In a near future world, a family is torn apart as they escape their homeland ravaged by the impact of climate change. Arriving alone in a deserted modern city, and with wild animals claiming the streets as their own, the child soon discovers unlikely allies in this strange new jungle.
In Akram Khan’s new dance-theatre production based on the original story of Rudyard Kipling’s much-loved family classic, Akram and his team reinvent the journey of Mowgli through the eyes of a climate refugee.
Featuring an original score, ten international dancers and state-of-the-art animation and visuals, Jungle Book reimagined is a beautifully compelling and vital piece of storytelling about our intrinsic need to belong and bond with others, and placing the importance of connecting with and respecting our natural world at its heart.
Age suitability: all generations of audiences from 10 upwards
As always, (Khan’s) choreography is beyond compare
- The Scotsman
Jungle Book reimagined brings together a stellar creative team, with script by Tariq Jordan, dramaturgy by Sharon Clark, an original score by Jocelyn Pook, sound design comes from Gareth Fry and lighting by Michael Hulls. Transforming the stage into a magical world, diving into the myths of today, is Miriam Buether with visual stage design, whilst video design and animation comes from YeastCulture.
‘Climate change is and will continue to affect all living creatures on this beautiful planet. So then how do we create a work that uses less sets, so we can travel lighter when touring? Since lockdown, I have come to appreciate technology, in ways that I did not before Covid-19. And that’s simply because it has allowed me to stay connected with my loved ones, my artistic team and the wider world. Without the use of technology, I would have felt truly
alone.
And so I would like to propose an empty stage… which means the absence of a physical set. To do that, I would like to explore through the use of technology, projections and film as the non physical set. We must not forget that most often, great storytelling can be told by the simplest of tools. Our bodies, our voices, and our conviction in that story.’
— Akram Khan
Running time approx 2hrs, incl 15min intermission
2-day get-in
Premiere Louvre Abu Dhabi 2022
Choreography Aditi Mangaldas
Russell Maliphant
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Lighting Fabiana Piccioli
Michael Hulls
Willy Cessa
Music Shubha Mudgal
Aneesh Pradhan
Andy Cowton
Olga Wojciechowska
An incredible triple bill from award-winning dancer and choreographer Aakash Odedra featuring Echoes, CUT and Constellation. A mesmerising evening of three solos choreographed by acclaimed artists Aditi Mangaldas, Russell Maliphant and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. The works draw on Aakash’s classical background in kathak and bharatanatyam and create a unique fusion of contemporary and South Asian dance. This is the first time these three works have been performed together, offering a rare opportunity to experience an astonishing evening of dance by one of the most talented British South Asian dancers of his generation.
An exceptionally agile dancer who, it appears, has no trouble slipping between styles, effortlessly multilingual
- The New York Times
From the off, Odedra surprises. Instead of wearing the bells on his ankles, and to a plaintive song, he swings them in a circle of light. They flash and glitter as they slice through the beams, thudding as they strike the floor. A cascade of ghungroos dangle in one corner like a glistening waterfall, individual ones snaking across the floor in rivulets of gold.
Jump into a world where words and letters take flight with Aakash Odedra Company’s Little Murmur.
Diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, Aakash Odedra found school very challenging. Defined by his learning difficulties, not his abilities, dance became his means of expression.
Based on his own hugely moving and international award -
winning show Murmur 2.0, Little Murmur is Aakash’s funny, honest and heartfelt conversation about the trials, and the joys, of
living with dyslexia.
Combining visual design and technology with dance and humor, Aakash explores warped and exaggerated realities of living in a world you can struggle to process. Watch bodies and
words fly like flocks of birds, a murmuration, a little murmur.
dancing combines with digital imager to portray the confusion ad alienation his dyslexia caused.
- The Guardian
Murmur is the opposite of opaque, a revelation of a world of wonder inside the mind
In this heady world of symbolism, under the weight of history and identity, Odedra and Hu are electric.
