Pittsburgh Dance Council 2015-16 Season Announcement, Byham Theater

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces the 2015-2016 Pittsburgh Dance Council season. The Pittsburgh Dance Council, a division of Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, will explore concepts of age, gender, sexual identity, ethnicity, legacy and historical context during the upcoming season, which opens on Saturday, October 3, 2015.

The Dance Council season will feature two fall presentations that are both part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's overall India in Focus, a seven week programmatic concentration of performances from and influenced by Indian culture. One of India's premiere dance companies, Nrityagram Dance Ensemble, will open the season this fall. Honoring the classical Indian dance tradition of representing gender through body and facial movement, Nrityagram tests the relational boundaries between deity and human. We trace the impact of classical Indian dance in November with the presentation of rising young star Aakash Odedra, who stretches the parameters of solo performance with four works by different choreographers.

Odedra reveals distinctive processes and aesthetics, moving in exciting new directions with each piece. South African choreographer Dada Masilo reinvents the classic Swan Lake ballet with an exuberant mix of contemporary and African rhythms, all while taking on issues of gender, racial stereotypes and homophobia. Louise Levacalier is a one-woman revolution who defies physical limitations. Another tour du force, Michelle Dorrance turns tap on its head, taking the jazz dance form in new and inventive directions. Stephen Petronio closes the season with a program that features Merce Cunningham's shimmering masterpiece RainForest, the piece that Andy Warhol created his iconic silver pillows that are on exhibit at the Andy Warhol Museum.

2015-2016 DANCE COUNCIL SEASON
All performances will take place at the Byham Theater located at 101 6th Street, downtown Pittsburgh.

Nrityagram Dance Ensemble in Samyoga: An Ode to Love
Saturday, October 3, 2015 | 8:00 p.m.

The only proper response to dancers this amazing is worship. - The New York Times

At once sensual and lyrical, Nrityagram dancers Surupa Sen and Bijayini Satpathy masterfully pay homage to Odissi, a sacred, traditional Indian dance form. A ritualistic dedication to the gods, Odissi is one of the world's oldest dance traditions, dating back to 200 BCE. Sinuous forms and rapt expressions transform the dancers into gods on stage. Samyoga, meaning "union" and "synthesis", explores the differences between the female and male approach to love. Joined by a live ensemble of four Indian musicians, Sen and Satpathy create a dance of mesmerizing sensuality.
*Part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's overall India in Focus, a seven week programmatic concentration of performances from and influenced by Indian culture.

Aakash Odedra Company in Rising
Friday, November 6, 2015 | 8:00 p.m.

It is as if Odedra floats on air when he dances, contorting, spinning and creating shapes with such ease. Fresh, exciting and truly amazing. - Three Weeks, Edinburgh

A meteoric young talent on the international dance scene, Aakash Odedra transforms himself in four solo works created especially for him by three leading choreographers of today, Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and Russell Maliphant, as well as his own choreography. Together the pieces form the full length work Rising. Aakash Odedra draws on his Indian heritage, namely the classical dance disciplines of Kathak and Bharatanatyam, yet he remains intrinsically contemporary in style and concept. Rising is a richly diverse exploration of artistic development and the relationship between performer and choreographer. Odedra creates a fresh, personal language that alternates between lyrical and graceful, brutal and raw, edgy and animalistic.
*Part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's overall India in Focus, a seven week programmatic concentration of performances from and influenced by Indian culture.

Dada Masilo's Swan Lake
Saturday, January 30, 2016 | 8:00 p.m.

Masilo's Swan Lake is like no other I've seen. - The Star

Dada Masilo's unconventionality as a choreographer and physicality have garnered critical acclaim for reimagining classic ballet through a South African lens, injecting fresh, new perspectives into the venerated dance form. Stereotypes are turned on their heads as Masilo opens our eyes to issues of sex, gender and homophobia in a country ravaged by AIDS. Bursts of Tchaikovsky alongside African rhythms set the tone for a platform where the traditional and the contemporary collide to create a new sense of beauty. *Contains nudity.

Louise Lecavalier | Fou glorieux in So Blue
Friday, February 26, 2016 | 8:00 p.m.

Lecavalier is a whirling dervish of febrile intensity, a Rockette on speed, a terpsichorean Secretariat. - Fjord Review

From the start of her career, Louise Lecavalier hit the stage like a one-woman revolution, a muse and star dancer of Montréal-based troupe, La La La Human Steps. She performed with David Bowie, who requested she dance with him on his Sound+Vision tour, and Frank Zappa, who invited her to perform in the "G-Spot Tornado." Now in her 50s, Lecavalier presents a stunning, 60-minute display of stamina, power, and grace, cementing her reputation for physical brilliance. Lecavalier and partner Frédéric Tavernini risk all in the high-voltage atmosphere of this radical, raw, and haunting work set to the visceral music of Mercan Dede. With unbelievable speed, rhythm, and repetition, Lecavalier improvised unrestrainedly, so that "the body could say all it had to say without being censored." The result is a captivating cathartic plunge, a magnificent feat, a masterstroke, a must.

Dorrance Dance in Dorrance Dance in Concert
Saturday, April 2, 2016 | 8:00 p.m.

A dynamo in tap shoes and a compelling, imaginative choreographer...She crafts dances with personality, precision and charming touches of clever, sometimes daffy humor. - The Boston Globe

Choreographer Michelle Dorrance pays homage to the uniquely beautiful history of tap dance within a fresh and dynamically compelling context. Dorrance Dance pushes the boundaries of tap rhythmically, aesthetically and conceptually. Street, club and experimental dance forms serve to cleverly awaken the jazz vernacular's furious rhythms. You'll see why Dorrance Dance earned the coveted Bessie Award for "blasting open our notions of tap." Dorrance Dance in Concert includes highlights from SOUNDspace, ETM, and The Blues Project.

Stephen Petronio Company in Merce Cunningham's RainForest and Petronio's Locomotor/Non Locomotor
Saturday, May 7, 2016 | 8:00 p.m.

Petronio's work surprises you at every ricocheting leap and pitched body flying off on a tangent......the effect is startling, as if time had been suspended. - Dance Magazine

Stephen Petronio has built an astonishing canon of work where music, visual art and fashion collide to heighten bold and engaging modern dance landscapes. Now Petronio revives Merce Cunningham's iconic RainForest. A must-see for the Pittsburgh dance and art community, Andy Warhol created his sparkling silver pillows especially for RainForest. The floating décor is uncontrollable, producing a score of movement that cannot play by conventional rule and an atmosphere of free-wheeling anarchy. Locomotor casts Petronio's virtuosic dancers careening forward and backward through time and space. Non Locomotor, a companion work, explores movement deep within a torquing center, sending surges of action throughout the body while stationary in space. RainForest is co-presented with The Andy Warhol Museum.

TICKETS
Subscription packages are available for: $64-$240. Subscriptions can be purchased in packages of 4 shows or 6 shows and include: access to the best ticket prices, priority seating, discount on additional ticket purchases, flexible exchange privileges, guaranteed parking available for each performance, exclusive access to the Dance Council Lounge for pre-show parties and lectures starting at 7pm before each performance. To subscribe, call 412-456-1390. Groups of 10 or more tickets, please call 412-471-6930. Single tickets for Pittsburgh Dance Council performances will go on sale to the general public mid-August. For information, call (412) 456-6666, or visit online at TrustArts.org/dance.

All performances will take place at the Byham Theater located at 101 6th Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

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