Doug Varone And Dancers Press Kit

If this work and these dancers cant move you, I dont know what would. DANCE MAGAZINE

dougvaroneanddancers.org

This is a company of master dancers, performing masterly choreography. NEWSDAY

DOUG VARONE AND DANCERS

The 2014/15 season marks the Companys 28th year. Since its founding in 1986, Doug Varone and Dancers has commanded attention for its expansive vision, versatility and technical prowess. On the concert stage, in opera, theater and on the screen, Varones kinetically thrilling dances make essential connections and mine the complexity of the human spirit. From the smallest gesture to full-throttle bursts of movement, Varones work can take your breath away.

At home in New York City, Doug Varone and Dancers is the resident company at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center. On tour, the Company has performed in more than 100 cities in 45 states across the U.S. and in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. Stages include The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, San Francisco Performances, Londons Queen Elizabeth Hall, Torontos Harbourfront, Moscows Stanislavsky Theater, Buenos Aires Teatro San Martn, the Venice Biennale, and the Tokyo, Bates, Jacobs Pillow and American Dance Festivals. In opera and theater, the Company regularly collaborates on the many Varone-directed or choreographed productions that have been produced around the country.

In 2013, the company was selected to tour as part of DanceMotionUSA(SM), a joint project between BAM and the US Department of State, touring, performing and teaching in Argentina, Paraguay and Peru for a month. This project culminated in in the premiere of a new commissioned work for Brooklyn Academy of Musics Next Wave Festival, in collaboration with the Argentina-based Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance. Doug Varone and Dancers are among the most sought after ambassadors and educators in the field. For the past 15 years, annual summer intensive workshops at leading universities attract students and professionals from around the country. The companys multi-discipline residency programs on tour capture their concepts, imagery and techniques across disciplines and for people of all ages and back-grounds, reaching out to audiences in unique ways that directly relate to their lives and interests.

Varone, his dancers and designers have been honored with 11 New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies). In celebration of their 28th year, the Company will be touring and reconstructing major dances from past repertory, as well as recent new works and Company premiers.

THE COMPANY

Booking Inquiries: Lisa Booth Management Tel 212 921 2114 [email protected]

A four star triumph in every way. DENVEr POST

phot

o: C

ylla

von

Tie

dem

ann

His dances are kinetic artwork about human passions. LA TIMES


Varones choreography is finely drawn and

operatically rich, each dancer a thread woven

exactly where it ought to be, into a whole

that is luxuriantly textured and dimensioned.

POrTLAND PrESS HErALD

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DOUG VARONE

Award-winning choreographer and director Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, and fashion. He is a passionate educator and articulate advocate for dance. By any measure, his work is extraordinary for its emotional range, kinetic breadth and the many arenas in which he works. His New York City-based Doug Varone and Dancers has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for close to three decades.

In the concert dance world, Varone has created a body of works globally. Commissions include the Limn Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, rambert Dance Company (London), Martha Graham Dance Company, Dancemakers (Canada), Batsheva Dance Company (Israel), Bern Ballet (Switzerland) and An Creative (Japan), among others. In addition, his dances have been staged on more than 75 college and university programs around the country.

In opera, Doug Varone is in demand as both a director and choreographer. Among his four productions at The Metropolitan are Salome with its Dance of the Seven Veils for Karita Mattila, the world premiere of Tobias Pickers An American Tragedy, and Stravinskys Le Sacre du Printemps, designed by David Hockney. His Met Opera production of Hector Berloizs Les Troyens was recently broadcast world-wide in HD. He has staged multiple premiers and new productions for Minnesota Opera, Opera Colorado, Washington Opera, New York City Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera, among others. His numerous theater credits include choreography for Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theaters across the country. His choreography for last seasons musical Murder Ballad at Manhattan Theater Club earned him a Lortel Award nomination. Film credits include choreography for the Patrick Swayze film, One Last Dance. In 2008, Varones Bottomland, set in the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky, was the subject of the PBS Dance in America: Wolf Traps Face of America.

Varone received his BFA from Purchase College where he was awarded the Presidents Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. Numerous honors and awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, an OBIE Award (for direction/ choreography of Lincoln Centers Orpheus and Euridice), the Jerome robbins Fellowship at the Boglaisco Institute in Italy, two individual Bessie Awards, two American Dance Festival Doris Duke Awards for New Work, and four National Dance Project Awards.