- The Guardian
Premiere Asia TOPA 2020
Co-producing/commissioning partners Asia TOPA, Arts Centre Melbourne; Birmingham Hippodrome; Curve, Leicester; Royal Ballet; Shanghai International Dance Centre, Theatre National de Chaillot.
Supporting partners British Council; Jacob’s Pillow, USA; Peacock Contemporary Dance Company, Kunming; Playking Foundation; Sidney Myer Fund; Victoria Government.
Choreography Aakash Odedra Hu Shenyuan
Dramaturgy Lou Cope
Lighting Yaron Abulafia
Score Nicki Wells
Set Tina Tzoka
Costume K H Lee
Find out more online using the QR code!
AAKASH ODEDRA COMPANY
Billed as a contemporary dance duet, Samsara is so much more than that. Although in this instance, that would be enough – so utterly compelling are the two men performing it – but the stage is also alive with music, an art installation and lighting design so beautiful, it is almost a show in itself.
- The Scotsman
Aakash and Hu are regarded as the finest examples of their specific forms of dance in their native cultures, UK/India and China respectively. Aakash has garnered worldwide attention for his impeccable and virtuosic Kathak performances and Hu has been described by Chinese Dance icon Yang Liping as ‘A gifted Soft Body’.
They have found that despite not sharing a common spoken language, their bodies yearn to share movement, stories and to explore these ineffable frontiers between themselves.
Composer, Nicki Wells is blessed with an unparalleled memory for melody and vocal technique from virtually any culture. She is able to easily leap from folk, French hip-hop, deep gospel, jazz or choral vocals to Indian classical or Arabic inflections as if all were emanating directly from her soul.
She has performed around the world as lead vocalist with award-winning composer Nitin Sawhney.
Touring Information
Day before get-in required
Performance time 60mins
Stage dimensions 12m width, 11m depth
Artists on stage 5
Company on the road 10-11
Varone’s ability to convey depths of emotion through highly charged, physically exciting choreography has made him a rarity among his generation.
- The New York Times
Design Collaborators
Lighting and projection designers Ben Stanton and Lucy Mackinnon will create starkly different performance environments for the two parts. Costumes, which will underscore and embellish the underlying themes and emotions of each section, will be designed by long-time Varone collaborator Liz Prince.
Length
Part 1: 40 minutes Part 2: 30 minutes
Touring
To MY Arms / Restore can be presented as an evening-length program, or each part can be presented individually and combined on a program with other works from our repertory.
Touring personnel: 10-12
Commissioning opportunities are available.
TO MY ARMS / RESTORE
To My Arms / Restore is a two-part work embodying Varone’s decades’ long choreographic fascination between the deeply emotional and the immensely physical. Set to a suite of exquisite operatic arias by Georg Fredric Handel, To My Arms (Part 1), builds a rich and distinct landscape of love and loss within a suite of ten dances, evoking a strange otherworld of intimacy. In stark contrast, Restore (Part 2) is visceral, tactile, and unsparing movement that explodes across the stage, revealing a new and wide-open terrain of physicality. It is driven by the 21st century sound of DJ Nico Bentley’s Handel Remixed, a score that fuses the fundamentals of Handel’s 18th century choral score Dixit Dominus with beats more commonly heard in clubs around the globe; the result of which is a marriage between a score and a dance that is unabashedly glorious. With To My Arms/Restore, Varone’s masterly hand at crafting rich dances of emotional and physical resonances is on full display.
Music
Both parts can be performed with either live or recorded music. Live music options provide opportunities for college and community opera and chamber music groups to participate and perform, enriching the capacity to bring local audiences to the project.
Options for live music are:
Part 1: Chamber ensemble with two or more vocalists.
Part 2: Chamber ensemble with four vocalists, or chamber ensemble with twelve-person (or larger) chorus.
Live music options involve a DJ electronically remixing the score during the performance.
