Herman Cornejo rehearsing Justin Peck’s rise wait climb through in 2018. Photo by Erin Baiano.
In response to the many hardships of 2020, Festival regular and Grammy-award winning violinist Johnny Gandelsman commissioned a project to highlight the rich cultural tapestry of America’s United States. “This Is America” features twentytwo new works for solo violin produced by twelve presenters nationally, including the Vail Dance Festival. Gandelsman interprets intimate reflections on the state of our country with composers from across the country. He will perform three of these works to accompany premieres by Michelle Dorrance, Jamar Roberts, and a collaboration by Lil Buck and Lauren Lovette. Building on musical partnerships established during past Festivals, Justin Peck and Tiler Peck (no relation) will each create new dances to music by Pulitzerwinning Leonard Bernstein Composer-In-Residence Caroline Shaw. Cleo Parker Robinson and James Whiteside will also present world premieres. Tap dancer extraordinaire Michelle Dorrance will choreograph in collaboration with her dancers to music by Rhiannon Giddens, the Grammy-award winning cofounder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Both MacArthur “genius” grant recipients, Dorrance and Giddens work in performance mediums that are uniquely American in their complex histories - tap dance and Americana music have long represented a legacy of resiliency and transformation. Both artists work to amplify forgotten voices and to honor those who paved the way before them. Giddens describes her art as a means to “excavate the past and reveal bold truths about our present.” Dorrance, whose “crux of inspiration is music,” affirms tap as a “powerful vehicle for social and
Lil Buck and Caroline Shaw rehearsing backstage in 2019. Photo by Erin Baiano.
political change.” The new work will feature dancers of various genres, affirming the artists’ commitment to creating space for unexpected harmonies. Fellow MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, Tyshawn Sorey, will compose music for
Christina Courtin’s “This Is America” composition will accompany a collaboration between Lil Buck and Lauren Lovette. Both dancers are known for their virtuosity and emotional depth on stage. As choreographers, they each attend to the power of dance to uplift, question, and potentially transform our experience of the world. Courtin, a Juilliard-trained singersongwriter and violinist, describes guiding her listeners through a landscape of emotions, from “somber plains and heartbreak” to feelings of “warmth, joy, and hope.” Lovette demonstrates an “urgency” in her “desire to turn ballet inside out,” (The New York Times). The versatile principal dancer recently announced her upcoming departure from New York City Ballet in order to further pursue her choreographic career. Lil Buck’s creative career has also expanded as co-founder of Movement Art Is. The nonprofit uses dance to address issues of social injustice and was recently featured on the Netflix series Moves. “When someone is speaking to your spirit through dance, that sticks,” he says. “It’s knowing that it’s not just for entertainment, but that dance can really be used as a tool to help bring change about the world.” Dance as a mechanism to change society has driven Denver-based choreographer Cleo Parker Robinson for 51 years. The highly lauded Colorado cultural figure will create a new work around the theme of unity and renewal in the face of a year of isolation and polarization. Parker Robinson’s illustrious career includes a collaboration with renowned poet Dr. Maya Angelou and receiving the Colorado Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
“When someone is speaking to your spirit through dance, that sticks. It’s knowing that it’s not just for entertainment, but that dance can really be used as a tool to help bring change about the world.” —Lil Buck, Memphis Jooker Jamar Roberts, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s first resident choreographer. The rapidly rising dance maker will create work on Company-In-Residence BalletX with Artist-In-Residence Calvin Royal III as guest. Cooped, a recent work created by Roberts and commissioned by Guggenheim Works and Process, was praised as “one of the most powerful artistic responses yet to the COVID-19 crises” (The New York Times). Roberts describes his relationship to music as essential to his creative process. After “feeling the score on a deep level,” he continues by “looking at the world in which we live, and then looking at how we as a society are getting along in it.” It is fitting that his premiere will be joined by Sorey, whose new searching meditations on society are hailed as his “most expressive and powerful music yet” (The New York Times Magazine).
Opposite page: Lauren Lovette and Patricia Delgado rehearsing in 2017. Photo by Erin Baiano.
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