Camille A. Brown

August 24, 2018 – Moody Performance Hall

Recognized for its introspective approach to cultural themes through visceral movement and socio-political dialogues, Camille A. Brown & Dancers soar through history like a whirlwind. Embodying a strong sense of storytelling, the company uses theatricality and the aesthetics of Modern, Hip hop, African, Ballet, and Tap, to tell stories that connect history with contemporary culture.

Making a personal claim on history through the lens of a modern Black female perspective, Camille A. Brown leads her dancers through excavations of ancestral stories, both timeless and traditional. The work is strongly character based, expressing each choreographic topic by building from little moments to model a filmic sensibility. Theater, poetry, visual art and music of all genres merge to inject each performance with energy and urgency.

The Company has performed in venues both nationally and internationally, including The Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, The Yard, American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, The Egg, The Kravis Center, White Bird and Belfast Festival at Queen’s (Belfast, Ireland).

Diavolo

September 14, 2018 – MOODY PERFORMANCE HALL

DIAVOLO | Architecture in Motion uses dance to explore the relationship between the human body and its architectural environment. Artistic Director Jacques Heim steers DIAVOLO’s diverse team of dancers, designers, choreographers and engineers to create visceral and awe-inspiring works that reveal how we are affected emotionally, physically and socially by the spaces we inhabit.

Meticulously designed bespoke architectural structures serve as the central inspiration for each work, activated by the stylistically varied and intensely physical choreography which has become the hallmark of this truly original company throughout its rich 25 year history. Through The DIAVOLO Institute the company also provides educational and outreach opportunities to people of all ages and abilities while touring and at home in Los Angeles, sharing the pioneering art form and the power of dance as a means of social impact.

STEPHEN PETRONIO

October 19, 2019 – MOODY PERFORMANCE HALL

Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Stephen Petronio is widely regarded as one of the leading dance-makers of his generation. New music, visual art , and fashion collide in his dances, producing powerfully modern landscapes for the senses. He has built a body of work with some of the most talented and provocative artists in the world.

Founded in 1984, Stephen Petronio Company has performed in 40 countries throughout the world, including numerous New York Ci ty engagements with 23 seasons at The Joyce Theater. The Company has been commissioned by Dance Umbrella Festival /London, Hebbel Theater/Berlin, Scène National de Sceaux, Festival d’Automne à Paris, CNDC Angers/France, The Holland Festival , Festival Montpellier Danse, Danceworks UK Ltd, Festival de Danse–Cannes, and in the U.S. by San Francisco Performances, The Joyce Theater, UCSB Arts & Lectures, Wexner Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, and White Bird, among others.

The 2014–15 season marked the first incarnation of Bloodlines, a project of Stephen Petronio Company to honor and curate a lineage of American postmodern dance masters. Distinguished for creating original languages that embody the highest level of art ist ic excellence displayed through extreme physical and conceptual rigor, these artists have had a profound impact on Petronio’s own artistic path. To date, the Company has restaged seven works, by Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Anna Halprin, Yvonne Rainer, and Steve Paxton, with plans to incorporate others in the coming seasons. The juxtapositions of Bloodlines repertory alongside Petronio’s works offers audiences an experiential insight into the evolution of this strand of creativity in American choreography.

In 2016, Stephen Petronio Company expanded its focus on American postmodern dance to explore the meaning of legacy and its impact on the future and sustainability of this most ephemeral art form. With an eye toward securing artists’ consistent ability to create and explore, the Petronio Residency Initiative (PRI) has been established as a retreat center where research and the creative process will be paramount. After launching the Campaign for PRI, $1M was raised within 12 months to facilitate the purchase of Crow’s Nest , a 175-acre property in Cairo, New York, 20 minutes from the burgeoning Catskill and Hudson, New York art scenes. Paid artist residencies will begin in the summer of 2018, providing dedicated rehearsal space and resources to choreographers and their collaborators to develop new work in an environment unfettered by market constraints and away from the daily pressures of urban life. The program will become part of a growing ecosystem in the U.S. dedicated to fostering a new model for the future of contemporary dance.

ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET

October 26, 2018 – MOODY PERFORMANCE HALL

A dazzling collaboration with acclaimed pianist Joyce Yang spawned the development of an entire program performed to live accompaniment. This curated evening features Ji?í Kylián’spoetic Return to a Strange Land (danced en pointe), Nicolo Fonte’s exhilarating Where We Left Off, and a brand-new commission by Boston Ballet’s choreographer-in-residence, Jorma Elo. This program will be available for limited touring in the fall of 2018.

While ASFB has occasionally hired a pianist when called for in past performances, there has not yet been a full evening of live music. ASFB Executive Director Jean-Philippe Malaty looks forward to this development: “This is the ideal condition, having a musician playing live. To have that collaboration and both arts being created at the same time, that’s very inspiring.”

What’s more, the centerpiece of the program will be the premiere of a new ballet by renowned choreographer and ASFB regular Jorma Elo, who has collaborated with Yang on a new ballet set to Robert Schumann’s Carnaval. In addition to the new work being choreographed by Elo, Yang will also play the music of Leoš Janá?ek for Ji?í Kylián’s Return to a Strange Land and Philip Glass in Nicolo Fonte’s Where We Left Off.

The seeds of the Elo/Yang project were first planted about four years ago, when Yang saw ASFB perform at the Joyce Theatre in New York City. The performance inspired her to think about what a collaboration with dance might look like for her. “I’ve always imagined things when I practice and perform,” says Yang. “It’s all about colors and shapes, and when I realized that I can actually have that, not just in my imagination but happening before my eyes, it was like being able to see for the first time.”

COMPLEXIONS

November 9, 2018 – WINSPEAR OPERA HOUSE

Complexions was founded in 1994 by Master Choreographer Dwight Rhoden and the legendary Desmond Richardson with a singular approach to reinventing dance through a groundbreaking mix of methods, styles and cultures. Today, Complexions represents one of the most recognized and respected performing arts brands in the World. Having presented an entirely new and exciting vision of human movement on 5-continents, over 20-countries, to over 20-million television viewers and to well over 300,000 people in live audiences, Complexions is poised to continue its mission of bring unity to the world one dance at a time.

Complexions has received numerous awards including The New York Times Critics’ Choice Award. It has appeared throughout the US, including the Joyce Theater/NY, Lincoln Center/NY, Brooklyn Academy of Music/NY, Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts/New Orleans, Paramount Theatre/Seattle, The Music Center/Los Angeles, Winspear Opera House/Dallas, Cutler Majestic Theater/Boston, New Victory Theater/NY, and Music Hall/Detroit, The Bolshoi Theater, The Kremlin, The Mikhailovsky Theater, Melbourne Arts Center, and made it’s debut at the Kennedy Center in 2017, as a part of Ballet Across America.

DORRANCE DANCE

February 1, 2019 – WINSPEAR OPERA HOUSE

BEIJING DANCE THEATER

February 8, 2019 – WINSPEAR OPERA HOUSE

Founded in 2008, Beijing Dance Theater (BDT) is led by its choreographer Wang Yuanyuan together with visual artists Tan Shaoyuan and Hanjiang. It has collaborated with many internationally renowned dramatists, musicians and designers, enriching the international dance stages with its world-class productions, each of which represents the highest level of Chinese contemporary dance.

Born and raised in Beijing, Wang Yuanyuan is one of China’s leading modern dance choreographers. She prides herself on being rooted in Chinese traditions, while at the same time producing innovative, authentic, and thought-provoking contemporary dance works for the world stage.

2016 marks the fifth anniversary of the BDT, a great occasion for another collaboration between Wang and Feng. The dance drama Hamlet is borne out of the film, and adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This is special Chinese Hamlet at once coming out of and departing from the film, it explores Hamlet’s psychological landscape from a fresh perspective. We confront his melancholy, his compassion for humanity, his doubt in the face of death and destruction. We present before you the beauty and darkness we found within Hamlet.

