BAM Presents US Premiere of William Forsythe's SIDER, Now thru 10/12

One of the world's foremost choreographers, William Forsythe, returns to BAM with the US premiere of Sider, tonight, October 9-12, 2013. The work, performed by the acclaimEd Forsythe Company, uses the rhythms of 16th-century Elizabethan tragedy as a private soundscore-unheard by the audience-delivered to the dancers via earphones.

SIDER features music by Thom Willems, light object by Spencer Finch, lighting by Ulf Naumann and Tanja Ruhl, costumes by Dorothee Merg and sound design by Dietrich Kruger and Jennifer Weeger.

Longtime Forsythe collaborator Thom Willems performs the "public" score live; disquieting moments of incongruous musicality result as dancers deliver fragmented, enigmatic movements while wielding giant sheets of cardboard across the stage.

Adding an overlay of performance history, Sider also alludes to the fact that the rhythmical inflections of Elizabethan theater, like those of classical dance, have been sustained by a tradition of transmission from performer to performer for over 400 years. The Forsythe Company has previously appeared at BAM in Kammer/Kammer (2006 Spring), Three Atmospheric Studies (2007 Spring), Decreation (2009 Next Wave), and I don't believe in outer space (2011 Next Wave). Under Forsythe's direction, Ballett Frankfurt appeared at BAM in EIDOS : TELOS (1998 Next Wave); Woolf Phrase, Enemy in the Figure, and Quintett (2001 Next Wave); and The Room As It Was, Duo, N.N.N.N., and One Flat Thing, reproduced (2003 Next Wave).

William Forsythe is acknowledged for reorienting the practice of ballet from its identification with classical repertoire to a dynamic 21st-century art form. He has created works for Stuttgart Ballet (as resident choreographer), Nederlands Dance Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Ballett Frankfurt, where he was director from 1984 until the company's closing in 2004. With the founding of The Forsythe Company in 2005, he established a new, agile structure through which he is able to further pursue the multi-faceted creative work he began with Ballett Frankfurt. Together with an ensemble of 17 dancers, Forsythe carries forward the intensive collaborative processes developed over 30 years, producing works in the areas of performance, installation, film, and educational media. Forsythe's most recent works are developed and performed exclusively by The Forsythe Company, while his earlier pieces are prominently featured in the repertoire of virtually every major ballet company in the world, including the Kirov Ballet, the New York City Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, England's Royal Ballet, and the Paris Opera Ballet.

The production runs at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave), Oct 9-12 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $25.

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651
Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn's only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, is open for dining prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a special BAMcafé Live menu available starting at 6pm.

Related Events:

Master Class: The Forsythe Company, with Cyril Baldy and Tilman O'Donnell
Oct 11 at 10 a.m.
Mark Morris Dance Center (3 Lafayette Ave)
Fee: $25
BAM.org/master-classes

Talk: On Ballet
William Forsythe in conversation with Jennifer Homans
Oct 12 at 5 p.m.
BAM Hillman Attic Studio (30 Lafayette Ave)
Tickets: $15 ($7.50 for Friends of BAM)

Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue - Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue

Train: Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal - Barclays Center
Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM
Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM
For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.