BAM announces 2010 Next Wave Festival, 9/21-12/19

By: Dec. 19, 2010
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Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) announces 2010 Next Wave Festival, featuring 16 music, dance, theater, and opera engagements from Sep 21-Dec 19. BAM 2010 Next Wave Festival is part of Diverse Voices at BAM sponsored by Time Warner Inc.

Joseph V. Melillo, executive producer of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), today announced programming for the 2010 Next Wave Festival, which runs from Sep 21-Dec 19. The Festival, now in its 28th year, comprises 16 music, dance, theater, and opera engagements and features BAMcinématek series, BAMcafé Live weekend music performances, Artist Talks, Next Wave Art exhibitions, and the Between the Lines storytelling series.

Next Wave Festival subscription tickets for Friends of BAM (as well as subscribers to both the 2010
Spring Season and 2009 Next Wave Festival) are on sale Jun 7; subscription tickets for the general
public are on sale Jun 14. Single tickets for Delusion and Vollmond are on sale Aug 30 (Aug 23 for
Friends of BAM). Single tickets for all other Next Wave Festival productions are on sale Sep 7 (Aug for Friends of BAM). For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100 or order tickets and subscriptions online at BAM.org.

BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins said, "BAM is proud to bring a dynamic lineup of shows to our
audiences in the 28th edition of the Next Wave Festival. The festival reflects the diversity and energy of this institution and enhances Brooklyn's newfound status as the creative center of New York City. We thank Time Warner and all of our extraordinary donors for providing the resources that allow BAM to thrive, even in a harsh economic environment."

BAM Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo said, "The 2010 Next Wave Festival features a wealth of
contemporary creative work from the US and around the globe. Its broad spectrum includes music
from New Orleans, stage adaptations of classic films, dynamic dance-theater engagements, Balinese gamelan-infused opera, thematic song-cycles, multimedia theater productions, an irreverent holiday dance classic, and much more. Engaging with the Next Wave Festival is a unique cultural and artistic adventure not to be missed."

About Time Warner Inc.
Time Warner Inc., a global leader in media and entertainment with businesses in television networks, filmed entertainment, and publishing, uses its industry-leading operating scale and brands to create, package, and deliver high-quality content worldwide through multiple distribution outlets. For more information about Time Warner Inc., please visit www.timewarner.com.

"BAM has been an important and long-term partner of ours in showcasing innovative work," said Lisa M. Quiroz, Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Time Warner Inc. "We're delighted to continue our support of the Next Wave Festival, which is a natural fit with our mission to identify and celebrate new and emerging talent."

BAMcinématek
BAMcinématek at BAM Rose Cinemas is a repertory film program presenting retrospectives, festivals,
and series, often accompanied by special guests and events. BAM Rose Cinemas is also Brooklyn's
home for newly released independent and foreign films. Fall highlights include a series celebrating the work of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa on the occasion of his centennial; a tribute to the World Cinema Foundation-an organization co-created by Martin Scorsese and dedicated to helping
developing countries preserve their film treasures; and the latest installment of The Next Director
series, focusing on Portuguese filmmaker Jo?o Pedro Rodrigues, whose fascinating, heartrending,
and surreal work marks a revival of international queer cinema.

The Wall Street Journal is the BAM Rose Cinemas sponsor. Leadership support for BAMcinématek is provided by Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust.

BAMcafé Live
BAMcafé Live features an eclectic mix of live music by renowned and emerging artists on Friday and
Saturday nights at BAMcafé. Events have no cover charge and no drink minimum. Bar opens at 8pm.

Performers this season include Gordon Voidwell (Sep 24), San Juan Hill (Oct 9), The Black Rock
Coalition Meets The Negro Problem (Oct 23), Vinx (Nov 5), music from New Orleans (Dec 3 & 4), and Cornelius Dufallo (Dec 17).
BAMcafé Live is sponsored by Con Edison. Programming in BAM Lepercq Space is supported by The Lepercq Foundation. BAMcafé Live receives endowment support from the BAM Fund To Support Emerging and Local Musicians.

Between the Lines
BAM and Brooklyn cultural journal A Public Space present the fourth year of Between the Lines, an
exploration of how and who we are in the 21st century. Each evening brings together creative thinkers and storytellers from across the arts and sciences to examine a select theme through readings, short films, and performances-connecting perspectives and highlighting the facts, fictions, and ideas that define and redefine us today. Three evenings are scheduled at 8pm (bar opens at 7:30pm) in the BAMcafé, each addressing a different theme. Tickets are $10 per event.
Oct 21: You Got a Problem with That? looks at how facing problems from the terrible to the trivial can drive us to adapt and innovate in our lives and in our labs.
Nov 18: Help Me Help You asks what's in it for us when we act to make life easier, kinder, and
sometimes just a little more beautiful.
Dec 9: It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time explores the seduction, success, and perils of
remaking our world as we think it ought to be.
Support for Between the Lines is provided by Jonathan F.P. & Diane Calthorpe Rose.

Artist Talks
BAM Artist Talks provide an opportunity to listen to and ask questions of many of the groundbreaking artists featured in this year's Festival. Post-show Artist Talks are free for same-day ticket holders and take place in the performance venue. Tickets for pre-show Artist Talks are $10 ($5 for Friends of BAM).

Pre-show Artist Talks:
Jan Lauwers (The Deer House): Oct 7 at 6pm, BAM Rose Cinemas
Ping Chong (Throne of Blood): Nov 11 at 6pm, BAM Rose Cinemas
Thomas Ostermeier (The Marriage of Maria Braun): Nov 18 at 6pm, BAM Rose Cinemas
Post-show Artist Talks:
Ralph Lemon (How Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere?): Oct 14
Jay Scheib & Evan Ziporyn (A House in Bali): Oct 15
Members of Ridge Theater (Persephone): Oct 28
Members of Ballet Preljocaj (Empty moves (parts I & II)): Oct 29
Members of Sasha Waltz & Guests (Gezeiten): Nov 5
Gísli Örn Gardarsson & Collaborators (Metamorphosis): Dec 2
Mikel Rouse (Gravity Radio): Dec 9

Next Wave Art
Next Wave Art returns for its ninth year, opening BAM's spaces to some of Brooklyn's most exciting
young visual artists. Curated by Dan Cameron, Next Wave Art will be on view during the Festival with an opening reception on Sep 21, 6-9pm.

Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD
Now in its fourth season, Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD brings live performance transmissions to
BAM Rose Cinemas and around the world-all in vivid high definition-putting every detail of the Met's
productions into focus, taking you behind the scenes and close to the action. At BAM, each screening is preceded by an engaging and entertaining discussion with a noted opera expert. Tickets are on sale Sep 7 (Sep 3 for BAM members; Aug 27 for Met members).

BAM Rose Cinemas
$23 for screening ($21 for BAM & Met members); $5 for discussion
Das Rheingold (Wagner): Oct 9 at 1pm /Discussion at 12pm
Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky): Oct 23 at 12pm /Discussion at 11am
Don Pasquale (Donizetti): Nov 13 at 1pm /Discussion at 12pm
Don Carlo (Verdi): Dec 11 at 12:30pm /Discussion at 11:30am
La Fanciulla del West (Puccini): Jan 8 at 1pm /Discussion at 12pm
Iphigénie en Tauride (Gluck): Feb 26 at 1pm / Discussion at 12pm
Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti): Mar 19 at 1pm /Discussion at 12pm
Le Comte Ory (Rossini): Apr 9 at 1pm /Discussion at 12pm
Capriccio (R. Strauss): Apr 23 at 1pm /Discussion at 12pm
Il Trovatore (Verdi): Apr 30 at 1pm /Discussion at 12pm
Die Walkure (Wagner): May 14 at 12pm /Discussion at 11am

For Tickets and Information
For tickets and information about the 2010 Next Wave Festival and Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD,
contact BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100 or visit BAM.org.

General admission tickets to BAM Rose Cinemas are $12. Tickets are $9 for seniors 65 and over,
children under 12, and students 25 and under with valid ID (Mon-Thu, except holidays). Tickets for
BAM Cinema Club members are $8. Tickets may be purchased at the BAM Rose Cinemas box office,
at BAM.org, or by phone at 718.777.FILM (theater ID #545). For more information call the
BAMcinématek hotline at 718.636.4100 or visit BAM.org. 

Delusion NY Premiere
By Laurie Anderson
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
Sep 21-25, Sep 28-30, Oct 1 & 2 at 7:30pm
Sep 26 & Oct 3 at 3pm
Tickets: $20, 35, 45, 60
Pioneering performance artist Laurie Anderson opens the 2010 BAM Next Wave Festival with
Delusion, a far-reaching work exploring memory and identity. Delusion received its world premiere at
the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and now makes its anticipated New York premiere at BAM.
In Delusion, deeply affecting music redolent of Tibetan temple horns and Arabic strings is performed
by Anderson on electronically enhanced violin with a supporting virtuoso ensemble. Delusion's
structure imitates the meandering nature of one's personal thoughts, exploring themes from politics to personal longings, fusing the internal and external worlds into a mystical whole. The Financial Times said "[Anderson] works her magic, and the piece, with its contradictions, shafts of insight and splinters of wit lingers with you, long after the event, like a powerful dream."
Laurie Anderson is a leading contemporary performance artist. Known primarily for her multimedia
presentations, she has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist. Anderson has toured the United States and internationally with her shows which range from simple spoken word performances to elaborate multimedia events. Major works include United States: Parts I-IV (1983, BAM), Empty Places (1989 Next Wave Festival), The Nerve Bible (1995), and Songs and Stories from Moby Dick (1999 Next Wave Festival)-a multimedia stage performance based on the novel by Herman Melville. In the fall of 2001, Anderson toured the US and Europe with a three-person band, performing music from her album Life on a String. She has also presented many solo works, including Happiness, which premiered in 2001 and toured internationally through the spring of 2003. In 2002, Anderson was appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA out of which she developed her solo performance The End of the Moon (2005 Spring Season). Her score for Trisha Brown's acclaimed piece O z?o?ony/O composite (2009 Next Wave Festival) premiered at the Opera Garnier in Paris in December 2004.

Anderson was also part of the team that created the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Homeland, Anderson's new album for Nonesuch Records, will be released on June 22. Commissioned by VANCOUVER 2010 CULTURAL OLYMPIAD, Vancouver; BARBICANBITE10, London. With additional support from BAM for the 2010 Next Wave Festival; Cal Performances UC Berkeley; Stanford Lively Arts, Stanford University, generously supported by Sarah Ratchye and Ed Frank. Additional production support and residency provided by the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Renssalaer.

Vollmond (Full Moon) US Premiere
A piece by Pina Bausch
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
Directed and choreographed by Pina Bausch
Set design by Peter Pabst
Costume design by Marion Cito
Musical collaboration Matthias Burkert and Andreas Eisenschneider
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave)
Sep 29 & 30; Oct 1, 2, 4, 5, 7-9 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $25, 55, 75, 85
Pina Bausch is widely acknowledged as the preeminent pioneer of modern tanztheater-challenging
the boundaries between dance performance and theater and influencing generations of dancemakers the world over. This legacy is upheld by the company she founded and nurtured, Tanztheater Wuppertal, which returns to the BAM Next Wave Festival for the first time since the passing of its illustrious director with the US premiere of Vollmond (Full Moon). Under a shining moon, an enormous boulder is situated in a body of water that nearly fills the stage.
The dancers, in varying groups, splash and swim in the torrent and deluge that comes from above,
virtually creating their own music through the sounds of their cavorting. Vollmond is at once urgent, athletic, and sensual-channeling the inescapable energy of its maker. Pina Bausch was appointed director of dance for the Wuppertal theater in 1973. The form she developed in those early years was wholly unfamiliar. In her performances the players did not merely dance; they spoke, sang, and sometimes laughed or cried. This unique genre soon established itself and the seeds were sown to redefine dance throughout the world. Its global success can be attributed
to the fact that Pina Bausch made a universal human need the key subject of her work-the need for love, intimacy, and emotional security. Over the 36 years in which Bausch shaped the work of
Tanztheater Wuppertal, until her death in 2009, she created an oeuvre which casts an unerring gaze at reality, while simultaneously giving us the courage to be true to our own wishes and desires. Her unique ensemble, now under the direction of Dominique Mercy and Robert Sturm, will continue this vision in the years to come.