As an educator, Varone teaches workshops and master classes around the world for dancers, musicians and actors. He is currently on the faculty at Purchase College, teaching composition and choreography.


dougvaroneanddancers.org Booking Inquiries: Lisa Booth Management Tel 212 921 2114 [email protected]

Untitled, 1992 pastel on paper 29.5 x 21.75 in. (74.9 x 55.3 cm) Estate of Joan Mitchell Image courtesy of the Joan Mitchell Foundation

NEW WORK 201516RECOMPOSEDChOREOGRAphy by DOUG VARONEMUSiC COMpOSED by MAx RiChtER, RECOMpOSED LiGhtiNG DESiGN by JANE COxCOStUME DESiGN by Liz pRiNCEpROJECtiON DESiGN by DARyL MALONEy

A CREAtiVE NOtE FROM DOUG VARONE

ReComposed will be a visual dance creation inspired by American abstract artist Joan Mitchells pastel drawings, set to Max richters newly constructed version of Vivaldis The Four Seasons. With gestural, sometimes violent brushwork, Mitchell described her paintings as an organism that turns in space. I recognize this visceral energy within my own dance making, creating human moving land-scapes that hauntingly echo Mitchells explosions on canvas.

Like myself, Mitchell was an aural artist, always creating to sound and music. Enter Vivaldis The Four Seasons. Max richters brilliant recomposed version of The Four Seasons adds and subtracts aural layers of this iconic score and reveals it in startling new ways. The new work will be a recomposed dance of Mitchells vision, using a recomposed version of Vivaldis score. The possibilities are endless!

Beyond the creative aspect of the dance, what excites me about this project is that it will also allow us to build and explore new educational elements around the art making. The creation of this project plays into the Companys strengths as both dance makers and educators. See our page on Immersive Engagements.

We are working closely with the Joan Mitchell Foundation and with museum curators to expand the impact of this project.

Thrilling, mesmerizing work. THE VILLAGE VOICE

8 DANCERS35 MiNUtES


THE FAbUlISTChOREOGRAphy by DOUG VARONEMUSiC by DAViD LANGLiGhtiNG DESiGN by bEN StANtONCOStUME DESiGN by REiD bARtELME AND hARRiEt JUNG

In The Fabulist, Varone expresses both the confidence of youth and the vulnerability of getting older. Theres a sense of loss and mortality, enhanced by an excerpt from David langs haunting, beautiful Death Speaks. Varone places his hand on his heart then moves his hand down his chest as though feeling to see if hes still has a temporal body, of this world. THE DUrHAM HErALD SUN

Set to David Langs passionate vocal score Death Speaks, the solo marks the return of Doug Varone to the stage after nearly eight years.

In each of us is a storyteller, creating tales filled with the memories of our lives.

This is the premise of Doug Varones exquisite new solo, The Fabulist, commis-sioned by the American Dance Festival and premiered to great acclaim in the summer of 2014.

Varone is, I believe, a great humanist. Something, probably honesty, makes his movement powerfully touching you feel like he is telling you secrets in the dark. I was brought to tears by this sight and pretty much all of the dance. If Varone has ever interested you, do not miss this solo. THE FIVE POINTS STAr

SOLO pERFORMER14 MiNUtES


NEW WORK PREMIERE 201415

Christopher Rouses haunting Pulitzer Prize winning composition

creates a musical metaphor for tragedy; one that has sparked my

imagination in exciting visceral ways.

There is a tension between the simplicity and character of the sound against the barely contained emotions being invoked. An element of risk pervades the score with pure animalistic energy, as if something personal were being revealed. Its lyrically mournful, then ragingly grotesque.

A kind of elegy, untempered by faith.

The title refers to the structure of score itself and how within the symmetry of its own form, a narrative mysteriously unfolds.

He layers his dances with complex and sophisticated than conventional storytelling. He makes his eight

phrasing of urgent and vigorous momentum, rather dancers look look like three times that number. LA TIMES

SYMMETRY & NARRATIVE

ChOREOGRAphy by DOUG VARONESCORE by ChRiStOphER ROUSE

LiGhtiNG DESiGN by JANE COxCOStUME DESiGN by

REiD bARtELME AND hARRiEt JUNG8 DANCERS, 29 MiNUtES

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


Grafting off of the huge success of Varones sold-out NYC studio series,Stripped, Varone is taking his idea to the Mainstage as a way of openingdialogues with new dance presenters and their audiences nationwide.

Promoting STrIPPED/DrESSED both as an artistic and educational eventbreaks through to new territory in presenting. It opens doors for new danceaudiences, allowing them to literally see the process of how a dance unfoldsfrom beginnings to fruition in one evening.

