Baryshnikov Arts Center Announces Fall 2019 Season
By: A.A. Cristi Jun. 20, 2019
Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) announces the Fall 2019 season of dance, music, and multimedia presentations, running September 27 through December 6. Tickets from $15-$25 for all BAC Presents performances are on sale now at bacnyc.org or 866 811 4111. BAC also announces BAC Space Fall 2019, providing creative residencies to artists across disciplines to develop new works of dance, theater, music, and multimedia.
BAC's new season of dance features two premieres from internationally renowned dance artists. First, NYC-based Dance Heginbotham brings the World Premiere of a new dance-play co-conceived by choreographer John Heginbotham and author/illustrator Maira Kalman. This, the duo's second collaboration following The Principles of Uncertainty in 2017, is based on witty writings by Swiss author Robert Walser and set to live chamber music by Hans Huber. Three public performances of HERZ SCHMERZ, October 10-12 at 7:30PM in the Jerome Robbins Theater, follow an October 7 performance at BAC's annual Fall Fête fundraiser.
Then, November 14-16 at 7:30PM in the Jerome Robbins Theater, celebrated Irish dance artist Colin Dunne brings his "warm, funny, respectful and irreverent" (The Irish Times) solo Concert to the United States. The former Riverdance star, who has since established himself as a contemporary dance and theater artist, masterfully embodies the iconic 1972 album The Liffey Banks by virtuoso fiddle player Tommie Potts-a singular and complex figure of traditional Irish music. Dunne, whose acclaimed Out of Time premiered at BAC in 2011, is co-presented again with Irish Arts Center.
Three presentations of the new season are works-in-progress by recipients of the 2018-19 Cage Cunningham Fellowship, an award established in 2015 to support artists who embody John Cage and Merce Cunningham's commitment to artistic innovation. Throughout the fall, the Fellows will each have a weeklong residency in the Rudolf Nureyev Studio, culminating in a public studio showing. On September 27 at 7PM, choreographer Liz Gerring will present a showing of Installation III: red green blue & grey, demonstrating a new phase in her examination of physical effort and its innate capacity to provide meaning. On October 25 at 7PM, film pioneer Charles Atlas will present his explorations for a new experimental film and installation, working for the first time with ballet dancers, and in collaboration with choreographer Jodi Melnick. Finally, on December 6 at 7PM, composer/musician Phyllis Chen presents a work-in-progress inspired by the moving meditation of performance calligraphy.
Rounding out Fall 2019 on November 21 at 7PM in the John Cage & Merce Cunningham Studio is Beginner's Ear, an immersive listening and mindfulness experience for audiences, led by meditation guide Thomas Droge and violinist Johnny Gandelsman. And finally, a series of BAC Jam Sessions-dates to be announced-will invite audiences into one of BAC's studios to enjoy impromptu music-making by an ensemble of professional musicians.
The BAC Space residency period, running October 28 through November 16, hosts multiple artists in all of BAC's studios concurrently and is designed to encourage peer exchange. BAC Space Fall 2019 will include a series of public Studio Showings on November 15-the schedule will be announced by November 1. The BAC Space Fall 2019 Resident Artists are: choreographers/dancers Ella Rothschild, Bobbi Jene Smith, and Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith; theater artists Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey; theater artist Mallory Catlett and composer Aaron Siegel; musician/composer Amir ElSaffar; and multimedia artists Everett Saunders and Marjani Forté-Saunders.
Tickets for BAC Presents can be purchased online or by phone:
BACNYC.ORG / 866 811 4111.
BAC Fall 2019 Presentations:
FALL 2019 BAC PRESENTS
DANCE + MUSIC
Liz Gerring
Installation III: red green blue & grey (Work-in-Progress)
September 27 / Friday at 7PM
Rudolf Nureyev Studio
Tickets: $15
Running Time: 60 Minutes
Installation III: red green blue & grey (Work-in-Progress) demonstrates a new phase in Liz Gerring's exploration of physical effort and its innate capacity to provide meaning. In this work, for the first time she is introducing elasticity in the choreographic structure, with dancers bringing moments of spontaneity and surprise to certain phrases and timings, revealing their distinctive qualities.
This project is supported through the Cage Cunningham Fellowship, established in 2015 for artists who demonstrate John Cage and Merce Cunningham's commitment to artistic innovation. In recognition of Cunningham's centennial celebration in 2019, the 2018-19 Cage Cunningham Fellowship extends the award to five artists including Liz Gerring.
Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.
Major support for dance programming and activities provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Dance/NYC's New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
DANCE
Dance Heginbotham
HERZ SCHMERZ (World Premiere)
October 10-12 / Thursday through Saturday at 7:30PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets: $25
Running Time: 50 Minutes
Following their 2017 collaborative debut The Principles of Uncertainty, choreographer John Heginbotham and author/illustrator Maira Kalman co-conceive a new dance-play, HERZ SCHMERZ. Early 20th century Swiss author Robert Walser's witty writings inspire an eccentric and hyper-detailed landscape of movement, text, visual design, and live chamber music, creating an impressionistic observatory of life's beautiful minutiae and most important themes.
Conceived by John Heginbotham and Maira Kalman
Choreography by John Heginbotham
Text by Robert Walser
Music by Hans Huber
Design by Maira Kalman
The creation of HERZ SCHMERZ was made possible with support from the Ford Foundation 2017-2018 Art of Change Fellows program and Baryshnikov Productions.
Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.
Major support for dance programming and activities provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Dance/NYC's New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
HERZ SCHMERZ is the featured program of BAC's Fall Fête 2019.
MULTIMEDIA + DANCE
Charles Atlas (Work-in-Progress)
October 25 / Friday at 7PM
Rudolf Nureyev Studio
Tickets: $15
Running Time: 60 Minutes
Building on his prior collaborations with Merce Cunningham and other modern and postmodern artists, dance for camera pioneer Charles Atlas works for the first time with ballet dancers, including Christian Allen, Sara Mearns, and Taylor Stanley. He creates a new experimental film and installation in collaboration with choreographer Jodi Melnick.
This project is supported through the Cage Cunningham Fellowship, established in 2015 for artists who demonstrate John Cage and Merce Cunningham's commitment to artistic innovation. In recognition of Cunningham's centennial celebration in 2019, the 2018-19 Cage Cunningham Fellowship extends the award to five artists including Charles Atlas.
Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.
Major support for dance programming and activities provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Dance/NYC's New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
DANCE + MUSIC
Baryshnikov Arts Center and Irish Arts Center Co-Present:
Concert (U.S. Premiere)
November 14-16 / Thursday through Saturday at 7:30PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets: $25
Running Time: 50 Minutes
Celebrated Irish dance artist Colin Dunne confronts the music of virtuoso Irish fiddle player Tommie Potts (1912-1988), whose iconic 1972 album The Liffey Banks-heralded for its melancholy and irregular rhythms-is widely considered unfit for dance. Collaborating with director Sineìad Rushe and composer/sound designer Mel Mercier, Dunne delivers a masterful solo performance, embodying the singular, complex recordings with an innovative style as evocative and idiosyncratic as Potts's own.
Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.
Major support for dance programming and activities provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Dance/NYC's New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Leadership support for music programming provided by the Thompson Family Foundation.
Concert is presented with support from Culture Ireland-Promoting Irish Arts Worldwide.
DANCE + THEATER + MUSIC + MULTIMEDIA
BAC Space Studio Showings
November 15 / Friday - Schedule to be announced by November 1.
Free Admission / Reservations Required - Reservations will be available at a later date.
Fall 2019 BAC Residencies includes BAC Space, running October 28 through November 16. This residency format hosts multiple artists in all of BAC's spaces concurrently and is designed to encourage peer exchange. The Fall 2019 BAC Space residency period will include a day of Studio Showings, where audiences are invited to observe dance, theater, music, and multimedia works in various stages of development. BAC Space Studio Showings are free, open to the public, and the schedule will be announced by November 1.
Leadership support for BAC has been provided by Altman Foundation, Anonymous, James H. Duffy, The Enoch Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Princess Grace Foundation-USA, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Thompson Family Foundation, and Dance/NYC's New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.
MUSIC
Beginner's Ear
With Johnny Gandelsman + Thomas Droge
November 21 / Thursday at 7PM
John Cage & Merce Cunningham Studio
Tickets: $15
Running Time: 60 Minutes
Beginner's Ear offers an immersive listening experience that opens the ear to both silence and sound. Through a meditation guided by Thomas Droge, participants reach a deep state of communal stillness out of which a live musical performance unfolds, visceral and immediate.
Violinist Johnny Gandelsman performs, weaving together music spanning four centuries by Biber, Bach, and Stravinsky.
Leadership support for music programming provided by the Thompson Family Foundation.
