Doug Varone and Dancers
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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, Jerome Robbins 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 New York City 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: Philip Glass, 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 the concert 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, Brooklyn Academy of Music, San Francisco 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 (Israel), 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.