Juilliard Dances Repertory To Show Three Masterworks In March, 3/22-27

Juilliard Dance, under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes, continues its season with Juilliard Dances Repertory featuring Richard Alston's Sheer Bravado; Nacho Duato'sPor Vos Muero; and Mark Morris's V. Juilliard Dances Repertory performances take placeWednesday, March 22 through Saturday, March 25, at 7:30pm, with an additional matinee performance on March 25, at 2pm. All performances take place in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Tickets are $30 and available at events.juilliard.edu. Tickets for Juilliard students are free; non-Juilliard students may purchase tickets for $15, only at the Juilliard Box Office.

British choreographer Richard Alston is the artistic director of the London-based Richard Alston Dance Company. His neo-classical and balletic Sheer Bravado (2006) was commissioned for Ballet Theatre Munich for 10 dancers. The work is set to Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 35 with Juilliard pianist Kevin Ahfat, trumpet soloist Maximilian Morel, and theJuilliard Orchestra, conducted by Nimrod Pfeffer. The work was staged by Martin Lawrance; Juilliard faculty member Jeff Edwards provided rehearsal assistance.

Nacho Duato's haunting Por Vos Muero (1996) uses contemporary ballet to evoke 16th-century Spain's artistic revival using poetry by Garcilaso de la Vega set to 15th- and 16th-century-style taped music created by early music specialist Jordi Savall. The Stagers are Gentian Doda andKevin Irving; Juilliard faculty member Francisco Martinez.provided rehearsal assistance.

Mark Morris's compelling V (2001) was premiered by Dance Umbrella in 2001 at London's Sadler's Wells Theatre. The work is set to Robert Schumann's Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Strings, Op. 44, performed by Juilliard musicians Randall Goosby (violin I), Jeremiah Blacklow (violin II), Jameel Martin (viola), Daniel Hass (cello), and Brian Billion (piano). Michelle Yard is the stager.

About the Choreographers for

Juilliard Dances Repertory

Richard Alston is a leading figure on the British dance scene. He made his first dance over 45 years ago and has been choreographing prolifically ever since. In 1975, Mr. Alston came to New York to study for two years at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio. He also studied with Alfredo Corvino. On his return to London, he was named resident choreographer for Ballet Rambert and went on to serve as the company's artistic director from 1986 to 1992. As director he invited American choreographers including Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, David Gordon, and Lucinda Childs to work with the company. In 1994, Mr. Alston became artistic director of The Place and formed the Richard Alston Dance Company. Over the past 19 years he has made more than 40 dances for this company. In May 2004, the company made its U.S. debut at The Joyce Theater and has since toured extensively across the country. The company performed as part of Fall for Dance at City Center in 2011, 2014, and 2016; and performed at Peak Performances @ Montclair State University in 2012, 2014, and 2017. The company has performed at the Virginia Arts Festival in 2014 and 2015 and will return to the festival in May. Mr. Alston is a Commander of the British Empire and a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2008, he received the De Valois Award for outstanding achievement in dance. Commissions for other companies include: Rugged Flourish for New York Theatre Ballet (2011), Light Flooding Into Darkened Rooms (2013) and Such Longing (2015) remounted on New York Theatre Ballet, Brisk Singing remounted on the students of the University of Michigan (2015), and Carmen remounted on Miami City Ballet (2015).

Born in Valencia, Spain, Nacho Duato started professional ballet training at age 18 with the Rambert School in London and continued his studies at Maurice Béjart's Mudra School in Brussels. He completed his dance education in New York at the Ailey School. In 1980 Mr. Duato joined the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm and a year later Ji?í Kylián brought him to the Nederlands Dans Theater. His first choreographic work in 1983 was Jardí Tancat set to Spanish/Catalan music by Maria del Mar Bonet, which won him first prize at Cologne's International Choreographic Workshop. Mr. Duato has created more than a dozen works for the two companies of the Nederlands Dans Theater and in 1988 was named resident choreographer along with Hans van Manen and Mr. Kylián. His ballets are in the repertoires of companies including the Paris Opera, Cullberg Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Deutsche Oper Ballet, Australian Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, London's Royal Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Hubbard St. Dance Chicago, Boston Ballet, Gothenburg Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Ballet du Capitole, American Ballet Theatre, Staats Theater Berlin, and Bolshoi Ballet. He was artistic director of the Compañía Nacional de Danza in Madrid for 20 years and in 1995 he was named a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1998, the Spanish Government awarded him the Golden Medal for merit in the fine arts. At the Stuttgart Opera he was given the Benois de la Danse for his 2000 work Multiplicity, Forms of Silence, and Emptiness. In January 2011, he was named artistic director of St. Petersburg's Mikhailovsky Ballet and in 2014 became intendant and artistic director of the Berlin State Ballet.