STRIPPEDVarones articulate and insightful way of dissecting his choreography for dance audiences helps to demystify the art form for many viewers, and provides an overture for experiencing his work. The first half of the evening, with Varone as MC, provides an intimate look at his creative process. The Company, dressed in only rehearsal clothes, under simple lights, presents a detailed look into the intricacies of how dances are created and performed.

DRESSEDAfter a short Q&A and an intermission, the Company returns with the secondhalf of the evening: presenting fully produced dances, complete with lights and costumes.

/DRESSEDA UNiQUE CONCEpt FOR AN EVENiNG OF DANCE

STRIPPED/


If you have ever sat so close in a rehearsal with dancers whirling past and stopping within an inch of your nose, then you know what a gem of an opportunity this is. IDANZ.COM


Theres more information in one minute of dance by Doug Varone than most choreographers manage to squeeze into far lengthier works. BOSTON HErALD

PRESS


The members of his company are superb dancers, but Varones choreography with its hesitations, awkward tenderness, bravery, and belligerence emphasizes their humanity. Images surfacing from the full-bodied dancing stir memories and run along our nerves. THE VILLAGE VOICE

Slipping between commonplace gesture and metaphor, his movement occupies the ambivalent terrain of two emotions at once. Its not like anything youve ever seen before. NEWSDAY

Doug Varone and Dancers command attention as soon as the curtain goes up. Rarely do you find a choreographer so dedicated to the full and generous complexity of the human spirit. Many choreographers can create interesting movement; few can make it mean so much. CHICAGO TrIBUNE

Varone rolls his dancers like dice, throwing them hard, way off center where they cling to Earth with tenacity. DANCE MAGAZINE

An exceptionally fluent dancemaker. Theres an emotional breadth sometimes missing from so many other greats in modern dance. Varone puts the beating heart at the center of the work. WASHINGTON POST

Doug Varones work makes me think of small rivers on big journeys rivers that flow serenely curve to evade an obstacle, glance off a stone, suddenly burst into a waterfall. THE VILLAGE VOICE

An evening of Doug Varones choreography is a feast of tens of thousands of individual moments, from the intricate to the mundane, from the witty to the emotionally charged. Wonderfully inventive. Exhilarating. KANSAS CITY STAr

In Varones dances, movement always stems from an emotional impulse. The effect is akin to the experience of watching a drama so skillfully directed and honestly acted that its fiction is forgotten in a temporary yet complete suspension of belief. ELIZABETH SCHWYZEr, FIFTY CONTEMPOrArY CHOrEOGrAPHErS

Engrossing works, brilliant performers an endlessly imaginative choreographer. One spectacular, invigorating night of dance. rOCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

REPERTORY

dougvaroneanddancers.orgdougvaroneanddancers.org

Doug Varone and Dancers command attention as soon as the curtain goes up. Many choreographers can create interesting movement; few can make it mean so much. THE CHICAGO TrIBUNE

REPERTORY


CARRUGI (2012)(8 dancers, 30 minutes) Music by W.A Mozart (La Betulia Liberata, oratorio)

Doug Varones choreography is finely drawn and operatically rich, each dancer a thread woven into exactly where it ought to be, into a whole

that is luxuriantly textured and dimensioned. POrTLAND PrESS HErALD

CHAPTERS FROM A BROKEN NOVEL (2010)(8 dancers, evening-length) Original score by David Van Tieghem MAY ALSO BE PrESENTED IN SHOrTEr FOrM WITH OTHEr rEPErTOrY WOrKS

Choreographer Doug Varones Chapters from a Broken Novel (2010) with its shards of dreams and groping tenderness cracks the human condition wide open. BOSTON GLOBE

LUX (2006)(8 dancers, 22 minutes) Music by Philip Glass (The Light)

Luxuriant. Lux is all about freedom. It is what dancing really feels like, the kind of dancing I might dream about: loose and sweeping in a spirit of exultation. Varone puts the beating heart at the center of his work. WASHINGTON POST

BOATS LEAVING (2006)(8 dancers, 28 minutes) Music by Arvo Prt (Te Deum)

A masterpiece. Varones genius here consists of using tactics thatare strictly formal, utterly devoid of sentiment, to arouse the spectators deepest feelings. BLOOMBErG.COM

HOME (1988)(2 dancers, 12 minutes) Music by Dick Connette

Home depicts a thousand tiny ways the subtle shades of acceptance, rejection, tender passion and greedy need between two people sharing a life. Its movement that probes the very heart of human emotions and interactions. BALTIMOrE EVENING SUN

DOUG VArONE CHOOSES PrOGrAMS IN CONSULTATION WITH HOST VENUES

phot

o: S

cott

Suc

hman

Doug Varone has surrounded himself with gifted and generous dancers who are mature diverse and caring. Their comfort with children, families and the disciplined rigor of professional dancing seem to flow together in a seamless score. TONI SMITH, SKIDMOrE COLLEGE


the Company is committed to creating opportunities for audiences to enter into and understand the arts from the varied perspectives of their own lives. that they achieve this without sacrificing the integrity of the art itself is a key component to the success of their residencies.

