New Orleans Ballet Association Presents Trey McIntyre Project
By: Sarah Moore Jan. 28, 2011
NOBA
BRINGING DANCE TO LIFE
New Orleans Ballet AssociationPresents NOBA commissions new work that reunites
Trey McIntyre Project and Preservation Hall Jazz Band
A one night only world premiere event! "The wildly popular Trey McIntyre Project returns
with its own brand of fresh and forward thinking dance."
- The Washington Post The New Orleans Ballet Association (NOBA) is thrilled to reunite two remarkable creative forces, Trey McIntyre Project (TMP) and Preservation Hall Jazz Band (PHJB), in an extraordinary world premiere event on February 4 at 8pm at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. This exclusive one-night only performance marks the second time that NOBA, TMP and PHJB have teamed up to create a shared evening of music and dance.
When TMP blasted onto the international dance scene in 2008, NOBA engaged the company's trailblazing choreographer, Trey McIntyre, to create a new work set to New Orleans jazz music. The result was Ma Maison, the critically-acclaimed piece with PHJB that has since toured the world to rave reviews, including a recent special appearance at a New Orleans jazz event at the Hollywood Bowl for 7,000 people that was hailed as "shockingly powerful" and "one of the most stunning performances all year" by The LAist. As an encore to this triumphant debut, McIntyre and PHJB Creative Director Ben Jaffe partner once more to produce a new work that will personify the iconic culture of New Orleans. The creative duo has spent the past year selecting music and producing new arrangements that explore the countless musical influences of New Orleans, including the French West Indies, Blues, and Creole music. The outcome is a hand-crafted soundtrack of signature jazz styles featuring the debut of newly-composed music by PHJB, as well as a re-mix of legendary hip-hop DJ King Britt's version of the classic American folksong, St. James Infirmary.
"For me, it has been special to work with Trey," said Jaffe. "He has an open mind and open heart to explore and truly sees what the possibilities are. Trey is a huge fan of music and a fan of PHJB."
TMP is a prolific American company on the international dance scene. PHJB, currently celebrating its 50th Anniversary, is the legendary champion of New Orleans jazz. Together, and for one night only, ten phenomenal dancers will unite with seven illustrious musicians on stage in a world premiere experience that will include an exclusive encore
main stage presentation of Ma Maison.
"I am looking at the idea of pleasure in New Orleans culture," said McIntyre. "Pleasure is given more credence and importance here than in other places in America. Everywhere you go people want to welcome you into their world and make you feel comfortable and good."
"NOBA remains dedicated to perpetuating and strengthening the performing arts with important commissions of new work. We are honored to bring these two creative geniuses back together for a second world premiere that showcases our very own Preservation Hall Jazz Band with one of the hottest and most acclaimed dance makers in the world today," said NOBA Executive Director, Jenny Hamilton.
The new work also features costumes by acclaimed costume designer Andrea Lauer. Following her recent success on Broadway's megahit American Idiot, Lauer fashions both contemporary and period costumes of custom-made denim, courtesy of the pioneering LEVI STRAUSS & CO. Lauer deconstructs this signature American fabric and uses special silk screening and paint treatments inspired by the colors and textures of the city, to incorporate images that echo the unique street signs, tiles, and graffiti of New Orleans. "I came to love the diversity of Levi Strauss & Co. through my experience on American Idiot," said Lauer. "I am constantly exploring denim that people cannot only look and feel great in, but that you can also DANCE in!" McIntyre has been creating fresh and innovative works for over 20 years. With the dance world hungry for new
voices, McIntyre's career has sky-rocketed. Rooted in classical ballet, his in-demand dances are hip, contemporary and set to a brilliant variety of music from Brubeck and The Beatles to Beethoven and Beck. Since the debut of his first work in 1990 for Houston Ballet, he has created over 70 ballets for more than 30 prestigious companies, including American Ballet Theatre, Stuttgart Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. In December 2010, McIntyre was selected as one of 50 artists to receive the prestigious 2010 United States Artists Wynn Fellowship.
