Northrop at the University of Minnesota Announces Second Half of Season

Northrop at the University of Minnesota continues is 08|09 season with strong performances providing the Twin Cities a global experience from four prominent international choreographers and jazz leaders revisiting the work of renowned legends such as John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk.

The Russian National Ballet Theatre will entrance patrons with the magic of the theatrical staging of Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty while the innovative Batsheva Dance Company (copresented with Walker Art Center) will perform the raw and elegant Shalosh (Three). Limón Dance Company brings a powerful display of the human spirit in Missa Brevis which includes dancers from the University of Minnesota's dance department and the Oratorio Society of Minnesota. Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg returns to Northrop with a new theatrical production of the 19th century novel, Eugene Onegin.

The jazz season is rounded out with the romantic balladeering of Kurt Elling and the multimedia performance of Jason Moran's In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall (copresented with Walker Art Center).

Individual dance and jazz tickets are on sale now at 612-624-2345 or at northrop.umn.edu. Discounts may apply.

Northrop's 09|10 Season and bold new vision under new Northrop Director Ben Johnson will be announced in March.

Batsheva Dance Company

Shalosh (Three)

Wednesday | February 18 | 7:30 pm | Northrop

Co-presented with Walker Art Center

Tickets: $55, $42, $36, $31
"[In] the mercurial, shape-shifting world of Ohad Naharin's Batsheva Dance Company, dancers inhabit a vacillating physicality that takes them from human, to dancer, to animal, to machine, all in one phrase... and it is genius." Countercritic.com

Batsheva Dance Company returns to Northrop with artistic director Ohad Naharin's masterwork, "Shalosh" (Three). Hailed as raw and elegant, violent and tender, the 70-minute work for 17 dancers includes three provocatively titled sections: Bellus ("beauty"), Humus ("earth") and Seus (either "this" or "not this"), interwoven with music from Brian Eno and the Beach Boys to Bach's Goldberg Variations.
Founded in 1964 by the Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild and Martha Graham, the Tel Aviv-based company has flourished under Naharin's direction. Naharin trains his dancers in his own rigorous physical method called Gaga, a movement language designed to free the body while making it flexible, strong and self-aware.
Whether hurtling through space, assuming a precarious balance or elastically sculpturing their bodies, the dancers remain exquisitely attuned to one another, resulting in a breathtaking sensuality and emotional power. Naharin's artistic integrity and innovation have earned Batsheva an accolade-wreathed reputation. One of most riveting and sought-after dance companies in the world, Batsheva presents works of exquisitely rendered complexity, and the sublime Three is a work to linger over.

Past performances at Northrop: 1995, 2004

This activity is made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature. Funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Ford Foundation, and MetLife Foundation. Support for this performance of Shalosh (Three) is provided by Leni and David Moore, Jr. / The Moore Family Fund for the Arts of The Minneapolis Foundation. The Walker Art Center's Dance Season is sponsored by Gray Plant Mooty.

Kurt Elling Sings: Coltrane/Hartman

featuring Ernie Watts, ETHEL, and The Laurence Hobgood Trio

"Dedicated To You"

Friday | February 20 | 8 pm | TEd Mann Concert Hall

Tickets: $40
"The preeminent male jazz singer of our time...[Elling's] imagination and interpretive abilities continue to develop in unanticipated, but magical ways." -CD Review

Kurt Elling brings Ernie Watts and the Ethel String Quartet aboard for "Dedicated To You," Elling's creative reimagining of John Coltrane's collaboration with "romantic balladeer" Johnny Hartman. Hartman was the only singer ever to record with Coltrane and their 1963 album of ballads is considered a masterpiece, a perfect synergy of Coltrane's passionate tenor saxophone and Hartman's sensual baritone vocals.

Saxophone legend Ernie Watts is arguably the most versatile saxophonist on the scene today, having played on over 500 albums by everyone from Zappa to Thelonious Monk, delivers his own rich Tenor sound filled with soul and warmth. Elling and Hobgood, taking a cue from Coltrane's ingenuity, create new storytelling and harmonies, adding lush layers and atmospheres to what has been roundly dubbed "one of the most romantic albums ever recorded."