RESIDENCIESMASTER CLASSES (1.52 hours)An eclectic blend of training is the hallmark of the Companys work and allows for tailor-made classes and workshops for students and dance professionals of all skill levels. The Companys master teachers are nationally and internationally renowned and offer classes in technique, repertory, composition, partnering, and performance skills.

INFORMANCE (11.5 HOUrS, Q & A INCLUDED)Easily adapted to a variety of spaces and conducted without theatrical lighting or costumes, live excerpts from the Companys repertory illustrate Doug Varones discussion about how work is created from idea to stage.

MAPPING (1.52 hours) This workshop is designed to investigate communication and interaction to explore, through a series of movement and verbal exercises, how our identities, aspirations, backgrounds, and beliefs are shared. For adults, teens or families; no dance background required.

PARALLEL LIVES (11.5 hours)Typical workshops have explored Lewis Thomas The Lives of the Cell in biology classes, A.S. Byatts Possession in literature classes, and John Updikes Trust in a class on human perspectives. Theme based classroom discussion leads to the creation of small movement scenes that facilitate the understanding of the work they are studying via dance making.

LIQUID ARCHITECTURE (1.52 hours) This workshop is designed for architecture, arts, design, or engineering students interested in exploring spatial and temporal ideas through movement based problem-solving tasks.

CLASSES FOR KIDS (1 hour)Doug Varone and Dancers offers classes for children from pre-K through6th grade that include physical and vocal warm ups, exploration of creative movement, imagination games, and storytelling in which students create dances in large groups.



IMMERSIVE ENGAGEMENTS

hERES hOW it WORKS

Begin with dance at the core of the event.

Engage local visual artists to watch a rehearsal of the Companys current work in progress, creating drawings based on the dance. Engage local dancers to create dances based on those drawings

Partner with local museums or galleries to share those dances in a visual art context. Add local musicians to play the score live.

Work with local creative writing classes to build short stories based on each of the sections of the dance. Partner with a local library or coffee house to create forums to share those stories. Create in-school programs that echo all of the above.

WE DONt JUSt DO DANCE

As a Company, sharing creativity is a part of our daily lives whether we are on the stage, in the studio, in the classroom or anywhere in-between. Immersive engagements allow us build interdisciplinary experiences that capture our concepts, imagery and craft and share them with audiences in ways that directly affect their lives. By reaching out to a broad cross-section of a community, we illuminate in unique ways how creativity connects all of us regardless of our stories, lives, ages and differences.

WE RUN thE GAMUt

The Company has a successful history of creating within a wide range of disciplines spanning dance, theater, opera and film, and we mine diverse creative inspirations from visual arts to literature, from architecture to mathematics. As a result, the possibilities for interweaving workshops and building connections between many varied groups have been endless. The Companys highly-regarded and much sought-after residencies around the globe attest to this.

Our latest creative project, ReComposed, will be a dance inspired by a visual artists love of music the perfect starting point to build an Immersive Engagement.

hOW DO WE DO it?

In our dialogues with presenters, we aim to develop programming tailored to each specific community, with a focus on the broader sense of how creativity shapes our lives and connects everyone who comes in contact with it in different and unifying ways. The opposite page gives an example of what one of these experiences might look like.

Wonderfully inventive. Exhilarating. KANSAS CITY STAr


SCHEDUlE


WORKSHOPS/INTENSIVESSEptEMbER 1214, 2014THE CHIN PrOJECT CULMINATING EVENT OF THE 2014 DEVICES: CHOrEOGrAPHIC INTENSIVE, NYC

JANUARy 1217, 20156TH ANNUAL WINTEr INTENSIVE, NYC

MAy 2429, 2015DEVICES: CHOrEOGrAPHIC INTENSIVE, NYC

MAy 31JUNE 20, 201516TH ANNUAL SUMMEr WOrKSHOPPUrCHASE COLLEGE

RESIDENCIESDoug Varone and Dancers begins its eighth year as the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Centers Company-in-residence. This NYC landmark provides the company with a home studio space for informal showings, and a venue for its celebrated training programs. In addition, Varone curates the 92 St Ys Harkness Dance Festival in the Spring of 2015.

