Brooklyn Ballet Bridges Ballet and Street Dance in 20th Anniversary Season

Brooklyn Ballet, now celebrating 20 years of interdisciplinary dance that confronts convention through collaboration and inclusion, presents Rejoice! The Village Dances, an evening of dance and music that bridges ballet and street dance with works of the past and the now, April 20-23, at The Mark O'Donnell Theater in Downtown Brooklyn.

From a collaborative world premiere work by Brooklyn Ballet's founder and director Lynn Parkerson to the restaging of Antony Tudor's Fandango (1963) and the company's 2013 work Spiders, Cooks, and Mood Swings, this anniversary season explores the representation of community in contemporary and classical dance and the ways Brooklyn Ballet continues to re-define and revitalize this storytelling medium. All music is performed live.

As Parkerson's creative and directorial commitment to equity and inclusion continue to be woven into the company's repertoire, her latest work, Scripture, headlines the anniversary season. Devised by an ensemble of ten diverse movers, a microcosm of humanity, and of Brooklyn, is discovered against the backdrop of Bach's cantata Jesu meine Freude, directed by Benjamin Niemcyk, Music Director at Brooklyn's Oratory Church of St. Boniface. Created alongside long-time collaborator Michael "Big Mike" Fields, the work's movement material ranges from liturgical gesture in American Sign Language, to hip hop and vogueing, to soaring classical ballet partnering, expressing the joy, love, and grief of being human. Together, they meet each other in the same space with their own journey, voice, and body, drawing us into the aching and joyful experience of being human.

Also on the program is Antony Tudor's chamber ballet Fandango (1963) set in a public square in the South of Spain with an ensemble of five rivaling women vying for attention. Playful fancy footwork and intricate petite allegro offer a wry witty commentary on art and life, staged by Diana Byer and Elena Zahlmann from the Labanotation score by arrangement with the Dance Notation Bureau, to music by Antonio Soler. In contrast, Lynn Parkerson's Spiders, Cooks, and Mood Swings (2013) set to Stravinsky's Suite Italienne, is a contemporary, Brooklyn-style take on village dances seen in 19th century ballets defined by a pastiche of ballet, modern, jazz, and hip-hop dancers-- the company's signature approach to challenging conventional dance making.

"This Season celebrates a milestone--20 years!," notes Lynn Parkerson, Founder and Director of Brooklyn Ballet. "We bring a masterwork from Antony Tudor to our audiences, celebrate over 15 years of mixed movement collaboration led by Michael "Big Mike" Fields, and begin a new work that celebrates the deep humanity we've discovered in each other and our community over two decades. We are proud to be New York's only ballet company that nurtures hip hop arists as part of our corps. The creative opportunities, synergies, and partnerships continue to inspire us this season and beyond."

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