Northrop Announces 2010-2011 Dance Season

Northrop at the University of Minnesota announces its 10-11 dance season curated by Director of Concerts and Lectures at Northrop, Ben Johnson. This year, Northrop will continue to uphold the tradition of presenting world-class dance by providing an extensive scope of the finest American and International ballet, modern, and contemporary dance featuring renowned choreographers, world-class dance companies, and magnificently talented dancers.

The legacy of full-length classic ballet and modern masters will carry on and will be further improved by the work of celebrated global dancers, Minnesota debuts of ground-breaking work, and performances from Minneapolis' very own internationally recognized artists.

In anticipation of the Northrop building being closed for its transformation during part of the 10-11 season, we are taking our patrons on a journey of three other principal venues in the Twin Cities. We will be in Northrop through the end of December and have chosen touring companies that are appropriate for each of the new venues. These venues are Ted Mann Concert Hall on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota, The O'Shaughnessy on the College of St. Catherine's campus, and the State Theatre in downtown Minneapolis.

Northrop's season opens with Tania Pérez-Salas Compañia de Danza, Mexico's greatest dance company. For the performance, Pérez-Salas will bridge together movement, music, and light in her works 3.Fourteen Sixteen, The Waters of Forgetfulness, and her new work set to premiere in 2010. Following this premier modern dance company is the Minnesota debut of American Ballet Theatre's ABT II, the next generation of world-class ballet performing classic and contemporary repertoire in Allegro Brillante (George Balanchine 1956), Barbara (Aszure Barton, music by Barbara 2008), and Interplay (Jerome Robbins 1945). Other highlights of the season are the 25th anniversary collection of some of the most controversial work of Urban Bush Women, the performance of Minneapolis based artist, Emily Johnson | Catalyst with BLACKFISH, in The Thank-You-Bar, and the return of the greatest living force in modern dance, The Paul Taylor Dance Company. Another Minnesota debut this season is the highly-esteemed Swan Lake by The Voronezh State Ballet Theatre Of Russia, hailing from one of the most artistically rich and ancient regions of Russia, followed by the adventurous repertoire of the nationally recognized contemporary ballet troupe, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet.

Series tickets are on sale now on Northrop's web site, through the Northrop Ticket Office at 612-624-2345, or room 105 Northrop, 84 Church Street SE, Minneapolis. Based on patron feedback, many upgrades have been made to the program this year: 1) Series packages are smaller; 2) ticket prices are lower across the board; and 3) the processing fee for season packages has been reduced. Subscribers save up to 17 percent on the price of individual tickets, can purchase reserved parking for Northrop and Ted Mann events, receive priority seating, invitations to special events, extended payment options, and one-time easy ticket exchanges. Individual Northrop Dance tickets are on sale beginning Monday, August 9 at northrop.umn.edu or 612-624-2345.

These activities are made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Announcing the 10-11 Northrop Dance Season

Tania Pérez-Salas Compañia de Danza
3.Fourteen Sixteen, New Work 2010, The Waters of Forgetfulness
Fri, Sep 24, 8:00 pm, Northrop

"Perez-Salas' work is not only visually arresting but unabashedly sensual, subliminally erotic, and achingly human." -The Boston Globe

The repertory of Tania Pérez-Salas' company, Tania Pérez-Salas Compañia de Danza, is unparalleled in the world of Mexican contemporary dance. The company was founded in 1994 by actress, dancer, and choreographer Pérez-Salas. Her award winning performances and choreography have allowed her company to continue to flourish with works that display a matchless character formed from combinations of unique dance, music, costume, and lighting.

Each individual work by Tania Pérez-Salas stems from a real life experience, allowing her to reach out and connect emotionally with her audience. Her performances are uniquely visual and include highly emotive choreography that has earned Pérez-Salas the distinction of being one of the leading exponents of contemporary Mexican dance. Her work is fueled by her love of literature, movies, visual arts, and philosophy. The stagecraft that accompanies her choreography draws from those same passions and expertly weaves diverse images, always in agreement with the rest of the rudiments in her work.

