An all-Boston-premiere season!
Meet the Artists Performances give audiences the chance to meet today’s top contemporary choreographers in an intimate and informal setting. Each evening includes a pre-performance work-in-progress — sometimes held outside on the lawn, weather permitting — plus a performance of works by Summer Stages’ visiting faculty members or resident choreographers, followed by a Q&A.
Performances are held either in Concord Academy’s fully air-conditioned 400-seat Performing Arts Center or the school's 2,500 square foot, state-of-the art dance studio, designed by renowned architect Graham Gund. On Thursday evenings, audience members may also attend a pre-performance open rehearsal in the dance studio.
Rammed Earth
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Friday July 11, 2008
7 pm and 9 pm in Dance Performance Studio
Tickets $25
Running time 60 minutes
"Tere O'Connor's Rammed Earth [is] a piece with utterly bare-bones aesthetic that [is] full of magic and beauty. ... a poem of richness and emotional depth."
–Roslyn Sulcas, The New York times, December 23, 2007
"Rammed Earth show[s] almost immediately why Mr. O'Connor is an important artist. His work…is full of dry, rigorous, almost mathematical movement detail…"
–Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times September 29, 2007
Drawing inspiration from the ancient building technique of the title, RAMMED EARTH explores architecture as a fundamental, subliminal force intervening in the human narrative. Tere O’Connor looks to concepts of adaptability in contemporary architecture as a source. The new evening length work brings into evidence the shifting layers of architectural reference in dance as the dancers create a tumultuous liquid space in constant evolution. RAMMED EARTH is created in collaboration with O'Connor's longtime artistic partners - lighting designer Brian MacDevitt and composer James Baker, and is performed by his four versatile dancers – Hilary Clark, Heather Olson, Matthew Rogers and Christopher Williams.
Filtered through a rigorously personal and philosophical lens, Tere O’Connor’s radical reinvention of the formal conceits of concert dance distinguish him as a truly original presence in the dance world. The bewitching, illusory worlds he creates on stage are richly textured, disturbingly beautiful, and often darkly humorous. These deftly crafted works are inhabited by his unique physical language, which employs the history of dance as a metaphor for human emotional range and repositions its referential world to speak of themes outside of dance. He has developed a complex movement vocabulary–eclectic and innovative–a self-contained lexicon from which his themes are defined. www.tereoconnordance.org
Mourning
Thursday, July 17, 2008
8 pm
Performing Arts Center at Concord Academy
Tickets $25/students $10
Running time 60 minutes
Reserved seating
“From the start, “Mourning” is endlessly fascinating.”
– Gia Kourlas, The New York Times, October. 20, 2007
These three middle-aged artists are all first-generation Asian-Americans. Having been influenced by each other's artistry for more than two decades, Margaret Leng Tan and Eiko & Koma are revisiting material from each other's repertoire as part of the collaborative process. They hope to build a fusion of dance and music in new ways that allow for intimacy and inspiration without sacrificing their highly individual styles. Here, music chosen or commissioned will not synchronize with the choreography. Eiko & Koma can perform in silence and Ms. Tan's compelling singular musicality certainly does not need any illustration or addition. However these collaborators want to experiment by placing their independent aesthetics side by side and observing what can happen. This collaboration is a celebration of idiosyncratic spirits and, as such, may be dangerous. The collaborators hope to delve into themes and images associated with dislocation, death and mourning previously explored in each of their long careers, but to do so in a surprising and mutually supportive manner.
Eiko and Koma, Japanese-born dancer/choreographers, have collaborated, since 1972, in creating a unique theater of movement out of stillness, shape, light, sound and time. Eiko & Koma have presented 37 original works in theaters, universities, museums, galleries, and festivals world-wide, including numerous appearances at the American Dance Festival, five seasons at BAM's Next Wave Festival, and a month-long “living” gallery instillation at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Eiko & Koma were named John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellows in 1984 and MacArthur Fellows in 1996. In 2006 they received the Dance Magazine Award and were designated among the first fifty United States Artists. www.eikoand koma.org
Margaret Leng Tan has established herself as a major force within the American avant-garde; a highly visible, talented and visionary pianist whose work embraces aspects of theater, choreography and performance. She is regularly featured at international festivals, records for Mode, New Albion and ECM, and has appeared on PBS and at Carnegie Hall. Born in Singapore, Tan was the first woman to earn a doctorate from Juilliard. Her desire to explore the crosscurrents between Asian music and that of the West led her to mentor John Cage. Tan is fascinated by the artistic potential of toy instruments and her groundbreaking 1997 CD, The Art of the Toy Piano (Philips/Universal) made her the world’s first professional toy piano virtuoso. www.margaretlengtan.com
Community events are free-of-charge. To reserve, call 978.402.2339 or email summerstagesdance@concordacademy.org
Media Talk
Monday, July 14 at 6 pm
Eiko & Koma will present selections from their highly regarded art video repertory and facilitate a discussion on their life and work.
Coolidge Corner Theatre
290 Harvard Street, Brookline
Delicious Movement Workshop
Tuesday, July 15 at 11 am
This workshop presents a unique opportunity to study with acclaimed dance artists, Eiko & Koma. Using compositional and performance techniques, which employ images, body articulation, floor work and transformation, the workshop will explore the artists’ movement vocabulary. Limited availability for participation; reserve early!
Institute of Contemporary Art
100 Northern Avenue, Boston
Dancing-On-View: The Summer Stages Variations
Wednesday July 23, 2008
Thursday July 24, 2008
7 pm and 9 pm in Dance Performance Studio
Tickets $25
Running time 60 minutes
"The dancers today who, for me, personify the art of dance are Mikhail Baryshnikov and Sara Rudner."
--Alistair Macaulay, chief dance critic, The New York Times '08
This performance is a summation of renowned dancer/choreographer, Sara Rudner’s recent interests and past work that celebrates dance as an ongoing activity. The performers, hailing from New York and Boston, intersperse periods of silence with spoken word, unison and improvisation, and music with metronome. The layering and complexity that characterize the work reflect the reality of learning, teaching, improvising and creating dance that challenges and elevates performers and viewers alike.
Saturday, July 26, 8 pm
$25, $10 students, Reserved seating
Running time 90 minutes
Performing Arts Center at Concord Academy
166 Main Street, Concord
A showcase of new work developed by Choreographers’ Project Fellows and featuring legendary choreographer and dancer, Dan Wagoner’s staging of his American classic, Round This World Baby Mine – all performed by Summer Stages’ Workshop participants.
All ticket sales are final. No exchanges or refunds. Programs and artists subject to change.
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Sara Rudner & Friends