Limón Dance Company

Missa Brevis

Thursday | March 19 | 7:30 pm | Northrop

Tickets: $55, $42, $36, $31

"[‘Missa Brevis'] is a song of a strong and simple people, a song of thanksgiving for deliverance from the unspeakable horrors of war. Its dances express a deep awareness of the wonder of life, and the transcendent joy at its resumption... Here the movement seems to spring directly from the heart." -Dance Magazine

In 1958, Mexican-born choreographer José Limón created his masterpiece Missa Brevis, in response to war and the indomitable spirit of humanity. Limón and his fledgling company had just toured Poland, where against a background of war-ravaged cities they discovered people whose optimism and willingness to rebuild were profoundly inspiring. In honor of the people's "heroic serenity," as Limón wrote, he created Missa Brevis, a communal hymn against war and in celebration of the human spirit.

The evening-length work, set to Zoltan Kodaly's magnificent Missa Brevis in Tempore Belli (for organ and choir), blends Limón's expressive modern-dance idiom with folk-dance patterns and Christian iconography rendered through gesture. In this dance mass of affirmation and rebirth, communities cluster and circle in fear and hope, while single dancers burst forth in solos of anguish, passion and spiritual uplift.
For this performance, students from the University of Minnesota's Dance Department will join the 12-member Limón Dance Company. The Oratorio Society of Minnesota and an organist will perform Kodaly's score. Witness not only a part of dance's artistic heritage created anew, but a timeless work of perseverance and faith.

Past performance at Northrop: 1976

Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg

Eugene Onegin

Friday & Saturday | April 24 & 25 | 8 pm

Tickets: $65, $52, $42, $33

"Boris Eifman doesn't just choreograph ballets, he creates dynamic, theatrical, visionary works that delve into characters' lives in the most exiting, probing, titillating and wondrous ways." --Los Angeles Times

Eifman Ballet, based in St. Petersburg, has revolutionized the concept of Russian classical dance-with its rigor, purity and exquisite line-by fusing those traditions with expressive modern investigations of narrative and character. Fast on the heels of his Red Giselle, Russian Hamlet and Anna Karenina performed in previous Northrop engagements, the prolific Boris Eifman has now turned his choreographic attention to another work of literature: Pushkin's 19th-century novel of love, morality and loyalty, Eugene Onegin, which Tchaikovsky also scored as an opera.
In the tale a jaded aristocrat comes to regret his spurning of a lovelorn girl, which Eifman explores in his new ballet with psychological acuity and emotional drama. Sumptuous costumes, magical staging and atmospheric lighting generate a theatrical spectacle in which the corps de ballet ebb and swirl with dramatic intensity, while the soloists embody their characters with artistic integrity and emotional truth.

A singular company, the Eifman Ballet speaks the language of Russian ballet, but with a contemporary inflection all its own. In Eugene Onegin, Eifman transforms another classic with an expressive power unique to dance and his original vision.
Past performances at Northrop: 2000, 2002, 2007

Jason Moran

In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall

Saturday | May 9 | 7 & 9:30 pm | William and Nadine McGuire Theater, Walker Art Center

Tickets: $40

Copresented with Walker Art Center.

". . . the most provocative thinker in current jazz."

-Rolling Stone

In 2005, the Walker commissioned pianist/composer Jason Moran to create his acclaimed music-theater work MILESTONE. He returns with a multimedia performance built around the extraordinary "tentet" recording of Thelonius Monk's legendary 1959 Town Hall Concert. Integrating samples of Monk's original music, conversations, and photos with his own interpretations of Monk tunes, Moran leads us deep into the historic jazz event, while simultaneously bringing us headlong into the 21st century. "It's much larger than a tribute project," Moran says. "Monk is the reason I started playing piano. I owe him all the investigation I can do." Jason Moran (piano), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Logan Richardson III (alto saxophone), Walter Smith III (tenor saxophone), Isaac Smith (trombone), Bob Stewart (tuba), Tarus Mateen (bass), and Nasheet Waits (drums).

The Northrop Dance Season is made possible in part with a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

 

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