The Deer House US Premiere
Jan Lauwers & Needcompany
Text, direction, and set design by Jan Lauwers
Music by Hans Petter Dahl and Maarten Seghers (except "Song for the Deer House," written
by Jan Lauwers)
Choreography by the company
Costumes by Lot Lemm
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
Oct 5 & 7-9
Tickets: $25, 35, 45
In French and English with English titles
Artist Talk with Jan Lauwers
Oct 7 at 6pm
BAM Rose Cinemas
Tickets: $10 ($5 for Friends of BAM)
"War can destroy stories, give rise to them." -The Deer House
The death of a Needcompany member's brother, journalist Kerem L., who was killed while covering
the war in Kosovo, is the factual seed from which springs this wildly imaginative performance work.
The third installment of Sad Face/Happy Face, visionary Belgian-Flemish director Jan Lauwers' trilogy on human nature (the first, Isabella's room, played in the 2004 Next Wave Festival; the second is The Lobster Shop), centers around a group of international performers and artists increasingly faced with the harsh reality of the world they travel with their productions.
Settings shift between the modern (a spare rehearsal space in which company members prepare for a performance) and the primeval (a fairy tale-like dwelling where a family of Kosovan deer breeders
make a living selling antlers), while the plot incorporates both fact (the company member's personal
tragedy) and fiction (the family in the deer house experiences a similar violent death). Throughout, and despite its myriad theatrical embellishments-which include copious nudity, outlandish costumes, and an interdisciplinary approach that combines music, dance, and drama-The Deer House remains
rooted in an emotional authenticity, woven together by themes of grief and renewal. The cast for The Deer House is: Grace Ellen Barkey, Viviane de Muynck, Anneke Bonnema, Hans Petter Dahl, Julien Faure, Misha Downey, Benoît Gob, Maarten Seghers, Yumiko Funaya, Inge Van Bruystegem,
Eléonore Valère. Needcompany is a theater company, which, since its inception in 1986, has presented itself as markedly international, multilingual, and multidisciplinary. It produces both spoken word and dance theater. Jan Lauwers, the company's founder and artistic director, has always applied himself to more than one discipline at a time. Grace Ellen Barkey (who performs in The Deer House), has been involved with the company since it was founded, and has been making her own productions under its wing since 1992. These two artists form the heart of Needcompany. Previous Needcompany appearances at BAM include Isabella's room (2004 Next Wave Festival), a reimagining of Shakespeare's King Lear (2001 Next Wave Festival), and the Obie Award-winning Morning Song (1999 Next Wave Festival).

A production with the Salzburger Festspiele. Co-produced by Schauspielhaus Zurich, PACT Zollverein (Essen) with the collaboration of deSingel (Antwerp), and Kaaitheater (Brussels). With the support of the Flemish authorities.

How Can You Stay in the House All Day NY Premiere and Not Go Anywhere?
Conceived, choreographed, and directed by Ralph Lemon
Dramaturgy by Katherine Profeta
Lighting design by Roderick Murray
Video design by Jim Findlay
Sound design consultation by Lucas Indelicato
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
Oct 13-16 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20, 30, 45
Artist Talk with Ralph Lemon
Oct 14, post-show (free for same-day ticket holders)
Related Event at The Kitchen
Meditation, the final chapter of How Can You Stay...?
Oct 17, 12-5pm
For more information, visit thekitchen.org
Ralph Lemon's new How Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere? is a multimedia
dance work that explores loss and transcendence. How Can You Stay... is inspired by Lemon's
creative relationship with Walter Carter, a 102-year-old former sharecropper from the Mississippi
Delta, and Russian avant-garde filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris. Commissioned by BAM for the
2010 Next Wave Festival, Lemon brings footage of Carter's world into dialogue with a cast of
extraordinary performers including Djédjé Djédjé Gervais, Darrell Jones, Gesel Mason, Okwui
Okpokwasili, Omagbitse Omagbemi, David Thomson, and Lemon himself. Their turbulent movements
push the boundaries of exhaustion to reveal what remains when we cannot go any further. The final part of the work, Meditation, is a film installation that will be on view at The Kitchen following the last performance at BAM.
Ralph Lemon, an artist who defies categorization, is artistic director of Cross Performance, a
company dedicated to the creation of cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary performance and
presentation. Lemon's projects expand the definition of choreography by crossing and stretching the boundaries between Western, post-modern dance and other art forms and cultures. For each project, Lemon builds a team of collaborating artists from diverse cultural backgrounds, countries, and artistic disciplines, who bring their own histories and aesthetic voices to the work. Projects develop organically over a period of years, with frequent public sharings of work-in-progress, and the culminating artworks derive from the artistic, cultural, historic, and emotional material uncovered in this rigorous creative research process. Lemon last appeared at BAM with Come home Charley Patton (2004 Next Wave Festival).
Co-produced by Cross Performance Inc. and MAPP International Productions. Co-commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music for the 2010 Next Wave Festival, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, On the Boards, and Walker Arts Center.
For press information, please contact Joe Guttridge at jguttridge@BAM.org or 718.636.4129 x 4
Major support for dance at BAM is provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance and The SHS Foundation.

