John Heginbotham and Maira Kalman's THE PRINCIPLES OF UNCERTAINTY to Dance Into BAM

John Heginbotham and Maira Kalman will present their dance theater work The Principles of Uncertainty, Sep 27-30, at BAM Fisher (Fishman Space, 321 Ashland Pl).

Over the course of a year, author and illustrator Maira Kalman kept an online graphic diary for The New York Times called The Principles of Uncertainty. The entries are colorful, perceptive musings on the passage of time and its relation to the seemingly mundane objects and experiences that make up our daily lives.

In this imaginative dance theater work, John Heginbotham brings Kalman's intimate, detailed work to life in a series of vignettes that illustrate a journey through an ever-changing world. An array of vocabularies including dance, text, music, and projected images work in concert to tell a story that hovers between fantasy and reality.

Set to an original score composed, arranged, and curated by Brooklyn Rider and Silk Road Ensemble's Colin Jacobsen, the work also features members of Jacobsen's chamber orchestra, The Knights; actor Daniel Pettrow; and Kalman herself.

IF YOU GO:

The Principles of Uncertainty
A collaboration between John Heginbotham and Maira Kalman
Dance Heginbotham

Choreography and direction by John Heginbotham
Illustrations, costume, and scenic design by Maira Kalman
Music direction by Colin Jacobsen
Lighting design by Nicole Pearce
Projection design by Todd Bryant
Featuring members of The Knights

At BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), 321 Ashland Pl
Sep 27-30 at 7:30pm; Sep 30 at 2:30pm
Tickets: $25

Master Class with John Heginbotham
Co-presented by BAM and Mark Morris Dance Group
Sep 19 at 2pm, Mark Morris Dance Center (3 Lafayette Ave)
Price: $20
For adults with limited mobility
Visit BAM.org/master-classes for more information and to register

Cake + Coffee + Conversation
With Maira Kalman and John Heginbotham
Sep 24 at 2pm
Wendy's Subway Reading Room, BAM Fisher (Sharp Lower Lobby), 321 Ashland Pl
Free with RSVP

Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and raised in New York, Maira Kalman is the author and illustrator of 18 children's books including Fireboat, Looking at Lincoln, and What Pete Ate, as well as five books for adults. Her online columns for The New York Times were compiled into two volumes, The Principles of Uncertainty and The Pursuit of Happiness. Maira created illustrated editions of the classic The Elements of Style by Strunk and White and Michael Pollan's Food Rules. She is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, including cover art and an upcoming illustrated column based on travels to museums and libraries. In 2010, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Philadelphia hosted a retrospective of her work entitled Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World). In 2013, she performed the role of The Duck in Isaac Mizrahi's production of Peter and the Wolf at the Guggenheim Museum. Her two most recent books about design, My Favorite Things and Ah-Ha to Zig Zag were published in October 2014, the same year in which she curated the exhibit, Maira Kalman: My Favorite Things at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. Maira published Girls on Lawns (2014) with text by Daniel Handler in conjunction with the photography department of the Museum of Modern Art. Kalman's latest book, Beloved Dog, was published in October 2015 by Penguin Press. Through November 2017 she has an exhibit on view at New York's Metropolitan Museum entitled Sara Berman's Closet. Future book projects include an illustrated edition of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Kalman is represented by the Julie Saul Gallery which has two exhibitions featuring her work through September 2017: The Elements of Style, which includes the complete series of fifty- seven paintings from her 2005 edition of the iconic illustrated The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, and Darling Dorset, a series of paintings commissioned by Departures Magazine and published in the May/June 2017 issue.

Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, John Heginbotham graduated from The Juilliard School in 1993, and was a member of Mark Morris Dance Group from 1998-2012. In 2011, he founded Dance Heginbotham, which has been presented and commissioned by BAM, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. In 2016, Dance Heginbotham toured to Southeast Asia with DanceMotion USASM, a cultural diplomacy initiative of the US Department of State, produced by BAM. In February 2017, DH premiered Lola at the Kennedy Center to Eduardo Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, performed live by the world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell and the National Symphony Orchestra. As a freelance choreographer, Heginbotham's recent projects include Candide (Orlando Philharmonic, 2016); Oklahoma! (Bard Summerscape, 2015); Angels' Share (Atlanta Ballet, 2014); Isaac Mizrahi's The Magic Flute (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, 2014), and Peter and the Wolf (Guggenheim Works & Process, 2013). This fall he will choreograph Peter Sellars' and John Adams' new opera, Girls of the Golden West at the San Francisco Opera. John is the recipient of the 2014 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award.

The mission of Dance Heginbotham (DH) is to move people through dance. DH is a New York- based contemporary dance company committed to supporting, producing, and sustaining the work of choreographer John Heginbotham. With an emphasis on collaboration, DH engages with national and international communities with its unique blend of inventive, thoughtful, and rigorous dance theater works. Founded in 2011, DH has quickly established itself as one of the most adventurous and exciting new companies on the contemporary dance scene, and is celebrated for its vibrant athleticism, humor, and theatricality, as well as its commitment to collaboration. DH has shared the stage with music icons including Alarm Will Sound, Brooklyn Rider, Ethan Iverson, Gabriel Kahane, and Shara Nova, and in 2016 presented Fantasque, a collaboration with puppeteer Amy Trompetter, commissioned and produced by Bard College's Summerscape Festival. DH has been commissioned and presented by Arts Brookfield, Bard College, Baryshnikov Arts Center, BAM, Carolina Performing Arts, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Joyce Theater, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Vail International Dance Festival, among others. DH celebrated its 5th Anniversary in February 2017 with the world premiere of Lola, performed with the world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell, and commissioned by the Kennedy Center and the National Symphony Orchestra.

The Grammy-nominated orchestral collective, The Knights, are flexible in size and repertory, dedicated to transforming the concert experience. Engaging listeners and defying boundaries with programs that showcase the players' roots in the classical tradition and passion for artistic discovery, The Knights have "become one of Brooklyn's sterling cultural products... known far beyond the borough for their relaxed virtuosity and expansive repertory" (The New Yorker). The Knights evolved from a series of late-night chamber music reading parties with friends, held at the home of violinist Colin Jacobsen and cellist Eric Jacobsen. The Jacobsens, who serve as artistic directors of The Knights, were selected from among the nation's top visual, performing, media, and literary artists to receive a prestigious United States Artists Fellowship in 2012. The Knights' roster boasts remarkably diverse talents, including composers, arrangers, singer- songwriters, and improvisers, who bring a range of cultural influences to the group, from jazz and klezmer to pop and indie rock music. This fall, The Knights' embark on their second Home Season in Brooklyn, in partnership with the downtown venue BRIC, presenting family concerts and evening performances. After its conclusion, they will embark on a US tour with Israeli mandolinist Avi Avital and Syrian clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh.

Co-commissioned by Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and created during residencies at The Banff Centre, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, BAM Fisher, and the NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts.

Additional support for the creation and touring of The Principles of Uncertainty provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, and Dance Heginbotham's Commissioners' and Benefactors' Circles.

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafe? are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn's only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafe?, operated by Great Performances, offers a dinner menu prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. Limited commercial parking lots are located near BAM. Visit BAM.org for information. For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or go online.

Photo courtesy of Dance Heginbotham

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