Arts
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November 15 - December 5, 2014
53
Jessica Lang Dance comes to MAC stage BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI
Recently recognized with a Bessie Award for Best Emerging Choreographer, Jessica Lang will bring her company, Jessica Lang Dance (JLD), to the Mesa Arts Center’s Piper Repertory Theater at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, to perform an evening of contemporary dance. “We’re doing our mixed-rep program, which will have six works—five dance pieces and one film,” says Lang, via telephone from New York City, where her ballet-influenced contemporary dance company is based. “Three works are in the first act.” JLD opens with “Line Cubed,” a piece inspired by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. The dancers follow that with “Mendelssohn/Incomplete,” based on “Piano Trio No. 3 in D Minor.” The first half wraps up with the seven-minute piece “Among the Stars.” “When we come back (from intermission), we return with ‘The Calling,’ which is a piece with a large, white skirt that’s quite the signature of our company,” Lang says. The show finishes with the film “White,” and the seven-person dance, “i.n.k.” “It’s a nice, diverse program,” she says. “There’s so much to take away from it.” The stop at the Mesa Arts Center is the end of a month-long tour of the Grand Canyon State. JLD had a two-week residency at the Del E. Webb Center for
the Performing Art in Wickenburg so Lang could put the finishing touches on her new full-length piece, “The Wanderer.” Accompanied by the music of Schubert’s song cycle “Die schöne Müllerin,” the evening-length work will make its world premiere at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) as part of the prestigious 2014 Next Wave Festival in December. After the residency, the company headed to Tucson for three performances. In Mesa, JLD will perform once show and participate in a series of outreach programs. As part of Mesa Arts Center’s educational outreach programs, JLD will offer free dance master classes to students in dance programs at Arizona State University, Glendale Community College, Grand Canyon University and Scottsdale Community College, and to Ballet Etudes, a founding resident company at Mesa Arts Center. “We’ll get the kids doing some of our rep,” she says. “We’ll teach them some of the rep they’ll see in the show. It’s always nice to have a connection between what we’re teaching and what they’re seeing.” Lang is a graduate of The Juilliard School, under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy. Upon graduation, she became a member of Twyla Tharp’s company “THARP!” where she performed in major dance festivals around the world. She also worked with Tharp in her Diabelli Project
WELL KNOWN: Jessica Lang Dance’s “The Calling” features a large, white skirt that has become the company’s signature. Submitted photo
that premiered in Palermo, Italy, in 1998. Since 1999, Lang has created more than 80 works on companies worldwide including Birmingham Royal Ballet, The National Ballet of Japan at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Joffrey Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Ballet San Jose, Richmond Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Ailey II, ABT II, Hubbard Street 2 and New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, among many others. American Ballet Theatre has presented her work at the Metropolitan Opera House, and she has received commissions from the Dallas Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum for its Works and Process series. Lang explains she always thought she would be a choreographer, even though she yearned to be a dancer when she was younger. “I always had an interest in it,” she says. “I went to Juilliard and primarily thought I would be a professional dancer. I danced with Twyla Tharp. I traveled with her for
two years. When the company folded, she thought she would try choreography. “That was in 1999 and I have never danced again professionally,” she says. “I went on to just be a choreographer. I have 87 works in my repertory now.” She misses the idea of dancing, but not the physicality of it. “I feel more gratified watching people dance, controlling the situation, the creating the work,” she says. “I have way more satisfaction in that than I did as a dancer, definitely.” Jessica Lang Dance performs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Mesa Arts Center’s Piper Repertory Theater, One E. Main St., Mesa. Tickets are $30 to $40. For more information, call (480) 644-6500 or visit www.mesaartscenter.com. Christina Fuoco-Karasinski is the executive editor of the SanTan Sun News. She can be reached at christina@santansun. com.