Buglisi Dance Theatre to Present 30th Anniversary Season at Chelsea Factory Beginning Next Month

BUGLISI DANCE THEATRE, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Artistic Director, has announced Leaping into the Future with Visions of Spring - a Celebratory 30th Anniversary Season, February 29 through March 2 at the Chelsea Factory, 547 West 26th St.  The season will feature a stunning multi-generational, multi-cultural ensemble of 15 artists, the World Premiere of “A Walk Through Fire” set to music by Dead Can Dance, and repertory favorites, all choreographed by Buglisi.

 

For thirty years, BDT has served the dance field through inventive programming that illuminates the power and resilience of the human spirit: from the annual Table of Silence Project 9/11 performance ritual and Call to Action for Peace at Lincoln Center; to building a repertoire of over 100 multi-layered dances on the human condition that speak to critical universal issues of peace, the environment, empowerment of women, and social injustice; and to nurturing future generations of dancers through dance education, mentoring, and BDT's Creative Incubation Lab series. 

 

This season's program features re-imaginings of iconic BDT repertoire, including Buglisi's 1998 masterwork “Frida”, a multi-media work that celebrates the heroic life of artist Frida Kahlo, a woman of extraordinary passions and extreme magnetism, performed by three stars of contemporary dance, the extraordinary original cast Terese Capucilli and Christine Dakin, and internationally-acclaimed Taiwanese Guest Artist and former principal of the Martha Graham Dance Company PeiJu Chien-Pott; “Caravaggio Meets Hopper” (2007), a study in contrasts, isolation, and human relationships with 12 dancers, including Special Guest Artists Alexander Anderson, former Artist Associate with Gibney Company, and Elisa Clark, former company dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; and, inspired by Dance Can Dance's album The Serpent's Egg Buglisi's world premiere “A Walk Through Fire”, a quintet on overcoming grief and loss as humanity finds itself on the precipice of all life changing, while recognizing the power of love.

 

In recognition of her significant contribution to the field of dance and dance education, Jacqulyn will be honored with the Mid-Career Martha Hill Award at the MHA Gala on February 26. This award celebrates visionaries in dance who exemplify any or all of the qualities for which the legendary dancer and educator Miss Hill was most revered.  

  

FRIDA (1998) featuring original cast members Terese Capucilli, Christine Dakin and Guest Artist PeiJu Chien-Pott. Music: Tobias Picker, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Arvo Pärt; Lighting Design: Clifton Taylor; Costume Design: A. Christina Giannini; Set Design & Fabric Painting: Debora Maché; Narration: Cynthia Adler 

 

“Frida” is inspired by the life and art of Frida Kahlo, a heroic woman of extraordinary passions, extreme magnetism, and originality. An artist whose sensual vibrancy came from her life experiences; her childhood near Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution, her devastating accident at eighteen which changed her life forever, and her turbulent and public marriage to artist Diego Rivera. Buglisi conceived the text from Frida's personal letters and diary to create this story ballet.  

   

A WALK THROUGH FIRE (WORLD PREMIERE): set to music by Dead Can Dance; Lighting Design: Jack Mehler, Costume Design: Márion Tálon de la Rosa.  Featuring company dancers Jai Perez, Isabella Pagano, Zachary Jeppsen, Ane Arrieta

 

Buglisi takes inspiration from the Australian band Dead Can Dance's album The Serpent's Egg and score beginning with The Host of Seraphim which she believes amplifies the spiritual feeling of the Earth, its mystery of life, and love of our beautiful planet. Looking into the future, our sense of home is in evolution as reflected in aerial photographs of the Earth, that we see as a giant organism, a macrocosmos; one experiences a paradigm shift in the nature of the life force, water as it travels in a serpentine way. “Humanity finds itself at the precipice of all life changing...” – jb  

 

CARAVAGGIO MEETS HOPPER (2009) with Guest Artists Alexander Anderson and Elisa Clark and a cast of 10 company dancers. Music Soundscape: Nino Rota, Jelly Roll Morton, John Corigliano; Lighting/Set Design: Jack Mehler; Costumes by A. Christina Giannini; Masks by Jane Stein 

 

"A study in contrasts, I juxtapose these artists' styles to explore human relationships that reveal the bold visceral strength, humor and exquisite vulnerabilities of ordinary men and women while amplifying the hyper theatrical lines of Caravaggio and phlegmatic stillness of Hopper." - jb 

 