A House in Bali NY Premiere
Bang on a Can All-Stars & Gamelan Salukat
Music by Evan Ziporyn
Libretto by Paul Schick (based on the memoir of Colin McPhee)
Directed by Jay Scheib
Presented in association with Asia Society
Choreography by Kadek Dewi Aryani and I Nyoman Catra
Set design by Sara Brown
Costume design by Oana Botez-Ban
Lighting design by Peter Ksander
Sound design by Andrew Cotton
Video design by Jay Scheib and AKA
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave)
Oct 14-16 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20, 40, 60
Artist Talk with Jay Scheib & Evan Ziporyn
Oct 15, post-show (free for same-day ticket holders)
Evan Ziporyn's dynamic new opera A House in Bali portrays one man's journey through South Asia
and the spiritual awakenings that result. Based on the renowned memoir by composer Colin McPhee, A House in Bali traces the roots of the West's century-long infatuation with Bali through the true story of McPhee and his cohorts, anthropologist Margaret Mead and artist Walter Spies, during their 1930s sojourn there.
This visually stunning multimedia spectacle brings together the 16-piece Balinese Gamelan Salukat
and New York's iconoclastic electric chamber ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars. The opera also
features Balinese choreography by Kadek Dewi Aryani and vocals by leading operatic and traditional
Balinese singers including Peter Tantsits, Desak Madé Suarti Laksmi, I Nyoman Catra, Timur
Bekbosunov, and Anne Harley. Centuries-old Balinese art forms blend seamlessly with live projection, pushing the boundaries of theatrical innovation. The San Francisco Chronicle heralded the piece as "an ingenious and often beautiful fusion of contemporary classical strains and Balinese gamelan." A House in Bali premiered at Puri Saraswati in Ubud, Bali in June 2009 and makes its anticipated New York premiere at BAM.

Composer and clarinetist Evan Ziporyn is a member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars (Musical
America's 2005 Ensemble of the Year), with whom he has toured the globe since 1992. He redefined
the clarinet with his 2001 solo CD, This is Not a Clarinet, which made top 10 lists across America. He recorded the definitive version of Steve Reich's solo clarinet work New York Counterpoint for
Nonesuch and, as a member of the Steve Reich Ensemble, the Grammy Award-winning Music for 18
Musicians. He has recorded with Paul Simon, Matthew Shipp, and Ethel, and he is the founder and
artistic director of Boston's Gamelan Galak Tika, a group dedicated to new music for Balinese
gamelan, which he has studied for almost 30 years. His music has been commissioned and performed by Kronos Quartet, Wu Man, American Composers Orchestra, American Repertory Theater, Maya Beiser, S? Percussion, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, with whom he recorded his 2006 orchestral CD, Frog's Eye. Ziporyn has collaborated with some of the worlds most creative and vital musicians, including Brian Eno, Ornette Coleman, Thurston Moore, Meredith Monk, Iva Bittová, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Don Byron, Louis Andriessen, Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgill, Wu Man, Wayan Wija, and Kyaw Kyaw Naing. Ziporyn is currently the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A House in Bali was commissioned by Real Time Opera with support from the LEF Foundation, the Argosy Foundation, and The Byrne Foundation. A House in Bali is made possible by generous support from the NIB Foundation. Endowment funding for A House in Bali has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Opera and Music-Theater, with additional support provided by The SHS Foundation.
Brooklyn Omnibus World Premiere
Stew & The Negro Problem
Composed by Stew and Heidi Rodewald
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
Oct 20-23 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $25, 45, 65
Tony Award-winning composer/performer Stew and Obie Award-winning composer/perfomer Heidi
Rodewald-along with their acclaimed band The Negro Problem-invite us to get on board their
Brooklyn Omnibus, a song-cycle commissioned by BAM for the Next Wave Festival. This Brooklynthemed work, presented in its world premiere engagement, is an irreverent, lyrical, and musical exploration of life in Kings County. Acclaimed for the award-winning musical Passing Strange (Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, Obie awards for Best New Theater Piece and Best Ensemble, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics), which was filmed by Spike Lee and debuted in theaters and on PBS' Great Performances early this year, Stew has been a renowned cult-composer and performer since the early 90s as the leader of bands The Negro Problem and Stew. Recordings with The Negro Problem include Post Minstrel Syndrome (1997), Joys and Concerns (1999), Welcome Black (2002), and Blackboot (2003).

As Stew, he recorded Guest Host (2000)-named Album of the Year by Entertainment Weekly-
Sweetboot (2001), The Naked Dutch Painter...and other songs (2002)-also Entertainment Weekly
Album of the Year-and Something Deeper Than These Changes (2003). He composed "Gary Come
Home" for the popular children's television program SpongeBob SquarePants. Stew and Heidi
Rodewald's most recent work, Making It, was presented at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn earlier
this year. Stew and Heidi Rodewald performed previously at BAM in 2001 at BAMcafé Live.
Obie Award winner Heidi Rodewald co-wrote the musical Passing Strange, nominated for seven Tony Awards and winner of the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical and the 2008 Obie Award for Best New American Theater Piece. Ms. Rodewald has worked for over ten years performing, producing, arranging, and composing for both The Negro Problem and Stew. She composed music for Karen Kandel's Portraits: Night and Day (2004) and co-wrote the screenplay We Can See Today for the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs (2005). She also wrote and performed with the seminal female punk band Wednesday Week.
Commissioned by BAM for the 2010 Next Wave Festival

Persephone NY Premiere
Mimi Goese/Warren Leight/Ben Neill/Ridge Theater
Music by Ben Neill
Lyrics by Mimi Goese
Book by Warren Leight
Films by Bill Morrison
Projections by Laurie Olinder
Sets by Jim Findlay
Dramaturgy by Daniel Zippi & Karl Precoda
Lights by John Ambrosone
Costumes by Jane Alois Stein
Directed by Bob McGrath
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
October 26-30 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $25, 45, 60, 70
Artist Talk with members of Ridge Theater
Oct 28, post-show (free for same-day ticket holders)
Hoping to find just a hint of you/Searching the molecules (from Persephone)
In this music theater work, the mythology surrounding the Greek character of Persephone-the
beautiful and doomed daughter of Zeus and Demeter who was abducted by Hades into the
Underworld-is explored through songs, narrative, projections, and instrumental music, all performed
in the style of a 19th-century theatrical production.

