Limon At The Joyce, May 8-13 - Season Includes Missa Brevis
By: Julie Musbach May. 03, 2018
The Limón Dance Company returns to The Joyce Theater with a major revival of Limón's magnificent "Missa Brevis," set to Zoltán Kodály's Missa Brevis in Tempore Belli, and joined by international guest dancers Carolina Avendano and Terry Springer from Venezuela's CoreoArte and Kirsten Foote and Julian Nichols from Canada; Limón's "The Unsung," for an all-male cast; Artistic Director Colin Connor's new "The Body is a House Without Walls," for an all-female cast; and three short works commissioned by the Limón Company by exceptional young choreographers Rosie Herrera, Adam Baruch, and Yin Yue.
Founded in 1946, the Limón Dance Company continues to give glorious expression to the resilience of the human spirit. Limón's unique social awareness is more relevant than ever, and the works selected for this season depict our searches for community.
MISSA BREVIS (Limon): A great song of the resilience of an entire people and of the desire for community. Matching the glorious Kodaly music, patterns emerge and shift, and the architecture on stage is of a richness that seems as solid as a cathedral. The lone figure searches for the common ground everyone else seems to share.
THE UNSUNG (Limon): The men, together, are both the dancers and musicians in this powerfully rhythmic homage to the great Native American chiefs, fighting for their cultures and a way of life in harmony with the world around us. These men are now fighting for what they believe in, and for what could be taken away.
THE BODY IS A HOUSE WITHOUT WALLS (Connor): Elephants, at a watering hole, will find, lift and hold the bones of one of theirs who died there the year before. For each, memory and touch can combine to charge the air.
QUERIDA HERIDQA (Herrera): (roughly translated as Dear Wound): Three women, moving to infectious Cuban music, unpredictable, over the top, tender and violent, in clothes that surprise along with the dancing.
CONJURATIONS (Barruch): Two figures in an inescapable landscape, incantations of gesture and rhythm create a tenuous order of mystery.
NO ROOM FOR WANDERING (Yin Yue): A celebration of effort in a dense atmosphere, two men fight for every inch in this technically demanding duet.
PROGRAM A: May 8 & 9 at 7:30 PM; May 10 at 8 PM
The Unsung
The Body is a House Without Walls
Querida Herida
Missa Brevis
PROGRAM B: May 11 at 8 PM; May 12 at 2 PM
The Unsung
The Body is a House Without Walls
Conjurations
Missa Brevis
PROGRAM C: May 12 at 8 PM, May 13 at 2 PM
The Unsung
The Body is a House Without Walls
No Room for Wandering
Missa Brevis
The Limón Dance Company has been at the vanguard of dance since its inception in 1946. It was the first dance group to tour internationally under the auspices of the State Department and the first modern dance company to perform at Lincoln Center in New York, as well as twice at The White House. Thematically, founder Jos? Limón possessed a social awareness that transcended distinct groups to address how we all search for commonality, earning him a special place in American culture. With their arresting visual clarity, theatricality, and rhythmic and musical life, his works continue to influence the evolution of the art form more than 40 years after his passing. To complement the classic works by its founders, the Company has developed a repertory of unparalleled breadth. This body of work represents new commissions and acquisition by over 45 choreographers, including Doug Varone, Donald McKayle, Lar Lubovitch, Murray Louis, Susanne Linke, Meredith Monk, Ji?i Kylián, and Kate Weare. The José Limón Dance Foundation was awarded a 2008 National Medal of the Arts, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence.
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