Robert Swinston's CNDC-Angers Make U.S. Debut at Joyce Theater, Now thru 3/15

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Linda Shelton Executive Director, presents the U.S. debut of Le Centre National de Danse Contemporaine-Angers (CNDC) from today, March 10 - 15. For this highly anticipated debut, CNDC-Angers, under the artistic direction of former Merce Cunningham dancer and protégé Robert Swinston, will perform Event, a compilation of excerpts from pieces choreographed by Cunningham from 1965-1990. Tickets range in price from $10-$49 ($26-$37 for Joyce Theater members), and can be purchased through JoyceCharge online at www.Joyce.org , by calling 212-242-0800, or at The Joyce Theater box office at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street.

Compagnie CNDC-Angers (Le Centre National de Danse Contemporaine) makes its U.S. debut at The Joyce with Event, a remarkable work created by Artistic Director Robert Swinston. Building upon the legacy of his mentor Merce Cunningham, Swinston created Event by assembling excerpts from pieces choreographed by Cunningham from 1965 through 1990. Featuring scenic design by renowned French artist Jackie Matisse, Event is performed by eight artists whose technical prowess pays tribute to the master choreographer who created the original work and to Swinston, who by capturing what makes Cunningham's work interesting, allows audiences to experience it in its most current form. To create Event, Swinston was inspired by acclaimed Cunningham pieces including Deli Commedia (1986), Rebus (1975), Tread (1970), Landrover (1972), Fractions (1978), Numbers (1982), Points in space (1986), Variations V (1965), Four Lifts (1990), Changing Steps (1973) and Scramble (1967). A score of original music will be performed live by its composers John King and Gelsey Bell.

Robert Swinston graduated from the Juilliard School with a BFA in Dance. His experiences as a dancer began with the Martha Graham Apprentice Group. He performed with the companies of Kazuko Hirabayashi and José Limón, before joining Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) in 1980. In 1992, he became Assistant to the Choreographer. After Cunningham's death in 2009, Robert became Director of Choreography and maintained the company's repertoire during the Legacy Tour (2010-2011). During this period he assembled 25 Events for MCDC, concluding with the final performances at the Park Avenue Armory. While Director of Choreography for the Merce Cunningham Trust (2012), Swinston created Four Walls / Doubletoss Interludes, an adaptation of John Cage's Four Walls (1944) and Cunningham's Doubletoss (1993) for Baryshnikov Arts Center. In January 2013, he became Artistic Director of the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine (CNDC) in Angers, France. For Compagnie CNDC-Angers, in addition to Event, he created: Four Walls Doubletoss Interludes; Deli Commedia Variation (adaptation of Cunningham/Caplan Video Dance) and Debussy's La Boîte à Joujoux for young audiences. He has staged Cunningham works for companies such as the White Oak Dance Project, Rambert Dance Company, New York City Ballet, and the Paris Opera. In 2003, Robert Swinston was awarded a Bessie for the reconstruction and performance in How to Pass, Kick, Fall and Run (1965).

Gelsey Bell is a singer, songwriter, and scholar. Described by the New York Times as a "winning soprano" whose performance of her own music is "virtuosic" and "glorious noise," she has released two studio albums, Under A Piano (2005) and In Place of Arms (2010), two experimental albums, February (2008) and Love Is Just a Crack In the Space of You (2009), and the digital album SCALING live at Roulette (2012). Her work has been presented internationally in Performa 11 & 13, the Vital Vox festival, the BEAT festival, the LUMEN festival, the SITE festival, the Resonant Bodies festival, Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques in France, and most recently Voice - Creature of Transition in Amsterdam. Gelsey is a core member of thingNY and Varispeed. Upcoming performances include Dave Malloy's Ghost Quartet and Ne(x)twork's premiering her new piece "Weight." She has worked with numerous composers, choreographers, and performance creators including Robert Ashley, Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler, Kimberly Bartosik, Yasuko Yokoshi, Dave Malloy, Rachel Chavkin, Alec Duffy, John King, Chris Cochrane and Fast Forward (as the Chutneys), Kate Soper, Rick Burkhardt, Miguel Frasconi, Paul Pinto, Erin Rogers, and the Panoply Performance Laboratory. Gelsey is a doctoral candidate in Performance Studies at NYU, where she is completing a dissertation on twentieth century experimental vocal music. She is also TDR/The Drama Review's Critical Acts Co-Editor.

John King, composer, guitarist and violist, has received commissions from Ethel; the Kronos Quartet; Bang On A Can All-Stars; Mannheim Ballet; New York City Ballet/Diamond Project, Stuttgart Ballet, Ballets de Monte Carlo; as well as for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. His string quartets have been performed by the Secret Quartet and the quartet he leads, Crucible Quartet. He has written four operas: herzstück/heartpiece, based on the text by Heiner Müller, premiered at the 1999 Warsaw Autumn; la belle captive based on texts by Alain Robbe-Grillet, premiered at Teatro Colon/CETC in Buenos; and Dice Thrown, based on the Stéphane Mallarmé poem, premiered in April, 2010 in Los Angeles. Mr. King recently completed SapphOpera, a work based on the text fragments of Sappho, translated by Anne Carson. In addition he has written seven compositions for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. He received the Music/Sound Award for 2014 from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and was the recipient of the 2009 Alpert Award in the Arts for Music. He was Music Curator at The Kitchen from 1999-2003 and from 2002-2011 was a co-director of the Music Committee for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

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