Link to Part 1/To My Arms studio in process-recording:
REPERTORY PROGRAM
Photo: Jose Gato
SOMEWHERE (2019)
Somewhere reimagines Leonard Bernstein’s timeless West Side Story by stripping the orchestral score of its narrative connotations. The result: pure choreographic vibraPncy, brimming with nuance and emotional heft generated by the musical structure.
"Somewhere, is Doug Varone’s ravishing take on the orchestral score to West Side Story, Filled with the most sublime invention, Somewhere seems destined to become a classic work of contemporary dance. The entire work stands as a testament to this choreographer’s prolific creation of movement.” – Santa Barbara Independent
“The beauty of Varone’s version of West Side Story performed in its New York premiere for an audience that surely could sing along to the original by heart, is that he presents the story as if it were a dream sequence. Somewhere is pure dance relieved of storyline and lyrics.”
Length: 30 minutes
Touring Personnel: 10-12
Music: Recorded
Photo: Jose Gato
RISE (1993)
For the 23-24 season, Varone has reconstructed a new production of his master work Rise. In Rise, dancers spill across the stage in swirls of controlled chaos, with composer John Adam’s Fearful Symmetries underlying each step.
“The choreography and staging, combined with Adams’s score, create the kind of visual excitement that’s rare in any dance, much less one where non-stop movement provides the only basis for excitement.”
Critical Dance
"Mr. Varone has a company of daredevils, profoundly human superhumans who dance on a dime -- wheeling, darting and slicing the air at lethal-looking speeds -- and subside into passing moments of gentle, sometimes almost drowsy near-stillness filled with sweetness and affection. "Rise," danced to music by Mr. Adams, communicates all this and suggests how good Mr. Varone is at structuring his choreography." - The New York Times
Length: 30 minutes
Touring Personnel: 10-12
Music: Recorded
About the company
For more than 35 years, Doug Varone and Dancers has built a legacy of award-winning dances. From the smallest gesture to full-throttle bursts of movement, Varone’s work can take your breath away with both its athleticism and its passion. Reaching out well beyond the proscenium arch, this legacy is underscored with the company’s renown residency and outreach programs. On tour, the company has performed in more than 125 cities in 45 states across the U.S. and in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. Stages include The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, San Francisco Performances, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, Toronto's Harbourfront, Moscow's Stanislavsky Theater, Buenos Aires’ Teatro San Martin, the Venice Biennale, Marble Hall in Tokyo, and the Bates, Jacob's Pillow and American Dance Festivals. Varone, his dancers and designers have been honored with 11 Bessie Awards.
Inspired by Journeyto the West, a major text of China created during the Ming Dynasty, SAMSARA tells the story of how Buddhist philosophy was sought by a monk’s arduous journey through India and finally brought to China.
Sharing cultures and the search for knowledge are age-old and suggest the human need for interdependence for its own advancement. This is as relevant today as it has ever been.
ON AAKASH ODEDRA
‘“Rising” reveals an exceptionally agile dancer who, it appears, has no trouble slipping between styles, effortlessly multilingual.’ New York Times
‘Aakash Odedra transfixes and transports his audience, receiving a deservedly rapturous response.’ Sydney Morning Herald
ON HU SHENYUAN
‘Hu Shenyuan is outstanding… He moves with an eerie suppleness, the delicate, voluptuous coils of his body evoking a rare hot-house beauty.’The Guardian
“ (Hu Shenyuan) moves almost like a ballerina, with beautifully pointed feet and lyrical contortions.” New York Times
Aakash and Hu are regarded as the finest examples of their specific forms of dance in their native cultures, UK/India and China respectively. Aakash has garnered worldwide attention for his impeccable and virtuosic Kathak performances and Hu has been described by Chinese Dance icon Yang Liping as ‘A gifted Soft Body’.
They have found that despite not sharing a common spoken language, their bodies yearn to share movement, stories and to explore these ineffable frontiers between themselves.
