Doug Varone and Dancers to Premiere New Piece at The PAC Next Month

THE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, PURCHASE COLLEGE (PAC) is gearing up for November, which begins with a World-Premiere from one of their own, Purchase alum and professor in the Conservatory of Dance, Doug Varone and Dancers celebrating their 30th Anniversary season with a new co-commissioned piece by The PAC. The performance will take place on November 5th at 8pm in the PepsiCo Theatre at 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577. Tickets $35-$55 and are on sale at 914-251-6200 and tickets.artscenter.org/single/PSDetail.aspx?psn=6080.

Doug Varone and Dancers has commanded attention around the globe for its expansive vision, versatility, and technical prowess. From the smallest gesture to full-throttle bursts of movement, Varone's kinetically thrilling dances mine the complexity of the human spirit.

Varone has been on campus for the past few weeks, developing his new piece Into the Shelter of the Fold, co-commissioned by The Performing Arts Center. The piece will feature 12 dancers from the Conservatory of Dance as part of a new effort at The PAC, of closer collaboration with the College, and making sure the students and the community have greater access to and interaction with the professional artists who perform on our stages.

"When we talked about new vision, expanding our work in Dance was a natural fit," remarks Interm Director Seth Soloway. "Purchase Alumnus, and recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award, Doug Varone will build and premiere his piece right here and it will feature 12 of our own Conservatory of Dance Students."

Tickets: 914-251-6200 or www.ArtsCenter.org. Performances run at 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577.

Doug Varone Award-winning choreographer and director Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, television and fashion. He is a passionate educator and articulate advocate for dance. By any measure, his work is extraordinary for its emotional range, kinetic breadth and the many arenas 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 nearly three decades. In 2008, Varone's Bottomland, set in the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky, was the subject of the PBS Dance in America: Wolf Trap's Face of America.

In opera, Varone is in demand as a director and choreographer. Among his four productions at The Metropolitan Opera are Salome with its sensational Dance of the Seven Veils for Karita Mattila, and the world premiere of Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy. His Met Opera production of Hector Berloiz's Les Troyens was recently broadcast worldwide in HD. He has staged multiple premiers and new productions for Minnesota Opera, Opera Colorado, Boston Lyric Opera, Washington Opera and New York City Opera, among others. His numerous theater credits include choreography for Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theaters across the country. His choreography for Manhattan Theater Club's current musical hit Murder Ballad earned him a Lucille Lortel nomination for choreography. Film credits include choreography for the Patrick Swayze film, One Last Dance.

In the concert dance world, Varone has created a body of works globally. Comissions 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.

Varone received his BFA from Purchase College where he was awarded the President's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. He has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, an OBIE Award, two individual Bessie Awards, two American Dance Festival Doris Duke Awards for New York, and four National Dance Project Awards.

As an educator, 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.

THE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, PURCHASE COLLEGE (The PAC), a four-theatre complex, is the major professional, non-profit arts presenter in the Southeastern New York-Southwestern Connecticut region. The Center presents a broad range of performances that engage, challenge, and educate as well as entertain, offering music, dance, theatre, film, comedy, and family programming to audiences from Westchester and the surrounding communities.

Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY, is located 28 miles northeast of New York City at the Connecticut border. The College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY), is an institution of public higher education encompassing the liberal arts and sciences, professional training in the performing and visual arts, continuing education, the Neuberger Museum of Art, and The Performing Arts Center.