Luna Negra Dance Theater Comes To Brooklyn Center At Brooklyn College 10/25

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College kicks off its 2009-2010 World Stages: Dance series on Sunday, October 25 at 2pm with Chicago-based Luna Negra Dance Theater, performing a program of works by Latino choreographers including the New York premiere of Danzón, a new piece created by Luna Negra's former artistic director, Eduardo Vilaro. The company will be joined onstage by special guests Turtle Island Quartet and the legendary Paquito D'Rivera, who will provide live accompaniment for Danzón.

"Equally irresistible is the emotional fire and technical wizardry [Luna Negra] demonstrates at every turn. As close to perfection as it gets."
- Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

The afternoon's performance will feature three works. Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Nube Blanco (2009) is inspired by the choreographer's childhood memories of the beautiful songs of Maria Dolores Pradera. Lopez Ochoa integrates brilliantly the Spanish zapateado technique or footwork that is found in flamenco dance and gives it a contemporary twist. Set to the music of Gustavo Santaolalla, Sugar in the Raw (2007) is, according to choreographer Michelle Manzanales, "an exploration of who we are in our purest form." Finally, choreographer and former Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro returns to his own roots with the creation of a new work entitled Danzón, inspired by the official dance of Cuba and set to Turtle Island Quartet and Paquito D'Rivera's acclaimed 2002 recording of the same name. In partnering with two Grammy Award-winning artists, Vilaro takes this quintessentially Cuban dance form and reinvents it into a modern work of art, introducing mainstream American audiences to a thriving Latino tradition and creating a milestone moment in the continuity of Latino artistic expression. All three pieces feature lighting design by Josh Preston and costume design by Edith Arias.

About Luna Negra Dance Theater

In just ten years, Luna Negra Dance Theater has established itself as a significant and vital component of Chicago's arts and cultural community. Since Eduardo Vilaro founded Luna Negra in 1999, the company has served as a springboard for Latino contemporary choreographers to give expression to their stories and bring new life to the cultures of their communities. Steering away from stereotypes and folkloric representations, Luna Negra offers its audiences energetic, powerful, and passionate contemporary Latino dance, reflecting the immense cultural shift that is shaping America in the 21st century.

Luna Negra's distinctive style blends the discipline of ballet with the dynamic movements of contemporary dance, infused with the explosive energy of Latin and Afro-Caribbean dance forms. The company prides itself in presenting the works of renowned Latino master choreographers such as Vicente Nebrada and José Limón, as well as contemporary Latino choreographers Septime Webre, Alejandro Cervera, Michelle Manzanales, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and others. The company also collaborates with visual artists, media artists, musicians and composers, including the world renowned Peruvian singer Susana Baca, Chicago Sinfonietta, Tiempo Libre. These collaborations have fostered innovative cross-disciplinary explorations resulting in richly textured and highly original, contemporary dance theater. Luna Negra makes its home in Chicago at the Harris Theater and performs regularly at Ravinia. The company also tours extensively nationally and internationally.

Paquito D'Rivera is celebrated both for his artistry in Latin jazz and his achievements as a classical composer. Born in Havana, Cuba, he performed at age 10 with the National Theater Orchestra, studied at the Havana Conservatory of Music and, at 17, became a featured soloist with the Cuban National Symphony. As a founding member of the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, he directed that group for two years, while at the same time playing both the clarinet and saxophone with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra. He eventually went on to premier several works by notable Cuban composers with the same orchestra. Additionally, he was a founding member and co-director of the innovative musical ensemble Irakere. With its explosive mixture of jazz, rock, classical and traditional Cuban music never before heard, Irakere toured extensively throughout America and Europe, received several Grammy® Award nominations (1979, 1980) and won a Grammy® Award (1979). D'Rivera has also been a featured soloist with the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He has also performed with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, the Costa Rica National Symphony, the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, and the St. Luke's Chamber Orchestra, among others. Funk Tango, the first release of D'Rivera's new label, Paquito Records, recently won him his 9th Grammy® Award for "Best Latin Jazz Album" in 2007.

