Paul Taylor’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal)
with premieres by faculty Amy Chavasse,
Jessica Fogel, and Sandra Torijano
University Dance Company
Power Center
February 4 - 7, 2010
Overview
With (Re)Visionary Dances, the University Dance Company celebrates its protean capacity both to consistently generate new visions for the stage and re-envision landmark moments from its extraordinarily rich legacy.
Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal) by Paul Taylor highlights the concert. This 30th anniversary staging of Taylor’s irreverent and brilliant work is in celebration of the foremost American modern choreographer’s 80th birthday. A delicious double-narrative, the dance tells a Runyonesque detective story juxtaposed against the daily rituals and intrigues of a touring dance company. Premiered in 1980, Taylor’s Le Sacre is set to Stravinsky’s eminent piano score of the same name, in the original version for four hands to be played live. According to the San Francisco Examiner, “Paul Taylor is without question the greatest living American choreographer. Taylor’s emphasis on emotion within actual movement, the rhythmic vitality of his accents, his all-American youthfulness and optimism, all have set standards for American dance.”
Faculty member Amy Chavasse creates Hunger for the Longing for the Craving for the Aching. Using four very different versions of Woody Guthrie’s 1940 seminal folk song, “This Land is Your Land,” Chavasse has collaborated with her cast to construct a Busby Berkeley-like pastiche in homage to things that are true and right and ours. Out of Thin Air — Lightness by Jessica Fogel is inspired by recent discoveries about the deep quantum world of particle physics. The dance is set to a layered digital sound collage of text and music. Sandra Torijano’s La Luna Nueva envisions the overcoming of adversity as a process of personal transformation supported by friendship and love, embodied in a radiantly choreographed epiphany.
Additional Events
Curtain Call Friday
Post-show discussion featuring Ruth Andrien, Amy Chavasse, Jessica Fogel, Sandra Torijano, and dancers; moderated by Peter Sparling
Friday, Feb. 5, following the performance (approx. 9:45 PM), Power Center
Playing Stravinsky's Le Sacre for four hands
Doctoral lecture demonstration by pianist Ilya Blinov
Saturday, Feb. 6, 7:15 - 7:45 PM, Power Center Reception Room
Panel Discussion - Restaging Le Sacre
Featuring Ruth Andrien and Eileen Cropley (former PTDC member); moderated by Angela Kane (Chair, Dept. of Dance & PTDC Historian)
Sunday, Feb. 7, 1:00 - 1:45 PM, Power Center Reception Room
Resources
Follow our blog on the restaging of Sacre!
