Presents Doug Varone and Dancers

Artistic Director: Doug Varone The Company: Hollis Bartlett Jake Bone, Xan Burley, Casey Loomis, Alex Springer, Hsiao-Jou Tang, Doug Varone, Aya Wilson, Ryan Yamauchi Lighting Designers: Robert Wierzel, Ben Stanton Costume Designers: Reid Bartelme, Harriet Jung, Liz Prince Executive Director: Sarah Bodley Program Director: Ellyn Sjoquist

Doug Varone and Dancers receives funding support from the Alphawood Foundation, American Dance Abroad, Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, Fan Fox and Leslie Samuels Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the New York Community Trust, and the Shubert Foundation. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. We also gratefully acknowledge the Commissioning Club and our many individual supporters.

Friday, July 24 at 8:00pm Saturday, July 25 at 7:00pm Durham Performing Arts Center Performance: 90 minutes including intermission

Lux (2006)

Choreography by: Doug Varone

Music by: , The Light Lighting Design by: Robert Wierzel Costume Design by: Liz Prince

Hollis Bartlett, Jake Bone, Xan Burley, Casey Loomis, Alex Springer, Hsiao-Jou Tang, Aya Wilson, Ryan Yamauchi

Lux premiered on October 19, 2006 in San Luis Obispo, CA, and was solely commissioned by the Daniel and Dianne Vapnek Family Fund. It was created, in part, while in residence at Summerdance, Santa Barbara, CA.

Pause

The Fabulist (2014)

Choreography by Doug Varone Music by David Lang, Death Speaks Lighting Design by Ben Stanton Costume Design by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung

Doug Varone

A fabulist creates or relates fables, true or imagined.

The Fabulist premiered July 22, 2014 at the American Dance Festival. It was commissioned by the American Dance Festival with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Dance and created in residence at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center and at The College at Brockport. Additional funding support provided by the New York State Council on the Arts and the AEV Foundation.

Intermission

Recomposed (World Premiere) (The Landscapes of Joan Mitchell)

Choreography by: Doug Varone

Music by: Michael Gordon, Dystopia Lighting Design by: Robert Wierzel Costume Design by: Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung

Hollis Bartlett, Jake Bone, Xan Burley, Casey Loomis, Alex Springer, Hsiao-Jou Tang, Aya Wilson, Ryan Yamauchi

ReComposed is co-commissioned by the American Dance Festival and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

ADF support is provided by the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Dance.

ReComposed was made possible with generous support from the DOVA Commissioning Club: Lida Orzeck & Susan Miller, Joseph & Marie Varone Carol & Peter Walker, Ann & Stephen Murphy, Jan & Bill Corriston, and Anne Fitzgerald.

Doug Varone and Dancers residency at ADF is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and North Carolina Arts Council.

Special thanks to the Joan Mitchell Foundation for their guidance.