Composer, Nicki Wells is blessed with an unparalleled memory for melody and vocal technique from virtually any culture. She is able to easily leap from folk, French hip-hop, deep gospel, jazz or choral vocals to Indian classical or Arabic inflections as if all were emanating directly from her soul.
She has performed around the world as lead vocalist with award-winning composer Nitin Sawhney
Production Credits
Artistic Director: Aakash Odedra
Choreographers and Dance Artists: Aakash Odedra and Hu Shenyuan
Dramaturg: Lou Cope
Composer: Nicki Wells
Lighting Design: Yaron Abulafia
Set: Tina Tzoka
Producer: Anand Bhatt
Numbers on the road: 10
On Stage: 5 (2 dancers/3 musicians)
Rehearsal Director: 1
Sound Technician: 1
LX Technician: 1
Stage/Scenery:1
Company Manager: 1
2 from Shanghai/8 from Europe
Tech Demands: 1 day before get-in, strike on same evening after the show, Detailed tech Spec available in early 2020, indicative tech spec available from Oct 2019
Freight: Up to one large container
More information will be confirmed through 2019 and early 2020
5-7th March 2020 – Asia TOPA, Melbourne, Australia (World Premiere)
Where to see Samsara on tour:
Postponed…
5-7th March 2020 – Asia TOPA, Melbourne, Australia (World Premiere)
13-15th March 2020 – International Dance Center, Shanghai, China
12th June 2020 – Birmingham Hippodrome, UK
23-24th June 2020 – The Lowry, Salford Quays, UK
8-10th October 2020 – Dance Umbrella/Royal Opera House, London, UK
27th-28th October 2020 – Curve Theatre, Leicester, UK
4th-7th November 2020 – Chaillot National Centre De Danse, Paris, France
The Company is creating a full-length dance work that absorbs the iconic masterpiece in all its aspects (editing, camera angles, music, etc.) without re-enacting any of its dramatic narrative. For Somewhere, Varone dissected Thomas Stanford’s radical editing choices, as well as Jerome Robbin’s camera movements and angles—translating them into dances that are dynamically skewed and off-kilter in form and vocabulary. Somewhere is performed to Leonard Bernstein’s masterful orchestral score for West Side Story. Its symphonic complexity and arresting melodies have been mined purely for their choreographic energy.
Somewhere’s dancesexplore a strikingly unique physical and visual environment. Key collaborators include award-winning lighting designer Ben Stanton, whose intricate lighting designs change the stage picture in swift increments, much like fast paced film editing. Wendall Harrington’s moving projections envelop the stage, working seamlessly with the choreography and giving the score new visual context.
Somewhere will be available for touring in the 2019-20 season and be part of a mixed repertory evening. The Company works closely with presenters to create a balanced evening that works best for their venue and constituents.
Somewhere
8 dancers | 30 minutes in length
ChoreographybyDoug Varone
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Lighting Design by Ben Stanton
Visual Design by Wendall Harrington
Costume Design by Reid and Harriet
“The first time I ever heard the Westside Story score, I think I must have been 5 yrs old and I remember it as being one of the first records that my folks ever bought and it was the Mantovani and his orchestra recording, so it was only an orchestral version of these. I had no idea what they were, didn’t know they were from Westside Story, but I would build dances to them.”
Doug Varone
Award-winning choreographer and director, Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, and fashion. He is a passionate educator and articulate advocate for dance. By any measure, his work is extraordinary for its emotional range, kinetic breadth and the many arenas in which he works. His New York City-based Doug Varone and Dancers has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for close to three decades.
Inspired by Varone’s life-long obsession with the 1961 movie version of West Side Story, the Company will create a purely abstract dance work by absorbing the iconic masterpiece in all its aspects (music, camera angles, editing, etc.) without re-enacting any of its dramatic narrative.
Leonard Bernstein’s musical score, with its symphonic complexity and arresting melodies, is a timeless masterwork. Varone will strip the Bernstein orchestral score of its narrative connotations and reimagine the score purely on the choreographic energy generated by its sounds and musical structure.
