Works from Pilobolus, The Royal Court Theatre & More Set for NYU Skirball's 2015-16 Season

NYU SKIRBALL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS (Michael Harrington, Executive Director) is proud to announce its 2015/2016 season. Continuing its mission to showcase and support diverse and eclectic talent from around the world, all while cultivating audiences for live performance through deeper engagement opportunities, NYU Skirball's twelfth season will include mainstage productions from both local and international artists and companies, featuring theater, dance, live music, contemporary circus and more.

"As we embark on our 15-16 Season, NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is poised to play a central role in the cultural experience of the NYU community and all New Yorkers," said NYU Skirball Executive Director Michael Harrington. "NYU is the only institution of its kind in the world, home to hundreds of different cultures with locations on six different continents. Our season offers some of the best North American and international dance, theater, and circus artists, and is chosen with a commitment to cultivate and engage every segment of our diverse population."

NYU Skirball will launch their 2015/2016 season on September 25 and 26 with ATTACHED, a show about holding on and letting go by contemporary circus duo Magmanus and directed by Jay Gilligan. Performers Magnus Bjøru and Manu Tiger explore new techniques, constructions, and the laws of gravity with the help of their audience, exploring the human domino effect and how one person's actions can color another's - and how when one person falls, another person can fly. ATTACHED is presented with the support of Autopistes: Circus Dissemination, a project funded by the European Commission aiming to strengthen and build touring networks for circus performances in Europe and America

From October 13 through October 17, NYU Skirball will welcome Gare St Lazare Ireland and Dublin Theatre Festival's acclaimed production of Samuel Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT to New York for the first time. Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett, the New York premiere will star Conor Lovett as Vladimir, Gary Lydon as Estragon, Marcus Lamb as Lucky, and Dominic J. Moore as Pozzo, with additional casting to be announced. Gare St. Lazare is Ireland's most travelled theatre company, having visited over 80 cities in 25 countries worldwide to perform from their repertory of over 17 Beckett productions, establishing themselves among the foremost interpreters of the work and as artists whose dedication to a single writer is unparalleled.

Throughout October and November, NYU Skirball will premiere its DANCE SPEAKS series, showcasing dance works that use the human body to explore and discuss everyday issues. This year's DANCE SPEAKS series will feature performances from the acclaimed dance companies Spectrum Dance Theater, Heidi Latsky Dance, and AXIS Dance Company. Spectrum Dance Theater will bring The Minstrel Show Revisited to the Skirball Center for The Performing Arts from October 28 through October 31. The Minstrel Show Revisited is a revising of director/choreographer Donald Byrd's Bessie Award winning 1990 production "The Minstrel Show", which takes the 19th Century blackface minstrel show and rips it apart, revealing its persistent legacies of racism whether in our entertainment genres or in the racial stereotyping and profiling that exists in American society as a whole.

On November 4 and 5, BalletCollective returns to NYU Skirball with two world premieres, including a new duet with music by Mark Dancigers and choreography by Troy Schumacher, with source art by Israeli photographer Dafy Hagai, and a new, full company ballet with music by music director Ellis Ludwig-Leone and choreography by Troy Schumacher, with source art by photographer Paul Maffi. The company will also present their acclaimed works, All That We See and Dear and Blackbirds, featuring a company of seven dancers and live music performed by Hotel Elefant.

On November 15 and 16, Heidi Latsky Dance and AXIS Dance Company will present a double bill, featuring pieces choreographed by Heidi Latsky, Joe Goode and Marc Brew.

Heidi Latsky Dance will perform their acclaimed piece SOMEWHERE. Set to an original score by Ximena Borges with lighting by Robert Wierzel and featuring a diverse cast, SOMEWHERE is a poetic interweaving of solos and duets, embracing difference and the inherent isolation of being human with fierceness and frankness. Heidi Latsky Dance will also be presenting ON DISPLAY, a living art gallery featuring the Heidi Latsky Dance company members and focusing on the themes of inclusion and diversity, while commenting on the experience of being watched, and society's obsession with body image. ON DISPLAY will be presented as part of the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

AXIS Dance Company, one of the world's leading ensembles of performers with and without disabilities, will present two pieces - DIVIDE, choreographed by Marc Brew, and TO GO AGAIN, a new work choreographed by Joe Goode, known for promoting understanding, compassion and tolerance through the innovative use of text and high velocity dancing. TO GO AGAIN is a dance theater work that brings to light issues facing our nation's veterans and addresses their resilience following severe life changes. DIVIDE, choreographed by award-winning choreographer and AXIS Dance Company Guest Artistic Director Marc Brew in 2014, is a trio that draws inspiration from visual artist Carl Andre's designs working in minimalism: Spill, 8 cuts and Copper Ribbon. DIVIDE is an abstract work, exploring the divide in human interaction in movement, space and time.