Program Note From Doug Varone I am sure that many of you are familiar with the phrase "separated at birth," that popular phenomenon of comparing photos of famous people who look remarkably as if they could be closely related. Well, imagine my surprise when I came upon the work of Joan Mitchell (1925- 92), the incredible American abstract expressionist painter. Now, I don’t mean to imply that Mitchell and I look alike in any physical sense, it’s just that the thrust of our visual work feels remarkably akin. So much so, that I can actually see my dances in her extraordinary visuals, as if the line, form and color of her drawings had fallen out of my own creative imaginings. In the swiftness of her hand, I can see dances of mine spilling onto a canvas, embracing a familiar and deliberate sense of controlled chaos. Like many of my dances, she compresses extreme opposites and places stillness amidst a swirl of activity, giving each moment its own drama. To her, art isn’t about art, but about life and the struggle to make meaning out of everything, even the most fleeting moments. It is an intimate encounter with a sumptuous but harsh lyricism that constantly courts but never succumbs to chaos. -Patricia Albers, Joan Mitchell: The Lady Painter Using Mitchell’s work as a jumping off point, we have created our new dance ReComposed. In essence, we are using movement to recreate and reimagine several of Mitchell’s most prominent pastels, delving deep into a palette of color and lines that hug and collide. Pushing the creative process forward were a dozen or so drawings that kept the studio alive with vibrant possibilities. Her pastels are portraits of her inner weather, or what she called "feeling states." To me, they seem like gravity-less landscapes, hovering on the page with a vulnerable sense of urgency. As a dance maker, I have always considered myself a visual artist. Using the landscape of a dancer’s vocabulary to paint and sculpt each new work, I set movement against aural sounds and scores, shaping and crafting my own canvases into new energies. I knew that if I remained true to the choreographer deep within, that the worlds of Mitchell and Varone would collide in fascinating ways, pushing my own creative vision into new bold territory. Each creative process is a tremendously collaborative event with the dancers, embracing all of our imaginations, instincts and artistry. My thanks and love to them for being such great, caring allies in the creation of the many dances that fall from my brain. -Doug Varone About the Company The 2015-16 season marks the company's 29th year. Since its founding in 1986, Doug Varone and Dancers has commanded attention for its expansive vision, versatility, and technical prowess. On stage, in opera, theater, and on the screen, Varone's kinetically thrilling dances make essential connections and mine the complexity of the human spirit. From the smallest gesture to full-throttle bursts of movement, Varone's work can take your breath away. At home in New York City, Doug Varone and Dancers is the resident company at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center. On tour, the company has performed in more than 100 cities in 45 states across the US and in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. Stages include The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Academy of Music, Performances, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, Toronto's Harbourfront, Moscow's Stanislavsky Theater, Buenos Aires’ Teatro San Martin, the Venice Biennale, Marble Hall in Tokyo, and the Bates, Jacob's Pillow, and American Dance Festivals. The company’s long-term relationship with the American Dance Festival dates back to 1989 including 6 commissioned dances over that span of time: Augury (1989), Two Mozart Arias Surrounding an Evening of Dance (1990), As Natural as Breathing (2000), Boats Leaving (2006), The Fabulist (2014), and ReComposed (2015). In opera and theater, the company regularly collaborates on the many Varone-directed or choreographed productions that have been produced around the country. Doug Varone and Dancers are among the most sought after ambassadors and educators in the field. On tour, the company's multi-discipline residency programs capture their concepts, imagery, and techniques across disciplines and for people of all ages and backgrounds, reaching out to audiences in unique ways that directly relate to their lives and interests. The company was selected to tour as part of 2013’s DanceMotionUSA(SM) program, a joint project between BAM and the US Department of State, touring, performing, and teaching in Argentina, Paraguay, and Peru for a month. This project culminated in the premiere of a new commissioned work for Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, in collaboration with Argentina-based Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance. For the past 16 years, the company’s annual summer intensive workshops at leading universities attract students and professionals from around the globe. The CHIN Project, a new mentoring program for emerging choreographers, began its pilot year in 2014 overseeing 16 artists over the course of several months in the creation of new works. Varone, his dancers, and designers have been honored with 11 Bessie Awards. In celebration of their 29th year, the company will be touring and reconstructing major dances from past repertory, as well as recent new works and company premieres. To learn more about the company, visit www.dougvaroneanddancers.org. Biographies Doug Varone (Artistic Director) Award-winning choreographer and director Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, and fashion. He is a passionate educator and articulate advocate for dance. By any measure, his work is extraordinary for its emotional range, kinetic breadth, and the many arenas in which he works. His New York City-based Doug Varone and Dancers has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for close to three decades. In the concert dance world, Varone has created a body of works globally. Commissions include the Limón Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Rambert Dance Company (London), Martha Graham Dance Company, Dancemakers (Canada), Batsheva Dance Company (), Bern Ballet (Switzerland), and An Creative (Japan), among others. In addition, his dances have been staged on more than 75 college and university programs around the country. In opera, Doug Varone