The internationally-known Koresh Dance Company takes the stage for their second season at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, home of the Philadelphia Theatre Company, located at 480 S. Broad Street, (Broad and Lombard Streets). Performances will begin Thursday, December 4th and continue through Sunday, December 7th, 2008. Koresh Dance Company is happy to announce that they will be presenting two separate programs during its Winter Season.
Program A will feature the evening length piece, Theater of Public Secrets, choreographed by Ronen Koresh. A shorter version of Theater of Public Secrets premiered to rave reviews in the spring of 2008. Through a series of short stories, Theater of Public Secrets exposes private lives – some dramatic and painful- some comical. All in all – the work reveals life displayed in all its complexities and beauty. Mr. Koresh will expand this work and present a full length program for our Winter Season.
Deni Kasrel of Philadelphia City Paper described Theater of Public Secrets “Both playful and achingly poignant”
Program B, titled Negative Spaces, choreographed by Ronen Koresh, premiered in 2005.
The moment you enter the negative space, reality becomes a faded memory and then quickly disappears. A new reality is formed. Nothing is what it seems to be, the line between truth and fiction, laughter and pain, no longer exists. The boundaries between the viewers and the performers are broken. A connection is made and the interaction on the stage becomes a part of your world. In this new world you will look inside yourself, then at others and then back to the stage. Recognizing the faces…they seem familiar…they are you…the part of you that you refuse to see. In the negative space you will feel, hear, and see like never before. You will be free and will forever be changed.
DON’T MISS OUT ON THESE FIVE CHANCES TO SEE KORESH!!
Program A-Theater of Public Secrets
Thurs, December 4 at 8pm (post-performance Q and A)
Fri, December 5 at 8pm
Sat, December 6 at 2pm
Program B-Negative Spaces
Sat, December 6 at 8pm (post performance Q and A)
Sun, December 7 at 7pm
Tickets are $25, $30 and $35. To purchase TICKETS:
PHILADELPHIA THEATRE COMPANY’S BOX OFFICE, Ph: 215.985.0420
KORESH SCHOOL OF DANCE, Ph: 215-751-0959.
Ronen Koresh, Choreographer/Artistic Director
Ronen (Roni) Koresh, born and raised in Israel, was initiated into the dance world through the tradition of Yemenite folk dancing. Following comprehensive study with Martha Graham’s Bat Sheva Dance Company, he became intent upon pursuing a professional career in the discipline. At age 21, he arrived in New York City to study with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and soon after he joined Philadelphia’s then internationally acclaimed jazz dance company Waves.
In 1992, Roni fulfilled a life long dream and founded Koresh Dance Company. Now in its fifteenth anniversary season, his company is known as a leading force on both the national and international scene. Mr. Koresh has brought in renowned choreographers such as Donald Byrd, Robert Battle and Itzik Galili to create works on his company. After founding his company, Roni set out to accomplish yet another goal: he opened the Koresh School of Dance in 1993. His studio has become a mecca for dancers throughout the dance community. Although Roni is busy touring and rehearsing his company, he remains dedicated to teaching not only at his studio, but also at the University of the Arts, where he has been a professor of dance since 1986. His teaching experience now ranges from ballet residencies to modern jazz classes to setting his unique choreography on students and professionals and creating commissioned pieces in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. In recent years, he set Ancient Future, a staple piece from his repertory, on Derryl Yeager’s Odyssey Dance Theater in Utah and was also commissioned to create Judgment, a full-length piece, for the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. Locally, he has created works for Brandywine Ballet Company in West Chester, PA and was commissioned to create a new work by Dance Celebration, a co-presentation of Dance Affiliates and Penn Presents, at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Music That Made Us Dance program. Mr. Koresh’s expertise is frequently requested throughout the country as he is invited to be a guest artist and speaker at various venues and festivals, including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the Northwest Dance Project. For his innovative and explosive choreography, Mr. Koresh has received fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts.
Press from our 2008 Spring season at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, home of the Philadelphia Theatre Company
Deni Kasrel of the Philadelphia City Paper wrote of Theater of Public Secrets, “…it was a theatrical, prop-heavy piece that began at a dance party and evolved into scenarios offering imaginative, behind-the-scenes peeks at the lives of the partygoers. Both playful and achingly poignant, one outstanding segment presented an erotic duet between J. Lim and M. Rector that provocatively expressed the tormented emotional extremes of a love-hate relationship.”
Wendy Perron of Dance Magazine wrote “the piece that “brightened” my day was Koresh’s second premiere, Theater of Public Secrets. About a third of the way in, Melissa Rector broods at a table; she arches over it, slithers under it. What grabbed me was her full-throttle portrayal of a woman in grief. …Rector, Koresh’s longtime lead dancer, embodies the defiance, sensuality, and abandon that Koresh is known for. But in this vignette she goes even deeper. As the light fades out on her stage right, another one comes up stage left on a woman in a totally opposite state of mind/body. Jessica Daley plays a contented, glowing and almost gloating young woman. As she cuddles into her armchair, you can almost see her remembering a satisfying romantic encounter…What a beautiful collision of moods”.
