PONTUS LIDBERG DANCE

Transcription

1 Saturday, June 6 at 8pm; Sunday, June 7 at 2pm & 7:30pm The Joyce Theater Foundation, in association with Pontus Lidberg Dance, presents PONTUS LIDBERG DANCE Choreographer and Artistic Director Pontus Lidberg Dancers Kaitlyn Gilliland, Christopher Adams, Barton Cowperthwaite, and Pontus Lidberg Rehearsal Assistant Ola Beccau Lighting Designer and Stage Manager Carolyn Wong Pontus Lidberg Dance s season has been made possible with generous support from New York City Center, Charles & Joan Gross Foundation, Swedish Arts Council, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, NorrlandsOperan, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Joseph Doherty, Charles and Deborah Adelman, The Evelyn Sharp Foundation, John and Margee Falk, Kathleen Young, Gail Hashimoto, The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, and in part through the fiscal sponsorship of The Field Leadership support for The Joyce Theater s season has been received from the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust. This presentation is underwritten by Steven & Michèle Pesner. Generous support for this engagement was provided through a grant from The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc. to encourage the performance of New York City-based companies at The Joyce Theater. The Joyce Theater s Dance Presentation Program is supported by a grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts; and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; as well as supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council with special thanks to Council Member Corey Johnson. Major support for The Joyce has been provided by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the Ford Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Pasculano Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation. Additional major support has been provided by First Republic Bank, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Northern Trust, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The SHS Foundation, and the Windhover Foundation

2 WRITTEN ON WATER Choreography: Pontus Lidberg Original Music: Stefan Levin, made possible by the Charles & Joan Gross Foundation and the Swedish Arts Council Dancers: Barton Cowperthwaite, Kaitlyn Gilliland, Pontus Lidberg Costume Design: Reid and Harriet Design Lighting Design: Carolyn Wong The shorter piece, Written on Water is presented as a prelude to SNOW. Set to an original score by Stefan Levin, the work was originally conceived of as a Pas de Deux for American Ballet Theatre Principal dancer Isabella Boylston and premiered at New York City Center s Fall For Dance Festival. It has been expanded to include three dancers. My work for my own company tends to draw towards intimate one-on-one encounters, rather than the large group dynamics that is also part of my works for larger ballet companies. As most of my work deals with or includes personal interactions and human relationships, partnering has become an important and prominent movement language in my choreographic output. Dance is much about encounters and farewells. I often start creating a duet by giving an impetus in the form of an initial physical contact between two people. It could be as simple as one person reaching for the other person s hand or shoulder; this only serves as an arbitrary point of departure that may later be removed or changed. By watching the other person s reaction to the initial movement, I intuitively have a sense of what will or could happen next. Much like how a conversation unfolds without conscious thinking, the response to your partner s action is intuitive and immediate. In this way I guide my partner or the dancers for whom I am creating to develop longer sequences, it s like writing dialogue with movement. The movement becomes a hyper realization of subtle levels of anxieties, fear, excitement, intimacy, or a combination thereof. I see the work with partnering as a vehicle to share these experiences with the audience. Pontus Lidberg - INTERMISSION - Photo: Petrus Sjövik