The two-time GRAMMY award-winning ensemble Turtle Island Quartet is made up of David Balakrishnan (violin), Mads Tolling (violin), Jeremy Kittel (viola) and Mark Summer (cello). Its name derived from creation mythology found in Native American folklore, the Turtle Island Quartet, since its inception in 1985, has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. Turtle Island fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary American musical styles, and by devising a performance practIce That honors both, the state of the art has inevitably been redefined. The Quartet's birth was the result of Balakrishnan's brainstorming explorations and compositional vision while writing his master's thesis at Antioch University West. The journey has taken Turtle Island through forays into folk, bluegrass, swing, be-bop, funk, R&B, new age, rock, hip-hop, as well as music of Latin America and India. It has included over a dozen recordings on labels such as Windham Hill, Chandos, Koch and Telarc, soundtracks for major motion pictures, TV and radio credits such as the Today Show, All Things Considered, and Prairie Home Companion, feature articles in People and Newsweek magazines, and collaborations with famed artists such as D'Rivera, The Manhattan Transfer, pianists Billy Taylor and Kenny Barron, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, the Ying Quartet and the Parsons Dance Company.

Founded in 1954, the mission of Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts is to present outstanding performing arts and arts education programs, reflective of Brooklyn's diverse communities, at affordable prices. Brooklyn Center's presentations explore both the classical traditions and the boldest contemporary performances, embracing the world culture that defines Brooklyn. Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts welcomes over 70,000 people to the 2,400 seat Walt Whitman Theatre each season, and boasts one of the largest arts education programs in the borough, serving schoolchildren from over 225 schools annually with its SchoolTime series.

Luna Negra Dance Theater with special guests Turtle Island Quartet and Paquito D'Rivera
Walt Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College
2900 Campus Road, Brooklyn
Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 2pm; Tickets $30

Online orders: BrooklynCenterOnline.org
Box Office: (718) 951-4500, Tuesday - Saturday, 1PM - 6PM
Subscription Orders/Season Brochure Requests: (718) 951-4600, ext. 25
Groups of 15 or more: (718) 951-4600, ext. 33

Major support for Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' World Stages: Dance series is provided by Macy's and by The Harkness Foundation for Dance.

The creation of Nube Blanco was made possible through the generous support of Sondra Berman Epstein. Nube Blanco is the third work of the Latina Choreographers Project, an initiative designed to bring the work of talented Latin female choreographers to a wider audience.

The creation of Sugar in the Raw was made possible through the generous support of Pamela Crutchfield. Sugar in the Raw is the second installation of the Latina Choreographers Project.

The creation of Danzón was made possible through generous support from the Chicago Community Trust. Additional support was provided by the University of Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Arts Center and Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' programs are made possible in part with public funding from the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding for Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' 2009-2010 season is provided by: Target; JP Morgan Chase; Brooklyn Community Foundation; Con Edison; National Grid; TD Bank; the Carnegie Corporation of New York; and the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund, established in the New York Community Trust by founders of The Reader's Digest Association. Additional support provided by Courier-Life Publications, The Brooklyn Eagle, The Brooklyn Paper, and WBGO. Marriott New York LaGuardia Airport is the official hotel of Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts 2009-2010 season. Backstage catering is graciously provided by Bettina Harris of The Corn Bread Diner and by Applebee's.

Brooklyn Center acknowledges the support of Assemblymembers Karim Camara, Steven H. Cymbrowitz, Rhoda Jacobs, Alan Maisel, Joan L. Millman, N. Nick Perry, Annette Robinson, and Helene E. Weinstein, members of the Brooklyn Delegation to the New York State Assembly, and New York State Senators Martine Malavé Dilan, Kevin S. Parker, and John L. Sampson. Special thanks to Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Councilman Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. Councilmembers Kendall B. Stewart and Albert Vann, and Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin.

For more information, visit www.lunanegra.org

 

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