The Joyce Theatre Presents the U.S. Debut of CENTRE NATIONAL de DANSE CONTEMPORAINE-ANGERS Directed by Robert Swinston, 3/10-15

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Linda Shelton Executive Director, proudly presents the U.S. debut of Le Centre National de Danse Contemporaine-Angers (CNDC) from March 10 - 15. For this highly anticipated debut, CNDC, under the artistic direction of former Merce Cunningham dancer and prote?ge? 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 Jose? Limo?n, 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 d'Angers, in addition to Event, he created: Four Walls Doubletoss

Interludes; Deli Commedia Variation (adaptation of Cunningham/Caplan Video Dance) and Debussy's La Boi?te a? 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 Chore?graphiques 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 4 operas: herzstu?ck/heartpiece, based on the text by Heiner Mu?ller, 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 Ste?phane Mallarme? 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.

COMPAGNIE CENTRE NATIONAL de DANSE CONTEMPORAINE-ANGERS (CNDC) Created in 1978, the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine - Angers (CNDC) has dedicated itself to the support of contemporary choreographic creation. It has contributed to the emergence of some of our generations most highly regarded French choreographers. It is also a place where research, experimentation and artistic creation are opened to many different disciplines. Since 2013, under the direction of Robert Swinston (Assistant to the Choreographer Merce Cunningham from 1992 - 2009), the Compagnie CNDC d'Angers was created and its eight French contemporary dancers perform Swinston's creations as well as his adaptations of Cunningham's choreography (Event, Four Walls Doubletoss Interludes, Deli Commedia Variation).

THE JOYCE THEATER
The Joyce Theater Foundation, 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 pre-engagement Dance Talks and post- performance Dance Chats. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000.

Compagnie CNDC-Angers under the Artistic Direction of Robert Swinston will be at The Joyce Theater from March 10 - 15, 2015. The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:30pm; Thursday - Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; and Sunday at 2pm. A Family Matinee will be held on Saturday, March 14 at 2pm. Curtain Chat, a free post-performance talkback with members of the company, will take place on Wednesday, March 11. This talkback is open to all patrons attending that evening's performance. Tickets are $10-$49 ($26-$37 for Joyce members) and can be arranged by calling 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 info, please visit www.Joyce.org.

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Leadership support for The Joyce Theater's 2014-2015 season has been received from the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

This presentation is supported by The R. Britton Fisher and Family Gift for International Dance.

The Joyce Theater's Dance Presentation Program is supported by a grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts; and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; as well as supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council with special thanks to Council Member Corey Johnson. Additional support has been provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Endowment Fund to encourage the performances of out-of-town companies at The Joyce Theater.

Major support for The Joyce has been provided by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the Ford Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Pasculano Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation. Additional major support has been provided by First Republic Bank, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Northern Trust, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The SHS Foundation, and the Windhover Foundation

Photo Credit: Patrick André

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