Varone has spent endless hours viewing the film and examining Thomas Stanford’s visceral film editing. For Somewherehe will dissect those, as well as Jerome Robbin’s camera movements and angles, using them as inspiration to craft new dances, askew and off-kilter in form and vocabulary. Against the Bernstein score, a strikingly unique physical and visual environment will be explored.
Key collaborators will include award-winning lighting designer Ben Stanton, creating complex lighting designs that will “change the stage picture” in swift increments, much like fast paced film editing; and Wendall Harrington who will provide moving projections that will envelop the stage, working seamlessly with the choreography and giving the score new visual context.
Somewherewill be available for touring in the 2019-20 season and be part of a mixed repertory evening. The Company works closely with presenters to create an balanced evening that works best for their venue and constituents.
8 dancers | 30 minutes in length
Artistic Team & Credit
ChoreographybyDoug Varone
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Lighting Design byBen Stanton
Visual Design byWendall Harrington
Costume Design byReid and Harriet
Support
Doug Varone and Dancers’ programs are supported in part by the Alphawood Foundation, Barbara Bell Cumming Charitable Trust, Bulova Gala Foundation, Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards, Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, Exploring the Metropolis Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Gladys Kreible Delmas Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, and Shubert Foundation, as well as public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and New York State Legislature, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. We also gratefully acknowledge our many individual supporters.
“Doug Varone and Dancers command attention as soon as the curtain goes up. Rarely do you find a choreographer so dedicated to the full and generous complexity of the human spirit. Many choreographers can create interesting movement; few can make it mean so much.” - CHICAGO TRIBUNE
For more than 30 years, Doug Varone and Dancers has devoted itself to the humanity and virtuosity of dance, reaching out to our audiences well beyond the proscenium arch. We believe this philosophy has allowed us to endure, earning the reputation as one of the most respected dance companies working today. Over time, we’ve created an expansive legacy encompassing dance, theatre, opera and film – establishing an impressive body of work.
The recipient of 11 Bessie Awards, the Company has toured to more than 100 cities in 45 states across the U.S. and in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. Stages include The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City Center, San Francisco Performances, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, Toronto's Harbourfront, Moscow's Stanislavsky Theatre, Buenos Aires’ Teatro San Martin, the Venice Biennale, and the Tokyo, Bates, Jacob's Pillow and American Dance Festivals. In opera and theatre, the Company regularly collaborates on the many Varone-directed or choreographed productions that have been produced around the country.
Doug Varone and Dancers continues to be among the most sought-after ambassadors and educators in the field. The Company's multidisciplinary residency programs take audiences deeper into the work, with a hands-on approach that moves beyond of the studio to speak directly to people of all ages and backgrounds, both dancers and non-dancers alike. Our annual intensive workshops at leading universities have attracted students and professionals from around the country, and through our innovative DEVICES choreographic mentorship program, we are training the next generation of artists and dance-makers.
Whether on the concert stage, in opera or theatre or on the screen, choreographer Doug Varone creates kinetically thrilling dances with rich musicality and emotional depth. From the smallest gesture to full-throttle bursts of movement, Varone's work can take your breath away with both its athleticism and its passion.
DOUG VARONE, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Award-winning choreographer and director, Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, and fashion. He is a passionate educator and articulate advocate for dance. By any measure, his work is extraordinary for its emotional range, kinetic breadth and the many arenas in which he works. His New York City-based Doug Varone and Dancers has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for close to three decades.
In the concert dance world, Varone has created a body of works globally. Commissions include the Paul Taylor American Modern Dance Company, Limón Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Rambert Dance Company (London), Martha Graham Dance Company, Dancemakers (Canada), Batsheva Dance Company (Israel), Bern Ballet (Switzerland) and An Creative (Japan), among others. In addition, his dances have been staged on more than 75 college and university programs around the country.
