Dance Celebration – Four sought-after choreographers in their Philadelphia debuts – Larry Keigwin, Monica Bill Barnes, Kate Weare and Aszure Barton


The second half of the 2010/11 Dance Celebration Series presented by Dance Affiliates and The Annenberg Center highlights four sought-after choreographers in their Philadelphia debuts – Larry Keigwin, Monica Bill Barnes, Kate Weare and Aszure Barton – all poised to become the next generation of legendary dancemakers. Along with their companies, the choreographers will present new work that reflects the current style, taste and beat of contemporary dance. For tickets or for more information, please visit AnnenbergCenter.org or call 215.898.3900. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Annenberg Center Box Office located at 3680 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. or on line at www.annenbergcenter.org

For a limited time, ticket buyers have the opportunity to purchase the NeXt Generation package and see all three performances in an orchestra level seat for only $60, a savings of more than $50! To purchase this special offer, call the Annenberg Center Box Office at 215.898.3900 or visit www.annenbergcenter.org


Keigwin + Company (January 20-22, 2011)

“If you miss this hoot of a performance, you only have yourself to blame.” Metro New York

Larry Keigwin and his seven-member dance troupe make their Philadelphia debut with the full-length piece Elements, a work comprised of four suites set to an eclectic score that ranges from Classical to New Wave to hip-hop and certain to have audiences laughing uproariously. Each suite is inspired by one of nature’s basic building blocks: Earth, Water, Fire and Air. The “Water” suite’s four dances – “Shower,” “Sea,” “Spa,” and “Splash” – feature white towel-clad dancers whose dancing ranges from campy to synchronized and lyrical while using props like water bottles. “Earth” is expressed through dances named after varying forms of lizards – “Gecko,” “Chameleon,” “Dragon,” and “Iguana” – with company members dressed in fall-colored, mixed plaid patterns flicking their tongues and leaping and crawling across the stage. The vignettes of the “Air” suite are “Fly,” “Float,” “Breeze,” and “Wind” and feature pilots, flight attendants and balloons. “Fire” thrills and sizzles with “Flicker,” “Simmer,” “Burn,” and “Flame,” set to music that ranges from Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” to the hip-hop song “Walk It Out” by Unk, with dancers mimicking the unpredictability nature of the element.

Keigwin began dancing 20 years ago, playing himself – a dance-crazed teenager in Downtown Julie Brown’s “Club MTV,” a funky remake of “American Bandstand.” He has choreographed not only for prestigious companies like Martha Graham, but also for the Rockettes and rousing musicals like The Wild Party. In 2010, Keigwin was named the Vail International Dance Festival’s first artist in residence, during which time he created and premiered a new work with four of ballet’s most prominent stars. He most recently staged the opening event of Fashion Week: “Fashion’s Night Out: The Show,” which was produced by Vogue and featured over 150 of the industry’s top models strutting in formation around the fountain and plaza at Lincoln Center.  He formed Keigwin + Company in 2003 and has performed with Dendy DanceTheater and Doug Varone and Dancers.

Keigwin + Company performances take place on Thursday, January 20 at 7:30 PM; Friday, January 21 at 8:00 PM and Saturday, January 22 at 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM.  Tickets are $24-$42 (afternoon performances) $28-$48 (evening performances).


Monica Bill Barnes & Company and Kate Weare Company (February 10-12, 2011)

Two of New York’s boldest troupes, Monica Bill Barnes & Company and Kate Weare Company, take to the Zellerbach stage to present a shared evening of two contemporary dance works that are both original and theatrically striking – Bill Barnes’ witty parody Another Parade and Weare’s Bright Land.

Monica Bill Barnes is “one of the wittiest young choreographers around … she can stir your heart as well as make you laugh.” The Village Voice

Another Parade showcases the many different things performers do on stage to engage an audience. The troupe of four dancers attempt ever conceivable mode of entertainment through symbolic actions, poses, gestures, mugging and miming, performed to a soundtrack that alternates Bach with James Brown and a variety of other popular music by Barbara Streisand, Tina Turner and Elvis. Originally planning on pursuing a career in law, Bill Barnes began her company as a company of one in 1995 in New York City and rapidly began building a reputation with a series of evening-long works, cabaret numbers and inventive site-specific pieces.

