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Michelle Brandon
Modern/Contemporary
The Joyce Theater
USA
United States
New York City
New York
New York, NY

The Works' 35th Anniversary Season

by Michelle Brandon
June 9, 2009
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue (at the corner of 19th Street)
New York, NY 10011
212-242-0800
Jennifer Muller/The Works
Jennifer Muller/The Works announces The Works' 35th Anniversary Season at The Joyce Theater at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), NYC from June 9 – 14, 2009. The 2009 Season features the World Premieres of Bench, part of The Joyce Theater's 25th anniversary commissioning initiative, Tangle and Walk It Off. Tickets are $19 – 49 and are available at 212-242-0800 or www.joyce.org.

Program A: Tuesday, June 9 at 7pm (Gala Opening); Wednesday, June 10 at 7:30pm; Friday, June 12 at 8pm; Saturday, June 13 at 2pm; Sunday, June 14 at 7:30pm
Tub (ClassicWorks Revival), Bench (World Premiere), Momentum (2005)

A ClassicWorks Revival of one of the company's earliest dances, Tub was created in 1973. Pace-setting in its use of unusual physical elements on stage, this piece employs a tub filled with water and is danced wet to an original score by Burt Alcantara, music director for The Works in its early years. Tub is an evocative and playful piece about the symbolic and emotional significance of water and cleansing. Critical acclaim at Dublin Festival: The Irish Times said "dramatic moments of confrontation quickly changing to acceptance with the cleansing and ritual transformation of the waters, relaxing dancers and audiences alike to a mood of merriment." Bench (World Premiere) is a dance about culpability and grace set to the music of Jocelyn Pook. The piece traces the ecological destruction of the earth due to destructive human behaviors through two simultaneous arcs: video projections of the earth from its creation to its current state of devastation and movement portraying the negative human effects on nature. A piece for twelve dancers, each dancer is caught in a downward spiral of destructive behavior – loosely based on the seven deadly sins. The relationships between characters disintegrate, torn apart by jealousies, quarrels, power struggles and conflicting desires, leading to a series of catalytic events that disrupt the status quo. The bench itself represents greed and power, inertia, and eventually, a prayer for salvation. Bench asks for a transformation of disregard into responsibility, apathy into action and conflict into redemption. Momentum (2005) is an investigation of energy, impetus, motion and velocity—the elements necessary to create action, forward motion, dynamic shape and momentum in movement and in life. Momentum is conceived as a vigorous, propulsive movement piece.

Program B: Thursday, June 11 at 8pm; Saturday, June 13 at 8pm; Sunday, June 14 at 2pm
Edge (2007 – Joyce Premiere), Aria (2008 – Joyce Premiere), Tangle (World Premiere),
Walk It Off (World Premiere)

Edge (2007 – Joyce Premiere), a dynamic movement piece set to music by Zap Mama, incorporates dramatic elements that explore the nature of fear, challenge and the ultimate courage that propels individuals to step off into the unknown. Aria (2008 – Joyce Premiere), choreographed to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, takes a fresh look at individual operatic arias, duettinos and trios. Drawn from the operas The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, the music selections are divorced from the operas' plots. Instead each crystallizes the essence of the words, expressing of the longing, loss and/or desire for love in contemporary and startling ways while still echoing the haunting, sensual and passionate quality of the music. Tangle (World Premiere) explores the intricacies of relationships. A duet with an unusual partnering vocabulary, the piece speaks about the power struggles, seemingly insolvable challenges and convolutions of one-on-one relationships. Created with humor, passion and compassion, the piece suggests that the tangles are most often self-inflicted and avoidable. Walk It Off (World Premiere) is a tongue-in-cheek how to manual offering advice about how to relieve stress and get out of the dumps. Suggestions range from "get over it" and "drop it" to "work it out" and "walk it off." The piece is a study in the contagious nature of motion combining casual action with high-powered dancing.

Dancers: Susanna Bozzetti, Mariana Cardenas, Elizabeth Disharoon, Rosie Lani Fiedelman, Seiko Fujita, Duane Gosa, Josiah Guitian, Gen Hashimoto, Tracy Ray Kofford, Abdul Latif, Jen Peters, Pascal Rekoert
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