Posin Dance Opens the 2019-20 Dance Series at the 92nd St. Y

The Kathryn Posin Dance Company announces that it has been invited to open the 2019-20 Dig Dance Season of the 92nd St. Y with three premieres: Evolution: The Letters of Charles Darwin, Triple Sextet to Steve Reich's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Double Sextet," and Memoir. The seven-member Kathryn Posin Dance Company, founded in 1972, is returning to the 92nd Street Y''s series for the third time. The performances are made possible by a prestigious ART WORKS grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

For the evening's first premiere, Posin takes on Evolution: The Letters of Charles Darwin. This spoken word ballet, narrated by Posin, is a whimsical romp through the life and letters of Charles Darwin. The text is drawn directly from correspondence to and from the imminent scientist, and tracks his voyages around the world on the HMS Beagle through events surrounding the publication of "On the Origin of Species."

Posin's longtime lead dancer Momchil Mladenov, former principal dancer with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, leads a seven-member ensemble in a work that casts light on less familiar aspects of Darwin's life: his loves, his losses, and on the formation of one of the most important scientific theories in human history. We see the response to his theories by the Victorian culture of his time. Through movement, words, projections and music, the work intends to make more human - even more playful - one of history's most important, controversial, and ever-relevant figures.

The dance owes considerable thanks to "The Darwin Correspondence Project," founded by Frederick H. Burkhardt. Prior to heading the Darwin Project, Burkhardt was President of Bennington College, Posin's alma mater. It was here that Martha Graham's summer workshops, considered by many to be the crucible of modern dance, were first held. Burkhardt's career in academia was spent trying to bridge gaps between the arts and the sciences.

Posin's new Triple Sextet is set to Steve Reich's "Double Sextet." The Pulitzer Prize-winning composition has two sextets of winds, string and percussion playing against each other. For the ballet, Posin adds a third sextet of dancers to the polyrhythmic interlocking musical network.

Set to music by J.S. Bach, Memoir is a new solo for noted dancer and company co-founder Lance Westergard.

www.kathrynposin.org

Photo by Nan Melville

To post a comment, you must register and login.