Complexions Contemporary Ballet Celebrates 30th Anniversary With Return To The Joyce Theater

Complexions Contemporary Ballet (Complexions) will celebrate its 30th Anniversary of artistic excellence under the direction of Co-Founders Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson with two weeks at The Joyce Theater, November 19 through December 1, 2024. Tickets for this eagerly awaited return engagement at the Joyce range from $27 to $82 and can be purchased online at Joyce.org.

Complexions will honor Rhoden's creative legacy, which has enabled the company to fill theaters worldwide for three decades, with a retrospective featuring the theme “Love Revolution.” Said Co-Founder and Artistic Director Desmond Richardson, "Dwight is a friend, a craftsman and a prolific artist. His choreography is magic to dancers and it investigates your artistry, passion, technique and soul. His humanity exists in every movement, and I'm so honored to be an ambassador for his work."

The anniversary repertoire will feature premieres and audience favorites, including Avè Maria, Growth, Naked Perfume, Mercy, Higher Ground, Star Dust, and other high-octane works with scores ranging from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to Earth, Wind & Fire.

World premieres include:

• Rhoden's Bolero, a work for the full company choreographed to Maurice Ravel's dynamic masterpiece, emphasizing the collective and the power of a common purpose. As it unfolds, the work illustrates the fight within the journey to unity. Bolero is a deeply human work that digs into the psyche of the human condition and uses struggles, challenges, and triumphs as the inspiration to feel the intensity of living life with love as a cornerstone.

• Also having their world premieres are a pair of duets by Rhoden with identical choreography but set to two different pieces of music. Pas De Deux is set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach, and Benny is set to music by Sir Elton John. Largely experimental, this exploration bolsters the concept of movement as language and places the performing artist in the driver's seat to interpret the choreography differently according to the music and the story to be told.

Commemorating this landmark season, the company presents “30,” an anniversary tribute ballet with spoken word written and performed by Resident PoetJournalist Aaron Dworkin.

The New York premieres include:

• Rhoden's This Time, With Feeling, is a neoclassical work set to an original score by David Rozenblatt. This ballet is staged in a traditional framework that has been broken, deconstructed and reconfigured. The work unfolds in a juxtaposition that, at the start, has an internal energy inside its design structure, yearning to be expressed. It explores natural emotion without parameters, yet within a construct, when a connection is present and finds the 'feeling' in the composition that is inevitably unleashed. Rhoden and Rozenblatt have collaborated for more than two decades. Most recently, they collaborated on their acclaimed new work, The Lightning Round, choreographed for The Houston Ballet.

• Blood Calls Blood, a quartet commissioned by the New Orleans Ballet Association in 2023. This work is choreographed to the extraordinary music of the Grammy-nominated artist Chief Adjuah. In two movements, the piece creates a world in which energies coincide in chaotic and passionate ways. You witness the yearning within the human spirit that remains restless for understanding -- seeking love and harmony at its core.

The company will premiere Cry Me, a work by former company member and resident choreographer Jae Man Joo set to music by Phillip Glass. The work features a range of emotions – passion, love and grief, and is set to a poem by Joo.

The engagement also includes Retro-Suite, a celebratory suite of works highlighting Complexions' 30-year history, including such classics as Growth, Naked Perfume, Avè Maria and Mercy. The music ranges from Tchaikovsky and Handel to Earth, Wind & Fire and Elton John, featuring the return of Rhoden's For Crying Out Loud (2023) set to U2's acoustic album Songs of Surrender. The piece unfolds in an interconnected “wandering narrative.”

The special Gala Night program honors Dwight Rhoden and Dr. Donald J. Rose and features the World Premiere of “30: Ode to the Dance of Revolution,” written and performed by Resident PoetJournalist Aaron Dworkin, along with performances of Retro-Suite, the Complexions Academy Pre-Professional Program students, and special guests on Tuesday, November 19 at 7 p.m. “30: Ode to the Dance of Revolution,” is a powerful blend of spoken word and music, celebrating the transformative power of dance, with Dworkin's words accompanied by Michael Abels' evocative composition "Global Warming." Rhoden, whose prolific career spans over three decades, is the co-founder of Complexions and has redefined contemporary ballet through a multicultural approach, creating more than 100 ballets and collaborating with renowned companies and artists worldwide.

Dr. Donald J. Rose, sports medicine physician, orthopedic surgeon, and Founding Director of the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital, will be awarded the 2024 Elegy Award. Dr. Rose has served as an orthopedic consultant for dance companies, including Complexions, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Martha Graham Dance Company, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and STREB Extreme Action, as well as for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. He has also been an orthopedic consultant for the National Football League, Cirque du Soleil, The Joyce Theater, and SUNY Purchase, and served as the New York medical director for the Women's Association of Volleyball Professionals tour. For gala ticket information, please email muadi@muadidibinga.com.