3 SNOW Choreography, Sets, and Visual Design: Pontus Lidberg Original Music: Ryan Francis, made possible by Steven and Michèle Pesner Dancers: Kaitlyn Gilliland, Christopher Adams, Barton Cowperthwaite and Pontus Lidberg Costume Design: Reid Bartelme Lighting Design: Carolyn Wong, after the original design by Patrik Bogårdh. Puppet Design and Direction: Kevin Augustine, The Lone Wolf Tribe World Premiere: NorrlandsOperan, Umeå, Sweden, September 21, 2013 Pontus Lidberg s SNOW contrasts the fleeting and fragile human reality of existence with the enduring character of nature. The work was commissioned by NorrlandsOperan (The Opera House of Northern Sweden) for its 2013 centenary presentation of Stravinsky s score The Rite of Spring. Rather than focusing on the ritualistic elements embedded in the iconic music or paying homage to the European art movement known as Primitivism, Lidberg instead used the wild, forceful season of the score as a counterpoint to his intimate choreography for four dancers and a bunraku-style puppet. The work has since been reset to an original electronic score by composer Ryan Francis. Lidberg s work delves into the concept of animation specifically, the question of what animates us as human beings. Human movement rarely exists without desire, whether conscious or unconscious. As humans, our physicality is propelled and animated by our thoughts, desires, and aversions. In contrast, the movement of nature the passing of seasons, the falling of snow happens devoid of the impetus of thought. In SNOW, Lidberg explores two contrasting worlds. The first is a world of men, as seen through human relationships and relating, imagined through choreography, and fraught with desires and aversions. The puppet s expressions become the embodiment and culmination of these relationships experienced among the four dancers. The second world is that of thought itself, a choreography taking varying shapes imagined as shadows, smoke, water, or SNOW shapes that at times animate the five characters. For Lidberg, thoughts are like a shadow world. The dancers and the puppet in the work eventually relate to their own thoughts and shadows the sources of their animation. The choreography for the dancers thus reveals a dialogue with a world of thought. Lidberg s choreography examines cracks in relationships not as illustrations, but rather as points of departure from which to generate content. SNOW illuminates the intimate sphere of four individuals, nuanced in the fleeting moments of their lives and relationships. Something in their lives is changing, ending, or more precisely, is about to change or end. The notion that something is about to happen, rather than happening, is Lidberg s impetus for subtly embodying underlying themes of loss, separation and loneliness. SNOW is a series of loneliness études, abandonment vignettes, or short stories of lonely people in SNOW in various configurations. In the work, Lidberg explored puppetry as an expansion of his artistic search. He collaborated with New York-based puppeteer and puppet maker Kevin Augustine, The Lone Wolf Tribe, to create a fifth character in addition to the four dancers. Like humans, the puppet in SNOW is driven by mainly unconscious thoughts, patterns and urges, and at times inhabits a childlike world of limitless imagination. Eventually, the puppet begins to talk back to its thoughts, the source of its imagination. Lidberg began rehearsals of SNOW by working closely with his three dancers (he is the fourth dancer in the piece), considering initial dynamics between each other as well as ways each dancer is individually animated. Exploring different relationships solos, duets and trios Lidberg looked at the quartet relationship as a means of evoking the physical as well as emotional world of the puppet. Kevin Augustine was a key collaborator in this process, developing the puppet in various mockups specifically for the work and has rehearsed with the performers throughout the creative process. SNOW was originally created at New York City Center during Lidberg s Choreography Fellowship, and at an international studio residency at the Arts Grants Committee of Sweden in Stockholm.

