursday 7:30PM and Saturday 2PM show. Meet the company, ask questions, and get the scoop on the what’s and the why’s of the creative process.
Tickets: $20-$60 Box Office: 215-422-4580 www.princetheater.org/next-move
www.danceaffiliates.org

TITAS Presents, Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora Street, Dallas, TX 75201
February 18, 2017 at 8pm
Possession (1994 | Major Revival)
ReComposed (2015)
Tickets: $12-$135 Box Office: 214.880.0202 www.attpac.org

Shenandoah Conservatory, Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre, 620 Millwood Avenue, Winchester, VA 22601
March 4, 2017 at 8pm
Tickets: $25 Box Office: 540-665-4569 www.su.edu/performs/event/doug-varone-and-dancers

James Madison University, Forbes Center for the Performing Arts Mainstage Theater, 147 Warsaw Avenue, Harrisonburg, VA 22801
March 15, 2017 at 8pm
Possession (1994 | Major Revival), ReComposed (2015), Folded (from in the shelter of the fold)
Tickets: $33-38 Box Office: 540-568-7000 www.jmu.edu/forbescenter/events

Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Harvey Theater - 651 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
March 29 – April 1, 2017
Doug Varone and Dancers celebrate 30 years of impassioned choreography with three works representing the past, present, and future of this peerless company. Their major revival of the Philip Glass-scored Possession (1994), inspired by A.S. Byatt’s century-spanning novel of the same name, is an entwined portrait of solitude and desire. Varone’s latest work Folded, set to music by MacArthur fellow Julia Wolfe, renders the intimate interplay between two dancers falling in and out of sync. And in ReComposed, inspired by abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell’s pastel drawings, dancers careen across a paper-white stage to the crescendos of Michael Gordon’s Dystopia.
Tickets: $25-$45 Box Office: (718) 636-4100, www.bam.org/dance/2017/doug-varone-and-dancers

DEVICES: Choreographic Intensive & Mentorship Program, Hunter College, 695 Park Ave, NYC 10065
May – August 2017
Doug Varone and his Company will once again offer DEVICES: Choreographic Intensive & Mentorship, a program designed for emerging choreographers. A unique program celebrating its third year, the entire scope of the mentorship is divided into three distinct parts over the course of several months.
212-279-3344, www.dougvaroneanddancers.org/choreographic-intensive.php

Victory Dance, The New Victory Theater at The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 W. 42nd Street, New York, NY
July 10 -21, 2017
Doug Varone and Dancers will perform LUX at The Duke on 42nd Street for Victory Dance, The New Victory Theater summer series curated to inspire young people through a diverse roster of NYC-based dance. 
Tickets: $10 Box Office: 646.223.3010 www.NewVictory.org

Summer Intensive Workshop, Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577
Doug Varone and Dancers in partnership with Purchase College will offer an intensive workshop for pre-professional and professional dancers in Purchase, New York. This immersive, three-week experience will offer Daily classes in Pilates, Modern Technique, Phrasework, Ballet, Improvisation, Repertory, Choreography and other special electives; supplemental activities to include lecture demonstrations, repertory showings, social activities, and a final student showing.
June 2017

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Ted Shawn Theatre, 358 George Carter Rd, Becket, MA 01223
August 2-6, 2017
Praised for its “sheer kinetic force and profound emotional insight” (The Washington Post), modern dance company Doug Varone & Dancers delivers expansive vision, versatility, and technical prowess to the Ted Shawn Theatre. Celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year, the company brings ReComposed, inspired by expressionist painter Joan Mitchell’s swirling pastels, set to acclaimed composer Michael Gordon’s tremendous orchestral score Dystopia, among other works to be announced.
Box Office: (413) 243-0745 www.jacobspillow.org

REPERTORY

IN THE SHELTER OF THE FOLD
Choreography by Doug Varone
Music by Julia Wolfe, Lesley Flanigan, Geoff Gersh, Raz Mesinai, Kevin Keller, Glenn Kotche
Faith and belief take many forms, as do the acts of coping, questioning, and the expectations attached to it. Within this intensely intimate work, we explore the physicality of fulfillment and disappointment, and the tension between the comfort one finds in community and the stifling pressure to conform. in the shelter of the fold is comprised of a cycle of six imagistic dances that can be shown as stand-alone works or as an interrelated episodic event. The dance’s score comprises works by six of the most innovative 21st century composers working today.

RECOMPOSED (2015), Music by Michael Gordon
ReComposed is a visual dance creation inspired by American abstract artist Joan Mitchell’s pastel drawings, set to Michael Gordon’s explosive score, Dystopia. With gestural, sometimes violent brushwork, Mitchell described her paintings as “an organism that turns in space.” I recognize this visceral energy within my own dance making, creating human moving landscapes that hauntingly echo Mitchell’s explosions on canvas. “Varone created a moving work of art.” - The Durham Herald
“Mr. Varone is uncommonly adept in setting a stage aswirl with lines of energy. Bodies tangle and untangle at high speed, with limbs loosely flying, and if their paths left marks in the air, the result might indeed resemble one of the Mitchell pastels that are the inspiration for ‘ReComposed.’”
- The New York Times

