American Premiere Gandini Juggling and Alexander Whitley Spring Photo by Simon Carter December 12–15, 2019 Alexander Kasser Theater Dr. Susan A. Cole, President Daniel Gurskis, Dean, College of the Arts Jedediah Wheeler, Executive Director, Arts + Cultural Programming American Premiere Gandini Juggling and Alexander Whitley Spring Director Sean Gandini Rehearsal Director Emma Lister Choreographer Alexander Whitley Composition and Electronics Gabriel Prokofiev Lighting Designer Guy Hoare Costume Designer Claire Ashley Cast Kati Ylä-Hokkala, Kim Huynh, Liza van Brakel, Tristan Curty, Dominik Harant, Yu-Hsien Wu, Sakeema Crook, Erin O’Toole, Tia Hockey, Wes Peden Technical Director Chris Swain General Manager Marina Arranz Guilarte Executive Producer Rae Lee Tour Booking and International Development Axel Satgé Company Administrator Hélène Roques First Impressions: Saturday, December 14, post-performance discussion Share your first impressions with Sean Gandini, Kati Ylä-Hokkala, Alexander Whitley, and moderator Ruth Juliet Wikler, TOHU (Montreal). Spring is co-produced with Cambridge Junction; London International Mime Festival; and Plateforme 2 pôles Cirque en Normandie / La Brèche à Cherbourg et le Cirque-Théâtre d’Elbeuf. Spring is supported by artsdepot; Arts Council England; Birmingham Hippodrome; CIRCa pôle National des Arts du Cirque Auch Gers Occitanie; Lighthouse Poole; Theater op de Markt. Duration: 60 minutes, no intermission. In consideration of both audiences and performers, please turn off all electronic devices. The taking of photographs or videos and the use of recording equipment are not permitted. No food or drink is permitted in the theater. Program Notes Gandini Juggling’s Spring embraces deconstructed rhythms and jubilant patterning. A kaleidoscopic show, Spring is visually arresting from the outset and at the vanguard throughout. It is an innovative cross–art form experience challenging notions of movement and physicality, exploring the relationships between contemporary dance, circus, and music. The piece follows on from Gandini Juggling’s successful forays into dance and theater and delves deeper into the company’s obsession with juggling as a pure choreography. It builds on Sean Gandini’s time flirting with various neighboring art forms and their findings, from directing the Skills Ensemble in ENO’s opera Akhnaten to performing their own Pina Bausch–inspired show, Smashed, and their marriage of ballet and juggling in 4x4: Ephemeral Architectures. Director Sean Gandini and contemporary choreographer Alexander Whitley share a passion for pure form. For them, it is in the limits of the language where dance and juggling unfold their revealing power. Composer Gabriel Prokofiev joins Gandini and Whitley with a score of magical urban baroque and lighting designer Guy Hoare who uses the presence of colors and their echoes to describe a journey. Costume designer Claire Ashley dresses the production’s virtuosic cast of jugglers and contemporary dancers. About the Company Gandini Juggling has for over two decades been one of the world’s most prolific and adventurous circus companies. Founded with the aim of fusing juggling and dance, they have pushed the artistic and technical boundaries of juggling, resulting in performances that delight, astound, and defy easy categorization. Iconic and iconoclastic in equal measure, Gandini Juggling has changed the perception of what juggling is and can be—transforming what might be considered a parlor trick into a rich and distinctive art form in its own right. This virtuosic approach to their discipline has led to numerous collaborations across the arts and has resulted in the company performing over 5,000 shows in 50 countries around the world. For Sean Gandini, director and co-founder of the internationally acclaimed company, the interaction between different art forms, each with its different aesthetics and rules, is the basis for a fascinating and creative process. There is one art form to which the company has repeatedly returned. From this season’s debut of Akhnaten at the Metropolitan Opera to the company’s ballet collaboration 4x4 and their bharatanatyam piece, Sigma, this work, Spring with Alexander Whitley, sees the Gandinis drawn once again to dance. The company is also currently working on a new piece entitled LIFE, based around juggling interpretations of Merce Cunningham’s work. gandinijuggling.com Where page and stage converse. PEAK Journal is a place for exploratory conversations between live art and the written word. Available in the lobby or on-line. In a time when traditional arts journalism seems evermore embattled and diminished, it is crucial to have thoughtful, nuanced writing about the arts, and to acknowledge that criticism itself is a literary art form. Who is writing about the