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| Trey McIntrye Project dancers Photo by Lois Greenfield |
Trey McIntyre Project
April 11–13, 8:00 PM, UW’s Meany Hall
Since bursting onto the national dance scene in 2005, Boise-based Trey McIntyre Project has proved an immediate sensation with both critics and audiences alike. Guided by McIntyre’s unparalleled ear for musical structures, TMP has a repertoire that spans from rock and classical music to jazz and folk. McIntyre’s “fresh and forward-thinking choreography” (Washington Post) will be on full display for their second Meany Hall appearance with Arrantza celebrating Basque culture, Queen of the Goths, inspired by Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, and the preview of a new work, Pass, Away. Tickets are available here.
Spectrum Dance Theater: A Cruel New World/the new normal
April 11–13, 8:00 PM, Emerald City Trapeze Arts Building
As part of Spectrum Dance Theater’s BYRD AT 10 2012-2013 season celebrating Donald Byrd’s tenth year as artistic director, Spectrum presents A Cruel New World/the new normal, a tenth anniversary performance of the first original work choreographed by Byrd for Spectrum Dance Theater in 2003. Byrd’s take on the post-9/11 American landscape was first performed in a traditional theater. This revival will take place in an industrial setting in the SoDo district on the 10th anniversary of the original premiere and features music from Composer Graham Haynes and additional music from Richard Wagner. Byrd choreographed A Cruel New Word/the new normal post-9/11, at a time when the nation was turning inwards, when concepts such as “nationalism” and “homeland” were being redefined. Now, choreographer Byrd and Spectrum dancers approach the performance once again, exploring the work now as compared with ten years prior. Tickets and more information are available here.
Cornish Dance Theater Spring Concert
April 12–13, 8:00 PM, Broadway Performance Hall
The Cornish Dance Theater Spring 2013 Concert features the work of guest choreographers Timothy Lynch and Mary Sheldon Scott alongside faculty members Iyun Ashani Harrison and Deborah Wolf. Individual narrative is central to Lynch’s choreographic focus in his text-driven new work. Groups merge and converge onstage, each individual carrying their own story with them throughout the dance. In Sheldon Scott’s work, intricate patterns emerge and recede, fragmenting through a range of solos, duets, trios, and quartets with many moments of entanglement and weight-sharing. Harrison’s newest work for Cornish Dance Theater explores the energy and dynamism within a hive. The dancers aspire towards a common interest, often breaking away from the swarm for brief moments of reprieve, but are absorbed back into their roles to support the greater whole. And Wolf’s dancers slink and play with sharply-accented movement qualities, slipping between leisurely and breakneck speeds. The mood alternates between a slightly competitive atmosphere and one in which the dancers assist and support each other. Tickets are available here.
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| Pacific Northwest Ballet company dancers in Kent Stowell’s Swan Lake. Photo © Angela Sterling. |
PNB: Swan Lake
April 12–21, 7:30 PM, McCaw Hall
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Swan Lake, choreographed by Founding Artistic Director Kent Stowell, returns to the McCaw Hall stage as the fifth offering of PNB’s 40th Anniversary season. This beloved story ballet, revered by audiences and dancers alike, is classical ballet at its very best. Sumptuous scenic, costume, and lighting design, and an achingly beautiful Tchaikovsky score, set the stage for the ethereal corps de ballet and the ultimate challenge for ballerinas all over the world—the dual role of Odette, trapped in the body of a white swan until the oath of her true love sets her free; and Odile, the “Black Swan” temptress. The company presents eleven performances of this most classic of ballets. More information and tickets are available here.
Dioramas (Film)
April 13, 7:00 PM, Northwest Film Forum
As part of the weekend long series, Cine Independiente: Discoveries From Argentina, which showcases a nascent but fertile movement in Argentine cinema, the Northwest Film Forum presents the film Dioramas. Directed by the prolific and deeply independent Gonzalo Castro, Dioramas charts the demanding rehearsals of a small contemporary dance company (headed by choreographer Mario Pattin) in a visceral, vérité style: almost documentary-like in its observational mode–as in Wiseman’s portrait of the Paris Opera ballet, La Danse–yet in a minor key devoid of any grand thematic agenda. Dioramas, per its title, sketches subtle tableaux of dance sequences unfolding in their own time, paralleled by the increasingly heated partnership shared by two of the female leads. Unrehearsed desire is contrasted with the rigors of process in this austere drama, its subtle lyricism uncoiling like the dancers themselves. Tickets can be purchased here.