4 WHO S WHO IN THE COMPANY PONTUS LIDBERG (Choreographer, Dancer): Swedish choreographer, filmmaker and dancer, Pontus Lidberg reached worldwide recognition with his film The Rain, for which he received numerous awards. As a choreographer for the stage, Lidberg has created over 35 works for major international dance companies such as SemperOper Ballet Dresden, The Royal Swedish Ballet, Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, The Royal Danish Ballet, Beijing Dance Theatre, The Norwegian National Ballet, Morphoses, as well as for his own concert group Pontus Lidberg Dance, which made its New York debut at New York City Center s Fall For Dance Festival in Highlights of recent productions include a contemporary, re-imagined Giselle for Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, nominated for Best Dance Production 2012 by Dance Europe Magazine. His re-invented full length production of Raymonda for the Royal Swedish Ballet premiered in Stockholm in November In a few short years, Pontus Lidberg has established himself as a creative and visionary artist, merging dance and film. He was nominated for a New York Dance and Performance Award Bessie for Outstanding Visual Design for his dance and film evening WITHIN (Labyrinth Within), created during his 2012 tenure as Resident Artistic Director of Morphoses. His dance film, Labyrinth Within (2011) won Best Picture at Lincoln Center s Dance on Camera Festival in Lidberg received a Choreography Fellowship from New York City Center and a 2012 finalist award from The Vilcek Foundation for Creative Promise in Dance. He held a 2013 Blodgett Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, co-sponsored by Harvard University s Department of Music. Additionally, he has been in artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts (2008), Joyce SoHo (2010), and the Baryshnikov Arts Center (2010). Raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Lidberg trained with the Royal Swedish Ballet School. From 1996 to 2003, he danced with The Royal Swedish Ballet, The Norwegian National Ballet, Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, and The Göteborg Ballet. He holds an MFA in Contemporary Performing Arts (2014) from the University of Gothenburg, Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts. RYAN FRANCIS (Composer): The American composer has made a career out of an eclectic mix of musical projects. His music has been described as shimmering, focused and rhythmically sharp-edged (The New York Times), sweeping and exceptional (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and compelling (Los Angeles Times). Recent commissions and performances include Stream, a ballet with choreographer Pontus Lidberg for the Oregon Ballet Theater; Akhet for the El Sakia String Orchestra at the Library of Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt; a guitar concerto for Mattias Jacobsson commissioned by the Augustine Foundation and Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and Sylvan, commissioned by the Banff Centre of Canada. Upcoming projects include an orchestral collaboration with singer/ producer/violinist Emily Wells, a new score for Cadillac Moon, a work for cello and electronics for Michael Nicolas of the International Contemporary Ensemble and a new work for pianist Conor Hanick and Metropolis Ensemble s 10th anniversary season. Other recent projects include High Line, Francis musical response to Manhattan s High Line park, which premiered by the American Composers Orchestra in Carnegie Hall s Zankel Hall; piano works inspired by Haruki Murakami s novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, performed at Sumida Triphony Hall, Tokyo; and an electro-acoustic arrangement of Stravinksy s Rite of Spring that he co-created for Wordless Music and the Celebrate Brooklyn Festival, which was broadcast live on NPR. Born in Portland, Oregon, Francis trained at The Juilliard School, where he received his Master s and Doctoral degrees in Composition as a student of Robert Beaser. At Juilliard, he twice won the Palmer Dixon Prize, the school s highest award given to a composition student, and he received a Charles Ives scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters. Francis holds a Bachelor of Composition from the University of Michigan, where he

