Trisha Brown Dance Company to Present Second Commission At The Joyce Theater in March

The Trisha Brown Dance Company will present the New York premiere of a new commissioned work, In the Fall, by French choreographer Noé Soulier at its spring season at The Joyce Theater, March 26-31. Reflecting Brown's groundbreaking spirit of innovation, TBDC's second commission seeks to enter Brown's choreographic legacy into dialogue with a new generation of artists. This collaboration pays homage to the rich history that Trisha Brown and the company has had with France and its culture. The Joyce program also includes Working Title (1984) and Glacial Decoy (1979), Brown's first collaboration with artist Robert Rauschenberg.

 

For Noé Soulier, Brown's movement thwarts the geometric paradigm of modern dance, requiring a profound decentering of physical reference points. In his new piece for TBDC, In the Fall, he establishes a dialogue with Brown's work, seeking to test the living archive of the company's dancers, while allowing them to apprehend a new universe which plays on both fluidity and opposition. Soulier is currently Director of the Center National de Danse Contemporaine (Cndc) in Angers and was a resident choreographer with Villa Albertine as part of the 2023 Albertine Dance Season. Soulier's In the Fall was created with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels and was co-produced by TBDC, Cndc-Angers and Festival D'Automne Paris with additional support from Villa Albertine.

 

Glacial Decoy was Trisha Brown's first work for the proscenium stage. With gossamer costumes and a kaleidoscopic set designed by Robert Rauschenberg, the dancers' gorgeous rush of entrances and exits are framed by four screens upon which black-and-white slides of homespun Americana are projected. In Brown's own words, it is “a woman's quartet that slides back and forth.” This ploy suggests an infinite number of dancers offstage to the right and left. A fifth dancer's entry toward the end of the dance clinches the illusion.  Premiering at the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) in 1979, TBDC's Glacial Decoy was last seen in New York in 2009 at The Brooklyn Academy of Music.

 

A precursor to Lateral Pass (1985), Working Title was originally presented as a work-in-progress, with different units of the choreography combined and rearranged for each new performance. Set to a hauntingly atmospheric score by Peter Zummo, the piece features newly commissioned costumes by Elizabeth Cannon which resonate with Nancy Graves' original designs. According to Brown, the work focuses attention on a “collage of asymmetrical and unpredictable traveling patterns.” 

 

For fifty years, Brown shifted paradigms of perception and performance while working at the crossroads of dance and visual art. TBDC is continuing to develop its commissioning program, inviting artists to engage, respond, interact, and unsettle Brown's archive of creative processes, reimagining the company as a generator for artistic exploration in the 21st century.

 

PERFORMANCE TIMES:
Tue–Wed 7:30pm; Thu–Fri 8pm; Sat 2pm & 8pm; Sun 2pm 

 

TICKET PRICES:

Single tickets start at $10. Call JoyceCharge (212-242-0800); visit the Box Office (Monday-Friday, 12- 6pm); or charge online at www.Joyce.org. NOTE: Ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street. 

Noé Soulier was born in Paris in 1987 and studied at the National Ballet School of Canada and PARTS in Brussels. He received a master's degree in philosophy at La Sorbonne University (Paris IV) and took part in Palais de Tokyo's residency program: Le Pavillon. In 2010, he won the first prize of the competition Danse Élargie, organized by Le Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and Le Musée de la danse. Noé Soulier's work explores choreography and dance in different settings, including the stage, the museum space and theoretical reflection. He thus develops a practice that is both conceptual and deeply rooted in movement.

 

From 2015 to 2019, he was in residency at the Centre National de la Danse in Pantin. His creations have been presented by Théâtre National de Chaillot, Théâtre de la Ville, Festival d'Automne à Paris, Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, MUCEM, Sadler's Wells, London, Performa, New York. MOMA PS1, New York, Venice Biennale, and Roma Europa Festival, among others. He has also choreographed pieces for Ballet du Rhin (2011), Ballet de Lorraine 2014), L.A. Dance Project (2017), Lyon Opera Ballet (2021), Nederlands Dans Theater (2023) and Trisha Brown Dance Company (2023) In July 2020, he became of Director of Cndc – Angers (National center for contemporary dance), a unique institution in the choreographic field that brings together a center for choreographic creation, a graduate school of contemporary dance and a dance program.

 

Trisha Brown (1936–2017), artistic director and choreographer, was born and raised in Aberdeen, WA. She graduated from Mills College in 1958, studied with Anna Halprin, and taught at Reed College in Portland before moving to New York City in 1961. Instantly immersed in what was to become the post-modern phenomenon of Judson Dance Theater, her movement investigations found the extraordinary in the everyday and challenged existing perceptions of what constituted performance. In 1970, Brown formed her company and made the groundbreaking work, Man Walking Down the Side of a Building, one of many site-specific works created in, around, and hovering over the streets and buildings of her SoHo neighborhood. Her first of many collaborations with Robert Rauschenberg, Glacial Decoy, premiered in 1979, followed by Set and Reset in 1983 with original music by Laurie Anderson. Brown created nearly 100 dance works, including several operas. Also recognized as a visual artist, her drawings have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions including Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany; MoMA in New York; and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
 
Brown was the first woman choreographer to receive the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Other honors included the Brandeis University's Creative Arts Medal in Dance, two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships, a New York State Governor's Arts Award, and the National Medal of Arts. Brown was named a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France in 1988, elevated to Officier in 2000 and to Commandeur in 2004. She served on the National Council on the Arts from 1994 to 1997. She was honored with the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for making an “outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life.” In 2013, she was honored with the BOMB Magazine Award and received the 2015 Honors Award given by Dance/USA.

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