In opera, Doug Varone is in demand as both a director and choreographer. Among his four productions at The Metropolitan Opera are Salomewith its Dance of the Seven Veils, the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, designed by David Hockney, and Hector Berloiz’s Les Troyens. He has staged multiple premieres and new productions for Minnesota Opera, Opera Colorado, Washington Opera, New York City Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera, among others. His numerous theater credits include choreography for Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theaters across the country. His choreography for the musical Murder Balladat Manhattan Theater Club earned him a Lortel Award nomination. Film credits include choreography for the Patrick Swayze film, One Last Dance. In 2008, Varone’s The Bottomland, set in the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky, was the subject of the PBS Dance in America: Wolf Trap’s Face of America. Last season he directed and choreographed MASTERVOICES production ofDido and Aeneasat NY’s City Center, starring Tony Award winners Kelli O’Hara and Victoria Clark, alongside the Company. Most recently, he staged Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning oratorio, Anthracite Fieldsfeaturing the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Westminster Choir.
Varone received his BFA from Purchase College where he was awarded the President’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. Numerous honors and awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, an OBIE Award (Lincoln Center’s Orpheus and Euridice), the Jerome Robbins Fellowship at the Bogliasco Institute in Italy, and two individual Bessie Awards. In 2015, he was awarded both a Doris Duke Artist Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Dance Guild. Varone teaches workshops and master classes around the world for dancers, musicians and actors. He is currently on the faculty at Purchase College, teaching composition.
Doug Varone and Dancers - in the shelter of the fold /epilogue
in the shelter of the fold /epilogue comprise an evening of inquiry into both public and personal acts of faith. Drawing on his own curiosity about traditional and secularly spontaneous uses of prayer, Varone questions what constitutes faith. To whom are we speaking – and what are we asking for? Is this a mystical or spiritual experience, or simply a dialogue we’re having with ourselves? in the shelter of the fold /epilogue questions our ways of coping, realization, choice; exploring a multitude of expectations inherent in faith and belief.
Created for an ensemble of 8 dancers and 12 guest artists, in the shelter of the fold /epilogue is an episodic work comprised of 6 dances that unfold like a woven tapestry, each revealing a new narrative. mass, the section for the guest dancers, incorporates university dance students and regional dance companies into the performance. “Having the opportunity to perform mass, to live inside the work with the company, physically and energetically, allowed them to rise up as young artists.” Heather Cooper, Associate Director, School of Music and Dance, San Jose State University.
Of its New York premiere at the BAM Fisher Center, Broadway World said, “in the shelter of the fold /epilogue is transcendent and transfixing.”
95 minutes in length (including one 15-minute intermission)
Choreography by Doug Varone
Music by Lesley Flanigan, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Raz Mesinai, Kevin Keller
Lighting Design by David Grill and David Ferri
Costume Design by Liz Prince
horizon: Music by Lesley Flanigan, Sleepy
folded: Music by Julia Wolfe, Believing
shelter: Music by David Lang, Child
mass: Music by Raz Mesinai, La Cidadelle
hope: Music by David Keller, Hope
epilogue: Music by Lesley Flanigan, Hedera
TOURING IN 2019-20
in the shelter of the fold / epilogue
in the shelter of the fold /epiloguecomprise an evening of inquiry into both public and personal acts of faith. Drawing on his own curiosity about traditional and secularly spontaneous uses of prayer, Varone questions what constitutes faith. To whom are we speaking – and what are we asking for? Is this a mystical or spiritual experience, or simply a dialogue we’re having with ourselves? in the shelter of the fold /epiloguequestions our ways of coping, realization, choice; exploring a multitude of expectations inherent in faith and belief.
Created for an ensemble of 8 company dancers and up to 12 guest artists, in the shelter of the fold/epilogueis an episodic work comprised of six dances that unfold like a woven tapestry, each section revealing a new narrative.
