New York City Center Announces Programming for Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC

New York City Center presents Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC, November 3rd- 6th, celebrating Damian Woetzel's tenth year as artistic director of the Vail International Dance Festival. Channeling the spirit of the summer dance happening in the Rocky Mountains with three programs and an UpClose event, Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC brings the unique collaborative sensibility of Woetzel's festival to New York City, featuring dancers and musicians from many genres.

Featured dancers include Vail International Dance Festival artists-in-residence Lil Buck, Tiler Peck, Robert Fairchild, Herman Cornejo, Carla Körbes, and Isabella Boylston, joined by Jared Angle, Brian Brooks, Michelle Dorrance, Carla Espinoza, Misa Kuranaga, Sara Mearns, Gabriel Missé, Ron "Prime Tyme" Myles, Ringmaster Nugget and Vibez, Calvin Royal III, Matthew Rushing, Fang-Yi Sheu, Wendy Whelan, and Keigwin + Company.

Featured musicians include Scott Borg, the Catalyst Quartet, Kurt Crowley, Kate Davis, members of the FLUX Quartet, Cameron Grant, Sandeep Das, JP Jofre, Cristina Pato, Wu Tong, and special guest Yo-Yo Ma (Thurs 11/3 only).

Program One (Nov 3) begins with George Balanchine's Apollon Musagète, performed with the birth scene, led by Herman Cornejo making his New York debut in the title role. The evening also features Jose Limon's Suite from Mazurkas featuring Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild; Balanchine's Élégie, revived in Vail for the 2012 Festival, and performed by Carla Körbes; Alexei Ratmansky's Fandango, created for the 2010 Vail International Dance Festival and now danced by Sara Mearns in its New York premiere; and Lil Buck's Jookin' Jam Session, which features the Memphis jookin' star along with a range of fellow dancers and musicians, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma for this opening night performance.

Program Two (Nov 4) again features Apollon Musagète-this performance led by Robert Fairchild. This program also includes Martha Graham's Lamentation danced by Carla Körbes, an excerpt from Antony Tudor's Leaves are Fading featuring Tiler Peck, Alexei Ratmansky's Fandango with Sara Mearns, and Lil Buck's Jookin' Jam Session.

Program Three (Nov 5) features a selection of dances which have been commissioned or premiered by the Vail International Dance Festival (VIDF) over the last decade, including Larry Keigwin's Canvas (2013) danced by Keigwin + Company; Brian Brooks' First Fall (2012) featuring Brooks and Wendy Whelan; Fang-Yi Sheu's Anywhere on this Road (2013) featuring Sheu and the Memphis jooker Ron Myles; Ronald K. Brown's Ife/My Heart (2007) with Matthew Rushing; Christopher Wheeldon's This Bitter Earth (2012) featuring Isabella Boylston and Calvin Royal III; and Lil Buck and Damian Woetzel's Tabla-ture (2014) featuring Lil Buck and tabla master Sandeep Das. This program also includes two ballets revived by the Festival, George Balanchine's Élégie (New York City Ballet premiere 1982/VIDF revival 2012), and Balanchine's Divertimento Brillante from Glinkiana (New York City Ballet premiere 1968/VIDF revival 2016).

On Sunday, November 6, Vail ReMix NYC will conclude with an UpClose performance event focusing on footwork, with Woetzel coaching the dancers and deconstructing their work onstage in front of the audience while providing musical and choreographic context. Joining Woetzel to illustrate the sophistication of footwork in a wide variety of genres are artists including Tiler Peck, Lil Buck, Robert Fairchild, Gabriel Misse, Carla Espinoza, Fang-Yi Sheu, Matthew Rushing, Carla Körbes, and others.

Additional programming to be announced, and all programs and casting subject to change.

Tickets start at $35 ($25 for UpClose) and go on sale at noon on Monday, August 1. Tickets can be purchased online at NYCityCenter.org, by calling CityTix at 212.581.1212, or in person at the City Center Box Office. New York City Center is located at 131 West55th Street between6th and7th Avenues.

