31 replies to this topic

[miliosr]

65th Anniversary Season . . .

08/26-08/28/11  SECS Villa Marina Theatre, Sao Paolo, Brazil

09/10-09/11/11  10th anniversary of September 11th, Rockefeller Park, New York, NY
(rep: Missa Brevis w/ live music from Voices of Ascension)

09/16/11  Lecture/demo, Americas Society, New York, NY
  (rep: Lecture by Lynn Garafola and excerpts from La Malinche, The Moor's Pavane and There Is a Time)

09/26/11  Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY
  (rep: Anna Sokolow's Rooms w/ live music from the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Ensemble)

09/30/11  Eugene O'Neill Festival, Connecticut College, New London, CT
  (rep: Emperor Jones/Chaconne/Jiri Kylian's La Cathedrale Engloutie/There Is a Time)

11/28-12/23/11  Rehearsals for new D'Rivera/Pederneiras work, Come With Me

12/14/11  Lecture/demo, Americas Society, New York, NY
(rep: excerpts from Come With Me)

01/07/12  City Center Studios, New York, NY
(rep: showing of Come With Me)

01/19/12  Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, New York, NY
(rep: showing of Come With Me)

01/22/12  Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Greenvale, NY
(rep: Preview performance of Come With Me w/ live music)

01/28/12  Holland Dance Festival, The Netherlands
(rep: The Moor's Pavane)

02/15/12  Lecture/demo, Americas Society, New York, NY
(Discussion of The Moor's Pavane/demo of choreographic principles behind the piece/screening of film featuring the original cast)

03/01-03/03/12  Meany Hall, Seattle, WA
(rep: Chaconne/Come With Me/Dances For Isadora/The Moor's Pavane/There Is a Time)

Italian Tour
03/10/12  Bologna, Italy
03/11/12  Siena, Italy
03/13/12  Lucca, Italy
(rep: There Is a Time/Dances For Isadora/The Moor's Pavane)

04/10/12  Lecture/demo, Americas Society, New York, NY

Central American Tour
04/21/12  Teatro Nacional, San Jose, Costa Rica
(rep:  There Is a Time/Chaconne/La Cathedrale Engloutie/Come With Me)
04/23/12  Organizacion para ls Artes - Universidad Francisco Maroquin, Guatemala City, Guatemala
(rep:  There Is a Time/Chaconne/La Cathedrale Engloutie/Come With Me)

05/07/12  Spring Gala, New York, NY

06/18-06/24/12  Joyce Theatre, New York, NY
(rep: Chaconne/Come With Me/La Cathedrale Engloutie/The Emperor Jones)

06/29/12  Bronx Summerstage, NY
(rep: There Is a Time/Chaconne/The Moor's Pavane)

06/30-07/01/12  Central Park Main Stage, New York, NY
(rep: There Is a Time/Chaconne/Come With Me)

07/08-07/20  Residency at SUNY-Brockport, Rochester, NY

[sandik]

The 65th anniversary season?

Lordy.

[miliosr]

sandik, on 05 August 2011 - 10:18 PM, said:

The 65th anniversary season?

Lordy.

And they said it would never last . . .

[miliosr]

The US Postal Service will be issuing a Limon stamp:

http://www.facebook....&type=1

Congratulations!

[miliosr]

New commission for 2011-12:

The José Limón Dance Foundation announces a New Commission for the Limón Dance Company featuring Paquito d'Rivera and Rodrigo Pederneiras.

This project will consist of a major commission pairing latin jazz legend Cuban composer/musician Paquito D’Rivera and Brazilian world renowned choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras (Resident choreographer at Grupo Corpo) as part of the Limón Dance Company’s 65th anniversary celebration!. This will be Paquito's first ever dance commission and Rodrigo's first commission for a US Dance Company. The piece will be for the full company and will be about 35 minutes in length. Rehearsals begin November 28 in New York City and the preview performance will be on January 19 as part of a Special event and January 22 at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in New York. The piece will be premiered at the Joyce Theatre in June 2012 and with live music featuring Paquito himself at Main Stage in Central Park on June 30th and July 1, 2012 and in New Orleans with the New Orleans Ballet Association in October 2012!!


Artistic Director Carla Maxwell states, “I want to challenge the Company and make a connection to our legacy, which is much greater than José Limon's work alone or him as an artist. The Limón legacy is about creativity both in performance and composition; musicality; work that is passionate within a highly disciplined form; total theater that speaks primarily through the movement and music; and work that speaks to the mind and heart. At this point in time the pairing of these two magnificent artists for a new creation with the Company will stretch the boundaries of what our legacy can be and hopefully be a challenge for our guest artists as well.”

[sandik]

This could be a very smart commission.  Grupo Corpo has been incredibly successful here in Seattle -- they've been brought back to a local venue multiple times -- I can think of only a couple of groups that have been here on tour more often than Grupo Corpo

[miliosr]

sandik, on 26 August 2011 - 08:40 PM, said:

This could be a very smart commission.  Grupo Corpo has been incredibly successful here in Seattle -- they've been brought back to a local venue multiple times -- I can think of only a couple of groups that have been here on tour more often than Grupo Corpo

I hope you're right.  The commissions I've seen since I started watching the Limon company regularly in 2004 have been -- to put it mildly -- uneven.  The only truly bad one was the Susanne Linke commission in 2004 but the rest, while adequate, looked slight next to the Limon works.

