BAMbill NOV 2009 2009 Next Wave Festival Adam Fuss, 2009 BAM 2009 Next Wave Festival is part of New Works and Diverse Voices at BAM sponsored by: 2009 Next Wave Festival Brooklyn Academy of Music Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer Presents the US premiere of Itutu Approximate BAM Howard Gilman Opera House running time: Nov 4, 6 & 7 at 7:30pm 70 minutes, no intermission Armitage Gone! Dance Choreographed by Karole Armitage With live music by Burkina Electric and band member Lukas Ligeti Set and fabric design by Philip Taaffe Costumes designed by Peter Speliopolous Lighting design by Clifton Taylor Technical director/Lighting supervisor Joe Doran Dancers Leonides D. Arpon, Kristina Bethel-Blunt, Megumi Eda, William Isaac, Luke Manley, Abbey Roesner, Bennyroyce Royon, Marlon Taylor-Wiles, Emily Wagner, Mei-Hua Wang, Masayo Yamaguchi Burkina Electric Wende K. Blass guitar, Lukas Ligeti drums & electronics, Maï Lingani vocals & dance, Pyrolator electronics, Vicky dance, Zoko Zoko dance BAM 2009 Next Wave Festival is part of New Works and Diverse Voices at BAM sponsored by Time Warner Inc. Leadership support for the Next Wave Festival provided by The Ford Foundation. Leadership support for Itutu provided by The Jerome Robbins Foundation, Inc. Major support for BAM dance is provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance and The SHS Foundation, with additional support from Mary L. Griggs & Mary Griggs Burke Foundation. Itutu Itutu—conceived, directed, and choreographed by Karole Armitage for Armitage Gone! Dance is a col- laborative work with West African electronica band Burkina Electric and composer/band member Lukas Ligeti that features sets by Philip Taaffe. The evening-long work harks back to the tradition of the “en- salada,” a typical Spanish genre, which was very popular in the sixteenth century. The features of the ensalada are the combination of sacred and secular images, diverse rhythms, and different languages. Ensaladas, though rooted in popular culture, were performed mainly at important times during the religious calendar. In this 21st-century ensalada, dancers, and musicians mix vocabularies and sounds from multiple sources. The riveting African pop sounds of Burkina Electric are performed in several African languages as well as in French and English. The ancient Burkinabé rhythms of Burkina Faso are fused with western club electronica. Armitage’s classical abstractions and traditional African dance translate the polyrhythmic music into a poly-visual form. The most mysterious sections are performed to the solos of Lukas Ligeti, unleashed on an electric marimba. Western artists have been in a dialogue with African aesthetics since the turn of the last century. Itutu celebrates that continuum. Armitage Gone! Dance Endowment for the Arts, The American Recovery Artistic director Karole Armitage and Reinvestment Act administered by the Na- Rehearsal director Monique Meunier tional Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Executive director Diane Rosenblatt Department of Cultural Affairs, and by The Doris Duke Charitable Trust, The National Dance Project The creation of Itutu is made possible, in part, administered by the New England Foundation with lead commissioning funds from the L’E.A.R. for the Arts, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Teatro Massimo Vincenzo Bellini di Catania in Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, the Sicily with additional commissioning support from Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Charles BAM for the 2009 Next Wave Festival and Lincoln and Joan Gross Family Foundation, the LLWW Center for Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and others. Armitage Gone! Dance’s 2009—2010 Season is supported with public funds from the National Who’s Who ARMITAGE GONE! DANCE was launched in world premieres in Italy, engagements in San 2005 when Karole Armitage returned to the Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee, US after fifteen years of working in Europe. She and tours to California and New England, includ- formed her first company, Armitage Gone! in New ing performances at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival York City in 1979 to critical acclaim. The com- and Mass MOCA. Since the Company’s launch pany toured to festivals and venues worldwide, it has maintained an active presence in its home performing works in collaboration with visual community of New York City. During the last two artists David Salle and Jeff Koons. Throughout the seasons the Company premiered Connoisseurs 1990s, Armitage chose to maintain her company of Chaos at The Joyce Theater (January 2008), on a project basis while accepting commissions participated in New York City Center’s popular from European ballet and opera companies. In Fall for Dance Festival, collaborated with Gotham November 2005, Armitage Gone! Dance was Chamber Opera on a production of Ariadne launched in New York City with an unprecedented Unhinged, and performed in the Guggenheim three-week season at The Duke on 42nd Street, Museum’s Works & Process series (where the followed by a commissioned dance for Works Company previewed sections from the first phase & Process at The Guggenheim Museum. The of a work inspired by The Elegant Universe, a excitement generated by these engagements led collaboration with string-theory physicist and to performances in Italy, France, Mexico, and author Brian Greene). Last winter, the Company tours throughout the United States. Highlights of presented Think Punk!