3.Fourteen Sixteen (2002) is a work produced straight from Pérez-Salas' gut- nothing was planned, and yet, it all came together to fit within a circular arc that features music by Marin Marias, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Antonio Vivaldi, Francois Couperini and Giovanni Batist Pergolesi.

Waters of Forgetfulness (1998) is inspired by Ivan Illich's essay H2O The Waters of Forgetfulness. This work reflects the symbolic role water plays in human history, as a vital, life-giving force of the soul and spiritual life of humanity. The role of water as a receptacle for a myriad of images, thoughts, and feelings, a vehicle of life, endowed with limitless ability to convey metaphors and bestow its purity by mere contact.

New Work 2010 explores the body's lost communication from the mind, failing to listen to the pleasure and satisfaction found in one's dreams.

American Ballet Theatre's ABT II
Sat, Oct 9, 8:00 pm, Northrop
Allegro Brillante, (George Balanchine 1956, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky), Barbara (Aszure Barton, music by Barbara 2008), Interplay (Jerome Robbins 1945, music by Morton Gould)

"The most successful and prominent Second Company in the country" -The New York Times

American Ballet Theatre's ABT II, under the direction of Wes Chapman, is a classical company of 12 young dancers ages 16-20, selected from around the world to train in the program before joining the American Ballet Theatre's main company or other leading national and international professional companies. Now in its sixteenth season, ABT II also provides opportunities for the development of emerging choreographers and composers.

The company's varied repertoire mirrors the traditions of American Ballet Theatre, and, while it is firmly rooted in classical ballet, it often features contemporary choreography. Each year, a number of young choreographers are selected to create new works for ABT II. By providing an artistic forum, dancers receive an invaluable experience in working with different choreographic styles and methods, and choreographers receive crucial exposure.

Barbara is a contemporary ballet piece for ten dancers, five men and five women, featuring music by French pop singer/song writer Monique Serf, known in France as "Barbara." There is no formal storyline; however, the piece showcases the individual personality of each dancer.

Interplay was made in 1945 by Jerome Robbins, the ballet master of New York City Ballet. The dance is an infectiously high spirited ballad of playful ballet set to music by Morton Gould.

George Balanchine's Allegro Brillante is characterized by what Maria Tallchief (the ballerina on whom the bravura leading role was created) calls "an expansive Russian romanticism." The music has a vigorous pace, and the ballet relies on strong dancing, precise timing, and breadth of gesture. Balanchine said: "It contains everything I know about classical ballet in 13 minutes."
Urban Bush Women
Zollar: Uncensored
Sun, Oct 24, 7:00 pm, Ted Mann Concert Hall

"The... anthology alternates between grabbing and shaking you and uplifting your spirits." -Village Voice

For Urban Bush Women, creating dance and creating community are essentially linked. Urban Bush Women (UBW) was founded in 1984 by Jawole Will Jo Zollar. Based in Brooklyn, New York, is a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. UBW seeks to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through contemporary dance, music, and text with history, culture, and spiritual traditions of African Americans and the African Diaspora. UBW does this from a woman-centered perspective, as members of the African Diaspora community, in order to create a more impartial balance of power in the dance world and beyond.

Since Urban Bush Women began, the company has made an incredible mark in the field by challenging long-held assumptions about body types, styles of movement, and appropriate content for the stage. As part of their mission and outreach efforts, UBW presents annual workshops, lecture demonstrations, and performances and community engagement projects. They have been recognized as a pioneering arts organization that goes beyond the theater space to engage community members directly with dialogue and participatory events.

Kicking off the 25th anniversary of Urban Bush Women, Zollar: Uncensored will feature The Papess and excerpts from My Female Hand, Marinesa and Batty Moves. This is an evocative journey of Zollar's creative history from 1984 to the present. Zollar has chosen sections of works that speak to her early investigations into eroticism, sensuality, and the reclaiming of the broken parts of the self after trauma. The work is a collage of excerpts that connect to the area of her work that she eventually abandoned or that was diminished when the full brunt of the "Helms era" of censorship frightened presenters and funders; and the worst part of the impact was that she began to censor herself.