POSSESSION (1994), Music by Philip Glass
“Through lashing movement sprung from ordinary gesture, along with evocative lifts, holds and falls, ‘Possession’ evokes the temper of our time – equal parts isolation, anxiety, violence and anomie.” - New York Magazine

THE FABULIST (2014), Music by David Lang
“Varone is, I believe, a great humanist. Something, probably honesty, makes his movement powerfully touching – you feel like he is telling you secrets in the dark. I was brought to tears by this sight and pretty much all of the dance. If Varone has ever interested you, do not miss this solo.” - Five Points

LUX (2006), Music by Philip Glass
“Luxuriant. ‘Lux’ is all about freedom. It is what dancing really feels like, the kind of dancing I might dream about: loose and sweeping in a spirit of exultation. Varone puts the beating heart at the center of his work.” - The Washington Post

STRICT LOVE (1994), Musical selections from various popular artists
“This gray persona, which all the dancers took on, juxtaposed to the music, which included Diana Ross’s ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,’ was bizarre and fascinating. ‘Strict Love’ was one of those dances that leaves audiences begging for more.” - The Daily Gazette

STRIPPED/DRESSED: A unique concept for an evening of dance
Building off the huge success of Varone’s sold-out NYC studio series, STRIPPED, Varone is taking his idea to the Mainstage as a way of opening dialogues with new dance presenters and their audiences nationwide. It opens doors for new dance audiences, allowing them to literally see the process of how a dance unfolds from beginnings to fruition in one evening.
*STRIPPED: Varone’s articulate and insightful way of dissecting his choreography for dance audiences helps to demystify the art form for many viewers, and provides an overture for experiencing his work. The first half of the evening, with Varone as MC, provides an intimate look at his creative process. The Company, dressed in only rehearsal clothes, under simple lights, presents a detailed look into the intricacies of how dances are created and performed
*DRESSED: After a short Q&A and an intermission, the Company returns with the second half of the evening: presenting fully produced dances, complete with lights and costumes.

DOUG VARONE, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Award-winning choreographer and director Doug Varone works in dance, theatre, opera, film, and fashion. He is a passionate educator and articulate advocate for dance. His work is known for its emotional range, kinetic breadth and the diversity of genres in which he works. His New York City-based Doug Varone and Dancers has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for three decades. In the concert dance world, Varone has created a body of works globally. Commissions include the Limón Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Rambert Dance Company (London), Martha Graham Dance Company, Dancemakers (Canada), Batsheva Dance Company (Israel), Bern Ballet (Switzerland) and An Creative (Japan), among others. In addition, his dances have been staged on more than 75 college and university programs around the country. In opera, Doug Varone is in demand as both a director and choreographer. Among his four productions at The Metropolitan Opera are Salome with its Dance of the Seven Veils for Karita Mattila, the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy, and Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, designed by David Hockney. His Met Opera production of Hector Berloiz’s Les Troyens was broadcast worldwide in HD. He has directed multiple premieres for Minnesota Opera, Opera Colorado, Washington Opera, New York City Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera, among others. His numerous theatre credits include choreography for Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theatres across the country. His choreography for 2012’s musical Murder Ballad at Manhattan Theatre Club earned him a Lortel Award nomination. Film credits include choreography for the Patrick Swayze film, One Last Dance. In 2008, Varone’s Bottomland, set in the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky, was the subject of PBS’s Dance in America: Wolf Trap’s Face of America. Most recently, he directed and choreographed MasterVoices’ production of Dido and Aeneas at New York City Center, starring Tony Award winners Kelli O’Hara and Victoria Clark, alongside the Company. Varone received his BFA from Purchase College where he was awarded the President’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. Numerous honors and awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, an OBIE Award (for Lincoln Center’s Orpheus and Eurydice), the Jerome Robbins Fellowship at the Boglaisco Institute in Italy, two individual Bessie Awards, two American Dance Festival Doris Duke Awards for New Work, and four National Dance Project Awards. In 2015, Varone was awarded both a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Dance Guild. Varone teaches workshops and master classes around the world for dancers, musicians and actors. He is currently on the faculty at Purchase College, teaching composition and choreography.

DOUG VARONE AND DANCERS
The recipient of 11 Bessie Awards, Doug Varone and Dancers has toured to more than 125 cities in 45 states across the US and in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. Stages include The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City Center, San Francisco Performances, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Toronto’s Harbourfront, Moscow’s Stanislavsky Theatre, Buenos Aires’ Teatro San Martin, the Venice Biennale, and the Tokyo, Bates, Jacob’s Pillow and American Dance Festivals. In opera and theatre, the Company regularly collaborates on the many Varone-directed or choreographed productions that have been produced around the world. Doug Varone and Dancers continues to be among the most sought-after ambassadors and educators in the field. The Company’s multidisciplinary residency programs take audiences deeper into the work, with a hands-on approach that moves beyond the studio to speak directly to people of all ages and backgrounds, both dancers and non-dancers alike. Our annual intensive workshops at leading universities have attracted students and professionals from around the country, and through our innovative DEVICES choreographic mentorship program, we are training the next generation of artists and dance-makers. Whether on the concert stage, in opera or theatre or on the screen, choreographer Doug Varone creates kinetically thrilling dances with rich musicality and emotional depth. From the smallest gesture to full-throttle bursts of movement, Varone’s work can take your breath away with both its athleticism and its passion. www.dougvaroneanddancers.org
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