This November, NYU Skirball is proud to welcome Pilobolus, with the US Premiere of its acclaimed show, SHADOWLAND. Having invented the modern incarnation of shadow theater years ago with an appearance on the Academy Awards broadcast, Pilobolus has gone on to create SHADOWLAND, the world's first full-evening shadow show. With a rousing original indie rock score from David Poe and a cult-like status in Europe and Asia, SHADOWLAND is an Alice in Wonderland adventure unlike anything audiences have ever seen. Pilobolus will begin its special presentation of SHADOWLAND at NYU Skirball with an Opening Night Gala on November 23. Together, Pilobolus and NYU Skirball hope to cultivate a new generation of Pilobolus fans.

2016 begins with a bang with the return of CIRCUS NOW: INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY CIRCUS EXPOSURE. After a sold-out three night run in 2015, CIRCUS NOW: INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY CIRCUS EXPOSURE will return to NYU Skirball in 2016 and the circus development organization, Circus Now. CIRCUS NOW: INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY CIRCUS EXPOSURE 2016 will bring nearly a dozen critically-acclaimed international and American companies to New York City, premiering excerpts of their genre-redefining work.

Beginning March 9, the French performance company l'immédiat will perform L'IMMÉDIAT, a unique project at the border between physical theater, performance and circus. L'IMMÉDIAT was created in 2002 by acrobat, dancer and musician Camille Boitel, a protégée of Charlie Chaplin's grandson and renowned circus artist and director James Thierree. L'IMMÉDIAT has been programmed all around the world since it was created, and will run through March 13 at NYU SKIRBALL.

Throughout the fall and spring, NYU SKIRBALL will welcome back NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE, bringing some of the world's most daring explorers, adventurers, writers and photographers directly to the heart of Greenwich Village. The 2015/2016 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE series will feature ocean explorer Enric Sala in Pristine Seas on October 20, paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim in Spinosaurus - Giant of the Cretaceous on November 17, mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner in K2: Danger and Desire on the Savage Mountain on February 23, and wildlife filmmaker Bob Poole in Gorongosa: A Cameraman's Journal on March 29.

VISIONS + VOICES GLOBAL PERFORMANCE SERIES:

UNITED KINGDOM

NYU Skirball continues its Visions + Voices Global Performance Series, now in its fourth year, with a focus on the United Kingdom. Visions + Voices: United Kingdom launches February 16 with Filter Theatre/ Royal Shakespeare Company's TWELFTH NIGHT. A radically-cut, fast-paced version of Shakespeare's much-loved comedy where classical verse meets riotous gig, TWELFTH NIGHT is directed by Sean Holmes and created by Filter in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Filter's explosive and irreverent new take on this story of romance, satire and mistaken identity combines dynamic narrative drive with a torrent of sound and music creating one of the most accessible Shakespeare productions of recent years.

On March 25 and March 26, 2016, NYU Skirball welcomes classical musicians IGUDESMAN & JOO in their current piece, AND NOW MOZART. Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo are two classical musicians who trained in the United Kingdom - and who have taken the world by storm with their unique and hilarious theatrical shows, which combine comedy with classical music and popular culture. Equally comfortable performing in classical concert halls, as well as in stadiums in front of crowds of 18,000, their collective dream is to make classical music accessible to a wider and younger audience. AND NOW MOZART is a show that will change nothing, except enhance your love of music and toning your stomach muscles by hysterically laughing to and with IGUDESMAN & JOO.

Visions + Voices: United Kingdom will conclude with the Lisa Dwan & Royal Court Theatre's critically acclaimed productions of Samuel Beckett's Not I, Footfalls, Rockaby. Performed by renowned actress Lisa Dwan and directed Walter Asmus, Royal Court Theatre's Beckett trilogy had a sold out run at the Royal Court Theatre, followed by engagements at the West End's Duchess Theatre and most recently, at BAM in Brooklyn, New York.

THE BIG RED CHAIR FAMILY SERIES

Throughout the year, NYU Skirball will be presenting its Big Red Chair Family Series, presenting unique family friendly fare for audiences of all ages. This year's Big Red Chair Family Series includes Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia's GOODNIGHT MOON on November 1; BABES IN TOYLAND from The Little Orchestra Society on December 19; DANIEL TIGER'S NEIGHBORHOOD LIVE! on February 6 and 7; DOKTOR KABOOM: LIVE WIRE! THE ELECTRICITY TOUR on March 5; STORY PIRATES on April 10; and Presentation House Theatre's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE on May 5 - 8.

Additional programming, including collaborations with Prototype and the New York Comedy Festival, will be announced at a later date.

Tickets for the 2015-2016 season are on sale June 22 and may be purchased online at www.nyuskirball.org or in person at the NYU Skirball Center Box Office. The NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, New York 10012.