Northrop Announces 2015-2016 Season

Northrop announces its 2015//16 season, featuring nine renowned dance companies and five performances with live music. Returning favorites include Alivn Ailey American Dance Theater and Mark Morris Dance Group. Newcomers to the Twin Cities dance scene Jessica Lang and Michelle Dorrance will also take the Carlson Family Stage in this exciting season. Northrop Director Christine Tschida previews the season in this video.

Kicking off the season on Saturday, October 3 is Salt Lake City's Ballet West, presenting a mixed repertory performance that includes Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free and George Balanchine's Who Cares? accompanied by a 50-piece live orchestra. Sean Curran Company follows on October 24th with Dream'd in a Dream, an exhilarating piece influenced by a journey the group took to Central Asia as cultural ambassadors for the U.S. State Department. Ustat Shakirt Plus, a musical group from the Kyrgyz Republic, will accompany the performance.

Michelle Dorrance brings high-powered tap to the Northrop stage when her company, Dorrance Dance, along with Toshi Reagon and the band BIGLovely, present The Blues Project, a night of exceptional tap virtuosity.

On January 30, 2016, audience favorite Hubbard Street Dance Chicago brings Nacho Duato's sensual and stirring Gnawa, as part of a contemporary rep program. Jessica Lang Dance makes its Northrop debut in a program that infuses contemporary ballet with the visual arts in an unforgettable evening celebrating dance and design.

In a nod to Northrop's historic Jazz series, and as a special addition to Northrop's dance season, the cult film classic, The Triplets of Belleville will fill the Northrop big screen, accompanied by film score composer Benoît Charest and his 8-piece jazz ensemble Le Terrible Orchestre de Belleville.

The iconic Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns on March 1st, performing a mixed repertory program that will include Ailey's signature piece Revelations. Mark Morris Dance Group, returning after a 10-year absence on March 30, will perform a work that many consider Morris's best: Henry Purcell's one-act opera, Dido and Aeneas. Mark Morris himself will conduct the baroque orchestra, chorus and soloists that accompany the piece.

Minneapolis is one of only two US cities on Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal's tour of their new story ballet, Leonce and Lena which appears on April 6. Choreographer Christian Spuck's take on Georg Buchner's satirical play is brimming with humor, theatricality, and superb dancing.

The season closes on April 27 with the vibrant Miami City Ballet in an evening of Balanchine classics and a new work by ballet wunderkind Justin Peck, all performed to live orchestra. Balanchine's Serenade is set to a classic Tchaikovsky score, the intensely physical Symphony in Three Movements is danced to Stravinsky, and Peck's recently debuted, street-dance inspired Heatscape features a sprightly score by Czech composer Bohuslav Martin?.

All Northrop Dance Season events are enriched with related programming and contextualizing activities such as film screenings, master classes, and lectures that will be announced throughout the year. Performance previews before each event provide an in-depth exploration of the evening's programming by members of the company and/or artistic staff.

TICKETS:
Series packages offer deeper discounts, best seats, and subscriber perks. More information and ordering available at northrop.umn.edu or 612-624-2345.

Single tickets go on sale to the general public on June 15.