Spring Loaded
March 28 - 31, 2007
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
"A time to be born, and a time to die;"
Dancers: Brodie Stevenson with Cortčge – Jaasiel Bean, Masuyo Higashide, Sung hee Jhun, Genevičve Ménard
"A time to kill;"
Dancer: Byron Beckford
"And a time to heal;"
Dancers: Rénald Jean-Pierre, Genevičve Ménard
"A time to mourn;...and a time to weep;"
Dancers: Jaasiel Bean, Sung hee Jhun, Genevičve Ménard
"A time to laugh...a time to dance;"
Dancer: Masuyo Higashide
Costumes on loan courtesy of Caroline O’Brien at the National Ballet School.
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.
©1996, José Limón Dance Foundation. This performance of excerpts from There is a Time, 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).
man within (1989/2005)
Choreography: Karen Jamieson
Original Score: Jeff Corness
Rehearsal Direction: Patricia Fraser
Original Costume Design: Susan Berganzi and Catherine Lubinsky
Costume Recreation: Lori Endes
Dancers: Sze-Yang Lam; Jennifer Lécuyer (March 28, 30); Sung hee Jhun (March 29, 31)
Man Within was created in 1989. The work investigates the weight of the body as a metaphor for the spirit. The act of carrying the weight of another becomes, paradoxically, both a burden and a privilege. This universal work's elements are bound into singularity by the power of its central metaphor - the physical act of one person carrying another. It is formally realized through an image that is accessible to everyone. The work is distilled, spare, and elegant. - K.J.
K.J.4. (1994)
Choreography: Rachel Browne
Music: Keith Jarrett
Reconstruction & Rehearsal Direction:Mairéad Filgate
Rehearsal Assistance: Andrea Roberts
Lighting Design: Geoff Bouckley after Hugh Conacher
Dancers: Masuyo Higashide, Jennifer Lécuyer, Catherine McLaughlin, Geneviève Ménard (March 29, 31); Jasmine Ellis, Sung hee Jhun, Emily Law, Shauna Taylor (March 28, 30)
This work was inspired by the energetic music of Keith Jarrett. - R.B.
It was originally commissioned in 1994 as K.J.3 by the Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre with generous assistance from the Laidlaw Foundation.
yang (1998/2003)
Choreography: Peggy Baker
Music: “Frisking Prolationum for 11 Percussionists,” Thierry de Mey
Rehearsal Direction: Patricia Miner
Lighting Design: Geoff Bouckley after Marc Parent
Costume Design: Lori Endes after Peggy Baker and Caroline O’Brien
Dancers: Tera Hawes, Kristina Udegbunam (March 28, 30); Jaasiel Bean, Lilia Leon (March 29, 31)
Yang is one of the two major principles of Taoist philosophy. Represented in writing by the ideogram for the sun’s rays, and in hexagrams of the I Ching as an unbroken line, yang is all that is bright, dry, hard, masculine, round, odd-numbered, and upward moving.
Yang was created for Sylvain Brochu in 1998. In 2003, the original solo was superimposed with a second reconfigured version and performed as a duet by Sylvain Brochu and Shannon Cooney. - P.B.
duet from fjeld (1990)
Choreography: Christopher House
Music: Arvo Pärt, "Es sang vor langen Jahren," played by The Hilliard Ensemble
Reconstruction & Rehearsal Direction: Rosemary James
Lighting Design: Geoff Bouckley after Ron Snippe
Costume Design: Denis Joffre
Dancers: Jasmine Ellis, Emily Law (March 28, 30); Tera Hawes, Kristina Udegbunam (March 29, 31)
Fjeld, a piece in five sections, was inspired by a year of reading the Bible. This duet feels to me like a Symbolist painting or a Bergman film...stark and restrained with passion bubbling below the surface. Although the dance was created in silence, the evocative song by Arvo Pärt feels tailor-made for the choreography. I worked simultaneously with two magnificent casts: Coralee McLaren and Kate Alton, and Monica Burr and Miriane Braaf. - C.H.
Sisyphus (1983/2006)
Choreography: Karen Jamieson
Original Score: David K. MacIntyre
Rehearsal Direction: Patricia Fraser
Musical Director: Peter Hurst
Musical Director for the School of TDT performances: Catherine McLaughlin
Lighting Design: Geoff Bouckley after Gerald King
Original Costume Design: Susan Berganzi
Costume Adaptation: Lori Endes assisted by Laura George
Dancers: Sisyphus - Byron Beckford (March 28, 30), Brodie Stevenson (March 29, 31); Byron Beckford, Rénald Jean-Pierre, Sze-Yang Lam, Lilia Leon, Catherine McLaughlin, Brodie Stevenson, Shauna Taylor
First created in 1983, Sisyphus is a powerful interpretation of the ancient Greek myth that tells the tale of the king who, for his hubris, was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity. Dancers struggle to reach their destination by hurling themselves at a wall and building human pyramids. Intensely rhythmic, the choreography is considered to be one of Karen Jamieson's strongest works, and was named one of the ten choreographic masterworks of the 20th century by Dance Collection Danse magazine.
In Sisyphus the question was, “What are we doing that we get up every morning and hurl our bodies into the air?” It never gets easier to get up in the morning and throw your body, against gravity, into the air, to go against inertia, to go against the flow, against the stream. That's what Sisyphus is about, it's about going against the prevailing flow, about going back to the source. - K.J.
Thank you to Kate Stashko for her valuable contribution to the rehearsal process.