New York Live Arts Presents the NYC Premiere of Louise Lecavalier's SO BLUE This Week

New York Live Arts kicks off its 2015-16 season with the presentation of Louise Lecavalier's"powerfully zen and poignantly human" (The Guardian) So Blue, this week, September 9-12 at 7:30pm.

Star dancer of Édouard Lock's La La La Human Steps from 1981 to 1999 and heralded as "the Madonna of contemporary dance" by The Washington Post, 56 year old Louise Lecavalier is a force of nature known worldwide for her artistic stamina, power and grace, birthing a movement style unlike any other. The first Canadian to win a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award in 1985 for Businessman in the Process of Becoming an Angel, presented by Dance Theater Workshop, Lecavalier returns to present the New York City premiere of her first extended piece of choreography, So Blue.

Recently awarded Toronto's Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Production, So Blue was conceived and choreographed by Lecavalier with assistance from collaborator France Bruyère. With an intensely rhythmic soundtrack featuring Montréal composer and atypical world-music artist Mercan Dede, the work is performed by Lecavalier and Frédéric Tavernini, the "host of corporeal seismic shifts" (Fjord Review). The movement is inspired by simple, everyday gestures infused with speed, repetition, abstraction and theatricality. With stark, cool lighting by collaborator Alain Lortie, So Blue is rife with "the still-riveting power of Lecavalier's dancing" (The Guardian), showcasing her "veritable font of jaw-dropping inspiration" (Fjord Review).

Performances will take place in New York Live Arts' Theater. Tickets start at $15. Tickets may be purchased online at newyorklivearts.org, by phone at 212-924-0077 and in person at the box office. Box office hours are Monday to Friday from 1 to 9pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 8pm.

Louise Lecavalier

So Blue

Sep, 9-12 at 7:30pm

New York Live Arts Theater

Tickets: starting at $15

T: 212-924-0077 | www.newyorklivearts.org

219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011

Box Office hours:

Monday-Friday 1 - 9pm | Saturday-Sunday 12 - 8pm

To request press tickets: Contact Elizabeth Cooke at ecooke@newyorklivearts.org by or before September 2, 2015.

About the Artist:

Louise Lecavalier worked with Édouard Lock and La La La Human Steps from 1981 to 1999, a period of exceptional intensity punctuated by works that have since become mythical -Oranges, Businessman in the Process of Becoming an Angel, Human Sex, New Demons, Infante, 2, and Salt - along with scintillating collaborations (David Bowie, Frank Zappa). Her extreme dance, filled with a fiery energy, caught the imagination of a whole generation. Since that time she has continued to explore with her company, Fou Glorieux, in solos and duets, the power and vulnerability of the body and the intensity of human struggles and aspirations. After fruitful collaborations with artists Tedd Robinson (Lula and the Sailor, Cobalt rouge), Benoît Lachambre ("I" Is Memory, Is You Me), Crystal Pite (Lone Epic) and Nigel Charnock (Children), she created her first choreographic work, So Blue, in 2012, which is currently touring in Europe, North America and Brazil. An Officer of the Order of Canada, Lecavalier is the first Canadian to have received a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award and the first winner of the Prix de la danse de Montréal. She is also a recipient of the Jean A. Chalmers National Dance Award, the Prix du Syndicat français de la critique and the 2013 Léonide Massine Prize for contemporary dancer of the year. In March 2014, Lecavalier and her company won two very prestigious awards. The company received the 29th Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal, and the performer was among the winners of the illustrious 2014 Governor General Performing Arts Award (GGPAA) for lifetime artistic achievement, Canada's highest distinction in the performing arts. In March 2015, Lecavalier was named a Companion of the Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec, among 35 personalities honoured for their contribution to the resonance of Quebec's culture.

Photo Courtesy of New York Live Arts

Photo Credit: Andre Cornellier