Press Releases

CalArts Presents 2019 Winter Dance Concert

CalArts Presents 2019 Winter Dance Concert
Pictured: Rehearsal with Salia Sanou, choreographer/creator of the piece Du désir d’horizon, a tragic and celebratory interrogation of exile. Photo: Rafael Hernandez, Courtesy of CalArts.

Featuring the work of contemporary masters at REDCAT, CalArts, and a special version for children and families at LA Dance Project and a special version for children and families at LA Dance Project 

The concert includes compositions – some never before performed in Los Angeles – by world-renownedchoreographers Wayne McGregor, Danielle Agami, Yvonne Rainer, and Salia Sanou

California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) will celebrate the work of contemporary dance masters at its annual Winter Dance Concert, presented this year at three venues: Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in Downtown Los Angeles, Sharon Disney Lund Theater on the CalArts campus, and a special version for children and families at Los Angeles Dance Project’s (LADP) creative headquarters in LA’s Warehouse District. 

“I want CalArts to be the most amazing space for dance in the city,” said CalArts School of Dance dean Dimitri Chamblas. “Our annual Winter Dance Concert provides the opportunity to discover works new to Los Angeles and demonstrates the diversity of aesthetics, approaches, and ways of thinking both originating in and internationally converging here. Our dancers are at the avant-garde of the future of dance in America.”

Representing choreographers from Burkina Faso, Israel, England, and the United States, and styles from African dance to minimalism, contemporary to ballet, each concert will present new or recent work from some of the most exciting choreographers currently working today performed by dancers of the CalArts Sharon Lund School of Dance:

FAR, original choreography by Wayne McGregor (2010)
Staged by Louis McMiller


Featuring music by Brian Eno collaborator Ben Frost, this piece totally deconstructs the traditional ballet approach, forging a whole new relationship with the floor, space, and energy. The performance follows a recent retrospective of the London choreographer’s work with the Royal Ballet at the Music Center.

Featuring excerpts from Mouth to Mouth and other works, original choreography by Danielle Agami (2014/other)
Staged by Danielle Agami and Ate9 company members Sarah Butler and Rebecah Goldstone

One of the most interesting young choreographers working in Los Angeles today, Israeli-born Agami will present excerpts from her critically-lauded masterpiece, complete with a score by CalArts alum Jodie Landau (Music BFA 15), as well as selections from other works. Agami’s Ate9 dANCE cOMPANY – which specializes in site-specific performances and collaborations with L.A. institutions – will collaborate with CalArts on the performance, which explores the possible interpretations of the piece’s intimate title: dialogue, resuscitation, and love-making.

Diagonal (part of Terrain), original choreography by Yvonne Rainer (1963/2019)
Staged by Sara Wookey

Rainer’s classic piece marks an important moment in the history of postmodernism. Dense, playful, and unpredictable, the piece features six dancers moving back and forth in space performing actions called out by numbers, a sort of follow-the-leader with a multitude of possibilities – a perfect example of the iconic San Francisco-born, New York-based choreographer and filmmaker’s minimalistic style. 

Du Désir d’horizons, original choreography by Salia Sanou (2016)
Staged by Salia Sanou

The most recent work from world-renowned, Burkina Faso-born choreographer – the inaugural recipient of the UCLA Department of World Arts and Culture/Dance Alma Hawkins Memorial Chair – draws from dance workshops Sanou conducted in Burundi and Burkina Faso refugee camps, with support of the African Artists for Development Fund.

While the CalArts and REDCAT performances are intended mainly for adult audiences, the LADP concert will – for the second year in a row – feature a shortened version of the Winter Dance Concert specifically for children and families. Each event is open to the public. Ticketing and performance details are available on the CalArts, REDCAT, and LADP websites.

 

WHEN: Thursday and Friday, Nov. 21 and 22, 2019, 8 pm (CalArts)

Friday and Saturday, Dec. 6 and 7, 2019, 8:30 pm (REDCAT)

Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, 2 pm (LADP)

 

WHERE: CalArts // 24700 McBean Parkway // Valencia, CA 91355

                    REDCAT // 631 West 2nd Street // Los Angeles, CA 90012

                    LADP // 2245 E Washington Blvd // Los Angeles, CA 90021

###

The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts’s mission is to educate the complete dance artist—agile, intelligent, and in command of an expanded skill-set to meet the fast-evolving demands of professional dance. The comprehensive BFA and MFA programs build high-level proficiencies in performance technique, choreography, dance production technology, and critical understanding of the art form, all within a global cultural context. Concentrated production seasons of aesthetically diverse work thrive in an atmosphere of creative exchange between professionally motivated students and a faculty of practicing artists.