Northrop Concerts and Lectures at the University of Minnesota Announces 2012-13 Northrop Season NORTHROP MOVES: Northrop Dance, Women of Substance, SOLO—McKnight Artist Fellowships for Dancers Minneapolis, MN (April 11, 2012) – Northrop Concerts and Lectures at the University of Minnesota announces its 2012-13 Northrop Season, featuring three sub-series, including Northrop Dance, Women of Substance at St. Catherine University (copresented with The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University), and SOLO from the McKnight Artist Fellowships for Dancers. This season marks the 94th Northrop Concerts and Lectures Season since it was founded in 1919 at the University of Minnesota. The season highlights major debuts and historic returns, internationally significant companies and choreographers performing culturally diverse, boundary- breaking new repertoire; rarely performed, iconic masterworks; as well as a selection of the best local Minnesotan dancers and choreographers. This season will also feature a special programmatic focus on the 100th Anniversary of The Rite of Spring, featuring the original recreation of the Nijinsky/Stravinsky version from 1913, along with Maurice Béjart’s radically experimental version. While the construction and revitalization of the historic Northrop Auditorium continues (Feb 2011-Spring 2014), the second NORTHROP MOVES season includes performances in downtown Minneapolis State and Orpheum Theatres, Ted Mann Concert Hall on the U of M campus, and The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University. THE 2012-13 NORTHROP SEASON 2012-13 Northrop Dance Northrop Dance Presents New York City Ballet Moves MN Debut Peter Martins, artistic director Tue, & Wed, Oct 23 & 24, 2012, 7:30 pm Orpheum Theatre Polyphonia - 2001 Duo Concertant - 1972 Zakouski - 1992 Hallelujah Junction - 2001 PROGRAM: Polyphonia - (2001) Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon Music: György Ligeti (piano) “Romantic with comic twists,” is how Christopher Wheeldon describes his new work set to ten eclectic piano pieces by Ligeti. Its brief sections run the choreographic spectrum from the bold, neoclassic angularity of Balanchine through playful duets, a dreamy waltz, a gentle, plaintive solo to the intense intertwining of one couple. Anchored by dynamic opening and closing ensembles filled with twisting turns, jabs, and quirky hard movements, its eight dances seem to be tearing through the musical fabric. Overhead horizontal lifts, rolls, and pushes off the floor contrast with classical ballet steps. The first of two key duets for the leading principal couple evokes sea creatures swimming, while the second looks like a strange plant growing and closing in on itself. The last horizontal lifts and fades out, arrest the movement, frame it, and let it dissolve like a film. Ligeti’s polyphony (many individual voices sounding simultaneously) with fleeting references to Stravinsky, Debussy, Kodály and Prokofiev, among others, finds its match in the choreographer’s interweaving of ballet and modem dance movement. Duo Concertant – (1972) Choreographer: George Balanchine Music: Igor Stravinsky (piano/violin) Stravinsky dedicated Duo Concertant to Samuel Dushkin, a well-known violinist he met in 1931. The composer premiered the work with Dushkin in Berlin in 1932, and the pair gave recitals together across Europe for the next several years. The piece had long been a favorite of Balanchine — who had first heard it performed by Stravinsky and Dushkin soon after it was composed — but not until years later, when he was planning the 1972 Stravinsky Festival, did he decide to choreograph it. The performance of the musicians on stage is integral to the conception of the ballet. Standing at the piano with the musicians, the dancers listen to the first movement. During the next three movements they dance, mirroring the music and each other, and pause several times to rejoin the musicians and to listen. In the final movement, the stage is darkened and the dancers perform within individual circles of light. Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), born in Russia, is acknowledged as one of the great composers of the twentieth century. His work encompassed styles as diverse as Romanticism, Neoclassicism and Serialism. His ballets for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes included The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, and Apollo. His music has been used in over thirty ballets originating with New York City Ballet from 1948 through 1987, including Danses Concertantes, Orpheus, The Cage, Agon, Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Rubies, Symphony in Three Movements, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Concerto for Two Solo Pianos, Suite from L’Histoire du Soldat, Concertino, and Jeu de Cartes. Zakouski – (1992) Choreographer: Peter Martins Music: Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 (1915) by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Parasha’s Song from the opera Mavra (1921-22) by Igor Stravinsky, Cinq Melodies (Fourth Melody) (1920) by Sergei Prokofiev, and Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34 (1877) by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky Zakouski is the Russian term for “hors d’oeuvres.” This ballet for two dancers set to four short works for violin and piano explores through vernacular gesture and movement the emotional terrain of its musical sources. Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891-1953) was a leading Soviet composer and a brilliant pianist. He left Russia in 1918 and lived in Germany and Paris for the next sixteen years, with frequent trips to America for concert appearances. In 1934 he settled in Moscow and composed prolifically until his death. Among his better known works are the ballet scoresRomeo and Juliet, Cinderella, and The Prodigal Son, the opera Love for Three Oranges, the children’s classic Peter and the Wolf, the film score and cantata forAlexander Nevsky, and the Classical Symphony. Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), Russian composer, conductor and pianist. He studied at the St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories. His distinctive musical style is characterized by richness of melody, harmony, texture, a particular flair for vocal music, and a sensitivity to Russian poetry. His Second Piano Concerto (1900-1) brought him international fame and is still one of the most performed orchestral works. After the Revolution of 1917 he made his home in America, where he gave regular concerts and recitals to support himself and his family. His extensive gramophone recordings preserve his expressive piano style. He died at his home in Beverly Hills, California. Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), born in Russia, is acknowledged as one of the great composers of the twentieth century. His work encompassed styles as diverse as Romanticism, Neoclassicism and Serialism. His ballets for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes included The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, and Apollo. His music has been used in over thirty ballets originating with New York City Ballet from 1948 through 1987, including Danses Concertantes, Orpheus, The Cage, Agon, Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Rubies, Symphony in Three Movements, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Concerto for Two Solo Pianos, Suite from Histoire du Soldat, Concertino, and Jeu de Cartes. Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky (1840-1893) studied at the Conservatory in St. Petersburg, where Balanchine later studied piano in addition to his studies in dance. Tschaikovsky is one of the most popular and influential of all romantic composers. His work is expressive, melodic, grand in scale, with rich orchestrations. His output was prodigious and included chamber works, symphonies, concerti for various instruments, operas and works for the piano. His creations for the ballet, composed in close partnership with Marius Petipa, include Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and The Sleeping Beauty. Hallelujah Junction - (2001) Choreographer: Peter Martins Music: Hallelujah Junction (1996) by John Adams The silhouettes of two pianists, their pianos facing each other, appear through dim light above the stage. Three dancers in practice clothes, a male soloist in all black and a principal couple in all white, appear in a spotlight in the center of the stage. As the stage floods with light, they dance with elongated and intertwining movements, the pianists still barely visible in the dark above them. Four women in all black and then four men in all white join the lead dancers, taking turns surrounding them and mirroring their steps. This mostly fast-paced ballet features a quiet pas de deux for the principal couple, a jazzy duet for the male principal and soloist, and multiple turns and explosive leaps for the male soloist. Each of the four couples takes turns zigzagging the stage with lightening- speed partnering and high lifts. The ballet concludes when the male soloist unites with all the dancers on stage in an arresting moment washed in shimmering light. New York City Ballet Moves The New York City Ballet, one of the foremost dance companies in the world, is unique in U.S. artistic history. Solely responsible for training its own artists and creating its own works, the New York City Ballet was the first ballet institution in the world with two permanent homes, the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York. Consisting of a small group of artists from the full company, New York City Ballet Moves provides an opportunity to showcase NYCB’s dancers and repertory. It is made up of a mix of principals, soloists, and members of the NYCB corps, and is not intended to serve as a second company or training group for students or apprentices. The ballets programmed by New York City Ballet Moves are derived from NYCB’s vast repertory, and are performed to live music played by instrumentalists, primarily from the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Peter Martins Peter Martins (born October 27, 1946) is a Danish dancer and choreographer. Martins was named Man of the Year by Danish American Society, 1980. He was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and with The New York City Ballet, where he joined George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and John Taras as balletmaster in 1981. He retired from dancing in 1983 at which time he became Co-Ballet Master-In-Chief with Robbins, and since 1990 has borne sole responsibility for artistic leadership of City Ballet.