The press release references the Joyce Theater in June so the company may be performing there for a week or two.  I should think about what I would like to see and set it down here.

[miliosr]

miliosr, on 28 August 2011 - 11:54 AM, said:

The press release references the Joyce Theater in June so the company may be performing there for a week or two.  I should think about what I would like to see and set it down here.

So, if I could play Limon company artistic director for a day and plan a 65th anniversary program for the Joyce in June, here's what I would pick:

Program A:

1) Jose Limon Dances for Isadora (1971)
Limon's homage to Isadora Duncan contains five episodes from her life.  For the concluding section (the "Scarf Dance"), in which Limon presents an Isadora shorn of any technique she once had and in full wreckage, I would invite some distinguished guests to essay the part of Isadora.  Just as Todd Haynes' I'm Not There could sustain six different actors playing Bob Dylan, I think Dances for Isadora might benefit from having different guest artists essay the part of Isadora in Winter.  My top three picks?  Mikhail Baryshnikov, Sylvie Guillem and Mark Morris.

2) Erick Hawkins Lords of Persia (1965)
This quartet for male dancers is one of Hawkins' greatest works but, as near as I can tell, hasn't been seen since the early 90s.  Carla Maxwell has spoken highly of it on YouTube and this Hawkins meditation on polo (with mallets and masks!) would be a nice counterpoint to Dances for Isadora.

3) Jose Limon The Winged (1966)
Limon wasn't known for his abstract/plotless dances but (apart from his Choreographic Offering) this dance is about as close as he came to pure abstraction.  It has a premise (birds in flight) but no storyline.  Infrequently seen, this full-company work would make a nice closer.

Program B:
1) Jose Limon Suite from Mazurkas (1958)
Sarah Stackhouse's staging of this work for New York Theatre Ballet in 2008 was very well-received.  Time to see what the main company can do with it.

2) Antony Tudor Dark Elegies (1937)
Purists will carp but the Limon's company performance of this work in the late-90s was a novel and intriguing choice.  And it's not like the ballet world is performing it regularly (or at all.)

3) Jose Limon Carlota (1972)
Limon's last work before his death, this story dance about the mad Mexican Empress Carlota would be a perfect vehicle for the company's glorious Kristen Foote.


And I'm absolutely, positively, 100% certain I will see none of these in 2011-12!  

[sandik]

I saw Mazurkas when it was staged on a grad student ensemble here in the 90s and it is indeed beautiful.  It would make a great contribution to a program that had other, high-tension dramas on it.  And if we're thinking about Hawkins, Classic Kite Tails is a wonderful piece!

You will never hear me complain about Dark Elegies.

[miliosr]

Photos from the September 10th performance of Missa Brevis:

[miliosr]

Ruth Currier has died:

http://www.nytimes.c...l?_r=1&ref=arts

Following Limon's death in 1972, she assumed the directorship of the company and began laying the groundwork for the company's continuing existence.  While she's the unsung heroine among the company's artistic directors -- Doris Humphrey, Limon and Carla Maxwell, her contribution was significant between 1972-78 and the fact that there's still a Limon company to enjoy in 2011 is testament to her efforts during that difficult time.

[miliosr]

New York Theatre Ballet will be performing The Moor's Pavane at Kaatsbaan on October 29 and October 30.

[sandik]

The company has been added to the series at Meany Hall in Seattle March 1-3 (substituting for the Lizst Alfonso company).  They'll be doing two programs; There is a Time, Chaconne, The Moor's Pavane, and Rodrigo Pederneiras and Paquito D'Rivera's Come with Me on Thursday and Friday, and an all-Limon program on Saturday, substituting Dances for Isadora for the new work.

[miliosr]

sandik, on 13 January 2012 - 08:10 PM, said:

The company has been added to the series at Meany Hall in Seattle March 1-3 (substituting for the Lizst Alfonso company).  They'll be doing two programs; There is a Time, Chaconne, The Moor's Pavane, and Rodrigo Pederneiras and Paquito D'Rivera's Come with Me on Thursday and Friday, and an all-Limon program on Saturday, substituting Dances for Isadora for the new work.

Thanks for the head's up, sandik.

I'm happy to see the company touring outside of the NYC area.  Their non-New York performances have really dried up this season.

For the most part, the Limon pieces are meat-and-potatoes Limon -- not much new under the sun.  The piece I would most like to see is Dances for Isadora.  I saw a regional company perform this and I thought the performance was unsatisfactory.  I would like to see the main company perform it so I can judge whether the piece itself is slight or whether the regional company just did a bad job performing it.

It's a shame the company can't make room for at least one Doris Humphrey dance on the bill.

[miliosr]

Well, the latest newsletter from Limon confirms my worst fears: the only pieces that will be featured at the company's June performances at the Joyce are the new Rodrigo Pederneiras dance Come With Me and last year's problematic revival of Limon's The Emperor Jones.  Only 1 dance by Limon and none by Humphrey?  That seems like very weak tea for the 65th anniversary.  It looks like I'll have to pass on the June performances and wait to see if a better rep program presents itself later in the year.