Each dance can be shown as stand-alone works or as an interrelated episodic event, scored by five of the most innovative 21st century composers working today. mass, a dance for 12 within in the shelter of the fold, was created so that it could incorporate university dance programs or regional dance companies into the performance. This has proven to be an excellent community component to an engagement with the company, creating a unique residency with the Company.
in the shelter of the fold/epiloguewill have its New York premiere at BAM Brooklyn Academy of Music in the spring of 2019. epiloguewill have its premiere at Vassar College on October 6, 2018.
horizon| Sextet
folded| Duet
shelter| Trio
mass| 12 dancers
hope| Solo
epilogue| 8 dancers
8 dancers plus 12 guest artists | 95 minutes in length (including one 15-minute intermission)
In the shelter of the foldwas commissioned by the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College and premiered on November 5th, 2016. Additional support for foldedwas provided by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and had its New York City premiere at BAM on March 29, 2017.
Doug Varone and Dancers’ programs are supported in part by the Alphawood Foundation, Barbara Bell Cumming Charitable Trust, Bulova Gala Foundation, Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards, Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, Exploring the Metropolis Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Gladys Kreible Delmas Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, and Shubert Foundation, as well as public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and New York State Legislature, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. We also gratefully acknowledge our many individual supporters.
A major international co-production with partners Sadler’s Wells London, Shanghai International Arts Festival, Stanford University and The Edinburgh International Festival
NORTH AMERICAN TOURING: January 2022
Yang Liping’s Rite of Spring is the second full-length contemporary dance piece by Yang Liping, China’s most iconic choreographer and dancer.
This exhilarating reinterpretation draws on Tibetan concepts of the cycles of life and rebirth and the indivisible unity of humankind and the natural world. Taking inspiration from Chinese and Tibetan symbols of nature, Yang Liping creates a preface and a coda, framing Stravinsky’s totemic work as the second of three tableaux — Incantation, Sacrifice and Renewal. Oscar-winning designer Tim Yip has created a visually ravishing work with startling colour and images of striking beauty for Yang Liping’s company of 15 dancers.
The Chosen takes the form of a Peacock, the sacred bird that is a metaphor for beauty, purity and life. It has also been a personal physical embodiment as a dancer for Yang throughout her career. In Yang Liping’s Rite of Spring the Peacock volunteers herself as the chosen one — sacrificing herself for the common good, in the knowledge that she will be reincarnated. The Sage is represented by another important symbol of Tibetan culture — the White Lion. His purpose is to accept the Peacock’s sacrifice, and with the human community prepare the ritual that will lead to her death and a “sky burial.”
“…a striking, visceral production that presents a complex consideration of fertility, sexuality and violence.” The Globe and Mail, Toronto
“A unique experience—the supple dancers are astonishing…” British Theatre Guide
Yang Liping is a Bai ethnic person from Dali, Yunnan Province. She is a National First-class dancer and the vice chairman of China Dancers Association.
A lover of dance from her early childhood, Yang never underwent formal dance training, but with her astonishing natural talent she became quite a unique and distinguished dancer in China. She won nationwide fame for her performance of her original dance piece Spirit of the Peacock in 1986, which is elegant and dreamlike.
As a household known name in China, Yang and her performance had won a large numbers awards: the gold award for 20th Century Chinese Classics of Dance; the highest honours at the Osaka International Exchange Centre, best dance poetry, best female lead, best choreography, best costume design and outstanding performance awards at the 4th China “Lotus Awards”. In 2011, Yang appeared in the Chinese Beauty in the China Image advertisement broadcast in Times Square, New York City. As a versatile talent, she also wrote, directed and performed in the film Sunbird, which won the Grand Jury’s award at the Montreal International Film Festival.
Main works: (As choreographer / performer) Spirit of the Peacock, Moonlight, Two Trees, Love of the Peacock; (As director, choreographer and lead dancer) Dynamic Yunnan, Tibetan Mystery, Echoes of Shangri-La, The Peacock, The Winter Peacock; (As director) Under Siege
