Photo Flash: Minnesota Dance Theatre Presents WHITE JACKET ONLY

Leaf, Minnesota Dance Theatre company dancer, is known for his artistic sensibility and virtuosic performances. A graduate of the Juilliard School and recipient of a 2009 McKnight fellowship, the 2007 Sage Dance Award for Best Performance, and the Zaraspe Prize for Outstanding Choreography, Leaf is also founder of Junkyard Theater which presents performances bridging music, theater and dance.

WHITE JACKET ONLY features company dancers including himself, with lighting design by Jeff Bartlett. The world premiere on Friday, April 16 will host a pre-performance celebration at TOAST Wine Bar and Cafe celebrating Justin Leaf and Minnesota Dance Theatre's commitment to continuing the exploration of new artistic voices.

WHITE JACKET ONLY is sponsored by Education and Arts Foundation in support of new work.

The six performances will also feature work commissioned in past seasons by Minnesota Dance Theatre. Celebrated choreographers Danny Buraczeski and Wynn Fricke will be represented on the program with Buraczeski's 4 SEASONS and Fricke's UPTURNED JEWEL.

Fricke held the position of Minnesota Dance Theatre's Choreographer in Residence 2005 -2007 with support from the Jerome Foundation and began her journey with the creation of UPTURNED JEWEL to the a capella music of Toby Twining. "... the best of two traditions can be distilled - the technical range and discipline of ballet and the iconoclasm of modern. These movement vocabularies can be skillfully and stunningly woven, so that neither form is limited; instead the circle of possibilities will be widened." (Wynn Fricke)

Choreographer Danny Buraczeski brought two interpretations of The Four Seasons by composers Antonio Vivaldi and Astor Piazzolla together to make one dance piece. 8 SEASONS premiered in collaboration with JazzDance, Buraczeski's renowned Twin Cities-based jazz company in 2003. A classic jazz stylist, Buraczeski's work has traced an investigation of jazz with attention paid to a rich lineage of individual performers and movement makers. Rhythm drives his choreographic explorations. Minnesota Dance Theatre is proud to bring Buraczeski's 4 SEASONS to the Lab Theater and will present his 8 SEASONS in the 2010-2011 season.

In addition, Artistic Director Lise Houlton's ALCHEMICAL WEDDING will return to the stage completing a program that represents the breadth of Minnesota Dance Theatre's repertoire from jazz to theatre dance to neoclassical to modern. Influenced by choreographers Glen Tetley, Antony Tudor and Minnesota Dance Theatre founder Loyce Houlton, Lise Houlton found her voice through the artists that have availed themselves of the dance aesthetic of this company. ALCHEMICAL WEDDING was originally choreographed for the James Sewell Ballet in 1995.
"I have been drawn to the music of Sir Michael Tippett. The Fantasia on a Theme of Corelli for String Orchestra is an intricate, intense concertante that evokes the lyrical and aesthetic movement that intrigued and influenced me as a dancer. The luminous fantasia form carries the energy of alchemy, the magical process said to extract gold from crude ore - in this piece, the symbolic chemistry of relationships." (Lise Houlton)

Minnesota Dance Theatre will host a post-performance Q & A on Sunday, April 18 and 25.
Artistic Director Lise Houlton, Associate Artistic Director Abdo Sayegh and company members will participate in this open forum. We hope you will join us.