La MaMa to Host OCCURRENCE #14 by Donald Byrd, Opens La MaMa Moves! Festival
Performances of OCCURRENCE #14 scheduled for April 9-12 at The Downstairs Theatre, featuring innovative choreography by Donald Byrd and a diverse cast from Spectrum Dance Theater
La Mama Experimental Theatre Club will present a rare revival of OCCURRENCE #14 by Donald Byrd /Spectrum Dance Theater as the opening to the 21st annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival. Performances are April 9-10 at 8pm, April 11 at 5pm, and April 12 at 3pm at The Downstairs Theatre, 66 E. 4th Street. Tickets are $30 (general), $25 (students/seniors), with a $50 Support the Artists ticket option.
Spectrum Dance Theater's OCCURRENCE series is a bold and imaginative choreographic format first introduced on March 20, 2016, at La Usina del Arte in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the culminating public presentation of a U.S. Embassy residency. The series is modeled on the spirit of a Merce Cunningham EVENT-a performance constructed of complete dances, excerpts, and new sequences arranged specifically for the site, often layered with multiple actions occurring simultaneously. A retrospective of Mr. Byrd's experience of 9/11, OCCURRENCE #14combines old and new movement ideas, showcasing them together and offering a new perspective on this world-altering event. "This is my playtime," says Byrd. "It's when I get to nerd out as a choreographer. I recombine past work with new material, guided by imagination and the pursuit of the next right thing to do."
Spectrum Dance Theater (SDT) was founded in 1982 to bring dance of the highest merit to a diverse audience from different social, cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Our principal objective is to make the art form of dance accessible through contemporary dance performances and high-quality training across a variety of dance styles.
Under Donald Byrd's visionary artistic leadership since 2002, the organization has embarked on an exhilarating transformation that has attracted world-class dancers, produced some of the most ambitious works in contemporary dance, and generated local and national praise.
The dancers of Spectrum Dance Theater are a select group of unique dance artists individually chosen and trained in Donald Byrd's singular approach to dance/theater - physically demanding and emotionally charged. They occupy the space where the classical, contemporary, intuitive, cerebral, visceral, right-brain, left-brain, control, and abandonment converge. These are dancers exploring the boundaries of movement - inside and outside of the prescribed. They explore the known and the unknowns of movement with focus, enthusiasm, and a voracious appetite for the authenticity and the truthfulness of movement. They are virtuosi of a new order.
Creative Team Credits
CHOREOGRAPHY & DIRECTION - Donald Byrd
ORIGINAL LIGHTING DESIGN - Ryan A. Dunn
REVIVAL LIGHTING DESIGN - Jack Mehler
COSTUME DESIGN - Doris Black
SOUND DESIGN - Robertson Witmer
PROJECTION IMAGE DESIGN - Jesse Allain-Marcus
ORIGINAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANT - T. Ibn Sahali
ORIGINAL PRODUCTION SUPPORT - Arts Tech
ORIGINAL STAGE MANAGER - Amanda Balter
REVIVAL STAGE MANAGER - Cricket Neiss
SPECTRUM COMPANY ARTISTS - Birdy Adler, Natalie Johnson, Cody Krause, Katarina Lee, Isabella Smith, Cooper Sullivan, Serene Wong
APPRENTICE - Colleen McKibben
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