Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance Returning to NYU/Tisch in June

Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance will return this spring with new choreography and repertory for a two-night run at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Jack Crystal Theater, June 2-3 at 7:30pm. The production will feature Veiled, a new contemporary ballet for seven women inspired by Martin Bresnick's Prayers Remain Forever. Veiled will be one of three works presented each evening.

Cherylyn Lavagnino's choreographic mission is to create movement that engages an audience by aligning the rigor of ballet with the humanistic performance values of contemporary dance. Her choreography uses pointe work as a platform to delve into the range of human interaction and emotion. The unconventional use of ballet expresses complex and honest portrayals through the choreography and the dancers. Music is paramount to her creative process, and its influence pushes and prods the imagery.

Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance Season 2016 Program:

• Veiled (2016), a new work for a female cast of seven, explores the idea of preserving physical and internal grace in the face of oppression of any kind. While Martin Bresnick's Prayers Remain Forever inspired the choreography, Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi, and The Art of Grace by Sarah L. Kaufman provided the initial creative research. According to Cherylyn Lavagnino, "our daily process as dancers is centered around a quest for grace of movement and emotion."

• Triptych (2012), offers two distinct movements linking Francois Couperin's Troisième Leçons à deux voix with commissioned music by Scott Killian, inspiring Lavagnino to develop a movement lexicon with a sense of quiet beauty, reverence and sorrow.

• Nadeje (2015), was inspired by the rich cultural and political background of the Czech people. Author/playwright Vaclav Havel 's Letters to Olga, visual artist Alphonse Mucha's Slavic Epic and Leos Janacek's Violin Sonáta for violin and piano provided research materials for this layered play of repression and freedom expressed through movement motifs. A loosely based narrative shaped this dance, grounded in movement and music, referencing the many images and poetic reflections of these exceptional Czech artists and their aspirations for a free Czech society.