THE JANUARY STORY AT DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP
Ros Warby (January 6–8); Yanira Castro + Company
(January 7–23); Wally Cardona Quartet (January 10–15);
RoseAnne Spradlin (January 19–22)
To cheer the new year,
Dance Theater Workshop promises programs as bright as a fresh coat
of paint. Look at the lineup: a solo work from Australia’s
Ros Warby; an off-site, site-specific work by Yanira Castro; the
end of a cycle by Wally Cardona; and a meditation on life and mortality
by RoseAnne Spradlin. Each artist explores a different theme, imagines
dance in new ways and mines it for new possibilities—and each
uses an original score, all but one of which will be played live.
Ros Warby’s “Swift,”
a U.S. premiere, is a multi-media examination of the complexity
of the female character. Recorded images of Warby’s moving
body on 12 different video projections accompany her solo performance
on a stage in order to suggest an imagined world of fairytale and
transformation. The dance is set to a melodic cello score played
live by Helen Mountfort. The video was created by avant garde filmmaker
Margie Medlin, a fellow Aussie.
In “Beacon,” Yanira Castro,
who has been fascinated by Greek tragedy since her undergraduate
days at Amherst, uses fragments of Aeschylus’s “The
Libation Bearers,” suggestions of a Greek chorus and broken,
deconstructed phrases of movement to make her point. Inspired by
the sense of detachment inherent in the media’s reporting
of horrifying events, Castro utilizes the distancing devices employed
by Greek tragedy to create consciousness of the cycle of human horror.
Recalling the stark illumination that demarcates the scene of tragic
violence, Roderick Murray’s lighting reinforces a sense of
devastation and ensuing anxiety. A world premiere, the work is presented
in Brooklyn’s 94-year-old Lyceum, a former city-owned bathhouse
whose large open space allows Castro to divide the audience into
four distinct viewing areas described as “witness boxes.”
Isolated from their companions, audience members are encouraged
to step outside the catastrophe and individually come to terms with
what they see. For Castro, an understanding and acceptance of the
inevitability and universality of tragedy is a beacon. The original
score is by Dan Siegler.
Wally Cardona considers “Him,
There, Them,” a solo, quartet and duet, somewhat of a culmination
of his recent works: “Trance Territory;” “Four
Ramonas” and “Morph: Live Remix.” Comprised of
movement that is at times lush, treacherous, romantic, athletic,
intimate, cool, dramatic, the dance first takes place on an elegant
white set in front of a line of high school snare drummers. In the
second section, artificial grass becomes a subtle musical instrument
for the dancers’ feet, complemented by deconstructed Brahms
piano music played live by Koji Attwood. The final part, set on
strips of white Marley that curve upward, is accompanied by a mix
of electronic and piano music.
Although abstract explorations of
time, life and death are not rare subjects for choreographers, RoseAnne
Spradlin examines such notions in an artificial arbor and uses cinematic
techniques and changing speeds of movement as investigative tools
in the world premiere of “Future Past.” Her theme is
echoed in John Bischoff’s commissioned score, which combines
electronic music with natural sounds and the ringing of bells. Recorded
interviews reflecting on questions of mortality, time and memory
resonate through the work.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ros Warby: Melbourne-based dancer
and choreographer Ros Warby has been creating work based in improvisation
and solo performance for 15 years. She studied dance with Marika
Besobrasova in Monte Carlo, Central School of Ballet in London and
at the Royal Danish Ballet School in Copenhagen. Later training
included work at the European Dance Development Centre in Arnhem
with Eva Karczag, as well as in the United States with Lisa Nelson,
Dana Reitz and Deborah Hay. In addition to performing her own critically
acclaimed solo dances worldwide, Warby has toured with the companies
of Lucy Guerin and Deborah Hay, as well as with Danceworks and Russell
Dumas’s Dance Exchange, among others. Warby received the 1999
and 2000 Greenroom Awards for performance; her recent program, “Solos,”
received the 2002 Greenroom Award for best solo performance, as
well as two other nominations for production and design. For “Swift,”
Warby was nominated for the 2004 Australian Independent Dance Award.
An Australia Council Fellow for 2002–2004, Warby has performed
at the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Adelaide Arts Festival,
Royal Festival Hall in London, the Nottdance Festival in Nottingham,
U.K., Portland Institute for Contemporary Art and Zurich Theatrespektakel
Festival.