Weare’s Bright Land is “idiosyncratic, original, theatrically striking…  The New York Times

Bright Land, a series of dances set to a score of old time music by the San Francisco-based band, The Crooked Jades, provides a stark yet complementary contrast to Another Parade. Featuring a quartet of dancers and a trio of musicians, the piece explores the cyclical nature of human experiences – kinship, belief, suffering and transcendence. “Weare gets under the skin of movement with almost surgical exactness, inflames it, and then makes it glow with a strange, yet familiar light. No one else is making work quite like hers” (The Village Voice). As a choreographer, Weare has been commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow and received the 2009 Princess Grace Award for Choreography.

In the summer 2010, Kate Weare Company and Monica Bill Barnes debuted at the Joyce Theater.
Performances by Monica Bill Barnes & Company and Kate Weare Company take place on Thursday, February 10 at 7:30 PM; Friday, February 11 at 8:00 PM and Saturday, February 12 at 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM.  Tickets are $24-$42 (afternoon performances) $28-$48 (evening performances).


Aszure Barton & Artists (May 5-7, 2011)

“A rare accomplishment in the world of contemporary dance.  Barton’s alarmingly original voice resounds with a thwack.” The Boston Globe

Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton is already one of the most promising and consistently commissioned young choreographers in modern dance and ballet. At only 35, she has already created works for established groups like American Ballet Theater, Martha Graham Dance Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, celebrated dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov as well as choreographed the Broadway revival production of Threepenny Opera. She is the Resident Choreographer for Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal and she has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) since 2005. In 2002, she formed Aszure Barton & Artists, presenting her first piece at a deli on 42nd Street in New York City.

Barton’s 2009 work Busk, which recently received rave reviews and an extended run at the Jerome Robbins theatre in New York, is set to a soundtrack of Russian gypsy music by Russian violinist and composer Lev Ljova Zhurbin and performed by performed live by Ljova + the Kontraband as well as a powerful selection of world sound including choir music from Sweden’s Orphei Drangar. The word busk comes from the Spanish root word buscar, meaning “to seek”; buskers (another word for street performers) literally seek the fantasy of fame and fortune. Busk opens with video imagery of trees, which soon gives way to bare stage. In another poignant scene, the dancers wear hooded robes and pile in a clump to a chant-like chorus, moving their heads and hands in precise, witty choreography. Of Busk Barton has said that it is some of her most personal work, touching on her own insecurities onstage, but also exploring the need of performers to put themselves on display and explore the sources of self-worth: external group praise or our own internal affirmation. In addition to the 37-minute work Busk, Barton’s program with include another work from repertory.

Aszure Barton & Artists performances take place on Thursday, May 5 at 7:30 PM; Friday, May 6 at 8:00 PM and Saturday, May 7 at 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM.  Tickets are $24-$42 (afternoon performances) $28-$48 (evening performances).

Under the artistic direction of Randy Swartz, Dance Celebration maintains its tradition of bringing Philadelphia audiences the world’s best contemporary touring dance companies. This season, Superstars of Dance, Today and Tomorrow, pays homage to the great masters of dance while exploring new voices who challenge the status quo and reflect the style, taste and beat of the 21st century. Mr. Swartz notes about the next generation of dance superstars. “It’s new, hot and happening but it is also unknown. Such is the difficulty in presenting new artists. If you take the time, you will be doubly rewarded with making a fabulous new discovery and having an extraordinary night in the theatre.”

In addition to performances, all three companies will offer outreach activities including a master class as part of the Artist to Artist Series and a special school performance as part of Dance Celebration’s Student Discovery Series. For more information about the Artist to Artist Series call 215.636.9000 ext. 110 or visit www.danceaffiliates.org. For more information about the Student Discovery Series, call 215.898.6789 or visit www.AnnenbergCenter.org/studentdiscovery.

The presentations of Keigwin + Company, Monica Bill Barnes & Company and Kate Weare Company, and Aszure Barton & Artists are supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Significant funding for the 2010-11 Dance Celebration season is provided by the William Penn Foundation and also in part by The Connelly Foundation, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Friends of Dance (Affiliates), Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Maurice Rohrbach Fund, Swiss American Cultural Exchange and the Virginia C. Mulconroy Fund of The Philadelphia Foundation.

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