New York City Center's seventh annual Fall for Dance Festival, running September 28 - October 9, will showcase 20 national and international companies and choreographers. With ticket prices remaining at $10 for all seats, a night of dance is more affordable than a night at the movies. The festival will include world and U.S. premieres, and will feature several companies making their first U.S. appearances. A wide range of dance styles and traditions, ranging from contemporary dance and classical ballet to Odissi, tap and hip hop, will be represented in five programs. (Each program will be repeated once.) Tickets will go on sale Sunday, September 12 at 11 a.m.
Ten companies will make their festival debuts: Companhia Urbana de Dança (Brazil), Company Rafaela Carrasco (Spain), Corella Ballet Castilla y León (Spain), Dresden Semperoper Ballett (Germany), Emanuel Gat Dance (France), Gallim Dance (New York), Miami City Ballet (Florida), Russell Maliphant Company (England), Shu-Yi & (Dancers) Company (Taiwan) and Tero Saarinen Company (Finland).
The festival welcomes back: American Ballet Theatre, Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company, Jason Samuels Smith & Friends, KEIGWIN + COMPANY with Juilliard Dance, Madhavi Mudgal, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ronald K. Brown / Evidence, A Dance Company and San Francisco Ballet.
City Center's Fall for Dance Festival has received national and international recognition for its quality, innovation and success in introducing new and younger audiences to the world of dance. Since its inception, the festival has presented 135 different dance companies to more than 130,000 dance enthusiasts for just $10 per ticket. Newcomers and ballet fans alike now look forward to the festival as both an introduction to new artists and a welcome return to familiar and beloved companies.
"We're thrilled to be heading into our seventh season of Fall for Dance, and we're especially excited to be able to continue offering tickets at the original $10 price," said New York City Center President & CEO Arlene Shuler. "At a time when securing arts funding is more difficult than ever, we are fortunate to have two new sponsors, Bloomberg and MetLife Foundation, as well as new major individual donors. Thanks to their generous commitments, we can preserve our mission to provide an accessible way for new audiences to discover the joy of dance, while giving dance lovers an opportunity to experience new artists and genres."
New York City Center gratefully acknowledges its new Leadership Sponsor, Bloomberg, and its new Principal Sponsor, MetLife Foundation. City Center is also delighted to announce the new support of Lead Presenting Partners Jody and John Arnhold, and Barbara and David Zalaznick.
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"MetLife Foundation has a longstanding commitment to strengthening access to the arts for people of all ages and backgrounds," said Dennis White, president and CEO, MetLife Foundation. "We are proud to support New York City Center's Fall for Dance Festival, which continues to serve as an invaluable cultural resource and leader in creating opportunities for diverse audiences to experience world-class dance."
New York City Center also recognizes the extraordinary leadership support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which inaugurated a $10 million endowment campaign to ensure the future stability of the annual Fall for Dance Festival. Additional generous funding for the Fall for Dance Festival endowment has been received from The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation and an anonymous donor. More than $5 million in commitments have been received to date.
TEN NIGHTS, FIVE UNIQUE PROGRAMS
Program One: Tuesday, September 28 and Wednesday, September 29
The festival opens with Merce Cunningham Dance Company, making its first New York stop on its two-year Legacy Tour. The company will present the New York premiere of Cunningham's XOVER (2007), with music by John Cage and scenery by Robert Rauschenberg. Gallim Dance, making its festival debut, follows with Andrea Miller's I Can See Myself in Your Pupil (2008), adapted for the festival. Indian Odissi dancer and choreographer Madhavi Mudgal returns to the festival to perform the world premiere of her new work, Vistaar, with a commissioned score by her brother, renowned musician Madhup Mudgal. The evening concludes with the festival debut of Miami City Ballet performing Twyla Tharp's exhilarating The Golden Section (1983), featuring 13 dancers and music by David Byrne.
Program Two: Thursday, September 30 and Friday, October 1
Company Rafaela Carrasco from Spain makes its festival debut with Carrasco's Three Movements (2008), adapted for Fall for Dance and performed to live music, followed by New York City Ballet performing Ulysses Dove's Red Angels (1994), a work for four dancers set to a score for electric violin by Richard Einhorn. Next up, Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company presents Jones' Duet (1995), an exploration of two people moving in perfect unison. The evening ends with the U.S. debut of Companhia Urbana de Dança of Brazil, presenting ID:ENTIDADES (2010), a blend of hip hop and contemporary dance choreographed by Sonia Destri.
