2018 Rioult Dance NY Announces January Preview, Touring Schedule, and New Season

Pascal Rioult's RIOULT Dance NY, the American modern dance company with a European sensibility, announces its 2018 performance schedule. RIOULT kicks off the New Year with a season teaser performance at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center on January 19 at 7:30. Tickets are $25, ($15 for students) and can be purchased at https://www.ticketfly.com/event/1610299-rioult-dance-ny-new-york/.

The program will feature Les Noces, and excerpts from Nostalghia (a work in progress) and Fire in the Sky. The teaser will also feature a conversation on the creation of Nostalghia with choreographer Pascal Rioult and composer Polina Nazaykinskaya, moderated by Emmy Award winning TV host Sonya Hamlin. This performance will be followed by domestic and international touring, please see full schedule below, and culminate in a week-long New York season (May 30-June 3) at The Joyce Theater.

Pascal Rioult's Les Noces (2005), set to Stravinsky's composition of the same name, is a sexually charged deconstruction of the marriage ritual. The dance's strong structural composition erupts with provocative movement and unabashed energy. Gia Kourlas of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Rioult's angular, unison vocabulary mirrors the aggressive score with a handsome, formal attack."

Nostalghia, a work in progress, completes a triptych of RIOULT dances reflecting Pascal Rioult's deep interest in Russian classical music: the romantic (Rioult's 2014 Dream Suite set to Tchaikovsky's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in C Major); the neo-classical (Rioult's Les Noces), and now Nostalghia, set to a score by contemporary composer Polina Nazaykinskaya. Nostalghia refers to the film of the same name by acclaimed cinematic auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, whose meditative cinematic style influences Rioult's cross-cultural dance. Using the full ten-dancer company, Nostalghia will be accompanied by a string quartet with piano and clarinet. The entire program will premiere at The Joyce Theater on May 30 and run through June 3, 2018.

Fire in the Sky (2017) is a life's work in dance. A nostalgic homage to the whimsy of youth, Fire in the Sky recalls a life lived in constant motion. Set to Deep Purple's dynamic songs from the early 1970s "Smoke on the Water", "Child in Time", "Lazy", and "Highway Star", the performance captures the spirit of an artist fully realizing his craft. Excerpts from the original production can be seen here.

RIOULT's 2018's US and International Touring Schedule follows:

· January 19, 2018: Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, New York, NY

· February 21, 2018: Williams Center for the Arts, Easton, PA

· February 24, 2018: George Mason Center for the Arts, Fairfax, VA

· February 28, 2018: GALA at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers

· March 3-4, 2018: Queens Theatre, Corona, NY

· March 8-March 27, 2018: EUROPEAN TOUR: Italy & France

· March 11, 2018: Teatro Cucinelli, Solomeo, Italy

· March 13, 2018: Teatro Comunale di Vincenza, Vincenza, Italy

· March 16, 2018: Théâtre du Vésinet, Vésinet, France

· March 18, 2018: Théâtre Montansier, Versailles, France

· March 20, 2018: Théâtre André Malroux, Ruielle-Malmaison, Frace

· March 23, 2018: Atrium de Chaville, Chaville, France

· March 26, 2018: Théâtre D'Esch, Esch sur Alzette, Luxembourg

· April 11, 2018: Bailey Hall at Broward College, Fort Lauderdale, FL

· April 19, 2018: OCCC Visual and Performing Arts Center, Oklahoma City, OK

· May 19, 2018: LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Long Island City, NY

· May 21, 2018: LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Long Island City, NY

· May 30-June 3, 2018: NEW YORK SEASON at The Joyce Theater

About Pascal Rioult

Born in Caen, France, Mr. Rioult came to the United States on a fellowship from the French Ministry of Culture to study modern dance in 1981. After performing with the companies of May O'Donnell and Paul Sanasardo he was invited to join the Martha Graham Dance Company. He interpreted many of the most prestigious roles in the Graham repertory as a principal dancer, and in 1990, Ms. Graham created the central role (Death Figure) in her ballet Eye of the Goddess for him. Mr. Rioult performed opposite Mikhail Baryshnikov and Joyce Herring in El Penitente and was featured in two television specials: "Martha Graham in Japan" and "Five Dances by Martha Graham," filmed at the Paris Opera.