Tickets for the performance range from $20 to $80. Students and seniors (65 and older) receive a $6 discount off the regular ticket prices. Group discounts also are available. For tickets or information, call the New Orleans Ballet Association Box Office at (504) 522-0996. Tickets may be purchased online through
www.nobadance.com, or via Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or www.ticketmaster.com.
In addition to the performances, the company will also spend a week in residency working with the New Orleans community. The residency will feature a post-performance discussion with the dancers and musicians immediately following the Friday evening performance. The company will conduct a master class on Saturday, February 5 at Tulane University's McWilliams Hall for the NORD/NOBA Center For Dance and an additional class earlier in the week (date/time TBA) for NOCCA students. Free SpUrban performances (Spontaneous, urban performances) will also be
conducted at various locations around the metropolitan area throughout the week. For more information about residency opportunities call (504) 522-0996 x. 207 or email afloyd@nobadance.com
Trey McIntyre Project Company History
July 2005, Trey McIntyre Project burst onto the national dance scene as a summer touring company with its debut at The Vail International Dance Festival. Trey McIntyre Project's "fresh and forward-thinking choreography" (Washington Post) was an immediate sensation with both critics and audiences alike. The company went on to perform in 2006 and 2007 at some of the most prestigious summer venues in the country, including Jacob's Pillow and Wolf Trap
National Park for the Performing Arts, premiering works created during annual residencies at White Oak Plantation. Guided by Trey McIntyre's unparalleled ear for musical structures, Trey McIntyre Project's repertoire spans rock (A Day
In The Life, set to music by The Beatles and High Lonesome to music by Beck), classical music (The Blue Boy to Beethoven, (serious) to Henry Cowell, Ten Pin Episodes to Frédéric Chopin) jazz (Ma Maison), historic bluegrass music selections (Go Out) and folk music (Leatherwing Bat to Peter, Paul and Mary).
Galvanized by overwhelming critical success during the summer tours, and an insatiable demand for national and international touring, Trey McIntyre Project launched as a full-time, year-round company for Year 1: 2008-09. The
company embarked on its first annual 25-city tour across the US and abroad from its new home in Boise, ID, with
commissions from three of America's esteemed presenting organizations, New Orleans Ballet Association, White Bird
Dance, and Wolf Trap, and institutional support from such organizations as The MAP Fund, the National Endowment for
the Arts, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Jerome Robbins Foundation and National Dance Project.
In August 2009, Trey McIntyre Project began Year 2: 2009-10 with the commissioned premiere of The Sun Road at Wolf Trap, celebrating the vast and changing Glacier National Park as part of their acclaimed Face of America series. Trey McIntyre Project again toured the globe creating and performing the works of Trey McIntyre with debuts in cities such as Austin, Houston, Boston and Seattle. The company garnered special attention from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation funded Engaging Dance Audiences grant from Dance/USA for it's cutting edge engagement methods which they employ in communities across the US, specifically during the collaborative 2010 Milwaukee Residency bringing together many of the city's artistic institutions for an in-depth two-week engagement residency.
Year 3: 2010-11 began with Trey McIntyre's creation of Arrantza celebrating Basque Culture with its premiere at the pentennial Jaialdi Festival in Boise, ID. In early 2011, McIntyre will engage in another highly-anticipated collaboration with Preservation Hall Jazz Band to create a distinctive new work complementing the original 2008 work, Ma Maison. Both works with Preservation Hall have been commissioned by New Orleans Ballet Association, and NOBA will once again present Preservation Hall and TMP in a world premiere work on February 4, 2011 in New Orleans before the piece continues touring together for subsequent seasons. In a momentous two-week span in December 2010 Trey McIntyre was named the United States Artists Wynn Fellow, the company was featured on PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and TMP was chosen by the U.S. Department of State and Brooklyn Academy Of Music as one of four American dance companies chosen to participate in DanceMotion USAsm. As part of this program Trey McIntyre Project will tour to
China, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam in Spring 2012 serving as a U.S. Cultural Ambassador.