is in demand as both a director and choreographer. Among his four productions at The Metropolitan Opera are Salome with its Dance of the Seven Veils for Karita Mattila, the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, designed by David Hockney, and Hector Berloiz’s Les Troyens. He has staged multiple premieres and new productions for Minnesota Opera, Opera Colorado, Washington Opera, New York City Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera, among others. His numerous theater credits include choreography for Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional theaters across the country. His choreography for last season’s musical Murder Ballad at Manhattan Theater Club earned him a Lortel Award nomination. Film credits include choreography for the Patrick Swayze film, One Last Dance. In 2008, Varone’s The Bottomland, set in the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky, was the subject of the PBS program Dance in America: Wolf Trap’s Face of America. Varone received his BFA from Purchase College where he was awarded the President’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. Numerous honors and awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, an OBIE Award (Lincoln Center’s Orpheus and Euridice), the Jerome Robbins Fellowship at the Boglaisco Institute in Italy, two individual Bessie Awards, three American Dance Festival Doris Duke Awards for New Work, and four National Dance Project Awards. He was recently awarded a prestigious Doris Duke Artist Award. As an educator, Varone teaches workshops and master classes around the world for dancers, musicians, and . He is currently on the faculty at Purchase College, teaching composition and choreography. He was a proud member of the ADF faculty from 1987-91. Hollis Bartlett is a performer, creator, and advocate for the arts. He was born and raised in northern Illinois, and began dancing at a young age. His family moved to Massachusetts before he began high school and his love of performing followed him to the East Coast. In 2010, Hollis graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Since graduation he has had the pleasure of working with Brian Brooks, Adam Barruch, and the Metropolitan Opera. In addition to dancing he is also a member of Dance/NYC's Junior Committee, working to strengthen and unite a community of emerging professional artists and administrators. Hollis joined Doug Varone and Dancers in 2011. Jake Bone, originally from Dallas, TX, is a Brooklyn-based performer, teacher, and choreographer. He earned a BFA in dance at the University of North Texas where he performed works by Bebe Miller, Kihyoung Choi, Anna Sokolow, and Bulareyaung Pagarlava. Since moving to New York, Jake has had the pleasure of working with Gibney Dance, the Median Movement, the Metropolitan Opera, and currently dances for Bare Dance Company. Additionally, he is the event coordinator for Awakening Movement, a faith-based dance organization. Jake joined Doug Varone and Dancers in 2015. Xan Burley, a graduate of the University of Michigan with degrees in Dance and English, is an active performer, choreographer, teacher, and arts administrator based in Brooklyn. She is grateful to have worked with artists and companies Nancy Bannon, Daniel Charon, Donnell Oakley, Shannon Gillen and Guests (as a founding member), Shannon Hummel/Cora Dance, Tami Stronach Dance, and the Metropolitan Opera, among others. She co-produces WAXworks and teaches professional classes at Mark Morris Dance Group and Gibney Dance Center. Her choreography with partner Alex Springer has been presented in NYC venues including BAX (2011 Space Grant recipients), Triskelion Arts, Movement Research at Judson Church, the Tank, DANCE NOW, 92nd Street Y, and University Settlement (AIR 2013-14). Their work has also been commissioned for a variety of universities and companies throughout the US. Xan joined Doug Varone and Dancers in 2012. Casey Loomis hails from upstate New York and is a performer, visual artist, and Pilates instructor based in Brooklyn. Since graduating from Skidmore College in 2008, she has been grateful to work with a wide variety of choreographers and companies including the Metropolitan Opera, Compagnie Julie Bour, Faye Driscoll, Netta Yerushalmy, Buglisi Dance Theater, Brian Brooks Moving Company, KEIGWIN + Company, and ChristinaNoel & the Creature, among others. She also satisfies her appetite for levity in dance performing in the weekly Floating Kabarette with Jenny Rocha & Her Painted Ladies. As a visual artist, Casey makes color-driven, abstract paintings and dabbles in costume design, photography, and other mediums. Casey began working with Doug Varone and Dancers in 2014. Alex Springer, originally from Farmington Hills, MI, is currently a Brooklyn-based performer, choreographer, teacher, and video artist. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Movement Science. He has been a member of Doug Varone and Dancers since 2008 and has also performed with Alexandra Beller, Donnell Oakley, Elizabeth Dishman, Amy Chavasse, and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Alex has staged Varone’s work for various companies and universities and has taught at the Bates Dance Festival, Gibney Dance Center, Mark Morris Dance Center, the 92nd Street Y, and the former Dance New Amsterdam. Additionally, Alex creates work with Xan Burley as the Median Movement, and they have shown their work for the stage and screen throughout NYC and the US. They recently received the Emerging Artist Award from their alma mater. Alex also works as a freelance video artist for A.O. Pro(+ductions) and is the media manager/video archivist for Doug Varone and Dancers. Hsiao-Jou Tang was born and raised in Taiwan where she studied ballet, modern, traditional Chinese dance, and martial arts. She moved to New York in 2004 to attend SUNY Purchase College and graduated in 2008 with a BFA in Dance. Tang has had the great pleasure of working with a number of wonderful people and companies including Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion, the Metropolitan Opera, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Kevin Wynn Collection, Daniel Charon Dance, Nora Petroliunas/The Pharmacy Project, and the Median Movement. Hsiao-Jou joined Doug Varone and Dancers in 2012. Aya Wilson is a dance artist currently residing in New York City. Originally of Normal, IL, she graduated with a BFA in dance from the University of