The title character is played by film and theater actress Julia Stiles (the Bourne trilogy, Oleanna on
Broadway); Warren Leight, a Tony Award winner for Sideman, wrote the book, which highlights the
Persephone myth's enduring relevance across centuries and its ability to illuminate ideas about
gender, power, mysticism, loss, and the natural world in different ways at different times. The music is a collaboration between composer/performer Ben Neill and vocalist/songwriter Mimi Goese, who also plays Demeter, and combines samples of works by 19th-century composers with the sounds of contemporary rock and electronica.
Ridge Theater has established itself as one of America's premier creators of contemporary theater,
opera, and new music performance. Ridge productions are epic visual and aural works that typically
position performers within film and video projections, redefining traditional theatrical boundaries.
Dramatic staging by acclaimed director Bob McGrath and haunting film work and projections by the
filmmaker Bill Morrison and the visual artist Laurie Olinder are hallmarks of the Ridge style. Ridge
Theater was last at BAM with Lightning at our feet (2008 Next Wave Festival).
Co-commissioned by Virginia Tech for the Department of Theatre and Cinema at Virginia Tech and by BAM for the 2010 Next Wave Festival

Endowment funding for Persephone has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Opera
and Music-Theater.
Empty moves (parts I & II) NY Premiere, Empty moves (part II)
Ballet Preljocaj
Music by John Cage
Choreography by Angelin Preljocaj
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave)
Oct 27, 29 & 30 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20, 30, 40, 55
Artist Talk with members of Ballet Preljocaj
Oct 29, post-show (free for same-day ticket holders)
Choreographer Angelin Preljocaj challenges conventional ideas about form and content-putting a
modern spin on the classics and creating strikingly original works. "[He] owns an expressive
vocabulary potentially far richer than that of many modern choreographers," says The Telegraph (UK).
Last seen at BAM with Near Life Experience (2004 Next Wave Festival), Ballet Preljocaj returns this
season with Empty moves (parts I & II).
For this piece, choreographed for two women and two men, Preljocaj draws his inspiration from John Cage's Empty Words-recorded at a 1977 performance in Milan that includes not only the words and segmented units of sound derived from Henry David Thoreau's writings as read by Cage, but also the booing and jeering of his increasingly hostile audience. The dancers move with concentrated grace and force, echoing the unwavering calm and steadiness of Cage's voice. A clean, flowing alphabet of poses and steps-in contrast to some of Preljocaj's earlier works-is revealed through the dancers'
movements.
The Preljocaj company, created in 1984, became the National Choreographic Center of Champignysur-
Marne and Val-de-Marne in 1989. In 1996, the ballet took up residency at the Cité du Livre in Aixen- Provence and officially became Ballet Preljocaj. Since founding his company, now composed of 26 dancers, Angelin Preljocaj has created 45 choreographic works ranging from solos to larger
formations. The company performs primarily on tour, in France and abroad. In addition to commissions from companies like New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala, and the Staatsoper in Berlin, among others, Preljocaj's works have been staged by numerous repertory companies around the world. In October 2006, Ballet Preljocaj moved into its new home designed by the architect Rudy Ricciotti, the Pavillon Noir-the first production center built solely to provide an environment in which
artists can carry out the entire process of creation, from the studio to the stage.
Empty moves (parts I & II), Created 2007, co-production Festival Montpellier Danse 2007
Empty moves (part I), Created 2004, commission, and co-production Biennale nationale de danse du Val-de-
Marne; Restaged 2006, co-production The Joyce Theater's Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Fund for New Work
Leadership support for Empty moves (parts I & II) is provided by The Jerome Robbins Foundation, Inc. Major support for dance at BAM is provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance and The SHS Foundation.
Gezeiten US Premiere
Sasha Waltz & Guests
Directed and choreographed by Sasha Waltz
Music by Jonathan Bepler and Johann Sebastian Bach
Stage design by Thomas Schenk and Sasha Waltz
Costume design by Beate Borrmann
Lighting design by Martin Hauk
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave)
Nov 3, 5 & 6 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20, 30, 45, 55
Artist Talk with members of Sasha Waltz & Guests
Nov 5, post-show (free for same-day ticket holders)
"...a bracing, questing [and] imaginative talent" -The San Francisco Examiner
German choreographer Sasha Waltz returns to BAM with Gezeiten, an evening-length work for 16
dancers with live cello accompaniment. In Gezeiten (Tides), Waltz explores themes of destruction and renewal, investigating life's transformation following catastrophe. Viewed from a perspective of refuge, the work raises existential questions and terrors-deliberations regarding ownership and power, the shifting levels of compassion for others, the rebuilding of a world. Gezeiten combines the surreal theatricality of Waltz's early work-where everyday objects transform into living dance partners-with the abstraction and dynamism of her more recent productions.
About Sasha Waltz & Guests Sasha Waltz was born in 1963 in Karlsruhe, Germany. She studied dance with Waltraud Kornhaas and also at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam. Waltz briefly worked in New York where she performed with Pooh Kaye, Yoshiko Chuma, and Lisa Kraus, among others. In 1993 she established her Berlin-based company, Sasha Waltz & Guests, with Jochen Sandig. In 1996 Waltz and Sandig co-founded the critically acclaimed sophiensaele, which has grown to become an important production house for independent European theater. From 1999 to 2004 Waltz and Sandig served as co-artistic directors of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin. In 2005, the company became autonomous once more with the production of Waltz's internationally acclaimed choreographic opera Dido & Aeneas. Since the opening of the Radialsystem V in 2006, Sasha Waltz & Guests have been intensively involved with this interdisciplinary production and training center on the banks of the Spree river. With a rented rehearsal room and its flexible performance spaces it has become an artistic home for the company.
Waltz has worked with numerous contemporary artists, including Laurie Booth, Mark Tompkins, David Zambrano, Tristan Honsinger, and Frans Poelstra. The company presents approximately 100
international performances each year and continues to present productions at the Radialsystem V as well as at venues including Berlin's Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
Site- and architecture-specific interaction play a key role in the company's work, as do multidisciplinary processes with architects, visual artists, filmmakers, actors, and choreographers. Sasha Waltz & Guests has featured more then 150 guest artists since the company's inception.
Waltz has created 16 major choreographic works and has received numerous grants and awards
including the Berliner Zeitung critics' prize for Travelogue I-Twenty to eight. She was named an
Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in 2009 and was awarded the 2010 Caroline
Neuber Prize. Sasha Waltz & Guests previously appeared at BAM with Impromptus (2005 Next Wave
Festival) and Körper (2002 Next Wave Festival).
Produced in association with Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin.
Sasha Waltz & Guests is funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds (Capital City Fund for Culture).
For press information contact Sandy Sawotka at ssawotka@BAM.org or 718.636.4129 x1
Major support for dance at BAM is provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance and The SHS Foundation.
Raoul NY Premiere
Compagnie du Hanneton
Conceived and created by James Thiérrée
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
Nov 5, 6, 9*, 10, 12 & 13 at 7:30pm
Nov 7 & 14 at 3pm
Tickets: $25, 35, 50, 60
*2010 Next Wave Gala Patron Celebration