MUSIC
Phyllis Chen (Work-in-Progress)
December 6 / Friday at 7PM
Rudolf Nureyev Studio
Tickets: $15
Running Time: 60 Minutes
Inspired by the moving meditation of East Asian calligraphy painting, composer/musician Phyllis Chen investigates the movements made by performance calligraphists: choreographed, efficient, and unfalteringly committed. This work-in-progress examines the intersection between traditional Shodo calligraphy performance and live music.
This project is supported through the Cage Cunningham Fellowship, established in 2015 for artists who demonstrate John Cage and Merce Cunningham's commitment to artistic innovation. In recognition of Cunningham's centennial celebration in 2019, the 2018-19 Cage Cunningham Fellowship extends the award to five artists including Phyllis Chen.
Leadership support for music programming provided by the Thompson Family Foundation.
MUSIC
BAC Jam Sessions
Schedule to be announced.
Free Admission / Reservations Required - Reservations will be available at a later date.
BAC Jam Session is modeled after the original concept of chamber music-a casual gathering of musicians playing just for pleasure. The evening is an opportunity for both performers and audience to relinquish concert formalities and enjoy the experience of impromptu music-making.
Leadership support for music programming provided by the Thompson Family Foundation.
FALL 2019 BAC RESIDENCIES
BAC Space Fall 2019
All artists will be in residence concurrently October 28-November 16, 2019.
Mallory Catlett + Aaron Siegel: Theater + Music
Director Mallory Catlett and composer Aaron Siegel (NYC) collaborate on a new music theater work called Rainbird, based on Janet Frame's haunting novel Yellow Flowers in the Antipodean Room. The work tells the story of a middle-aged family man who is pronounced dead. After the funeral arrangements have been made, he wakes up in the morgue, ensuing the emotional struggle of his family to accept not his death but his resurrection.
Amir ElSaffar: Music
Musician/composer Amir ElSaffar's (NYC) Rivers of Sound Orchestra consists of 17 musicians who create a new musical language transcending established notions of style and convention. Drawing on ancient microtonal modal practices, they will develop Sonoluminescence, ElSaffar's second work for the ensemble, which includes Hamid Al-Saadi - one of today's few living vocal practitioners of the Iraqi Maqam.
Molly Lieber + Eleanor Smith: Dance
Choreographer/dancers Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith (NYC) will develop STAMINA, a public demonstration of their effort to find inner strength. Their improvisations and compositions face and reflect ego, desire, and fear, creating episodes of levity, darkness, and discomfort. A rigor of messiness results from repeatedly engaging in the same difficult practices and sharing a sense of trust in potential.
Ella Rothschild: Dance
Choreographer Ella Rothschild (Tel Aviv, Israel) begins a new creative process stemming from the question of how personal story can reveal broader phenomena about society. The work lingers on common images that define the physical and emotional environment in which we conduct ourselves, and leaves room for distinct characters who move the narrative forward through tensions, conflicts, and untenable situations.
7 Names: Everett Saunders + Marjani Forté-Saunders: Multimedia
Composer Everett Saunders (NYC / Pasadena, CA) and dance artist Marjani Forté-Saunders (NYC / Pasadena, CA) combine Saunders' experience as an offspring of Hip Hop culture and Forté-Saunders' kaleidoscopic directorial and choreographic approach in A Prophet's Tale. This virtual and augmented reality performance installation and music project illuminates the journey and philosophy of a prophet/alchemist/minister/provocateur, the Emcee.
Bobbi Jene Smith: Dance
Choreographer/dancer Bobbi Jene Smith (NYC) will create a new work drawing inspiration from the catastrophic and sublime machinations of geological forces to create an abstract and emotionally visceral narrative. Exploring the intersection of physicality, virtuosity, spatial poetry, and desire, this series of vignettes with live music brings together remarkable artists from around the world.
Peter Mills Weiss + Julia Mounsey: Theater
Theater artists Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey (NYC) will develop while you were partying, a devised performance about trauma, aggression, entitlement, and impotence. The show takes the form of a comedy sketch, culminating in an act of violent empathy - a woman corporally possessing a man and compelling him to tell the audience the story of her body. The show seeks to trouble an audience's preconceived notions about what it looks like to process trauma, and asks: what is the true cost of healing?
Leadership support for BAC has been provided by Altman Foundation, Anonymous, James H. Duffy, The Enoch Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Princess Grace Foundation-USA, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Thompson Family Foundation, and Dance/NYC's New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.
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