The story is set in no particular time , With the main characters extracted from the original work (the Ghost, the New King, the Queen, the prince and the Floral Spirit), we shape a story of life, death and love. The Ghost of the murdered King haunts those alive; the Prince avenges his father and thereby destroys love and life; the New King, the Queen and the courtiers angage in transactions of soul and flesh, struggling between good and evil. This is a tragedy of epic proportions and the stage presentation surmounts a new summit in contemporary dance theatre.

KYLE ABRAHAM’S A.I.M

March 1, 2019 – MOODY PERFORMANCE HALL

The mission of Kyle Abraham’s A.I.M is to create an evocative interdisciplinary body of work. Born into hip-hop culture in the late1970s and grounded in Abraham’s artistic upbringing in classical cello, piano, and the visual arts, the goal of the movement is to delve into identity in relation to a personal history. The work entwines a sensual and provocative vocabulary with a strong emphasis on sound, human behavior and all things visual in an effort to create an avenue for personal investigation and exposing that on stage. A.I.M is a representation of dancers from various disciplines and diverse personal backgrounds. Combined together, these individualities create movement that is manipulated and molded into something fresh and unique.

Abraham.In.Motion is a proud supporter of Dancers Responding to AIDS.

EZRALOW DANCE

March 29, 2019 – WINSPEAR OPERA HOUSE

Ezralow Dance is a movement based ensemble and the creative home for Daniel Ezralow’sexpansive and eclectic body of work. Ezralow Dance aims to collaborate with performers, composers, visual artists and filmmakers, mingling contemporary dance, provocative ideas and striking visuals. The group is known for its explosive physicality, originality and humor.

OPEN is a joyful series of dynamic choreographic vignettes, woven together into a narrative of astounding physicality. Combining classical music, inventive concepts, playful movement and striking visuals, OPEN uplifts and inspires smiles through the language of contemporary dance.

PILOBOLUS

April 5, 2019 – WINSPEAR OPERA HOUSE

Pilobolus began at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in 1971. Moses Pendleton, an English literature major and cross-country skier; Jonathan Wolken, a philosophy science major and fencer; and Steve Johnson, a pre-med student and pole vaulter were enrolled in a dance composition class taught by Alison Becker Chase. In that class, they created their first dance, which they titled “Pilobolus” —and a legacy of movement and magic was born.

Pilobolus crystallinus is a phototropic (light loving) fungus. Commonly known as “Hat Thrower,” its spores accelerate 0–45 mph in the first millimeter of their flight and adhere to wherever they land. The father of Jonathan Wolken was studying pilobolus in his biology lab when the group first formed. The name was apt, and stuck.

The group then went on to create dozens of dance works with its founding members Robby Barnett, Alison Chase, Martha Clarke, Lee Harris, Moses Pendelton, Michael Tracy, and Jonathan Wolken. In the more than four decades since, Pilobolus has performed on Broadway, at the Oscars, and the Olympic games, and has appeared on television, in movies, in advertisements, and in schools and businesses and created over 120 dance works. The company continues to propel the seeds of expression via human movement to every corner of the world, growing and changing each year while reaching new audiences and exploring new visual and musical planes.

COMMAND PERFORMANCE

June 6, 2019 – WINSPEAR OPERA HOUSE

Jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring, Command Performance always delivers one of the most exciting performances of the year. Dynamic and unforgettable, this is world-class dance! Artists from leading companies light up the stage with spectacular, surprising, jaw-dropping performances. It is the pyrotechnics of dance—the most exciting, innovative and beautiful works being performed today. Command Performance also features TITAS Presents commissioned works created specifically for this gala performance; works by some of the world’s leading choreographers such as T*wyla Tharp, Dwight Rhoden, Jessica Lang, Mia Michaels, Sonya Tayeh, Bridget L. Moore* and WANG Yuanyuan.

Truly, a not-to-be-missed event!