Trey McIntyre is one of the most sought-after choreographers working today. Born in Wichita, KS, McIntyre has created a canon of more than 80 works for companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Stuttgart Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, New York City Ballet and Ballet de Santiago (Chile). He served as Choreographic Associate for Houston Ballet from 1989-2008 and Resident Choreographer for Oregon Ballet Theatre, Ballet Memphis and The Washington Ballet before forming his acclaimed Trey McIntyre Project in 2008 based out of Boise, ID.
In 2010 McIntyre was named the United States Artists Wynn Fellow. He has received two choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography, was named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" in 2001, one of People Magazine's "25 Hottest Bachelors" 2003 and one of Out Magazine's 2008 "Tastemakers." New York Times critic Alastair Macauley said of McIntyre "there's a fertility of invention and a modernity of spirit here that are all Mr. McIntyre's own" and the Los Angeles Times told the world to "keep [their] eye on Trey McIntyre, who creates brilliant works" in their dance preview of the twenty-first century. Focusing primarily on Trey McIntyre Project, he spends his time creating works that explore the human experience in transformative and captivating ways by creating a unique culture for audience members to explore the work. Preservation Hall Jazz Band
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band derives its name from Preservation Hall, the venerable music venue located in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter, founded in 1961 by Allan and Sandra Jaffe. The band has traveled worldwide spreading their mission to nurture and perpetuate the art form of New Orleans Jazz. Whether performing at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center, for British Royalty or the King of Thailand, this music embodies a joyful, timeless spirit. Under the auspices of current director, Ben Jaffe, the son of founders Allan and Sandra, Preservation Hall continues with a deep reverence and consciousness of its greatest attributes in the modern day as a venue, band, and record label. The building that houses Preservation Hall has housed many businesses over the years, including a tavern during the war of 1812, a photo studio and an art gallery. It was during the years of the art gallery that then owner, Larry Borenstein, began holding informal jam sessions for his close friends. Out of these sessions grew the concept of Preservation Hall. The intimate venue, whose weathered exterior has been untouched over its history, is a living embodiment of its original vision. To this day, Preservation Hall has no drinks, air conditioning, or other typical accoutrements strictly welcoming people of all ages interested in having one of the last pure music experiences left on the earth. The PHJB began touring in 1963 and for many years there were several bands successfully touring under the name Preservation Hall. Many of the band's charter members performed with the pioneers who invented jazz in the early twentieth century including Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Bunk Johnson. Band leaders over the band's history include the brothers Willie and Percy Humphrey, husband and wife Billie and De De Pierce, famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett, and in the modern day
Wendell and John Brunious. These founding artists and dozens of others passed on the lessons of their music to a younger generation who now follow in their footsteps like the current lineup.
Andrea Lauer, Costume Designer
Andrea Lauer is a costume and set designer, as well as multimedia artist focusing on the intersection of clothing and technology. She is currently designing costumes for the National tour of BRING IT ON: the Musical, as well a new piece FORCES for the STREB Extreme Action Company, directed by RoBert Woodruff. Other recent opportunities include designing costumes for Broadway's American Idiot directed by Michael Mayer, and a new ballet for the Trey McIntyre Project. Also working as a stylist, her work can be seen in Rolling Stone, 52nd Grammy Award Show, and the June 2010 issue of American Vogue.
Strongly influenced by music, and experimenting with various instruments, her latest being the saw, she has been recording sounds and using each fragment as their own instruments for her "memory compositions". These compositions form the foundation of her ongoing project Torsolovely, a multi-media garment/performance incorporating such technologies as conductive threads, and touch sensors. She has been the costume designer on for the Broadway hit American Idiot as well as the Off-Broadway plays Or The Butcher of Baraboo, Elephant Dreams, Status Entropus, Our Lady of 121st Street, and Hair, among others. She also designs for dance and is a stylist. Her designs were most recently included in Fashionable Technology by Sabine Seymour.
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