The performance of Urban Bush Women is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts "American Masterpieces: Presenting" initiative.
Emily Johnson | Catalyst
The Thank-You-Bar
Nov 18 - 20, 7:00 and 9:00 pm, Northrop Stage

"the complex wail of our collective past screamed in a back room somewhere" -Anchorage Daily News

Emily Johnson is a director/choreographer, originally from Alaska and currently based in Minneapolis. Throughout Johnson's youth, she gathered with family at her grandmother's home and bar called The Que-Ana Bar (quyana is the Yup'ik word for 'thank you'). Johnson, inspired by these memories, depicts the feeling of displacement, finding herself in one place physically and another emotionally. Inspired by her homeland and these memories, Johnson fully submerges you head-first into her latest performance installation that interweaves music, film, stories, and dance to ask "What is a true home?". The interactive night begins with a contemporary art exhibit in Northrop's studios then moves to an up-close-and-personal seating on Northrop's stage for the intimate, multimedia dance work, The Thank-You Bar, with live music by James Everest and Joel Pickard of BLACKFISH

Since 1998, Johnson has created work about the experience of sensing and seeing performance; her pieces often function as installations, engaging audiences within and through a space and environment-sights, sounds, smells- as well as a place's architecture, history, and role in community. Her pieces are intended to be thought-provoking and entertaining, and include dance, music, and visual art.

In addition to accompanying Johnson, BLACKFISH, named in honor of the fish's role in The Thank-You-Bar, will play their pedal steel guitar and nylon and steel string acoustic guitars in a supplementary show on Friday November 19 at 10:30 pm. Concert included with The Thank-You Bar ticket purchase.

This Is Displacement, a companion exhibit to The Thank-You-Bar will feature contemporary artwork by Native artists from 13 different tribal nations throughout the United States. The exhibit will be open one hour prior to each performance and 1:00-5:00 pm, Nov 18-20.

Performances of Emily JohnsonCatalyst are funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation.

Emily Johnson | Catalyst + BLACKFISH funded, in part, by the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Brief Encounters (2009, music by Claude Debussy), Promethean Fire (2002, music by Johann Sebastian Bach)
Tue, Nov 30, 7:30 pm, Northrop

Now in his 80th year, Paul Taylor continues to win acclaim for the vibrancy, relevance and power of his recent dances. Taylor, who was born in 1930 and discovered dance in the late 1940s, began studying at Juilliard and by 1954 he had assembled a small company of dancers and was creating his own works. At this time, Taylor's work was so cutting-edge that it could send confused audience members flocking to the exits, and Martha Graham dubbed Mr. Taylor the "naughty boy" of dance. Taylor's works are now known to appeal to the largest possible audience, facilitate the making of new dances, and preserve his repertoire.

More than a half-century ago, Taylor became the youngest member of the pantheon that created American modern dance. As his success continued, Taylor was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and received an Emmy Award for Speaking in Tongues, in 1992. He was also awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1993, received the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1995 and was named one of 50 prominent Americans honored in recognition of their outstanding achievement by the Library of Congress's Office of Scholarly Programs, to name a few.

Brief Encounters is a dance about people more concerned with momentary connections than ongoing relationships. It is also Taylor's latest work, assisting him as he pushes the boundaries of modern dance through experimentation with movement and stillness as he relates music to dance. In the work he returns to a score he first used more than 30 years ago in Images, however, this time he's using the orchestral version of Debussy's Le Coin des Enfants as opposed to the original version for solo piano.

Promethean Fire is set to three keyboard works by Bach and richly orchestrated by Stokowski. The work examines a kaleidoscope of emotional colors in the human condition. All 16 Taylor dancers, costumed in black, weave in and out of intricate patterns that mirror the way varied emotions weave themselves through life. A central duet depicts conflict and resolution following a cataclysmic event. But if destruction has been at the root of this dance, renewal of the spirit is its overriding message.