"James Thiérrée's productions carry the observer into a vortex of surreal images and phantasmagoric storms. They take you to the other side of the mirror; that of laughter, dreams, and victory over the gravity of the real." -ELLE (France)
One of Europe's most versatile and imaginative artists, French multi-hyphenate James Thiérrée
(actor-director-trapeze artist-acrobat-clown-illusionist-violinist) returns to BAM with the solo
theater/nouveau cirque show Raoul. Beckett-ian in its premise, Raoul tells the story of an inhabitant of a shape-shifting structure under siege from a mysterious outsider who shares his face and form. The intricate set includes the collapsible abode and extraordinary life-sized fabric animals created by Thiérrée's mother Victoria Chaplin.
While Thiérrée's signature humor, incredible physical feats, and spectacular visuals are on full display, Raoul is also a moving meditation on home and identity, or, as The Times (UK) noted: "there's ample laughter, but...a vein of melancholy runs through the work, which alludes to psychological and social fragmentation."
James Thiérrée, born in 1974, is the son of Victoria Chaplin and Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée (co-founders of the renowned Cirques Bonjour, Imaginaire, and Invisible). As a child, Thiérrée appeared in his parents' productions and later studied trapeze and acrobatics, violin, and dramatic arts. He appeared in Peter Greenaway's film Prospero's Books and in starring roles in the independent films Bye Bye Blackbird (nominated for an award at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival) and Liberté (2009). He has worked in theater productions by Robert Wilson, Beno Besson, and Carlos Santos. In 1998, he founded La Compagnie du Hanneton and began to create his own work. The company's first
production was Junebug Symphony (which was presented in New York in 2002), followed by the
critically acclaimed La Veillée des Abysses (Bright Abyss, 2005 Next Wave Festival) and Au Revoir
Parapluie (Farewell Umbrella, 2007 Next Wave Festival).

Major support for theater at BAM is provided by The Shubert Foundation, Inc. and The SHS Foundation.

Throne of Blood NY Premiere
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Adapted and directed by Ping Chong
Based on the film directed by Akira Kurosawa
Set design by Christopher Acebo
Costume design by Stefani Mar
Lighting design by Darren McCroom
Projection design by Maya Ciarrocchi
Sound and music design by Todd Barton
Original Screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Ryuzo
Kikushima
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave)
Nov 10-13 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $25, 40, 60
Artist Talk with Ping Chong
Nov 11 at 6pm
BAM Rose Cinemas
Tickets: $10 ($5 for Friends of BAM)
Ping Chong is an internationally acclaimed director, playwright, and video installation artist. On the
occasion of the centenary of director Akira Kurosawa's birth, Chong presents his stage adaptation of the legendary filmmaker's masterwork, Throne of Blood.
The definitive film adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, Kurosawa's Throne of Blood premiered in
1957, setting the action of the timeless story in feudal Japan. Inspired by this cinematic masterpiece, Chong calls upon his interdisciplinary roots to reimagine Kurasawa's unsparing vision of mankind for our own troubled age. The classically trained actors of the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival bring the characters to life in a production that combines text, dance, video projections, cinematic sound, and elaborate costumes and scenery that evoke both medieval and modern times.
Ping Chong has created more than 70 works for the stage which have been commissioned and
presented by major venues including The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, London's Barbican, and the Vienna, Tokyo Arts, and Spoleto Festivals, and many others. BAM's Next Wave Festival has hosted three of his interdisciplinary productions: Chinoiserie (1995), The Angels of Swedenborg (1986), and The Games (1984), co-created with Meredith Monk. He has created site and/or media-specific installations for M.I.T. and the Venice Biennale, among others. Many of his play scripts have been published by TCG. Chong was born in New York City's Chinatown, and studied filmmaking and graphic design at the School of Visual Arts and the Pratt Institute before beginning his theatrical career with Meredith Monk's The House Foundation.
Founded in 1935, the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is among the oldest
and largest professional non-profit theaters in the nation. Each year OSF presents an eight-and-a-halfmonth season of eleven plays in three theaters plus numerous ancillary activities, and undertakes an extensive theater education program. The Festival presents more than 780 performances annually with attendance of approximately 400,000. More information on OSF can be obtained at www.osfashland.org.
Commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival and by BAM for the 2010 Next Wave Festival