The Lead Sponsor for Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC is Jody and John Arnhold. Additional support is provided by Barbara and David Zalaznick.

Leadership support for Dance at City Center is provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance. New York City Center thanks The Howard Gilman Foundation and Lisa and Richard Witten for their generous support in establishing the Artistic Innovation Fund and The Jerome L. Greene Foundation for its generous support of the Arts Access Fund.

PROGRAM ONE
Thu, Nov 3, 8pm

Apollon Musagète (Stravinsky/Balanchine)
Suite from Mazurkas (Chopin/Limon)
Élégie (Stravinsky/Balanchine)
Fandango (Boccherini/Ratmansky)
Lil Buck's Jookin' Jam Session (Various)

PROGRAM TWO
Fri, Nov 4, 8pm

Apollon Musagète (Stravinsky/Balanchine)
Leaves are Fading (excerpt) (Dvorak/Tudor)
Lamentation (Kodaly/Graham)
Fandango (Boccherini/Ratmansky)
Lil Buck's Jookin' Jam Session (Various)

PROGRAM THREE
Sat, Nov 5, 8pm

Canvas (Crystal/Keigwin)
Ife/My Heart (Various/R. Brown)
Anywhere on this Road (Bregovic/Sheu)
First Fall (Glass/Brooks)
This Bitter Earth (Richter, Washington/Wheeldon)
Élégie (Stravinsky/Balanchine)
Tabla-ture (Das, Block/ Lil Buck, Woetzel)
Divertimento Brillante (Glinka/Balanchine)

UPCLOSE: FOOTWORK
Sun, Nov 6, 3pm
Hosted by Damian Woetzel

Featuring Tiler Peck, Lil Buck, Robert Fairchild, Gabriel Missé, Carla Espinoza, Fang-Yi Sheu, Matthew Rushing, Carla Körbes, and others.

Acknowledgement: Damian Woetzel and New York City Center gratefully acknowledge the dancers' various home companies for allowing their artists to appear as part of Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC.

New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city since 1943. It was Manhattan's first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia with a mission to make the best in music, theater, and dance accessible to all audiences. Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, City Center's Principal Dance Company, as well as Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series has been hailed as "one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York." In summer 2013, City Center launched Encores! Off-Center, a series that features landmark Off-Broadway musicals filtered through the lens of today's most innovative artists. Dance has been integral to the theater's mission from the start-and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance Festival, remain central to City Center's identity. Vital partnerships with arts organizations including Jazz at Lincoln Center and London's Sadler's Wells Theatre enhance City Center's programmatic offerings. City Center brings dance and musical theater to over 9,000 New York City students each year through its robust education program, and other learning opportunities are offered to seniors, families, and the general public. City Center is expanding its programming beyond the proscenium and activating its alternative spaces with pre-show talks, master classes, exhibitions of visual art, and intimate performances that give an up-close look at the work of the great theater and dance artists of our time. In October 2011, City Center completed an extensive renovation project to revitalize and modernize its historic theater.

Vail International Dance Festival: The outdoor splendor of the Colorado Rocky Mountains is the backdrop each summer as the mountain town of Vail plays host to a collection of the world's finest dancers. Under the artistic direction of Damian Woetzel for the past decade, the Vail International Dance Festival has developed into a treasured celebration of dance, renowned for its artistic excellence, unparalleled programming, new works, and one-of-a-kind partnerships. Nearly 20,000 people from around the world descend each summer on Vail, a vibrant cultural destination, for the Festival's two-week residence. Now in its 28th year, the 2016 Festival will take place from July 30-August 13, and welcomes Isabella Boylston as Artist-In-Residence and BalletX as Company-In-Residence, along with a wide range of dancers and musicians and companies including Paul Taylor Dance Company, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Dorrance Dance. The Festival's spirited atmosphere transforms the village into a culturally-rich environment that is inviting to dance aficionados and newcomers alike. In addition to regular performances, the Festival features robust community programming and education events, drawing on its roster of visiting artists, in addition to year-round personnel who focus on arts education in the Vail Valley. The Vail International Dance Festival is a project of the Vail Valley Foundation.

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