Sean Curran Company at DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, University of Notre Dame

This performance by the New York-based dance company will mark their third appearance at the center and third commission for the University of Notre Dame. Of this latest collaboration, his second evening-length work set to live music to have its world premiere on the Presenting Series, artistic director and choreographer Seán Curran has said, “Ustatshakirt Plus’ music was a revelation not only because it made me dream of a new collage, but also because I recognized that we share many of the same artistic drives. As a choreographer I’m interested in speaking an old language with a contemporary accent, and letting American modern dance history—where we’ve come from—inform what I create.”

Ustatshakirt Plus is a folklore ensemble from Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic and their traditional Central Asian mountain music was nearly lost under Soviet rule. Together, these artistic entities have crafted a cross-cultural hybrid of the modern and ancient that embodies the mystical, rustic feel of poet Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. The result is a compellingly human investigation of a journey from our various ancestral pasts towards Whitman’s “city of Friends.” It is planned for Curran to participate in post-performance talkbacks on Thursday and Friday.

Dream’d in a Dream co-commissioned by the University of Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Arts Center and Brooklyn Academy of Music.