Performances of Paul Taylor are funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation.
The Voronezh State Ballet Theatre Of Russia
Swan Lake
Choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov (1895)
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Thu, Feb 3, 7:30 pm, The O'Shaughnessy, St. Catherine University, St. Paul

" ... a visual treat, and a testament to the enduring charm of classical Russian ballet." -The New York Times

Founded in 1585 by Tsar Feodor I, Voronezh was a large city acting as fortress to protect the Russian state from the raids of Crimean and Nogay Tatars. Now, the State Ballet Theater of Russia tours with the name "The Voronezh State Theater of Opera and Ballet," which formed in 1961. Since then, the company has boasted numerous distinguished students of the famous Voronezh Choreographic College in addition to Russian dancers and winners of international ballet competitions.

The Director of the Voronezh State Theatre Of Opera and Ballet since the early 1990's is Honored Artist of Russia Igor Nepomnyashchy. The repertoire of the theatre includes work by both classical and modern Russian composers including: Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Don Quixote, Le Sylphyde, Scheherazade, Carmen-suite, Cipollino and Gavalry Halt.

Swan Lake was Tchaikovsky's first ballet and the first production in Moscow was not well received. Now, it is considered to be one of the greatest classical ballets of all time, mesmerizing audiences for more than 100 years. Swan Lake is the story of a young woman named Odette, who is transformed into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse-during the day she must be a swan and swim in the lake of tears; at night she is allowed to be human again. This spell can only be broken if a virgin prince swears eternal infidelity to her. Prince Siegfried meets Odette in the woods and falls madly in love with her, however, through a spell by the evil sorcerer he accidently proposes to another women believing she is Odette. Odette feels doomed and throws herself in the lake, threatening to kill herself. The Prince feels terribly sorry and throws himself in after her in an incredibly touching moment where the two are transformed into lovers in the afterlife.

This full-length classical story has survived because of the incalculable combination of music, libretto, and choreography. It is a sincere, visual delight, and a testament to the enduring charm of classical Russian ballet.
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet
Trace (2010, music by Sergei Rachmaninov and György Ligeti), In Hidden Seconds (1999, music by John Tavener), Red Sweet (2008, music by Antonio Vivaldi and Heinrich Biber)
Tue, Mar 8, 7:30 pm, State Theatre, downtown Minneapolis

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet's (ASFB) founder, Bebe Schweppe, was a visionary when she made the decision in 1996 to create a company that resides in the Aspen Valley. Initially based solely in Aspen, Colorado, a second home for the company was created, in 2000, in another area of the Southwest heartlands, Santa Fe, New Mexico. In both cities ASFB has helped strengthen the cultural fabric of the region, in sync with the world-class artistic activities in each of these beautiful communities.

The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet company is founded on the idea of acquiring repertoire and inviting top choreographers in the field to create works for the company. With its sophisticated repertoire and broad appeal, combined with a successful blend of entertaining and engrossing contemporary dance, ASFB is one of the real success stories in American dance today.

Over the years, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet has grown to become a multi-faceted entity, both as an internationally recognized dance company and as one of the largest dance presenters in the country. ASFB's umbrella extends equally to its capacity as a center for learning, with a thriving dance school and a much-celebrated Mexican folklóric dance outreach program for area children. ASFB appeals, with its adventurous repertoire and beautiful western landscapes, as a gathering place for the finest dancers and choreographers in the world. Never forgetting its deep roots in the creative and historic wealth of these majestic and awe-inspiring communities, the organization remains deeply committed to expanding and enriching the world of dance. With its fusion of classical good sense and western ingenuity, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet blends the best of both worlds to create a dance company that is truly unique.

Trace (2010), by Helen Pickett, features complicated group segments revealing the physical and emotional strengths of the dancers who explain through movement that love lasts, in various forms.

In Hidden Seconds (1999) is choreographed by Nicolo Fonte, who has forged a strong identity in the Spanish dance community for many years. His piece flows with a Zen-like quality and showcases the dancers' extreme athleticism with yoga-inspired moves. It begins with a solitary woman standing over a prostrate person. A second person then enters behind the first and begins to dance, encouraging viewers to see the second dancer as the unrestrained alter ego of the austerely inhibited first.

Crowd energizer, Red Sweet (2008) has an evocative blend of punctuated and abstract movements. The piece is fast-paced, built upon emotionless technique which melds ballet steps with robotic body isolations. It is choreographed by Finnish-born-dancer and one of the most sought after choreographers in the United States and Europe, Jorma Elo.

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