Iowa. In New York City, Aya has worked with choreographers including Amy Jacobus, Tara Willis, Kensaku Shinohara, and Sarah Council. Most recently, she has been dancing with the A.O. Movement Collective, Mariah Maloney Dance, Kendra Portier/BANDportier, Nadia Tykulsker/Spark(edIt) Arts, and David Dorfman Dance, with whom she was honored to travel abroad through DanceMotion USA. She is now thrilled to be working with Doug Varone and Dancers. She also occasionally creates her own choreographic work and enjoys teaching dance, most recently in the Contemporary Forms series at Gibney Dance Center. Ryan Yamauchi was born and raised in Honolulu, HI, and began his dance training at the Mid-Pacific Institute School of the Arts. He later moved to New York and received his BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase. Ryan has had the pleasure of working with a number of companies and choreographers in New York including Loni Landon Dance Projects, ProjectLIMB, David Norsworthy, and Sidra Bell Dance New York (apprentice). Ryan began working with Doug Varone and Dancers in 2015. Robert Wierzel (Lighting Designer) has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds in theater, dance, new music and opera on stages and museums throughout the country and abroad. Mr. Wierzel has a long history (30 years) with choreographer Bill T. Jones and his company, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (several Bessie Awards, along with productions at the Lyon Opera Ballet and Berlin Opera Ballet). Other dance collaborations include choreographers Larry Goldhuber and Heidi Latsky, Worse Case Scenario (Bessie Award), Margo Sappington, Alonzo King, Sean Curran, Molissa Fenely, Susan Marshall, Trisha Brown, How long…, and Doug Varone, Orpheus and Euridice (Obie Award-Special Citation). Other credits-Broadway: Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill, staring Audra McDonald; FELA! (TONY Award nomination); David Copperfield’s Dreams and Nightmares. Regional: A.C.T. San Francisco; Arena Stage; Shakespeare Theatre DC; Hartford Stage; Long Wharf Theatre; Goodman Theatre; The Guthrie; Mark Taper Forum; Berkley Rep; Milwaukee Rep; Chicago Shakespeare; Westport Country Playhouse, among many others. Opera companies of Paris (Garnier); Berlin; Tokyo; Toronto; Montreal; Boston; Glimmerglass Festival; NYCO; San Diego; San Francisco; Houston; Washington; Seattle; Virginia; Portland; Vancouver; and Chicago (including Lyric Opera and Chicago Opera Theatre). Mr. Wierzel is currently on the faculty of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Ben Stanton (Lighting Designer) has designed lighting for Doug Varone's Mouth Above Water (92nd Street Y), Murder Ballad (Lortel Award Nomination, MTC & Union Square Theater), and The Fabulist (ADF). On Broadway he was the lighting designer for Fun Home (Tony nomination), Seminar, and An Enemy of the People. Recent New York Theater includes Our Lady of Kibeho, Kung Fu, Angeles In America (Signature Theater), Fun Home (Lortel Award Nomination., The Public Theater), Into The Woods (Shakespeare in the Park), Belleville (Lortel Award Nomination., NYTW), The Lion, The Whipping Man (Lortel Award, Drama Desk Nomination. MTC). His concert and tour designs for The National (Touring LD, Trouble Will Find Me), Regina Spektor (Sets & Lights What We Saw from the Cheap Seats), (Age of Adz, Planetarium, Christmas Tour), Beirut (American Tour The Rip Tide), and St. Vincent (Strange Mercy). www.benstanton.com. Liz Prince (Costume Designer) designs costumes for theater, film, and dance and has had the great pleasure of designing for Doug Varone since 1997. Her work has been exhibited at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Space and Design, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Rockland Center for the Arts, and Snug Harbor Cultural Center. She received a 1990 New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for costume design and a 2008 Charles Flint Kellogg Award from Bard College for achievement in her field. She teaches costume design at SUNY Purchase College and Manhattanville College. Reid Bartelme And Harriet Jung (Costume Designers) founded Reid & Harriet Design in the Fall of 2011. They were classmates in the fashion design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Prior to their meeting at FIT, Reid had spent 10 years working as a dancer and Harriet earned a degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley. Collaboratively, they have designed costumes for Justin Peck, Marcelo Gomes, Kyle Abraham, Jodi Melnick, Pontus Lidberg, Matthew Neenan, Mauro Bigonzetti, and Doug Varone. They have costumed productions at American Ballet Theater, , Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Malpaso Dance Company, , and the Pennsylvania Ballet. Outside of concert dance work they have dressed pop artist JB Dubbs in one of his music videos and have dressed notable dancers for gala events. Along with Justin Peck, they are featured in the documentary Ballet 422 which premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. Dan Feith (Technical Director) has been working as a Production Manager/Lighting Designer/ Stage Manager/Technical Director in dance for the past 20 years. The companies he has worked for range from Pilobolus and MOMIX to the Tulsa Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Sarah Bodley (Executive Director), a graduate of Purchase College with a BFA in Dance, has over ten years of experience in nonprofit management. She has worked for the Connecticut Dance Theatre, the Warner Theatre in Torrington, CT, the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, and the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College. Since 2006, has supported Doug Varone’s mission and vision, first as Program and General Manager, and currently as Executive Director. Sarah received her MBA in Sustainability from Bard College. Ellyn Sjoquist (Program Director), a native of southern Illinois, attended The University of Akron in northeast Ohio, where she earned a BFA in Dance with a concentration in news and media production. She is a co-producer of WAXworks through Williamsburg Arts neXus, a freelance proofreader for Graphic World Inc., and she dabbles in various other administrative endeavors in the city. She has enjoyed collaborating and performing with several folks in the city, including but not limited to Alexandra Beller/Dances, Daniel Flores, and Kensaku Shinohara.

