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JOSHUA L. PEUGH Verb Ballets has commissioned award-winning choreographer Joshua L. Peugh, of New Mexico, to create a contemporized version of Romeo and Juliet. Peugh was the recipient of the Grand Prize at the McCallum Theatre's 18th Annual Choreography Festival and was chosen as one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch." Using the plot and structure of Shakespeare’s play along with the mythology of the story and characters themselves, this new ballet will take an adventurous approach to exploring the intersecting themes of freedom and mortality while reflecting poignant issues of our current political and social reality. Peugh Photo: Brian Guilliaux
moves audiences to understand movement as a universal language, accessible to all. Through his work, he aims for audiences to connect, interact, and react to one another in the depths of our humanness. The production will preview at the Cleveland Public Theatre and makes its world premiere at E.J. Thomas Hall.
TOMMIE-WAHEED EVANS Verb Ballets and Philadelphia-based choreographer Tommie-Waheed Evans will join forces again to create a powerful new work based on the Ancient Greek tragedy Antigone. Verb Ballets has worked with Evans for the past ten years commissioning many of the company’s most recognized works including Dark Matter and Surge.Capacity.Force. Evans is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in choreography and a 2021 New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Jerome Robbins Dance Research Fellow. Using his driving urban contemporary ballet movement aesthetic, Evans will synthesize the current political climate with the classical world of Antigone. By placing these ancient Photo: German Ayala Vazquez
archetypes into the contemporary world, the tension between action and fate will be met with a dynamic, classically driven score. The production will makes its world premiere at the newly restored LaSalle Theatre on the East Side of Cleveland.
verbiculture | October 2021
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