Pontus Lidberg Dance to Return to The Joyce With ON THE NATURE OF RABBITS

The Joyce Theater will welcome the return of internationally acclaimed choreographer Pontus Lidberg with his latest evening-length work, On the Nature of Rabbits. His first Joyce engagement in six years with his company, Pontus Lidberg Dance Will Close out the organization’s Fall ‘23/Winter ‘24 season, playing The Joyce Theater from March 6-10. Tickets, ranging in price from $12-$62 (including fees), can be purchased online, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800.

Inspired by true events occurring shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall and during the peak of the AIDS epidemic, Pontus Lidberg’s North American premiere of On the Nature of Rabbits marks the choreographer’s triumphant return to The Joyce. In a series of dreamlike scenes, the artists of Pontus Lidberg Dance contemplate the relationship between childhood mementos and the nuances of desire. Commissioned by La Biennale di Venezia, and co-commissioned and co-produced by Works & Process at the Guggenheim, this work of contemporary ballet further explores the delicate balance between reality and imagination in a time of fear. Animated projections by Emmy-Award winning Jason Carpenter add a playful and interactive layer to the dance, providing a well-rounded and thoroughly thought-provoking conclusion to The Joyce’s Fall ‘23/Winter ‘24 season.

 
ABOUT Pontus Lidberg

Choreographer, filmmaker, dancer and recipient of a 2019 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Pontus Lidberg has firmly established himself as a visionary artist, merging dance and film. As a choreographer for the stage, Lidberg has created works for dance companies including Paris Opera Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, New York City Ballet, Acosta Danza, Beijing Dance Theatre, Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Miami City Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Semperoper Ballet Dresden, Vienna Staatsoper Ballet and many more, as well as for his own concert group, Pontus Lidberg Dance. His work has been commissioned and presented by festivals and venues including Montpellier Danse, Théâtre National de Chaillot, La Biennale di Venezia, The Joyce Theater, the National Arts Center of Canada, New York City Center’s Fall For Dance Festival, the Havana International Ballet Festival and the Spoleto Festival. His work Siren received a Villanueva Award from UNEAC, The National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, as one of the best performances presented in Cuba in 2018. In 2021, he won the Lumen Prize, Nordic Award for Art and Technology for Centaur.

His film, The Rain, received numerous awards. The New York Times wrote “memorably, The Rain illustrates what filmed dance can say that staged dance cannot.” His film Labyrinth Within won Best Picture at the Dance on Camera Festival in 2012. His first feature film, Written on Water, starring Aurélie Dupont premiered at Le Festival International du Film sur l'Art in Montréal in 2021.

Raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Lidberg trained at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and the Conservatoire National de Musique et de Danse de Paris. He holds an MFA in Contemporary Performing Arts from the University of Gothenburg, Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts. Between 2018-22, he was the Artistic Director of Danish Dance Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.