—a two-week NYC season the company’s recent activities include two 2009 at The Kitchen which featured a revival of Armit- Who’s Who age’s landmark dances, Drastic-Classicism and Theatre. In 1987, at the request of Rudolph The Watteau Duets, to live music. Last May, the Nureyev she created her fourth dance for the Paris company premiered Summer of Love, an early in- Opera Ballet. Its success led to many European carnation of Itutu, at Teatro Vincenzo di Bellini in commissions. For over a decade, Armitage main- Catania, and in June premiered Armitage’s Made tained her company on a project basis while she in Naples at the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia. A worked with major European companies. She was work in fifteen scenes inspired by Pulcinella and appointed Director of MaggioDanza in Florence, the city of his origins, Made in Naples featured Italy, where from 1995 to 1998 she supervised sets by artist Karen Kilimnik and costumes by 45 dancers in the classical repertoire and created Alba Clemente. Most recently the Company her own work. From 1999—2002 she was the returned to Italy for performances in Venice and resident choreographer of the Ballet de Lorraine Turin. This winter, Armitage Gone! Dance will tour in France, which toured her work throughout Itutu to the Salle Garnier at the Opera de Monte Europe. In 2004, she made a resounding return Carlo, the Ludwig Forum in Aachen, Germany, to New York when The Joyce Theater invited her and the Grand Theatre Verviers in Belgium. In the to create a new ballet. Armitage Gone! Dance was spring the Company will premiere a new evening- launched in 2005. In the same year, she served long work inspired by The Elegant Universe at as the Director of the Venice Biennale Festival of the Krannert Center in Illinois where the company Contemporary Dance. In 2007, Armitage was will participate in a two-week creative residency. awarded France’s most prestigious arts award, Armitage Gone! Dance has received a number of Commandeur dans L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. prestigious awards and commissions including She has created dances for numerous companies two National Dance Project Awards, support from including the White Oak Dance Project, Deutsche the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, a Multi- Oper Berlin, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Lyon Arts Production Fund Award, and commissions Opera Ballet, Washington Ballet, Alvin Ailey from the Guggenheim’s Works & Process program, American Dance Theater, and Rambert Dance The Joyce Theater’s Cathy and Stephen Wein- Company. She has also directed operas from the roth Fund for New Works, the Teatro Massimo baroque and contemporary repertoire for many of Vincenzo Bellini di Catania, in Italy, Lincoln Center the prestigious houses of Europe including Teatro for Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Napoli Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Théâtre du Châtelet in Festival Italia, and BAM for the 2009 Next Wave Paris, the Lyric Opera in Athens, and Het Muzik Festival. www.armitagegonedance.org Theater in Amsterdam. She has choreographed for pop icons Madonna and Michael Jackson and KAROLE ARMITAGE the filmmakers Merchant and Ivory. Over the years (artistic director) she has collaborated with a distinguished array of For three decades as a artists including Thomas Adès, Jean-Paul Gaultier, choreographer and director, Jeff Koons, Christian Lacroix, David Salle, Peter Karole Armitage has pushed Speliopoulos, Philip Taaffe, Vera Lutter, Karen the boundaries of classicism Kilimnik, Will Cotton, and Brice Marden. Her work to create a contemporary has been the subject of two documentaries made idiom blending new dance, for television: The South Bank Show (1985) di- music, and art. Armitage rected by David Hinton and Wild Ballerina (1998) began her professional career directed by Mark Kidel. Armitage’s recent projects in 1973, as a member of the Ballet du Grand include a revival of her production of Gluck’s Orfeo Théâtre de Genève, Switzerland, a company ed Euridice for Teatro di San Carlo, in Naples, devoted exclusively to Balanchine repertoire. From Italy (April 2008); a new work for the Bern Ballet 1976—1981 she was a member of the Merce (2008); choreography for Passing Strange, which Cunningham Dance Company. Armitage created opened on Broadway in February 2008 (Drama her first piece, Ne, in 1978 followed by Drastic- Desk Award Nomination for Outstanding Choreog- Classicism in 1981.