Artistic Director and Choreographer, Stephen Shropshire, announced that his nine-member contemporary dance company, Noord Nederlandse Dans, will make its United States debut at the Baryshnikov Arts Center Thursday, December 2 and Friday, December 3. The company will perform Tidal, a three part work which features live on-stage vocal accompaniment.
Tidal is American choreographer Stephen Shropshire's newest work exploring an abstract world of frustrated dreams and repressed desires. In three sections, Undertow, Stormbell and Coral, Shropshire, together with acclaimed Dutch singer Nynke Laverman and electronic composer Anne Parlevliet, creates a contemporary dialogue between electronic music and movement. Nynke Laverman is a popular Dutch singer who has recorded three solo albums, winning an Edison Music Award for her latest album "Nomade."
In Tidal, a 60-minute dark and passionate work about the threads of thought existing between frustrated desires and morbid behavior, Laverman appears on stage as a storyteller navigating vocal interpretations between light and dark. Stretching their artistic borders through collaboration, Shropshire, Laverman and Parlevliet have constructed an abstract portrait of desire, rage and redemption. Tidal had its world premiere October 21, 2010 in Groningen, the Netherlands.
Noord Nederlands Dans
Established in 1997 by the Dutch Ministry of Culture, Noord Nederlands Dans is based in Groningen, the Netherlands, and is the flagship company for the northern provinces of the country. The company has long been known for its athleticism, musicality and virtuosity being a frequent guest at foreign festivals and venues in countries such as Brazil, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Israel, Spain, Finland, Japan and Russia.
Artistic Director Stephen Shropshire was born in Miami, FL and trained at the Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy. Upon graduation, Shropshire joined the
American Repertory Ballet where he began to choreograph. Between 1994 and 1999 he created three works for the Princeton based company. Benjamin Harkarvy, an original founder of Nederlands Dans Theater, invited Shropshire to the Netherlands where he met Israeli choreographer Itzik Galili, with whom he worked at NND/Galili Dance for a number of years, later returning as Artistic Director to Noord Nederlandse Dans in 2009. He has since become a much sought after choreographer at home and abroad creating original new works for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Station Zuid, Iceland Dance Company, NorrDans, National Dance Company of Wales and the Holland Dance Festival in The Hague.
About his work Shropshire states, "I spent a great many years studying music in preparation for a career as a vocalist. I believe that history plays a vital role in understanding how I create and see my work. The body, like the voice, has this extraordinary ability to bypass the cerebral. Through its exercise it becomes an instrument for virtuosity - just like a great singer. The balance of tone, the wall of sound and the harmonies are what thrill me. What I am most interested in is finding that same extraordinary potential within the dancer's virtuosic instrument."
A previous collaboration between Anne Parlevliet and Stephen Shropshire, Sugarwater, was ranked by the London's Telegraph as one of England's top ten dance triumphs of 2008. "A three-parter, playing out to Handel-inspired music by Anne Parlevliet, and concluding with a duet of quite overwhelming sensuality that's danced with love by Wayne Parsons and Jenny White. One of the finds of 2008." (Telegraph, Mark Monahan)
PERFORMANCE, TICKET PRICES AND VENUE INFORMATION
Noord Nederlands Dans
Thursday, December 2 at 7:30pm
Friday, December 3 at 7:30pm
Baryshnikov Arts Center
Howard Gilman Performance Space (4th floor)
450 West 37th Street, New York, New York 10018
Ticket price: $25
Tickets: SmartTix at www.smarttix.com, 212-868-4444
Information: www.noordnederlandsedanc.nl, www.bacnyc.org
