Annenberg Center Live Presents Jessica Lang Dance

Annenberg Center Live presents Jessica Lang Dance, Friday, November 30 (8 PM) and December 1 (2 PM and 8 PM). Tickets are available at AnnenbergCenter.org or 215.898.3900.

Bucks County native Jessica Lang is a superstar in the dance world. Her ballet-based yet contemporary-driven works are rich with stunning movement, compelling musicality and beautiful cinematic composition. The Annenberg Center program, composed of all Philadelphia premieres, includes the world premiere of Lang's newest creation, us/we, and This Thing Called Love (2018), celebrating the music of Tony Bennett. The inspiration behind us/we is unity of the human population. Her collaborators on the work are visual artist José Parlá and designer Moriah Black. The music is as diverse as the inspiration of the ballet. The piece begins and ends with movements from composer David Lang's work, the national anthems. The ballet also includes a soundscape of New York City street sounds as well as spoken word and pop/rock music.

Jessica Lang Dance

Since the company's inception in 2011, Jessica Lang Dance (JLD) has been devoted to enriching and inspiring global audiences by immersing them in the beauty of movement and music. JLD's diverse repertoire of original works, created by Bessie-Award winning Artistic Director Jessica Lang, embodies a genre-bending contemporary movement style that resists categorical definition. Hailed as "a master of visual composition" by Dance Magazine, Lang seamlessly incorporates striking design elements and transforms classical ballet language into artfully crafted, emotionally engaging works that feature gifted, graceful, and athletic performers.

JLD's trajectory is strongly influenced by a commitment to artistic collaboration with such renowned artists as architect Steven Holl, costume designer Bradon McDonald, lighting designer Nicole Pearce, and composer Jakub Ciupinski, as well as visual artist Shinichi Maruyama, among others. In 2017, Lincoln Center's White Light Festival presented JLD in Lang's rendition of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater - hailed as "one of the most extraordinary experiences an opera-goer is likely to see ... ." Her choreographic genius spans the breadth between these classical works and the legendary music of singer Tony Bennett, with the recent 2018 premiere of This Thing Called Love commissioned by the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College. JLD's 2018-19 season began with two exceptional residencies to develop new work at White Oak and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

The company has performed their repertoire of 25 unique works for audiences nationally and internationally in over 200 cities, 38 states, and 7 different countries. JLD has been presented at premier venues and festivals worldwide including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, BAM's Next Wave Festival, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, The Joyce Theater, the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center, Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, Bolshoi's Inversion Festival of Contemporary Dance, and Palacio de Bellas Artes, among many others.

Artistic Director Jessica Lang leads the creative vision of JLD, which has garnered remarkable acclaim since the company's founding in 2011. Under her artistic leadership, the company now offers more than 50 performances annually at some of the world's most prestigious performing arts centers. Noted for her dedication to educational activities, Lang developed a unique curriculum for JLD called LANGuage, which is offered as part of the company's programming on tour and locally in New York City, focusing on the Queens community.

As one of the most celebrated choreographers of her generation, Lang choreographs and teaches throughout the world. She has created original works for companies including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of Japan, and Joffrey, among many others. Lang has also worked in opera on the production Aida, directed by Francesca Zambello, for San Francisco Opera and Washington National Opera. She is the recipient of a 2014 Bessie Award and the 2017 Arison Award.

Lang grew up in Bucks County, PA and has a diverse dance training background. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy and a former member of Twyla Tharp's company THARP!