About Buglisi Dance Theatre 

The award-winning Buglisi Dance Theatre is acclaimed for multi-cultural dances on the human condition that expose social and environmental injustices and reveal the heroic spirit, strengths and vulnerabilities of humanity. Founded in 1993 by Artistic Director Jacqulyn Buglisi, Terese Capucilli, Christine Dakin and Donlin Foreman, former principal dancers of the Martha Graham Dance Company, BDT is honored to partner with Chelsea Factory for its 30th NYC spring season. Over the years, the company has performed home seasons at New York Live Arts, The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, Joan Weill Center for Dance Ailey Citigroup Theater, and the LMCC/River to River Festival, and tours across the U.S. including Jacob's Pillow, the Kennedy Center, Kaatsbaan, Vail International Dance Festival; and abroad to Melbourne Festival; Australia, Prague International Dance Festival, Czech Republic, Mexico, Israel, and Italy. BDT performs regularly in support of social causes, most recently for the Zen Center for Contemplative Care, Career Transition for Dancers, Dancers Responding to AIDS, Dancers for Ukraine, and the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. BDT builds the legacy of American culture through its interactive educational programs and residencies in public schools and universities. In partnership with Lincoln Center, BDT presents the annual Table of Silence Project 9/11, a free performance ritual for peace on the Josie Robertson Plaza reaching over four million viewers via live stream in 235 countries/territories and featuring over 1500 dancers of diversity from around the world since its inception in 2011. BDT is thrilled to announce the release of the Table of Silence Project book by renowned photographer Paul B. Goode. www.buglisidance.org

 

About Jacqulyn Buglisi 

In her five-decade career, Jacqulyn Buglisi, (Artistic Director/Choreographer/Educator/Advocate) has made an indelible impact on the field of dance. For her contribution to the field of dance and dance education, she will receive the Martha Hill Mid-Career Award on February 26, 2024. She is the recipient of the 2022 Juilliard President's Medal presented by President Damian Woetzel, who cited her leadership and vision as a “model of citizen artistry”, and a Bessie Award Special Citation in 2020 for the Table of Silence Project 9/11 produced in partnership with Lincoln Center for a global audience. Using literature, poetry, and heroic archetypes, Buglisi crafts socially-relevant, multi-layered dance works that reveal the visceral strengths, humor and exquisite vulnerabilities of the individual. She co-founded BDT in 1993 following an illustrious career as a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Buglisi's repertoire of more than 100 ballets is archived in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and includes commissions for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Jacob's Pillow, Richmond Ballet, The Joyce Theater, The Juilliard School's Emerging Modern Masters, Ice Theatre of New York, University of Hartford/The Hartt School, the Flamenco Festival at Sadler's Wells, London, and New York City Center, and, in 2024 Störling Dance Theater New Dance Partners festival in Kansas City. Interdisciplinary, multi-cultural collaboration is core to Buglisi's creative process, featuring such groundbreaking artists as composers Daniel Bernard Roumain, Jeff Beal, Paola Prestini; spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph; environmental artist Jacobo Borges, projection designer Wendall Harrington, and producer/videographer Nel Shelby. A master teacher of Graham technique for 50 years, Buglisi is Chair of the Graham-based Modern Department at the Ailey/ Fordham BFA program, served on the faculty of Juilliard, and has holds intensives, residencies and workshops at the Martha Graham School, Yale, SUNY Purchase, Chautauqua Institution, UC, Santa Barbara, Aspen Music Festival, Marymount Manhattan College, and Steps on Broadway. Among her many honors are Arnhold Dance Innovation Fund, Artistic Director's Council Chair, Dance/USA Board of Trustees, Advisory Boards of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park and vildwerk., Fini Italian International Lifetime Achievement Award, Kaatsbaan International Playing Field Award, Fiorello LaGuardia Award for Excellence in Dance, National Endowment for the Arts choreographer fellowships and grants, and inclusion in the Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, NYPL, due for release in 2024. Ms. Buglisi has been featured on the cover of Dance Teacher magazine, in articles for Dance Spirit, Dance Magazine, and as an Arts & Leisure feature in The New York Times, among others. 

 

About Chelsea Factory 

Chelsea Factory exists to provide responsive partnership to NYC-based artists from historically excluded communities. Launched as a pop-up initiative in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Chelsea Factory has quickly become an essential resource for artists, of all creative disciplines, at inflection points in their careers. We provide a range of support customized to our partners, including subsidized rehearsal and performance space, production support and mentorship, and free community programming. In today's rapidly changing world, we are committed to invigorating an inclusive and sustainable arts sector that long outlasts Chelsea Factory's physical infrastructure. To learn more, visit chelseafactory.org.