Program Three: Saturday, October 2 and Sunday, October 3 (matinee)
Shu-Yi & (Dancers) Company from Taiwan makes its U.S. debut with Shu-Yi Chou's [1875] Ravel and Bolero (2007). Shu-Yi was the winner of Sadler's Wells' 2009 Global Dance Contest, in which choreographers from all over the world submitted their entries via YouTube. San Francisco Ballet returns to the festival with a pas de deux from Yuri Possokhov's Diving into the Lilacs (2009), followed by the U.S. premiere of Emanuel Gat Dance's My Favorite Things (2007), a solo danced to music by John Coltrane. City Center resident company Paul Taylor Dance Company wraps up the program with Taylor's exuberant Company B (1991), set to popular tunes by The Andrews Sisters.
Program Four: Wednesday, October 6 and Thursday, October 7
Kicking off week two is KEIGWIN + COMPANY with Juilliard Dance in Larry Keigwin's Megalopolis (2009), a hyper-kinetic work for 16 dancers performed to music by Steve Reich and M.I.A. Corella Ballet Castilla y León, which had its U.S. debut at City Center in March, makes its festival debut with María Pagés' Soleá (2010), a duet created especially for Ángel Corella and his sister, Carmen Corella. Russell Maliphant Company presents the U.S. premiere of Maliphant's AfterLight (Part 1) (2009), a solo work with music by Erik Satie that was nominated for the 2009 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production. The evening ends with Peace of Mind: The Remix, a world premiere choreographed by tap master Jason Samuels Smith and hip-hop legend Mr. Wiggles, performed by Jason Samuels Smith & Friends.
Program Five: Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 9
The final program begins with Tero Saarinen Company, featuring Finnish dancer/choreographer Tero Saarinen in the U.S. premiere of Man in a Room (2000), a solo work created by Carolyn Carlson and inspired by the life of abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko. Dresden Semperoper Ballett of Germany makes its festival debut with William Forsythe's The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (1996), followed by American Ballet Theatre with the Thaïs Pas de Deux by Sir Frederick Ashton (1971). The festival concludes with Ronald K. Brown / Evidence, A Dance Company performing Brown's signature work Grace (1999), a joyful ensemble piece with accents of hip hop and West African pop to a score by Duke Ellington.
JEd Wheeler and Wendy Perron serve as artistic advisors to the festival.
EDUCATION
The Fall for Dance Festival will present DanceTalk, a series of pre-performance discussions and demonstrations that explore aspects of the Fall for Dance programming. On October 1, City Center and the Barnard College Department of Dance will co-present Does Culture Influence Performance? with panelists Ronald K. Brown, Rafaela Carrasco, Sonia Destri and Shu-Yi Chou. On October 7, City Center and the Hunter College Department of Dance will co-present Movement and Image: How do Choreographers Use Visuals to Enhance Their Work? with panelists Nancy Dalva, Tero Saarinen, Janet Wong and others.
Panels will take place in City Center's Studio 5 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Each event will be free and open to the public. Educational groups can make advanced reservations by contacting Chelsea Koenig in New York City Center's Education Department at ckoenig@nycitycenter.org or 212.763.1265.
City Center is also proud to be working with the New York City Department of Education to present a Fall for Dance seminar for dance educators, Word and Movement: Creating Artistic Tension. Though not open to the public, dance teachers from public schools, private studios and other settings are welcome to register. Participants will take master classes focusing on two pieces of repertoire featured in the festival: Bill T. Jones' Duet and Andrea Miller's I Can See Myself in Your Pupil. City Center teaching artists will then facilitate a follow-up workshop centered on exploring dance techniques and applications to classroom practice. The seminar will take place in City Center's studios from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 11.
FESTIVAL LOUNGE
For each Fall for Dance performance, the public atrium between 55th and 56th streets (immediately west of the theater's main entrance) is transformed into Lounge FFD, a vibrant gathering place for audience members and artists. Featuring music by a rotating roster of NYC DJs, Lounge FFD offers festival attendees, performers and neighborhood friends a place to relax and mingle, share a cocktail and have a snack before and after the show ? as well as during intermission ? while video monitors throughout the lounge follow the action onstage. Lounge FFD is open to the general public as well as to festival artists and attendees. No tickets are required and everyone is welcome.
NEW YORK City Center (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city for more than 60 years. It was Manhattan's first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1943, with a mission to make the best in music, theater and dance accessible to all audiences. Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series has been hailed as "one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York." In 2007, Encores! Summer Stars was introduced with Gypsy, starring Patti LuPone, which transferred to Broadway and garnered three Tony awards for its lead actors. Dance has been integral to the theater's mission from the start, and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance Festival and a partnership with London's Sadler's Wells Theatre, remain central to City Center's identity.
The 2010 Fall for Dance Festival runs Tuesday, September 28 through Saturday, October 9 at New York City Center (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th avenues). All performances are at 8 p.m., except for the Sunday, October 3 performance, which is a 3 p.m. matinee. All tickets are $10 and go on sale on Sunday, September 12 at 11 a.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.NYCityCenter.org, by calling CityTix at 212.581.1212, or at the City Center Box Office.
