The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc. to Present New York Premiere of Dada Masilo's SWAN LAKE

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc. (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) proudly presents the New York premiere of Dada Masilo's Swan Lake, an extraordinary, reimagined and avant-garde version of the classic ballet featuring a corps of exceptional South African dancers. This unique engagement will take place from February 2-7 at The Joyce Theater. Tickets range in price from $10-$60 and can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street.

In this compelling production of Swan Lake, the renowned Johannesburg-born dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo seamlessly fuses classic and contemporary dance that is heavily influenced by her African heritage. Aspects of Tchaikovsky's original music for Swan Lake are retained and beautifully combined with music from Rene Avenant, Camille Saint-Saens, Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich to fit Masilo's more modern vision, which fearlessly addresses issues of sex, women's rights and homophobia in a country that is ravaged by AIDS. Additionally, Masilo includes an African drumming tradition of call and response, breaking the fourth wall between the audience and the performers. With this music as a powerful backdrop, Masilo tells the reinvented story of how a prince, Siegfried, falls in love with a male "swan," Odile and discovers his true self while facing disapproval from his homophobic family and society.

Dada Masilo trained at The Dance Factory and attended the National School of the Arts before spending a year at Jazzart Dance Theatre in Cape Town. Masilo has created and performed her works Dying Dying Dead, I Just Want To Be a Princess for One Day, The World My Butt and Other Big Round Things and Love and Other Four-Letter Words. In 2008, she received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance and created her Romeo and Juliet, which was lauded at the 2008 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and at the Arts Alive International Festival in Johannesburg. This success was repeated in 2009, with the staging of her Carmen at the same festivals. In 2010, Masilo created her Swan Lake, which premiered at the National Arts Festival. Masilo was invited to create a solo for Anticodes 11 at Le Quartz, Brest, France, where she staged The Bitter End of Rosemary. It was later performed at Tanzhaus NRW, Düsseldorf, Germany as part of the Global Alliances initiative. In 2014, Masilo toured Swan Lake in France, Rome, Vienna, Stockholm, Athens, London, eight cities in Switzerland and several others. Later that year, she restaged her Carmen to open at the Lyon Biennale in September, which began more extensive touring in Europe, including five weeks in Paris. In 2015, Masilo worked on the tours of both Swan Lake and Carmen.

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc. , a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences for three decades. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce Theater is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant home for more than 320 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 2009, The Joyce opened Dance Art New York (DANY) Studios to provide affordable studios for rehearsals, auditions, classes and workshops for independent choreographers, non-profit dance companies and the dance/theater communities. New York City public school students and teachers annually benefit from The Joyce's Dance Education Program, and adult audiences get closer to dance through informative post-performance Curtain Chats. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000.

Performances of Dada Masilo's Swan Lake will take place from February 2-7 at The Joyce Theater (175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street) according to the following schedule: Tuesday-Wednesday 7:30pm; Thursday-Saturday 8pm; Sunday 2pm. Curtain Chat, a free post-performance talkback with the artists, will take place on Wednesday, February 3. This enlightening discussion is open to all patrons attending that evening's performance. Tickets range in price from $10-$60 and can be purchased through JoyceCharge at (212) 242-0800 or online at www.Joyce.org. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

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