Music Credits Philip Glass, The Light. © 1989 Dunvagen Music Publishers Inc. Used by Permission. Death Speaks by David Lang used by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc. on behalf of New York State Council on the Arts and the AEV Foundation. Red Poppy Music and Canteloupe Records. Dystopia composed and performed by Michael Gordon. By arrangement with G. Schirmer, INC. publisher and copyright owner. Courtesy of Canteloupe Records c/o G. Schirmer, Inc.

Doug Varone and Dancers is incorporated as DOVA, Inc., a not-for-profit tax- exempt organization founded in 1995. Contributions to the company's work are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated. Please make your gift payable to: DOVA, Inc. 260 West Broadway, Suite 4, New York, NY 10013 USA Website: www.dougvaroneanddancers.org Email: [email protected]

Board of Directors, DOVA, Inc. John Lanasa, Chair Richard J. Caples Jeanne Murphy Doug Varone Carol Walker Pearl Zuchlewski Elizabeth Geiger, Chair emeritus Bob Sanders, Chair emeritus

Junior Board of Directors, DOVA, Inc. Hollis Bartlett, Chair Robin Cherof Katryn Geane Elena Hecht Joyce Lee Allison Mui Alexander Thompson Lindsay Ullman Doug Varone and Dancers Artistic Director: Doug Varone Executive Director: Sarah Bodley Program Director: Ellyn Sjoquist Development Associate: Kaitlin Hines Rehearsal Director: Alex Springer Technical Director: Dan Feith Company Manager/Media & Archive Design: Alex Springer Tour Manager: Xan Burley Costume Manager: Hsiao-Jou Tang Operations Interns: Jess Beliles and Tanvi Doshi Design & Graphics: Sondra Graff/rpm:projects Press Agent: Jennifer Lerner Videography: Alex Springer Website Design: Design Brooklyn

Booking Agent: Lisa Booth Management, Inc. Lisa Booth and Deirdre Valente 1501 Broadway #1508 New York, NY 10036 Tel: 212-921-2114 / Fax: 212-921-2504 Email: [email protected]

Cast and program are subject to change.