ABOUT THE PROGRAM

ROGUES (2011)

Choreography: Trisha Brown

Original Music: Alvin Curran, Toss and Find (excerpts)

Costume Design: Kaye Voyce

Lighting Design: John Torres

PERFORMED BY 5/2, 5/3, 5/6 8PM - CECILY CAMPBELL & BURR

JOHNSON

5/4, 5/5, 5/6 2PM, 5/7 - PATRICK NEEDHAM & JENNIFER PAYÁN

This duet was made in close collaboration between Trisha, Carolyn Lucas, Lee Serle, and myself. It followed an intensive period of really physical, rambunctious phrase building when Trisha was working with the men of the company. That material was pretty taxing, and we were understandably in the mood to make something a little bit lighter. Our departure point was a piece from the repertory called Foray Forêt (1990), the centerpiece of which is a phrase called the “Soft Phrase.” That piece, and the “Soft Phrase” in particular, became hallmarks of Trisha’s Back to Zero cycle from the early 90’s—a series of works marked by a return to her roots exploring “Pure Movement,” unembellished gesture, and a more pedestrian physicality. We set out to make a new “Soft Phrase.”

What emerged through the process was an interest in interruption or aberration. One dancer would toss out a movement that was learned by the other. The following movement was then generated by interrupting the previous movement before it had reached its completion, leaving the other dancer to play catch up—jumping from his completed movement to catch up with the other dancer as he bounced ahead in the sequence of the phrase. There was a sort of rhythmic tug of war, and we realized we were simultaneously building a phrase and a duet form. Nestled inside of this back-and-forth are periods of unison when the eye is free to settle on the dancing itself. Whenever we found our physicality revving up, we returned to our original impetus of softness, trying to let the phrase “empty out” before gathering momentum and rhythmic complexity again. This duet is accompanied by a score created by composer Alvin Curran, and is a poignant study in rhythm, timing, and kinetic pathway. It’s really a sly game of falling in and out of unison, and its simple form is a testament to the pleasure of surprise found throughout Trisha’s body of work.

- Neal Beasley, TBDC Alum

Rogues was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Mellon Foundation; Brooklyn Academy of Music; the New York State Council on the Arts; Harkness Foundation for Dance; The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

Special thanks to Cecily Campbell and Jamie Scott.

- PAUSE -

For M.G.: The Movie (1991)

Choreography: Trisha Brown

Original Music: Alvin Curran, For M.G. (One Step Too)

Visual Presentation & Costume Design: Trisha Brown

Lighting Design: Spencer Brown with Trisha Brown

PERFORMED BY CHRISTIAN ALLEN, CECILY CAMPBELL, BURR JOHNSON, LINDSEY JONES, CYNTHIA KOPPE, PATRICK NEEDHAM, JENNIFER PAYÁN, SPENCER WEIDIE

For M.G.: The Movie, is the second piece in a cycle of work called "Back to Zero." What I mean by zero is the simple elemental actions of the body. I entered this cycle through vocabulary, seeking gesture and motion through subconscious impulses. - as pure as possible, and unedited by the all-pervasive judgmental mind.

One of the three basic phrases collaged in M.G. does achieve zero.

Michel Guy, the French Minister of Culture (1974 - 1976) invited me to meet with him several times [and] we spoke of dance and art and his career and my career and where they intersect. The conversations would circle back and branch out… They seemed as if they were taking place outside of time, outside of the "what I already know." They lasted for hours. He had to adjust the blinds once or twice. I never knew what the meetings were about, and Michel died soon following.

My guiding principles in M.G. (which is for Michel Guy) were enigma, and time - not scientific time, but perception of time, and its inconsistency.

- Trisha Brown

For M.G.: The Movie was commissioned by the Festival d’Automne, le Centre d’Action Culturelle Hippodrome de Douai and a consortium of Illinois presenters: Dance Center Columbia College Chicago; Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville; Northern Illinois University and Millikin University. Additional support was received from the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, the Mellon Foundation, AT&T Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. The score was commissioned by Trisha Brown Dance Company with funds provided by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust.

Special thanks to to Tara Lorenzen and Jamie Scott.

- INTERMISSION -

Let’s Talk About Bleeding

US PREMIERE

Direction & Choreography: Judith Sánchez Ruíz

Original Music: Adonis Gonzalez-Matos

Costume Design: Claire Fleury

Lighting Design: Tricia Toliver

PERFORMED BY

CECILY CAMPBELL, BURR JOHNSON, CYNTHIA KOPPE, PATRICK NEEDHAM, JENNIFER PAYÁN, SPENCER WEIDIE, ADONIS GONZALEZ-MATOS (musician; piano)

RECORDED MUSICIANS: MONICA DAVIS & ADDA KRIDLER, violin WILL CURRY, viola

LAURA METCALF, cello

YOSVANY TERRY, saxophone MAURICIO HERRERA, percussion

A distillation of Sánchez Ruíz’s storied 30-year international career in performance and choreography, this piece draws on a composite of her artwork and writing, and was created in collaboration with all artists involved. Sánchez Ruíz's dance pieces are existential in nature, and tend to layer their subjects structurally like geologic stratum. Of Let’s Talk About Bleeding, Sánchez Ruíz writes, "It is a symphony of layers, a meta-verse in which multiple universes collide, seeming to exist simultaneously, yet viewed in segments. The work intends to convey the notion of moving backwards in time, recreating realities that make us question the arc of human existence. Half the scenes are reversed, underscoring the idea of reversing time itself and deepening an understanding of being. It is an architectural orgasm of poetical constellations."

A former TBDC dancer, Judith Sánchez Ruíz was chosen as the Company's first artist to receive a choreographic commission for her mastery of structured improvisation, as improvisation was central to Trisha Brown's work. Since the debut of ENCAJE, her acclaimed solo, in 2017, Sánchez Ruíz has been using dance "radial vocabularies," techniques that produce unexpected movements, creating channels of improvisation in each dancer. It is, she says, "an emancipation from within in the way we perform." She is also the author of a choreographic tool she calls "100 legs," based on the recognition that each part of the human body has its own innate intelligence; it encourages movement located at opposite points within the dancer's body, which generates kinetic tension. These very physical vocabularies are designed to offer insightful and meaningful narratives and cohesive structures.

Let’s Talk About Bleeding was commissioned by the Trisha Brown Dance Company with the generous support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and The O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation. Thanks to Trisha Brown's masterworks, all the beautiful dancers, and the incredible Carolyn Lucas and TBDC for the invitation and for accepting my universe in this legacy. Special thanks to Adonis Gonzales Matos and Claire Fleury for the amazing work. To Ben Rodriquez Cubeñas and all of you that warmly and generously support JSR's work everywhere. Thank you to Leah Ives, Hsiao Jou Tang, Christian Allen, and Lindsey Jones for their contribution to the building process. Thanks to Niamh Moroney for her assistance in producing the work.

TBDC would like to thank Dante Puleio and John Tomlinson for their advice and support in beginning this new chapter.