Major support for theater at BAM is provided by The Shubert Foundation, Inc. and The SHS Foundation.
The Marriage of Maria Braun US Premiere
By Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz
Directed by Thomas Ostermeier
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
Nov 17-20 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $25, 45, 65
In German with English titles
Artist Talk with Thomas Ostermeier
Nov 18 at 6pm
BAM Rose Cinemas
Tickets: $10 ($5 for Friends of BAM)
The renowned German theater company Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, under the fearless direction
of Thomas Ostermeier, makes its anticipated return to BAM with The Marriage of Maria Braun, a stage adaptation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's iconic 1979 film. Echoing Fassbinder's confrontation of the founding myths of Germany, the production tells the story of Maria Braun, a woman who uses her sexuality and ingenuity to survive and eventually prosper in the aftermath of World War II.
Time Out Berlin recently hailed the Schaubühne as "one of the most important places for avant-garde theater in Berlin." The company, in a production that is often as droll and funny as it is
uncompromising, masterfully explores the unusual ways Maria responds to the corruption that
surrounds her-laying bare the truth of her nature.
Thomas Ostermeier is considered one of the most important voices in contemporary theater and has developed a singular directorial style that is lauded throughout Europe.
Since 1999, Ostermeier has served as resident director and one of the artistic directors of the
Schaubühne. His productions there have included Nora (A Doll's House) (2002), Hedda Gabler
(2005)-both of which were invited to the Theatertreffen Berlin-and A Midsummer Night's Dream,
based on Shakespeare and directed together with choreographer Constanza Macras. In 2002,
Ostermeier was appointed associate artist for the Festival d'Avignon. In 2009, his production of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkmann won the Grand Prize of French Critics and his production of Hamlet was honored with the Barcelona Critics Prize. Ostermeier was named an Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2010.
The Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz was founded in 1962 (in a different location) as the Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer in Berlin, a private theater with a committed political and social agenda. Peter Stein served as the artistic director from 1970 until 1985, and was later succeeded by Luc Bondy, Jürgen Gosch, and Andrea Breth. In 1981, the Schaubühne moved into the former Universum Cinema located on Lehniner Platz. Bauhaus architect Erich Mendelsohn built the Cinema in the 1920s. The directors at the Schaubühne under the artistic leadership of Thomas Ostermeier since 1999 are bound by their interest in the steady development of the acting ensemble, the contemporization of classical material, and the intensive exploration of contemporary drama. With Thomas Ostermeier and a selection of outstanding directors such as Jossi Wieler, Falk Richter, Ivo van Hove, Volker Lösch, Friederike Heller, Benedict Andrews, and Marius von Mayenburg, the Schaubühne will continue its tradition of contemporary and critical new interpretations of classics from Greek myths through Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Ibsen, up to Tennessee Williams. Alongside them, the core of the repertoire is composed of contemporary authors (as documented by more than 50 world and Germanlanguage premieres in the last ten years), an intensive collaboration with associated playwright Marius von Mayenburg, Falk Richter's diverse projects and plays, the annual competition for young playwrights, as well as the Festival for International New Drama (F.I.N.D.). For this festival one week of the year is devoted to presenting new plays from both Germany and abroad. Since the 2008/09 season, the Schaubühne has been a founding member of the European Theatre Union, Prospero. This union envisions theaters from Portugal, France, Belgium, Italy, Finland, and Germany joining forces to create and exchange productions through elaborate touring. The collaboration was launched with Thomas Ostermeier's production of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkmann in Rennes. Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz previously appeared at BAM with Nora (A Doll's House) (2004 Next Wave) and Hedda Gabler (2006 Next Wave).

Metamorphosis US Premiere
A six-legged nightmare by Franz Kafka
Vesturport Theatre/Lyric Hammersmith
Music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Adapted and directed by David Farr and Gísli Örn Gardarsson
Set design by Börkur Jónsson
Lighting design by Björn Helgason
Costume design by Brenda Murphy
Sound design by Nick Manning
Performed in English
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
Nov 30-Dec 4 at 7:30pm
Dec 5 at 3pm
Tickets: $25, 45, 65
Artist Talk with Gísli Örn Gardarsson and collaborators
Dec 2, post-show (free for same-day ticket holders)
"The triumph of the production is that it uses physical ingenuity to get to the tragic heart of Kafka's fable." -The Guardian UK, five-star review
Metamorphosis, Frank Kafka's 1912 tale of transformation and isolation is itself transformed via an
extraordinary collaboration between London's Lyric Hammersmith and the Reykjavik-based, genrebending Vesturport Theatre. Lyric Hammersmith Artistic Director David Farr and actor/director Gísli Örn Gardarsson of Vesturport bring dark humor, pathos, and visceral physicality to a production
"illuminated by such brilliant theatricality that it's impossible to tear your eyes away" (The Times UK).

Gardarsson plays Gregor Samsa, the man-turned-insect whose sudden transformation causes his
parochial family to slowly turn on him. Börkur Jónsson's dual-level set underscores the alienation
visually, with the second tier, the domain to which Gregor is effectively banished, turned ninety
degrees, providing a site for former gymnast Gardarsson's most mesmerizing physical feats. The
score by the incomparable Nick Cave and Warren Ellis provides a haunting and melancholy sonic
through-line, as Farr and Gardarsson subtly explore Kafka's iconic story as both surrealist comedy and prophetic vision of European genocides to come. The cast for Metamorphosis is: Nína Dögg
Filippusdóttir, Gísli Örn Gardarsson, Kelly Hunter, Jonathan McGuiness, and Ingvar E. Sigurdsson.
Vesturport Theatre was founded in 2001 by, among others, Gísli Örn Gardarsson, Nína Dögg
Filippusdóttir, and Ingvar E. Sigurdsson (all performers in Metamorphosis) and quickly established
itself as one of Iceland's most inventive award-winning theater and film companies. Vesturport's
productions include Romeo and Juliet, Woyzeck (2008 Next Wave Festival), Dubble Dusch, Love the
Musical, and Faust. Vesturport has produced three feature films: Children, Parents, and Brim (based
on Vesturport's play of the same title). Lyric Hammersmith encourages contemporary theater-makers to be inspired by the uniquely vivid and intimate relationship between stage and audience in the 550 seat 19th-century classical auditorium that serves as its main theater. The work in this space develops from direct relationships with directors, designers, and companies who want to explore the full theatrical potential of the space.

