BAC Announces Spring 2019 Season

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) announces the Spring 2019 season of dance, theater, music, and multimedia presentations, running January 30 through May 30. Tickets for BAC Presents performances are on sale now, and can be purchased at bacnyc.org and 866 811 4111. A complete lineup of BAC Residencies-to be announced in January-will provide residencies to artists across disciplines to create new works of dance, theater, music, and multimedia.

BAC's new season of dance features two New York Premieres from international dance artists. First, renowned Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker brings Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), a reconstruction of her 1995 work set to Arnold Schönberg's late romantic composition of the same name, inspired by a poem by Richard Dehmel. This presentation by one of today's preeminent dance companies, Rosas, runs for five performances only: January 30-February 3 in the Jerome Robbins Theater. Then, on March 5 and 6 in the Jerome Robbins Theater, Israel's acclaimed Vertigo Dance Company performs One. One & One, created in 2017 by artistic director Noa Wertheim to celebrate the company's 25th anniversary. This work for eight dancers is performed on a dirt-covered stage, creating an arresting sensory experience.

Chilean theater artist Manuela Infante returns with the New York Premiere of the work she developed at BAC during a 2016 residency. This exuberant and polyphonic monologue, performed in Spanish with English supertitles, probes philosophic theories of plant intelligence and communication, and examines the impossibility of dialogue between humans and plants. Estado Vegetal (Vegetative State) will have two performances, May 2 and 3 in the Jerome Robbins Theater.

Three events of the new season are presented in conjunction with the yearlong Merce Cunningham Centennial celebration in 2019, including presentations by two of the five recently named 2018-19 Cage Cunningham Fellows. On February 16 in the Howard Gilman Performance Space, dance artist Silas Riener and a group of undergraduate dance students will present a performance and lecture-demonstration in a program titled Runs the Gamut: Exploring the Creative Legacy of Merce Cunningham. On March 15, Tei Blow and his collaborator, Laurel Atwell, will present a work-in-progress culminating a week of residency in the Rudolf Nureyev Studio. With the support of his Cage Cunningham Fellowship, multimedia artist Blow is developing an immersive work, Entry, inspired by John Cage and Merce Cunningham's dance-spectacle Ocean. Finally, BAC presents the inaugural 2016-17 Cage Cunningham Fellow, esteemed pianist Alexei Lubimov, premiering works he commissioned from Russian composers Pavel Karmanov and Sergei Zagny through the support of his fellowship. For this concert on May 30 in the Jerome Robbins Theater, Lubimov is joined by bass player Lizzie Burns and the award-winning Calidore String Quartet.

Rounding out Spring 2019 is a music presentation by St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble and percussionist Adam Rosenblatt. The eclectic program on April 12 in the Jerome Robbins Theater includes Thierry de May's Light Music for soloist, projections, and interactive systems, and Viennese classics by J. Haydn and J. Lanner.

Tickets for BAC Presents can be purchased online or by phone:
BACNYC.ORG / 866 811 4111. A complete schedule of BAC Spring 2019 Presentations follows.

SPRING 2019 BAC PRESENTS

DANCE

Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker / Rosas
Verkla?rte Nacht (N.Y. Premiere)
January 30-February 3
Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30PM, Sunday at 3PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets: $25 Orchestra / $20 Balcony
Running Time: 50 Minutes

"If one thing distinguishes her oeuvre, it's the rich, intoxicating friction between human architecture and expression," says The New York Times on celebrated Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.

Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) is set to composer Arnold Schönberg's late romantic score based on an 1866 poem by Richard Dehmel about a woman who confesses to the man she loves that she is pregnant with another man's child. Originally choreographed in 1995 for an ensemble, this 2014 reconstruction is derived from a process of reduction, concentrating the poem's dramatic structure in an evocative dance for three performers from which the narrative lines and expressive modulations emerge.

Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.
Major support for dance programming and activities provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Harkness Foundation for Dance.
Rosas is supported by the Flemish Community and by the BNP Paribas Foundation.


DANCE

Runs the Gamut: Exploring the Creative Legacy of Merce Cunningham
February 16 / Saturday at 4PM
Howard Gilman Performance Space
Free Admission / Reservations Required - Reservations will be available at a later date.

Merce Cunningham Dance Company alum Silas Riener and undergraduate dance students present a performance and lecture-demonstration of Cunningham's technique and compositional tools of chance procedure and indeterminacy. Led by Riener, this new generation of dancers will showcase the legendary choreographer's groundbreaking contributions to the field, and reveal the possibilities that emerge through new experiments.

This event culminates a series of workshops led by Riener for the student participants, who are from The Ailey School, Harvard University, The Juilliard School, and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

This project is supported through the Cage Cunningham Fellowship, established in 2015 for artists who demonstrate John Cage and Merce Cunningham's commitment to artistic innovation. In recognition of Cunningham's centennial celebration in 2019, the 2018-19 Cage Cunningham Fellowship extends the award to five artists including Silas Riener.
Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.
Major support for dance programming and activities provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Harkness Foundation for Dance.
This event is part of the Merce Cunningham Centennial. Centennial Community Programs are generously supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Major funding for the Centennial is provided by the Merce Cunningham Trust, the Paul L. Wattis Foundation, American Express and Judith Pisar.