5 WHO S WHO IN THE COMPANY studied with Bright Sheng, Evan Chambers, Susan Botti and Erik Santos. His music is available on Tzadik, Albany and New Dynamic Records. STEFAN LEVIN (Composer), composer, guitarist and music producer, is known for his signature blend of acoustic instruments with electronic sounds. He studied classical guitar at the University of Gothenburg, Academy of Music and Drama in Sweden. During this period, he also studied composition privately. Through a Royal Academy of Music scholarship, he continued his studies in composition and guitar in Italy and diploma studies in composition at the Academy of Music in Malmö, Sweden. Levin s affinity for contemporary dance has brought his music to dance venues across the world. His compositions have been performed by dance companies, such as the Cullberg Ballet: As If, Negro con Flores, and Blanco by Johan Inger; Stockholm 59 North: Cantus in the Memory of the Dancing Queen by Giovanni Bucchieri; and The Royal Swedish Ballet: Come You Daughters by Giovanni Bucchieri. A collaboration with Pontus Lidberg began in 2014 with a work that premiered at New York City Center s Fall For Dance Festival. Levin also composes music for theater and film and found another niche in documentary films. He is currently working with the 2014 EMMY awarded director Maryam Ebrahimi. He recently picked up his guitar and formed a duo with Hans Nyman (nymanlevin. com). They released their first album, TRIP, in KAITLYN GILLILAND (Dancer) trained at the Minnesota Dance Theatre before moving to New York at age 16 to train at the School of American Ballet, where she received the Mae L. Wien Award for outstanding promise in From 2006 to 2011, Gilliland danced with the New York City Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet, performing corps, soloist, and principal roles in works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Eliot Feld, Douglas Lee, Peter Martins, Angelin Preljocaj, and Christopher Wheeldon. She was the New York City Ballet s Janice Levin Dancer Honoree in Since leaving the New York City Ballet, Gilliland has appeared with BalletNext, BalletCollective, Ballet Tech, Emery LeCrone, Intermezzo Dance Company, Trainor Dance, and the Minnesota Dance Theatre. She currently serves on the School of American Ballet s faculty and is a senior at Columbia University. CHRISTOPHER ADAMS (Dancer) is currently a member of Zvidance, Susan Marshall, and Company and Pontus Lidberg Dance. He and his brother, Warren Adams, recently finished work on Harambe Nights The Lion King: Concert in the Wild at Walt Disney World. Past credits include Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, where he performed works by Didy Veldman, Jill Johnson, Stijin Celis, and Ohad Naharin. Adams has performed in Metropolitan Opera productions from 2009 to the present. He was Associate Choreographer and Dancer in the production of Magdalena at Theatre du Chatelet Paris in He has worked with dance companies Ballet X, Sidra Bell, and Compagnie Julie Bour. Adams trained at the Toynbee Ballet School and the National School of the Arts, South Africa. He performed with the South African Ballet Theatre and received the Linbury scholarship to study at London s Rambert School.

6 WHO S WHO IN THE COMPANY BARTON COWPERTHWAITE (Dancer), a Denver native, began dancing at age 12. He trained at The Academy of Colorado Ballet and was a high school dance major at Denver School of the Arts. He earned a BFA in Dance from The University of Arizona in In school, he performed the principal roles of George Balanchine s Allegro Brilliante and Rubies. Cowperthwaite starred in Rasta Thomas Bad Boys of Dance s production of Romeo and Juliet and Lar Lubovitch s world premiere of The Black Rose, and he has worked with Alessandra Ferri, Fang Yi Sheu, Matthew Powell, Emily Schoen, and Christopher Williams. He is humbled and grateful to be dancing with Pontus Lidberg Dance for the first time. CAROLYN WONG (Lighting Design), the Oberlin College alumna and San Francisco native, has toured with Shen Wei Dance Arts, the Parsons Dance Company, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, LeeSaar/ The Company, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring The Rockettes. Wong s work can be seen in the repertories of Liz Gerring Dance, Luna Negra Dance Company, Nai-Ni Chen Dance, Nejla Yatkin, Daniel Gwirtzman, Juliana F. May, and Roxane Butterfly. Her recent Broadway work includes assisting with the productions of Bullets Over Broadway, The Glass Menagerie, and Annie. She is currently the resident designer for the Minnesota dance company TU Dance. REID BARTELME (Costume Design) began his professional life as a dancer. He worked for Ballet companies throughout North America and Canada, and later in his career, he worked for modern dance companies in New York including Shen Wei Dance Arts and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. He has also performed in works by Jack Ferver, Liz Santoro, Burr Johnson, Douglas Dunn, Christopher Williams, and Kyle Abraham. He went on to graduate from the fashion design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology and began working as a freelance costume designer. Reid has designed costumes, most notably, for Christopher Wheeldon, Lar Lubovitch, Pam Tanowitz, Trey McIntyre, Jack Ferver, Pontus Lidberg, and Liz Santoro. In collaboration with designer Harriet Jung, Reid has designed costumes for the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Justin Peck, Marcelo Gomes, Jodi Melnick, Doug Varone, and Kyle Abraham. Head Shots: Pontus Lidberg by Nil Arieli; Kaitlyn Gilliland by Paul B. Goode; Christopher Adams by Jubal Battisti; Barton Cowperthwaite by Taylor Noel