Since starting his own company, RIOULT Dance NY in 1994, Mr. Rioult has dedicated his energies to developing his own choreographic style and nurturing a robust ensemble of dancers. Of his work, Black Diamond, Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times wrote, "...he has met the challenge of comparison with George Balanchine."

Mr. Rioult's works have been commissioned by the American Dance Festival; Cal Performances Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA; the Ballet du Nord in Roubaix, France; the Geneva Ballet, Switzerland; The Orchestra of St. Luke's; the Gordon & Harriet Greenfield Foundation; the Grand Marnier Foundation; the Théâtre de Saint Quentin en Yvelines France; Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA; and Marymount Manhattan College; among others. He is a two-time recipient of the Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography.

About Polina Nazaykinskaya

Born in Togliatti, Russia, Ms. Nazaykinskaya has been studying music since the age of four, and composed her first large-scale work at 14. She went on to create music for both chamber and full orchestras, as well as art songs, film music, a musical theater works, an opera, and, most recently, her first symphony, April Song, and received many national and international awards, including the Charles Ives Scholarship from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, while her music received laudatory reviews from the press, including the New York Times. Her music has been performed by the Russian National Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia Orchestra, St. Olaf Philharmonia, US Army Orchestra, Hermitage Orchestra and chorus, and she has collaborated with top conductors, including Osmo Vänskä, Teodor Currentzis, Fabio Mastrangelo, and Hannu Lintu.

She was educated in both Russia and the United States. Graduating from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory College in Moscow, with concentrations in both composition, under Konstantin Batashov, and violin, she continued her studies of composition at the Yale School of Music with Christopher Theofanidis and Ezra Laderman, and is now completing her Doctorate in Composition at the CUNY Graduate Center with Tania León. She is also a Teaching Artist at the New York Philharmonic Composers Bridge Program and an Adjunct Lecturer of Composition at Brooklyn College Conservatory.

About RIOULT Dance NY

Founded in 1994, RIOULT Dance NY fast became an established name in modern dance with a reputation for presenting the sensual, articulate, and exquisitely musical works of Pascal Rioult. The New York City-based dance company presents an annual New York season, tours nationally and internationally, conducts extensive in-school arts education and community outreach programs, and offers dance training to the public through classes, workshops, and intensives.

Extraordinary for an organization its size, RIOULT Dance NY is highly committed to its dancers, providing steady employment and year-round health insurance. Each dancer's creative development is fostered through training classes, teaching opportunities, and challenging repertory while maintaining comprehensive rehearsal and performance schedules. The company is fortunate to have welcomed new dancers over the years and retained many, some of whom have danced with the company for over a decade.

RIOULT Dance NY has performed in theaters and festivals throughout North America including New York City Center Fall for Dance (New York, NY), Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors (New York, NY), American Dance Festival (Raleigh NC), the Annenberg Center (Philadelphia, PA), the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (West Palm Beach, FL), and Zellerbach Hall (Berkeley, CA), among others. Widespread international touring has brought the company to Pascal Rioult's homeland of France for the Cannes International Festival, Danse à Aix, Festival du Val du Marne, Temps le Danse Festival, Paris Opera Bastille, and La Maison de la Danse, as well as to the Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts (Bermuda), the Tamaulipas International Festival (Mexico), Le Grand Théâtre De Québec (Canada), and the stages of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and others worldwide.

About RIOULT Dance Center in the Kaufman Arts District

In 2018, RIOULT Dance NY will break ground on its permanent home in the Kaufman Arts District in Astoria, Queens. RIOULT Dance Center will be a nexus for dance and dancers. For the people of Queens, RIOULT Dance Center will be a gateway into the dance community with classes for youth and adults alongside professional dancers. For the greater NYC dance community RIOULT Dance Center will be an incubator for innovation and will provide affordable studio rentals as well as a state-of-the-art performance space to be enjoyed by all.