The Hartt School Presents Hartt Dances, 11/19 - 11/21

The Hartt School Dance Division presents Hartt Dances on Friday, November 19, and Saturday, November 20, at 7:30 PM, and Sunday, November 21 at 3:00 PM at Lincoln Theater on the University of Hartford's West Hartford campus. Admission is $20, with discounts for seniors, students, and groups. Admission is free for University of Hartford students, faculty, and staff with current University ID. For tickets and information, contact the University of Hartford Box Office at 860.768.4228 or 1.800.274.8587, or visit www.hartford.edu/hartt.

Hartt's fall main stage concert includes José Limón's soulful Mazurkas, to music of Frederic Chopin; a suite of dances from Raymonda by Marius Petipa, staged by Debra Collins-Ryder; a new work by Katie Stevinson-Nollet; the poignant full version of Dark Elegies by Anthony Tudor, set to the music of Gustav Mahler, staged by Hilda Morales; and the exuberant Brilliant Sky by Hartt Dance Division Director Stephen Pier, with a powerful rhythmic score of Steve Martland.

According to Nina Watt, Dance Division faculty member and former José Limón Company principal dancer, "Mazurkas is a celebration of the indomitable spirit José witnessed in the people of Poland, touring there after the Second World War."

"Limón's insistence that his art reflect his beliefs and his hope for humanity allies him with Anthony Tudor, whose work Dark Elegies will be seen side-by-side with his on our concert. Dancing the Limón repertory for 30 years, a repertory of which I never tired, offered me a medium for expressing the spectrum of human experience. How wonderful that these two great men's work will be enjoyed by not only local audiences, but also by the dancers here at Hartt," says Watt.

The Grand Pas Classique Hongrois from the third act of Raymonda is considered by many to be among the supreme masterworks of Marius Petipa, the renowned Maitre de Ballet to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre. Hartt dancers will present several solo variations and a pas de trois from this masterwork. Hartt Dance Division faculty member Debra Collins-Ryder is staging Raymonda for the fall dance concert and has a special connection to it, having danced the lead with the Hartford Ballet.

Katie Stevinson-Nollet's world premier, a work inspired by recent environmental disasters, alludes to corporate greed and the destructive wake it creates in the ecological chain. Choreographed in 1937 for Ballet Rambert at the Dutchess Theatre in London, Dark Elegies is set to Mahler's Kindertotenlieder ("Songs on the Death of Children")and portrays members of a community mourning the loss of their children after some unspecified tragedy, and gradually moving from anguish to acceptance. According to the New York Times, Dark Elegies is "one of our century's most unusual ballets."

Hilda Morales, Hartt Dance Division faculty member, who worked directly with Mr. Tudor in American Ballet Theatre, says about the piece, "When performed to live music, a baritone is seated on a bench down stage to the left. The dancers, moving in a fusion of classical and expressionist styles, parallel his words with their own potent though often unspecific images."

Morales continues, "I have always wanted to re-stage this piece for the students at The Hartt School, and this year I felt that we had the right cast to perform this piece. I feel honored to be given this opportunity."

Stephen Pier's Brilliant Sky is an ebullient celebration of movement. It is inspired by the vastness of a starry night and the rush of sensations such an expanse can illicit, taking us somewhere far beyond our normal plane of existence. This concert includes not only the beautiful artistry of Hartt dancers, but also features live music of Chopin and David Lang performed by Hartt's Performance 20/20 honors chamber music ensemble.

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