ACCELERATION 2008
April 2 - 5, 2008
WICCE (April 2, 2008)
Choreography: Louis Laberge-Coté
Music: Kodo
Dancers: Christina Giannelia, Jasmine Graham, Krista Posyniak, Rose-Marie Thériault
The creation of Wicce was loosely based around the idea of witches. It is a non-figurative exploration of physical entrapment, repressed feminine power, and the quest for liberation. I would like to thank the dancers for their invaluable input and support during the creative process. - L.L-C.
rocket girl (1999)
Choreography: Peggy Baker
Music: Kurt Swinghammer
Assistant to the Choreographer: Sahara Morimoto
Rehearsal Director: Patricia Miner
Dancer: Amanda Acorn (April 2 & 5); Savannah K. Hoag (April 3 & 4)
Rocket Girl was created for Carolyn Woods, at the invitation of Serge Bennathan, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Dancemakers.
Thank you to Kurt Swinghammer for the generous gift of his music for these performances of Rocket Girl.
For Patricia Miner. - P.B.
Selections from works by josÉ LimÓn
Excerpts from There is a Time (1956)
Choreography: José Limón
Music: Norman Dello Joio *
Direction & Reconstruction: Risa Steinberg
Rehearsal Direction: Patricia Miner
Original Costume Design: Pauline Lawrence
Costume for "A time to laugh": Lori Endes
"A time to laugh...a time to dance;"
Dancers: Jasmine Graham with Amanda Acorn, Jelani Ade Douglas, Savannah K. Hoag, Emily Poirier, Laurence Ramsay, Andrew Taylor
"A time to hate...a time of war;"
Dancers: Whitney Mah with Amanda Acorn, Christina Giannelia, Savannah K. Hoag, Emily Poirier, Laurence Ramsay, Janine Sicotte, Andrew Taylor
first performed April 20, 1956 at the Juilliard School of Music by the José Limón Dance Company
The entire work is, both choreographically and musically, a theme with variations. The choreographer used as his theme a large circle, which, at the opening of the (full) work, fills the stage and moves majestically as if to evoke the interminable passage of time. This circle is seen repeatedly in many guises, rhythms, and dramatic shapes, always making allusion to the text from Chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes and its evocation of human experience.
* “Meditations on Ecclesiastes,” commissioned for José Limón by the Juilliard Music Foundation and its Festival of American Music, April 1956. This score earned the composer the Pulitzer Prize in 1957.
Excerpt from dances for isadora (1971)
Choreography: José Limón
Music: Frédéric Chopin
Direction & Reconstruction: Risa Steinberg
Rehearsal Direction: Patricia Miner
Original Costume Design: Charles D. Tomlinson
Niobe
Dancer: Christina Lilley
©1996, José Limón Dance Foundation. This performance of excerpts from There is a Time and Dances for Isadora, a Limónsm Dance, is presented by arrangement with The José Limón Dance Foundation, Inc. and has been produced in accordance with the Limón Stylesm and Limón Techniquesm service standards established by The José Limón Dance Foundation, Inc. Limónsm, Limón Stylesm and Limón Techniquesm are trade and service marks of The José Limón Dance Foundation, Inc. (all rights reserved).
Colder ink (1994)
Choreography: Christopher House
Music: Tim Brady, "Dead of Winter"
Rehearsal Direction: Rosemary James, Patricia Miner
Costume Design: Denis Joffre
Lighting Design: Geoff Bouckley after Ron Snippe
Dancers: Jelani Ade Douglas, Shannon Leibgott (April 2 & 5), Whitney Mah (April 2 & 5), Emily Poirier (April 3 & 4), Debra Su (April 3 & 4), Andrew Taylor
Understudy: Laurence Ramsay
Colder Ink was created in the spring of 1994. The premiere performance was danced by the dream cast of Kate Alton, Coralee McLaren, Graham McKelvie and Michael Trent, the movement vocabulary having been developed with the fabulous Laurence Lemieux. Colder Ink is a seminal work for me in its eccentric counterpoint and its broad movement palette. It has been very exciting to watch these young dancers rise to the challenges of the work: the choreography requires extreme precision and control to execute, yet the performer must be serenely present in the here-and-now. - C.H.
the near distance (April 2, 2008)
Choreography & Direction: Julia Sasso
Music: György Ligeti
Dancers: Mor Bar-Zakai, Shannon Leibgott, Laurence Ramsay, Debra Su
nothing is quite as so… I forget what I wish to remember and remember all that I wanted to forget… when we meet, you have changed, and I am no longer the same. - J.S.
when the door is wide open (April 2, 2008)
Choreography: Margie Gillis
Music: Peter Schickele, "Quartet for Piano, Clarinet, Violin and Cello: IV Quite Fast"
Rehearsal Direction: Patricia Fraser
Dancers: Mor Bar-Zakai, Christina Lilley, Krista Posyniak, Janine Sicotte, Rose-Marie Thériault
This dance is created to engage and involve the thinking dancer; to stir an ongoing, active, living awareness and dialogue between the artist and the subject; to give joy to the search and sharing. - M.G.
Gillis' work is supported by The Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, and she is grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.