VIRTUAL VARONEwww.dougvaroneanddancers.org houses an impressive video library featuring highlights from the past 25 years of repertory from 1986 to 2013, with new commentary by Doug Varone, company members and artistic collaborators. Behind-the-scenes looks at the creation and process of many Varone projects, including opera and film, can also be found.

Join our mailing list and find us on your favorite social media outlets as well.

facebook.com/dovadance Dovadance.tumblr.com Twitter, Instagram and Vine: @dovadance

NYC SEASONDECEMbER 17, 2014 . thE JOyCE thEAtER

Whether he is creating dazzling, complex whirlwinds of movement or tracing the interior landscape of terse gesture, an indelible humanity lives at the core of Doug Varones world. The company returns to The Joyce with two New York premieres, including Symmetry and Narrative, a work set to Christopher rouses Pulitzer Prize-winning Trombone Concerto that explores dynamic new territory. Also on the program is a major revival of the celebrated 2004 work, Castles, set to Prokofievs sweeping Waltz Suite, Opus 110, which examines and debunks fairytale imagery.

PERFORMING/TOURINGJULy 58, 2014 . tARApOtO, pERU

JULy 814, 2014 . DANzA NUEVA FEStiVAL, LiMA, pERU

JULy 2223, 2014 . AMERiCAN DANCE FEStiVAL, DURhAM, NC

JANUARy, 2015 . ApAp ShOWCASE, NEW yORK City CENtER, StUDiO 4

JANUARy 2324, 2015 . EDiSON thEAtER, WAShiNGtON UNiVERSitySt. LOUiS, MO

STAGING REPERTORY An important part of our mission is making our repertory available as an educational tool for college and university performers through staging and licensing projects. The residencies that we build around these projects emphasize the major principles of our work: musicality, architecture of design, and the exploration of physical and gestural language used to create dramatic dialogues. In the past 28 years, DOVA has staged dances on more than 75 college and university programs across the United States, Canada and abroad. Our most comprehensive residencies include technique classes in Varone style and composition principles.

Hartt School/University of Hartford Purchase CollegeHunter College University of the ArtsMarymount College University of MarylandMontclair State College Vassar CollegePrinceton University Virginia Commonwealth University

DOUG VARONE AND DANCERSDoug Varone, Artistic DirectorSarah Bodley, Executive DirectorAlex Springer & Xan Burley, Tour ManagersAlex Springer, Company Manager, Media Archive & DesignEllyn Sjoquist, Program & Marketing Assistant bOOKiNG AGENt: LiSA bOOth MANAGEMENt, iNC.Lisa Booth and Deirdre Valente1501 Broadway #1915 New York, NY 10036tel 212.921.2114 fax 212.921.2504 [email protected]

DOUG VARONE AND DANCERSis incorporated as DOVA, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

260 West Broadway, Suite 4, New York, NY 10013 USAtel 212.279.3344 fax 212.279.6397 [email protected] facebook.com/dovadancedovadance.tumblr.com Twitter, Instagram and Vine: @dovadance bOARD OF DiRECtORSCarol K. Walker, Chair

richard CaplesJohn LanasaJeanne MurphyLida OrzeckDoug VaronePearl ZuchlewskiElizabeth Geiger, emeritiNaomi Grabel, emeritirobert Sanders, emeritus

SUppORt Alphawood Foundation, American Dance Abroad, Fan Fox and Leslie Samuels Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Jerome robbins Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, New York Community Trust, and the Shubert Shubert Foundation, with public support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. We are also grateful for the support of our many individual donors and Commissioning Club supporters.

JUNiOR bOARD Hollis Bartlett, Chair

Stephanie Boxrobin CherofKatryn GeaneJoyce LeeAllison MuiAlexander Thompson

photography: p1 Paula Lobo, p2 Cylla Von Tiedemann, p3 Cylla Von Tiedemann, p4 Phil Knott, p5 Paula Lobo,

p6 Paula Lobo, p7 Stephanie Vartanian (left) & Dale Dong (right), p8 Paula Lobo, p9 Bill Hebert, p10 various

company members, p11 Mauro Dann, p12 Paula Lobo, p13 Paula Lobo . design: Sondra Graff/rpm:projects

If this work and these dancers cant move you, I dont know what would. DANCE MAGAZINE

Doug Varone And Dancers Press Kit

Documents

Transcript of Doug Varone And Dancers Press Kit