Choreographer Megan Williams And Composer Eve Beglarian to Present World Premiere at Danspace

can I have it without begging, an inter-generational, live music and dance collaboration between choreographer Megan Williams and award-winning composer Eve Beglarian, will have its world premiere at Danspace Project, March 26 - 28, 2020 at 8 pm.

Opening with the Young People's Chorus of New York City (YPC) singers performing Eve Beglarian's Armon, the dance is comprised of four connected repertory works in conversation with existing compositions from Beglarian's catalogue as well as two newly commissioned world premiere pieces. It features performers from Megan Williams Dance Projects, live music, vocals from 24 YPC members ages 14 - 18, and an all-star cast of new-music luminaries.

Williams and Beglarian first met as girls in 1974, but only worked together for the first time in 2016, when they performed in a rendition of Play Like A Girl with Beglarian on toy piano. They have been laying the groundwork for a more expansive collaboration ever since, and have prepared an event that celebrates strategic beauty while exploring the poles of desire and desirability, power and powerlessness, and isolation and connection that weave through all of our lives.

Performers will include dance artists Megan Williams, Esmé Boyce, Robert Mark Burke, Derek Crescenti, Réka Echerer, Mary Lyn Graves, Chelsea Hecht, Courtney Lopes, Amelia Pagliaro, Joshua Tuason and Michael Wang. Musicians will include Eve Beglarian, Tristan Kasten-Krause, bass; Thomas Feng, keyboard; Margaret Lancaster, flute; Huizi Zhang, keyboard; Amy Garapic, percussion and members of the Young People's Chorus of New York City, led by Founder and Artistic Director Francisco J. Núñez. The evening features costume design by Barbara Erin Delo, lighting design by Kathy Kaufmann and sound design by Sam Crawford.

Four World Premiere Dances

My Great Desire is a new large ensemble ballet by Megan Williams inspired by Eve Beglarian's Machaut in the Machine Age series. Since the 1980s Ms. Beglarian has been writing responses to Guillaume de Machaut's secular songs from the 14th century. This performance includes the world premieres of a newly commissioned musical additions to the Machaut series by Beglarian and choreography of all five sections of the ballet by Williams. From the Machaut suite, YPC performs Liement me deport, which was originally commissioned for the chorus' Radio Radiance project.

Five Things is a reboot of a duet that premiered in the 2018 DANCE NOW Festival, and now features performances by Williams and Esme Boyce; and Swift Bird (Another Five Things), a solo for Williams that explores the vulnerability and perseverance of the aging solo performer. Both musical works are based on Chinese Zen sayings - the first written in response to the events of 9/11 and the second a newly commissioned companion piece.

Play Like a Girl is a raucous, contemplative suite of short dances that embody memories of the struggles and joys of girlhood. The dances are set to Ms. Beglarian's keyboard variations on the Bulgarian tune Kaval Sviri, the opening theme of which is sung by YPC.

Megan Williams is an independent dance artist, choreographer, in demand teacher and repetiteur. Her choreography has been produced throughout the U.S. In addition to performing her own work, she can be seen dancing with choreographer Rebecca Stenn and in Netta Yurashalmy's Paramodernities project. In 1988, she joined the Mark Morris Dance Group, dancing for 10 years, touring worldwide, teaching, and appearing in several films, including Falling Down Stairs (with Yo Yo Ma), The Hidden Soul of Harmony, The Hard Nut and Dido and Aeneas. Her dancing with MMDG was named "an unusual blend of delicate precision and sensuous fluency.....with considerable strength and profound musicality." (Tobi Tobias, N.Y. Magazine). Williams continues her affiliation with Morris, as guest ballet master, guest rehearsal director, and as a stager of his works.

Megan Williams Dance Projects was founded in 2016 with the mission of interrogating and elevating the human experience through the research, creation, production and performance of contemporary dance works. The company was a DANCE NOW Commissioned Artist in 2018, premiering Williams' first full evening work, One Woman Show to great acclaim at Joe's Pub in NYC which was hailed as "whip-smart and vastly entertaining" (Deborah Jowitt, Artsjournal), and was recently in the Fridays at Noon series at the 92nd Street Y, and part of the Dance Off the Grid series at the Emelin Theater in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Megan Williams Dance Projects

Composer and performer Eve Beglarian "is a humane, idealistic rebel and a musical sensualist" (Los Angeles Times). Beglarian's recent projects include a collaboration with writer/performer Karen Kandel and director Mallory Catlett about women in Vicksburg from the Civil War to the present; a piece about the controversial Balthus painting Thérèse Dreaming for vocalist Lucy Dhegrae; and a duo for uilleann pipes and organ that premiered at Disney Hall as part of the L.A. Philharmonic's 100th anniversary celebrations. Beglarian's chamber, choral, and orchestral music has been commissioned and widely performed by major orchestras across the country, and by individual performers including Maya Beiser, Sarah Cahill and Lauren Flanigan. Highlights of Beglarian's work in music theater includes music for Mabou Mines' Obie-winning Dollhouse; Animal Magnetism; Ecco Porco; Choephorai; and Shalom Shanghai; Forgiveness, a collaboration with Chen Shi-Zheng and Noh master Akira Matsui; and the China National Beijing Opera Theater's production of The Bacchae. Performance projects include Brim, Songs from a Book of Days, The Story of B, Open Secrets, twisted tutu, and typOpera. evbvd.com

Young People's Chorus of New York City is a world-renowned youth chorus founded in 1988 on a mission of diversity, artistic excellence, and education by Artistic Director Francisco J. Núñez, a MacArthur Fellow, Musical America's 2018 Educator of the Year, and a recipient of ASCAP's Life in Music Award. Under the leadership of Mr. Núñez and Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Núñez, the program harnesses the power of music to fulfill the potential of children, heightening an awareness of the ability of children to rise to unforeseen levels of artistry. Over 2,000 children from ages 8 to 18 participate annually in YPC through its after-school, in-school, and community programs, and now, through YPC National (ypcnational.org), even more children across the country are being reached. YPC is a recipient of the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, America's highest honor for youth programs. ypc.org.

Performances are part of Danspace Project's Community ACCESS series, which provides subsidized off- season rental opportunities for Danspace Project community members.

can I have it without begging will run for three performances, March 26 - 28, 2020 at 8 pm at Danspace Project, St. Mark's Church, 131 E. 10th Street, New York, NY 10003. Tickets are available at http://www.danspaceproject.org. For more information, visit Megan Williams Dance Projects