Limón Dance Company and Joffrey Ballet Artists to Join USC Dance Program for Gala Performance

Dance artists from the internationally acclaimed Limón Dance Company and The Joffrey Ballet will join the University of South Carolina's Betsy Blackmon Dance Program for a one-night-only gala performance April 11 at the Koger Center for the Arts.

Show time is 6:30 p.m. Admission is $15 for students, $20 for USC faculty/staff, military, and seniors 60+, and $22 for the public. Tickets are available online at kogercenterforthearts.com or by calling 803-251-2222.  The Koger Center is located at 1051 Greene St.

The performance is the culmination of a USC residency with Limón artists, including Associate Artistic Director Logan Kruger and company member Savannah Spratt, who will teach the innovative Limón Technique to dance students. Spratt will set choreography from the classic Limón piece A Choreographic Offering on USC's Betsy Blackmon Dance Company (BBDC), who will perform excerpts from the work. BBDC will also reprise Controcorrente, a work created for them last fall by Kathryn Morgan, a prominent dance influencer and former NYC Ballet soloist. 

The Limón Dance Company has been at the vanguard of dance since its inception in 1946. The first dance group to tour internationally under the U.S. State Department, and first modern dance company to perform at Lincoln Center, it has performed twice at the White House. Through landmark commissions and cultural partnerships, the Company's 80th Anniversary season has solidified its voice as one of the most vital in American and global dance. Company founder Jose Limón (1908-72) is considered one of the 20th century's most important and influential dance makers, known for his dynamic, masculine style and dramatic choreography.

“José took what was happening in dance at the time and added a deeply humanistic aspect,” says André Megerdichian, a dance Associate Professor and former Limón guest artist. “When people saw his athleticism and virtuosity existing alongside thoughtfulness and vulnerability, it stirred something in them. The technique he developed is still a vital component of the contemporary landscape today.”

A Choreographic Offering was created in 1964 in memory of modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey, a mentor to Limón and his company's first artistic director. Set to Bach's Musical Offering, the piece combines motifs and variations on Humphrey's choreography to create what Limón called “a memorial bouquet” in which “all the flowers … are her movements.”

The concert repertory will also feature two other iconic Limón works, The Moor's Pavane and Chaconne, to be performed by Limón Company dancers.

Commonly cited as Limón's “masterpiece,” The Moor's Pavane (1949) retells the tragedy of Shakespeare's Othello utilizing the stately drama of the pavane, a court dance of the Renaissance. “The Moor's Pavane encapsulates how to use dance to drive a story with intricacy and detail without resorting to pantomime,” says Megerdichian. “It's a rare treat to see this seminal work performed by the dance company it was created for.”

Chaconne (1942), which utilizes Bach's Chaconne from Partita #2 in D Minor, is a solo work Limón created that Megerdichian says is a masterful exploration of the deep relationship between music and movement. “It's a stunning work – athletic and poetic simultaneously,” he says.

The evening will also feature company artists from The Joffrey Ballet performing the final pas de deux from Yuri Possokhov's Bells and Gerald Arpino's Suite Saint-Saëns pas de deux. Their appearance is an extension of the relationship established between USC and The Joffrey Ballet when the esteemed company was in-residence at the university last spring.

“We're so excited to bring company artists from The Joffrey Ballet back to Columbia,” says Associate Professor Jennifer Deckert, Director of the Betsy Blackmon Dance Program. “As we sought ways to continue our collaboration, this felt like a natural step to support the goals of both of our organizations.”

A gala fundraiser benefitting scholarships for USC dance majors will accompany the performance. A special ticket will admit guests to the gala, featuring pre-show cocktails and an elegant afterparty featuring fine cuisine, live music and photo opportunities with the concert's special guests. Gala attendees will also receive complimentary valet parking and preferred seating during the concert. Gala tickets are $175 per person and available by contacting Susan Anderson at susanea@mailbox.sc.edu.  

Deckert and Megerdichian both say that the evening is a showcase of the wide diversity of dance forms offered by the Betsy Blackmon Dance Program to students and audiences.

“This concert features the full breadth and depth of the concert dance experience, with classical and contemporary ballet performed alongside some of the modern dance masterworks of our time,” says Deckert.

“The artists that are part of these guest companies embody the American dance legacy in a way that few artists can,” says Megerdichian. “To see these works from performers with a direct access to that lineage is rare in our time.”