DANCE

Vertigo Dance Company
One. One & One (N.Y. Premiere)
March 5-6 / Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets: $25
Running Time: 60 Minutes

"Freer and fresher than ever. It shows off new energy and an assured hand - Jerusalem Post on One. One & One, choreographed by Noa Wertheim.

Israel's highly regarded Vertigo Dance Company performs One. One & One, choreographed in celebration of the ensemble's 25th anniversary and set to a powerful score by Avi Balali. Performed on a dirt-covered stage, the work creates an arresting sensory experience as it explores the individual's desire for wholeness and spiritual connection to the natural world.

Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.
Major support for dance programming and activities provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Harkness Foundation for Dance.
Vertigo Dance Company is sponsored by The State of Israel: Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage, The Jerusalem Municipality, Cultural Affairs, and the Consulate General of Israel in New York.

MULTIMEDIA

Tei Blow + Laurel Atwell
Entry (Work-in-Progress)
March 15 / Friday at 7PM
Rudolf Nureyev Studio
Tickets: $15
Running Time: 60 Minutes

Entry reimagines John Cage and Merce Cunningham's Ocean, a "dance in the round" in which the dancers, musicians, and audience members are arranged in concentric circles. Through the use of anechoic sound and ASMR-inducing audio and speech, Entry recreates the psychedelic voyages and out-of-body experiences recounted by the immersed spectators of the 1994 work, exploring the inner space conjured by Cage and Cunningham's iconic collaboration.

This project is supported through the Cage Cunningham Fellowship, established in 2015 for artists who demonstrate John Cage and Merce Cunningham's commitment to artistic innovation. In recognition of Cunningham's centennial celebration in 2019, the 2018-19 Cage Cunningham Fellowship extends the award to five artists including Tei Blow.
Lead support of dance programming at BAC is provided by the Rudolf Nureyev Endowment.
Major support for dance programming and activities provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Harkness Foundation for Dance.

MUSIC

St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble + Adam Rosenblatt
Performing Haydn, de May, Lanner
April 12 / Friday at 7:30PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets: $25
Running Time: 60 Minutes

J. Haydn: Divertimento for 2 violins, 2 violas, and bass, Hob. II:2 (1754)
Thierry de May: Light Music for soloist, projections, and interactive systems (2004)
J. Lanner: Marie's Waltz for 2 violins, viola, and bass, op. 143 (1839)
J. Lanner: The Romantics for 2 violins, viola, and bass, op. 167 (1841)

Percussionist Adam Rosenblatt performs contemporary composer Thierry de May's Light Music, in which movement and gesture produce light and sound through interactive technology. This interdisciplinary solo is bookended by Viennese classics - J. Haydn's festive Divertimento for Strings and J. Lanner's charming 19th century waltzes, performed by the renowned St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble.

Leadership support for music programming provided by the Thompson Family Foundation.


THEATER

Manuela Infante
Estado Vegetal (N.Y. Premiere)
May 2-3 / Thursday and Friday at 7:30PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets: $25
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Performed in Spanish with English supertitles.

Estado Vegetal (Vegetative State) is an exuberant and polyphonic monologue by Chilean theater artist Manuela Infante. Inspired by the revolutionary thinking of philosopher Michael Marder and neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, the work probes the concepts of plant intelligence and communication, examining the impossibility of dialogue between humans and plants.

Estado Vegetal was developed, in part, during a BAC Artist Residency.
Leadership support for international residencies at BAC is provided by the Ford Foundation.
This engagement of Manuela Infante is made possible through Southern Exposure: Performing Arts of Latin America, a program of Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

MUSIC

Alexei Lubimov + Calidore String Quartet
Performing Haydn, Zagny, Karmanov
May 30 / Thursday at 7:30PM
Jerome Robbins Theater
Tickets: $25
Running Time: 60 Minutes

J. Haydn: String Quartet op. 20 no. 2 (1772)
S. Zagny: Keyboard Music of XVII-XVIII Centuries for organ, composed or possibly heard by Sergei Zagny (2017) (World Premiere)
P. Karmanov: I Made My Home for narrator, piano, string quartet, bass, and tape (2017) (U.S. Premiere)

Esteemed pianist and BAC's inaugural Cage Cunningham Fellow Alexei Lubimov premieres works he commissioned from accomplished Russian composers Pavel Karmanov and Sergei Zagny. Lubimov, one of today's most versatile keyboard artists, plays organ in Zagny's nod to baroque music. In Karmanov's ethereal I Made My Home, he plays prepared piano and is joined by bass player Lizzie Burns and the award-winning Calidore String Quartet, who opens the concert with one of the groundbreaking Haydn opus 20 quartets.

The premieres by Sergei Zagny and Pavel Karmanov were commissioned through BAC's inaugural Cage Cunningham Fellowship.

Leadership support for music programming provided by the Thompson Family Foundation.