New York Live Arts to Welcome Trisha Brown Dance Company, 4/8-13

By: Feb. 19, 2014
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

New York Live Arts presents the Trisha Brown Dance Company (TBDC) in a week-long residency with performances of Son of Gone Fishin'; Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503; Solo Olos; and Rogues, April 8 - 12 at 7:30pm and April 13 at 3:00pm in New York Live Arts' Theater. In addition to the six performances, the residency will include open rehearsals, a master class, discussions and an archival exhibition in both the Live Arts building and online.

The eagerly anticipated reconstruction of Son of Gone Fishin' (1981), Brown's first musical collaboration, features original music from Robert Ashley's, Atalanta. According to Brown, Son of Gone Fishin' reaches the "apogee of complexity in [her] work." This diabolically complex choreographic structure is belied by the constant ebb and flow of six dancers accompanied by musical arrangements from orchestral parts of three operas in Ashley's Atalanta. The performances at Live Arts will debut newly created costumes by original costume designer Judith Shea, inspired by her archival design notes. Archival notes from the original collaboration, featuring a set by Donald Judd, will also be presented online.

Also newly reconstructed, Solo Olos (1976) is a section of Brown's Line Up, a series of dances created at a point in Brown's choreographic career when she was exploring a concept she called "Pure Movement," which denotes movement free of other connotations. Epitomizing the rigor and play in Brown's work, Solo Olos utilizes a brilliant network of interconnected phrases danced both forwards and backwards. As a "Caller" gives directions to the performers, an impromptu composition is revealed. As described by Deborah Jowitt in The Village Voice, "Solo Olos is as beautiful and subtly shaped as water rippling over stones. Like the title, the movements flow along, pause, and then reverse."

Rogues (2011) was recently described as "[s]implest and best.[a]s they tipped, stepped, rotated and twisted, their dancing celebrated life rather than artifice" by Alastair Macaulay in The New York Times following its premiere at the Fall for Dance Festival. This duet for two men explores unison movement and aberration. With original music by Alvin Curran, costumes by Kay Voyce and lights by John Torres, Rogues "enthrallingly display[s] how an impulse that begins in a shift of the torso or a lift of the arm can create a momentum that the body, effortlessly it seems, converts into a phrase of shape and texture" (The New York Times).

Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503 (1980) is Brown's "breathtaking" (The New York Times) collaboration with Japanese fog artist Fujiko Nakaya. This mysterious piece that flirts with perception and illusion features four dancers moving through Nakaya's fog "cloud sculpture," which creates sound as water passes through high-pressure nozzles. The movement reflects the delicate balance of the air surrounding the dancers, both constantly changing form and drifting off. Part of Brown's "Unstable Molecular Structure" cycle, Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503 features costumes by Judith Shea and lights by Beverly Emmons.

Performances will take place in New York Live Arts' Theater. A Come Early Conversation and Stay Late Discussion will be featured with two shows, as well as a related Shared Practice Workshop and Tech Talk (complete details below). Tickets are $40 and may be purchased online at newyorklivearts.org/season by phone at 212-924-0077 and in person at the Box Office. Box Office hours are Monday to Friday from 1 to 9pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 8pm.

Schedule of Related Events:

Apr 7 at 4:00pm Tech Talk: Behind the Scenes of Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503 in the Live Arts Theater, followed by a Q&A in the lobby

Apr 10 at 6:30pm Come Early Conversation: Diane Madden (Associate Artistic Director, TBDC) in dialogue with costume designer Judith Shea

Apr 11 Stay Late Discussion: TBDC dancers in conversation with Associate Artistic Directors, Diane Madden and Carolyn Lucas, moderated by Lee Serle

April 8 - 13 TBDC Archival Film and Installation: Film and materials from the Trisha Brown Dance Company Archive will be on view throughout the Live Arts Lobby

Shared Practice Workshop with Samuel Wentz
Apr 12, 1:00-4:00pm, $20
Followed by Hour Onstage and Company Q&A from 4:00pm-5:30pm
New York Live Arts Theater

In this Shared Practice master class, TBDC alumni Samuel Wentz will guide students through the basic phrase from Son of Gone Fishin'. Students will warm up by investigating falling and touch and how this can relate to geometric, full-bodied moving. Exploring the way Brown worked with weight-sharing, counter-balance, and interference (from pieces such as Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503; For M.G.: The Movie; or Foray Forêt), students will build their own duets and trios, using the phrase as a movement vocabulary and compositional guide. Immediately following class, students are invited to observe the Company's "Hour Onstage" rehearsal followed by a Q&A with the dancers.

New York Live Arts is a reserved seating house. Tickets are available for purchase by calling the Box Office at 212-924-0077 and will be available online at newyorklivearts.org. New York Live Arts Members, Associated Artists, Students, and Seniors are eligible for 20% discounts to theater performances. Box Office hours: Monday - Friday 1 - 9pm and Saturday-Sunday 12 - 8pm. Unless otherwise noted, performances take place at New York Live Arts located at 219 West 19th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues.

About Trisha Brown Dance Company: Trisha Brown Dance Company (TBDC) has presented the work of its legendary Founding Artistic Director, Trisha Brown, for over 40 years. Founded in 1970 when Brown branched out from the experimental Judson Dance Theater to work with her own group of dancers, TBDC offered its first performances at alternative sites in Manhattan's SoHo. Today, the Company is regularly seen in landmark opera houses and theaters around the world. The repertory has grown from solos and small group pieces to include major evening-length works and collaborations between Brown and renowned visual artists.

As recently announced, Brown has choreographed her last two works for the Company and named Diane Madden and Carolyn Lucas as Associate Artistic Directors. From 2013 through 2015, Trisha Brown Dance Company journeys on a three-year Proscenium Works, 1979-2011 tourshowcasing Brown's now-complete collection of major stage works, featuring the significant scenic and compositional components created by her collaborators including Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Judd, Robert Ashley and Laurie Anderson.

The tour includes performances in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and within the United States to California, Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin as well as New York City.

ABOUT NEW YORK LIVE ARTS: New York Live Arts is an internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry offering audiences access to art and artists notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation and active engagement with the social, political and cultural currents of our times. At the center of this identity is Bill T. Jones, Executive Artistic Director, a world-renowned choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer.

We commission, produce and present performances in our 20,000 square foot home, which includes a 184-seat theater and two 1,200 square foot studios that can be combined into one large studio. New York Live Arts serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, provides an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people and supports the continuing professional development of artists. Our influence extends beyond NYC through our international cultural exchange program that currently places artists in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.



Videos