Mark Morris has created more than 150 works for the Mark Morris Dance Group (M.M.D.G.) which he formed in 1980. He also conducts orchestras, directs opera, and choreographs for ballet companies worldwide. Mr. Morris's work is acclaimed for its ingenuity, musicality, wit, and humanity. Named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation in 1991, he has received 11 honorary doctorates to date, and a multitude of awards, including the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement, the Leonard Bernstein lifetime achievement award for the elevation of music in society, the Benjamin Franklin Laureate Prize for creativity, the Cal Performances Award of Distinction in the Performing Arts, the Orchestra of St. Luke's gift of music award, and the 2016 Doris Duke artist award. In 2015, Mr. Morris was inducted to the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Live music and community engagement are vital components of the M.M.D.G. It has toured with its own musicians, the M.M.D.G. Music Ensemble, since 1996, and regularly collaborates with orchestras and opera companies around the world. M.M.D.G.'s film and television projects includeDido and Aeneas, The Hard Nut, Falling Down Stairs, the U.K.'s South Bank Show, and Live from Lincoln Center. In 2015, Morris's signature work L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato premiered on PBS's Great Performances series. The Mark Morris Dance Center was opened in 2001 to provide a home for the dance group, rehearsal space for the dance community, programs for local children and seniors, and dance classes for students of all ages and abilities.

About Juilliard's Dance Division and Lawrence Rhodes, Artistic Director of Juilliard Dance

The Juilliard Dance Division, now its 65th season, is a groundbreaking conservatory dance program whose faculty and alumni have changed the face of dance around the world. The program was established in 1951 by William Schuman during his tenure as president of Juilliard with the guidance of founding director Martha Hill. It became the first major teaching institution to combine equal dance instruction in both contemporary and ballet techniques. Among the early dance faculty members at Juilliard were Alfred Corvino, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, José Limón, Anna Sokolow, Antony Tudor, and Héctor Zaraspe.

Ballet master and master teacher, Lawrence Rhodes, was appointed the artistic director of the Juilliard Dance Division in 2002, and since that time, has reordered the curriculum and elevated requirements for the diploma and degree programs at Juilliard. He also has increased the number of performances and brought in many prominent choreographers to work with the students. Graduates of the program have gone on to perform with virtually every established contemporary dance and ballet company in the United States and abroad, and they also are among the directors and administrators of respected companies worldwide. The Juilliard Dance Division was the proud recipient of the 2015 Capezio Award and was the first educational institution to receive the honor.

Alumni of Juilliard's Dance Division include Robert Battle, Pina Bausch, Martha Clarke, Mercedes Ellington, Robert Garland, Charlotte Griffin, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Adam Hougland, Saeko Ichinohe, Loni Landon, Jessica Lang, Lar Lubovitch, Bruce Marks, Susan Marshall, Austin Mccormick, Andrea Miller, Ohad Naharin, and Paul Taylor.

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Program Listing:

Juilliard Dances Repertory

Sheer Bravado by Richard Alston

Por Vos Muero by Nacho Duato

V by Mark Morris

March 22, 23, 24, and 25, 2017, at 7:30pm

March 25, 2017, at 2pm

All performances take place in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Tickets are $30 and available events.juilliard.edu. Tickets are free for Juilliard students; non-Juilliard students may purchase tickets for $15, only at the Juilliard Box Office.

Juilliard Dance Calendar of Events

Senior Dance Production 2017

Friday, April 21, at 8pm

Saturday, April 22, at 2:30 and 8pm

Sunday, April 23, at 2:30 and 8pm

Juilliard's Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theater

Senior Dance Production is the culmination of a year-long creative and educational process focused on launching fourth-year dancers into the professional world. Juilliard dancers work in close collaboration with lighting design teams, costume designers, and composers as they create original works.

This event is sold-out.

Choreographic Honors

Friday, May 12, at 7:30pm

Saturday, May 13, at 7:30pm

Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater

A sampling of works curated from workshops and performances by Juilliard Dance Division students throughout the year.

Limited, free tickets are available at events.juilliard.edu.

Senior Dance Showcase

Monday, May 15, at 7:30pm

Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Juilliard Dance's class of 2017 presents a diverse program of solos and duets from the repertory and created by alumni and commissioned choreographers.

This event is sold-out.