Leadership support for Metamorphosis is provided by The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation.
Major support for theater at BAM is provided by The Shubert Foundation, Inc. and The SHS Foundation.
Red Hot + New Orleans World Premiere
Musical director Trombone Shorty
Produced by BAM & Paul Heck/Red Hot Organization
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave)
Dec 3 & 4 at 8pm
Tickets: $25, 45, 55, 65
The Red Hot series returns to the Next Wave Festival with a much-anticipated tribute to the culture of the Big Easy in Red Hot + New Orleans. Rising young star Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews (riding high on raves for his major label debut CD Backatown in addition to his recurring role in the new HBO series Treme) curates a thrilling group of both established and emerging New Orleans musicians, celebrating the indomitable and joyous spirit of the city.
The evening will explore the different musical traditions of the Crescent City-soul, jazz, R&B, funk,
and "bounce" hip-hop rhythms. Red Hot + New Orleans is BAM's third programmatic partnership (Red
Hot + Riot, 2006 Next Wave Festival; Red Hot + Rio 2, 2008 Next Wave Festival) with the Red Hot
organization, the premier music industry nonprofit dedicated to funding AIDS research and awareness. This program is presented in conjunction with Worlds AIDS Day (Dec 1). Part of the proceeds will benefit New Orleans' NO/AIDS Task Force.
Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is a trombone and trumpet player currently rocketing to stardom. A native of New Orleans' culturally rich Tremé neighborhood, Trombone Shorty has performed with
Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Juvenile, and Lenny Kravitz, among many others. He also performed with
U2 and Green Day during the New Orleans Superdome's post-Katrina re-opening during Monday
Night Football.

Gravity Radio NY Premiere
Conceived, written, and directed by Mikel Rouse
Set design by Jeffery Sugg
Sound design by Christopher Ericson
Musical direction by Matthew Gandolfo
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
Dec 7, 9-11 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $25, 35, 45
Artist Talk with Mikel Rouse
Dec 9, post-show (free for same-day ticket holders)
Cited as "a composer many believe to be the best of his generation" (The New York Times), Mikel
Rouse was last at BAM with the third installment of his opera trilogy, The End Of Cinematics (2006
Next Wave Festival). Composer/performer Rouse returns this season with the song cycle Gravity
Radio. Drawing his inspiration from physicist Raymond Chiao's work with superconductors and gravity waves that exist only in conjecture, Rouse intertwines music (for string quartet, guitar, and voices) and film with ethereal shortwave static and reports from the AP News Wire. Triggered by the pulse of the live music, the film represents a kaleidoscope of earthbound images. The AP News Wire reports and the written commentary, which highlights the connections between the song lyrics and the reports, are customized for each performance, taken from that day's local and national news.
Mikel Rouse's musical and theatrical repertoire has its roots in the high art-meets-popular culture,
mix-and-match aesthetic of the early 80s downtown Manhattan music and art scene. But music is just a part of what he does-his pieces also build a hypnotic effect through their non-narrative approach and the use of surreal film images. The Los Angeles Times notes, "Indeed, what makes Rouse's music so fascinating is that it completely merges speech and song into a rich overlay of textures. The songs have a lush pop music texture (some have noticed a seeming Rouse influence on Beck). The melodies are immediate but complexly structured like poetry; his beautiful lyrics are highly musical in tone and rhythm." His works-ranging from recordings with his early contemporary chamber ensemble Mikel Rouse Broken Consort, to his operatic trilogy (Failing Kansas, Dennis Cleveland, and The End Of Cinematics), to a commission from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company scored for multiple iPods set to "shuffle"-have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and the Pacific Rim, and at major festivals around the world.
Commissioned by BAM for the 2010 Next Wave Festival

The Hard Nut
BAM and Mark Morris Dance Group present The Hard Nut
Featuring the MMDG Music Ensemble with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Choreography by Mark Morris
Set design by Adrianne Lobel
Costume design by Martin Pakledinaz
Lighting design by James F. Ingalls
Production based on the work of Charles Burns
Based on the book by E.T.A. Hoffman, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

The Hard Nut is the annual Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Presentation, which receives special support from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave)
Dec 10, 11 &15-18 at 7:30pm
Dec 12 & 19 at 3pm
Tickets: $25, 45, 60, 70
Appropriate for ages 5 & up
"...Mr. Morris' musicality at its most theatrically exhilarating." -The New York Times
In celebration of the Mark Morris Dance Group's 30th Anniversary Season comes the return of The
Hard Nut, a cheeky yet reverent holiday homage to The Nutcracker, back at BAM after a five year
absence. "Morris' choreography is formally dazzling, uproariously funny," raves the San Francisco
Chronicle. It is this mix of playfulness and exquisite dance combined with the greatest respect for
E.T.A. Hoffman's original story and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's iconic score that has resulted in The
Hard Nut winning Ovation TV's Battle of the Nutcrackers contest for three years running.
Morris updates the classic holiday tale by setting it in the swinging 1970s, complete with go-go boots,
G.I. Joe soldiers, dancing Barbie dolls, and inspired gender-bending casting. The Hard Nut takes its
title from The Nutcracker and the Mouseking, the slightly sinister plot of Hoffman's story-within-a-story wherein an evil Rat Queen who has disfigured Princess Pirlipat offers an impossible challenge: the girl will regain her beauty if a young man can crack the "hard nut" with his teeth. Drosselmeier, the kind family friend, searches the world over and finds the hidden nut 15 years later, back at home, when a suitor who is up to the challenge finally emerges. Mark Morris was born on August 29, 1956, in Seattle, Washington. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) in 1980 and has since created more than 120 works for the company. From 1988 to 1991, he was Director of Dance while MMDG was the national company of Belgium at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. In 1990, he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Morris is also much in demand as a ballet choreographer and has created seven works for the San Francisco Ballet since 1994 and has received commissions from many others. He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, English National Opera, and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Morris was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation in 1991. In 2001, the Mark Morris Dance Group opened its first permanent US home in Brooklyn, NY. In addition to being a space for Morris and the dancers to work, the Mark Morris Dance Center houses rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children and seniors, and a school offering affordable dance classes to students of all ages. MMDG has also maintained and strengthened its ties to several cities around the world, most notably its West Coast home, Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA and its Midwest home, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois in Urbana- Champaign, IL. MMDG is noted for its commitment to live music, a feature of every performance on its full international touring schedule since 1996. For more information, visit www.mmdg.org.



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