Doug Varone To Present Season at The Joyce 3/15-20

Doug Varone and Dancers' much-anticipated Chapters from a Broken Novel, will make its New York premiere at The Joyce Theater from March 15-20, 2011. This full-length work features live musical accompaniment by the score's composer, David Van Tieghem. Tickets start at $10 and are available at The Joyce Theater box office, by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800, or online at joyce.org

Chapters from a Broken Novel is a continuously unfolding sequence of twenty intimate portraits that reveals a world teeming with everyday moments exposed for their beauty and rawness. Set to an original score by Van Tieghem, Chapters has been drawn from Varone's palette of physical, visceral movement and detailed gesture to reveal human nature at its most naked, vulnerable, and poignant. In addition to composer Van Tieghem, Varone's creative collaborators include scenic designer Andrew Lieberman, lighting designer Jane Cox, and costume designer Liz Prince.

These twenty portraits were originally inspired by the choreographer's collection of quotations from books, films and overheard conversations. Crafted as a series of individual movement vignettes, each "chapter" has its own structural and compositional integrity; yet when viewed in sequence, the collection becomes a richer, more deeply felt journey. Van Tieghem's bold, cinematic score provides a context in which these individual chapters can be framed together. Lieberman's scenic design, a shimmering silk "ceiling," amplifies and sculpts Cox's razor-sharp lighting design, defining a unique sense of space for each of the episodes.

Chapters from a Broken Novel was developed over an extended 18-month process in 2009-2010. The general public was able to view the creative process as it unfolded over time through the Company's signature Stripped series, a sequence of six intimate studio showings at the 92nd Street Y's Buttenwieser Hall, where the company has been in residence since 2006.

Doug Varone and Dancers will perform on the following schedule: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm; Thursday and Friday at 8:00pm; Saturday at 2:00pm and 8:00pm; and Sunday at 2:00pm and 7:30pm. Tickets for the performance start at $10, and are available by calling JoyceCharge (212-242-0800); by visiting The Joyce Theater Box Office (Monday-Friday, 12:00-6:00pm); or by charging them online at joyce.org . The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street.

Following the Wednesday performance, there will be a free post-performance conversation with Varone.

About Doug Varone:
Doug Varone has choreographed and directed for theater, opera, television and film, as well as fulfilling commissions for national and international dance companies, including the Limon Dance Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Switzerland's Bern Ballet and the Batsheva Company of Israel.

Varone was awarded a 2006 OBIE for his direction and choreography of Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Euridice at Lincoln Center for its American Songbook series, and has choreographed several productions for the Metropolitan Opera. His theater credits include choreography for Broadway and top regional theaters, such the Yale Repetory Theater and Baltimore's Center Stage; his credits for film include Patrick Swayze's, "One Last Dance."

Born and raised in Syosset, New York, Varone received his BFA from Purchase College, where he was awarded the Presidential Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. Honors also include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography, and two New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessie's) -- for Sustained Achievement in Choreography and for his 2006 work Boats Leaving. Varone's work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts since 1988.

About David Van Tieghem:
David Van Tieghem has composed dance scores for Twyla Tharp, Michael Moschen, the Boston Ballet, Doug Varone, the Pennsylvania Ballet, among others. His feature film scores include "SPINNING Into Butter," "Eye of God," "My Father is Coming," "Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread," and "Working Girls." He has composted music and designed sound for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows including "Doubt," "Wit," and "How I Learned to Drive," among many others.

About the Company:
Since its founding in 1986, Doug Varone and Dancers has performed in more than 100 cities in 45 states, as well as in Europe, Asia, Canada and South America. Winners of eleven Bessie Awards, his dancers have been cited for their extraordinary physical daring, vivid musicality and genius for capturing the nuances of human interaction through movement.

Headquartered in New York City, Doug Varone and Dancers is the resident company of the Harkness Dance Center at the 92nd Street Y. The company spends some 35 weeks a year performing in New York, touring nationally and overseas, presenting workshops for professional dancers, holding residencies and appearing in opera productions staged by Varone.

Chapters from a Broken Novel was created with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with City Council. The work was commissioned by National Performance Network, The Bates Dance Festival, The University of Akron, and San Francisco Performances. Major commissioning support to underwrite the composition of David Van Tieghem's original score was received by the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation. Additional support for Van Tieghem's composition and performance were received from American Music Center's Live Music for Dance Program and Meet the Composer.

Doug Varone and Dancers also receives major support from The Alphawood Foundation, The Lila Wallace Theater Fund, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Shubert Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Harkness Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, The National Performance Network, The New York State Council on the Arts and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Corporate support is provided to Doug Varone and Dancers by Hanky Panky and Prescott Wines.

Photo credit: Phil Knott