art, and how they are allowed to write about that art, is just as important as who is making it. Claudia La Rocco, Editor Page 11 of the PEAK Journal | “Circus Translations” by Colin Gee About the Artists Sean Gandini (Director) is one of the pioneers of contemporary juggling. Working as a performer, choreographer, and director he has, for over 25 years, pushed the boundaries of juggling as a discipline and as an art form. Gandini began his professional career in the 1980s, regularly performing in London’s famous Covent Garden and touring with various theater companies, including the pioneering Ra-Ra Zoo. In 1991, with Kati Ylä-Hokkala, he co-founded Gandini Juggling, and together they have been at the forefront of experiments into what juggling is and what juggling can be. Emma Lister (Rehearsal Director) was born in Canada and trained at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. On moving to England, she danced with English National Ballet in several productions at the Royal Albert Hall. With English Youth Ballet she danced lead roles in Coppélia, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, and Swan Lake as well as principal roles in the National Ballet of Ireland’s The Nutcracker and Carmen. Her rehearsal director experience includes Icon Dance, the National Ballet of Ireland, and Hubert Essakow’s Terra. Lister is currently studying for a BA in Humanities. Alexander Whitley (Choreographer) is working at the cutting edge of British contemporary dance and, as artistic director of Alexander Whitley Dance Company, has developed a reputation for a bold interdisciplinary approach to dance making. He has created work for several of the UK’s leading companies, including the Royal Ballet, Rambert, Balletboyz, Candoco, and Birmingham Royal Ballet. Whitley is a New Wave associate artist at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, an associate at Rambert, and a former choreographic affiliate of the Royal Ballet. His choreography has won him nominations for the 2012 Arts Foundation fellowship, the 2014 Sky Arts Southbank Awards, and the 2015 Critics’ Circle Awards. alexanderwhitley.com Gabriel Prokofiev (Composer) is a composer, producer, DJ, and founder of the Nonclassical record label and club night. He is at the forefront of a new approach to classical music, composing work for traditional symphony orchestra, string quartets, and electronics, and has composed three concertos featuring turntables. Prokofiev’s works have been performed internationally by a host of orchestras including Seattle Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonique, Buenos Aires Filharmonica, Naples Philharmonic, and London Contemporary Orchestra. Conductors and soloists such as Vladimir Jurowski, Ludovic Morlot, DJ Mr Switch, Joby Burgess, and Branford Marsalis have championed his music. He has composed more than eight dance works for renowned companies such as Stuttgart Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, Luzerner Tanz Theater, Bern Ballet, and Shobana Jeyasingh. gabrielprokofiev.com Guy Hoare (Lighting Design) designs lighting for juggling, dance, theater, and opera. Spring is his fourth collaboration with Gandini Juggling. Dance credits include Arthur Pita’s Metamorphosis and Mark Bruce’s Dracula (South Bank Award 2012/2014) and works for Rafael Bonachela, Christopher Bruce, Nilda Guerra, Shobana Jeyasingh, Akram Khan, and Ben Wright. Theater work includes National Theatre, Young Vic, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, and transfers to the West End and New York. Opera work includes English Touring Opera’s King Priam and Paul Bunyan (Olivier Award 2014) and pieces for the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, and Bregenz Festival. Hoare is an associate artist at Wilton’s Music Hall. Claire Ashley (Costume Designer) is a London-based costumier with an extensive background in design and technical construction. She studied fashion and design in New Zealand, discovering the world of costuming through the site-specific dance company All and Sundry. Ashley has run her East London studio since 2002. She has costumed stars of the international cabaret, circus, and performance art world, including Empress Stah, Marisa Carnesky, Yammel Rodriguez, and Ursula Martinez. Her latest projects were Black Cat, Bohemia, and an over-50s dance piece for Duckie. Performers Kati Ylä-Hokkala is one of her generation’s iconic jugglers. As a co-founder of Gandini Juggling she has not only built a reputation as a highly skilled technical juggler but is also renowned as one of the leading innovators in dance-juggling. A former rhythmic gymnast, Ylä-Hokkala has performed in all but one of Gandini’s works since 1991, performing in over 2,500 shows. In recent years she has co-directed many of the company’s pieces. Ylä-Hokkala’s