Steps Beyond Foundation Announces Opening Night Benefit and Steps Repertory Ensemble's New York Season

The Steps Beyond Foundation, Steps on Broadway's non-profit arm committed to connecting artists and the community through dialogue, performance, and artistic collaboration, announces a 3-day weekend performance celebration May 6-8, 2016 at Ailey Citigroup Theater. The weekend will commence May 6 with the Steps Repertory and Guests Benefit, featuring performances by American Dance Machine, Jon Ole Olstad, choreography by Al Blackstone and the staging of a Swan Lake variation by Elena Kunikova to be danced by a student at Steps. Audiences will also enjoy performances by students of the Steps Conservatory Program and pre-professional students at The School at Steps, with staging by the legendary Leslie Browne. May 7-8, Steps Repertory Ensemble will present a full evening of works by Artistic Director Bradley Shelver and leading choreographers Lar Lubovitch, Sidra Bell, Julia Ehrstrand, and Jae Man Joo.

In the Ensemble's annual New York Season, the company continues its mission to create new works and re-stage nationally and internationally celebrated repertory, with an eclectic program that includes: Sidra Bell's contemporary work Valse, which will be seen for the first time en pointe; RUST, by Sweden's Julia Ehrstrand; The Legend of Ten by master choreographer Lar Lubovitch; and excerpts of Korean dance maker Jae Man Joo's RECUR. The Ensemble will also present Artistic Director Bradley Shelver's Le Monde Est Fini, Pas De Panique, SCENES and excerpts of She and Him.

"Over the past three years, the ensemble has grown to include the works of master choreographers while also providing budding dance makers with the opportunity to create work on a diverse and magnetic group of dancers," explains Ensemble Artistic Director Bradley Shelver. "This season there is a focus on light and dark, the ways in which we as humans need both elements in our life experiences of ups and downs. This program is both intimate and grand, housing technical prowess and its subtle gestures-it is for me a true definition of a repertory company."

Proceeds from the first annual Steps Repertory and Guests Benefit will go towards dance scholarships and the newly launched New Works Fund, enabling the ensemble to commission emerging choreographers to create new works and invite dance makers to restage notable work on its dancers.

SEASON SCHEDULE AND TICKETS

Performances will take place May 6-8 at 7:30 p.m. General admission seats are available for $25 and student tickets with valid ID are $18. Patrons attending the opening night Steps Repertory and Guests Benefit on May 6, can purchase $100 benefit tickets which include the performance and post-performance benefit reception at 9:00 p.m. on the 5th floor.

All tickets are on sale at http://stepsandguests.bpt.me

VENUE INFORMATION

The Ailey Citigroup Theater/Joan Weill Center for Dance is located at 405 W. 55th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The theater is accessible by the A,B,C,D,E,N,Q,R,or 1 train or the M57 or M11 bus.

REPERTORY DETAILS

VALSE | Company Premiere (2008 World Premiere at Ailey II)

Choreography: Sidra Bell

Music credit: Original music composed and performed by Dennis Bell

Titled after George Balanchine's seminal work Valse Fantasie, this contemporary work, set to a sonic musical landscape en pointe, is lush and mannered, created in part through improvisational processes and a vocabulary signature to Bell's movement language.

LE MONDE EST FINI, PAS DE PANIQUE | (2015 premiere)

Choreography: Bradley Shelver

Music credit: Steve Reich, Mozart, Tom Waits, Baban I Marko, Albinoni

Costumes: Mondo Morales

Lighting: Jacquline Reid

Translated to "The World Is Finished, Do Not Panic," this work, combining ballet and modern vocabulary, is a representation of the ways in which our society reacts to the fear and anxiety instilled by way of the media. Exploring the heightened state of terror, religious rapture, and universal fear of abandonment, the work, physical and driving, is encoded in high emotions and relatable human suffering.

SCENES | Company Premiere (2009 World Premiere at Royal Swedish Ballet)

Choreography: Bradley Shelver

Music credit: Michael Galasso

Costumes: Bradley Shelber

Lighting: Michael Cole

A plotless work created around layered scenes, this excerpt is a trio, originally created for men, and is an exploration of the dancers in space and with the music.

SHE AND HIM, HIM AND HER, HE AND I, US AND THEM | Excerpt (2014 premiere)

Choreography: Bradley Shelver

Music credit: Scarlatti and Beethoven

Costumes: Mondo Morales

Lighting: Phillip Treviso

Consisting of four duets, all of which watch the other on stage in real time, She and Him represents the relationships encountered through life, the influence they have within us, and how we carry them with us throughout our lives. This excerpt will feature two of them, utilizing a ballet and modern vocabulary.

RUST | Restage of 2015 commission

Choreography: Julia Ehrstrand

Music credit: Coh, Moderat, Biosphere

Costumes: Shay Bares

Given sufficient time, oxygen, and water, any iron mass will eventually convert entirely to rust and disintegrate. Surface rust is flaky and friable, and it provides no protection to the underlying iron. An ensemble work, RUST is a movement crescendo, seasoned with fragile moments for audiences to interpret.

Recur | Excerpt (Premiere at Complexions Contemporary Ballet)

Choreography: Jae Man Joo

Music credit: Max Richter, Valentine Silverstrov

Costumes: Kelly Brown

Lighting: Michael Korsch

"Life is about things that happen to us that are only important

when we look back at them. If they stay with us they become part

of us. If not, they are cast off."

The Legend of Ten | (2010 world premiere at Lar Lubovitch Dance Company)

Choreography: Lar Lubovitch

Music credit: Johannes Brahams

Costumes: Naomi Luppescu

Lighting: Jack Mehler

Launched in 2015 and directed by Diane Grumet, The Steps Beyond Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and sustaining dance artistry and cultivating supporters of the dance community. The Foundation offers collaborative opportunities among established and emerging artists through community engagement, dance scholarships, performances and special events. The foundation is also the host of the Steps Repertory Ensemble, a company lead by Artistic Director Bradley Shelver, whose repertoire encompasses an expansive and historical look at contemporary dance.

Under the direction of Bradley Shelver, The Steps Repertory Ensemble is the resident contemporary dance company of the Steps Beyond Foundation based at Steps on Broadway. Ranging from a roster of 10-12 dancers, the ensemble commissions internationally acclaimed choreographers, both established and emerging, to create new works and to re-stage repertory for the company. Dancers of the Ensemble have performed works by numerous dance makers including William Forsythe, Lar Lubovitch, Aszure Barton, Robert Battle, Manuel Vignouelle and Donald Byrd. The company has also performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York's Summerstage, iKapa Dance Theater in South Africa, Jacob's Pillow and in the White Wave dance festival.

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