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Yanira Castro + Company: Established in 1997 by
director/choreographer Yanira Castro, New York-based Yanira Castro
+ Company is a collaborative ensemble of dancers and designers that
creates site-specific work, transforming venues with installations
unique to each particular space. Castro’s eclectic experiments
with original music, costumes and visual elements have been performed
at such non-traditional sites as Grand Central Station, the Times
Square subway station, the west side 96th Street Basketball Courts,
The Mall at Central Park, Bronx River Art Center and the Old American
Can Factory. The latter was the site of the Company’s recent
“Cartography,” comprised of four installations throughout
the Brooklyn industrial and art complex. The Company’s primary
collaborators are lighting and installation designer Roderick Murray;
composers William J. Grabek, Jr. and Dan Siegler; photographer and
visual consultant Kevin Kwan; fashion designer Albert Sakhai; and
performers Nancy Ellis, Heather Olson, Pamela Vail and Marya Wethers.
Yanira Castro: Since moving to New York in 1994,
Puerto Rican-native Yanira Castro has integrated a variety of media
– such as music, text and film – with her dance works.
In New York, Castro’s work was presented at Dance Theater
Workshop, Danspace Project, HERE Arts Center, Tribeca Performing
Arts Center, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Dixon Place
and in several spaces where she created site-specific dance installations.
Castro, who earned a B.A. from Amherst College in theater/dance
and literature, has also presented work at Dance Place in Washington,
D.C.; University of Puerto Rico in San Juan; Amherst College and
Smith College in Massachusetts; Middlebury College in Vermont; the
Youth Performing Arts School in Louisville, Kentucky; and internationally
at the Festival d’Avignon at the Theatre de la Danse Golovine
in France.
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Wally Cardona Quartet: Since its inception in 1997,
Wally Cardona Quartet (WC4) has been presented in New York City
14 times and toured nationally, as well as throughout Europe, South
America and Asia. Cardona’s work for WC4 has included “Monster
Suite” (1997), “Four Ramonas” (1998) and “Open
House 01: Prime” (1999). More recently, “Trance Territory”
toured to New York, Pennsylvania, California, Oregon, Massachusets
and Washington, D.C., as well as to several venues in Mexico.
Wally Cardona: Wally Cardona, artistic director
of WC4, grew up in California and New Mexico, where he was a clarinetist
and competitive gymnast. After graduating from The Julliard School
in 1989 with a B.F.A. in dance, Cardona danced with the Ralph Lemon
Company for eight years. His first choreographic work was 1992’s
“Solo Alone/Add One,” which premiered at the Festival
International de Danse in Cannes and was performed at Judson Church.
Cardona’s “Made In Voyage,” commissioned by Danspace
Project in New York City, was performed in seven countries and selected
for the 1996 Plateaux—Biennale Nationale de Danse du Val-de-Marne.
Since debuting at The Joyce Theater’s Altogether Different
Festival in 1998, Cardona’s work has included “Trance
Territory,” his first evening-length dance and “Morph:
Live Remix,” a collaborative dance installation. Currently,
he is working on a new work for WC4 co-produced by Brooklyn Academy
of Music’s Next Wave Festival and Portland Institute for Contemporary
Art/TBA Festival.
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RoseAnne Spradlin: Born in Oklahoma City, choreographer
RoseAnne Spradlin attended the University of Oklahoma and Ohio University,
receiving degrees in art and dance. She spent the early 1990’s
performing with New York choreographer Steve Gross and in 1994,
co-founded SQUID Performance Space, a rehearsal studio and informal
performance space in the financial district of downtown Manhattan.
Since 1995, Spradlin has been creating work for her current company.
The recipient of a 2003 New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie)
for her work “under/world,” Spradlin was also Artist-in-Residence
at Movement Research in 1999 and received a 1998 Choreographer’s
Fellowship from NYFA. In 2004, Spradlin was honored with a distinguished
alumni award from the School of Fine Arts at Ohio University. Spradlin’s
work was performed in New York at The Whitney Museum at Altria and
The Bronx River Arts Center in 2004, and previously at The Kitchen,
SQUID Performance Space, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church,
Dance Theater Workshop, Joyce SoHo, Dixon Place and the Cafe at
La Mama. Her choreography has also been presented at the American
Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina; Chisenhale Dance Space
in London; Footworks in San Francisco; East Street Studios in Hadley,
Massachusetts; and Atlanta Fringe Festival in Atlanta, Georgia.
LOCATION & TICKET INFORMATION
The evening curtains for Ros Warby at Dance Theater Workshop are
at 7:30pm, January 6–8; tickets are $20.
Wally Cardona Quartet performances begin at 8pm on January 10 and
at 7:30pm on January 11, 13–15; tickets are $25.
The curtain times for RoseAnne Spradlin are at 7:30pm, January 19–22,
with an additional performance on January 21 at 10pm; tickets cost
$25.
Discounts are available through DTW’s 4 for 40% Club. All
tickets may be purchased at the box office, by calling 212-924-0077
or online at www.dtw.org. Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219
West 19th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues.
At the Brooklyn Lyceum, Yanira Castro + Company performs at 7pm
and 9pm on January 7–8, 14–15 and 21–22; the show
begins at 6pm on January 9, 16 and 23. All tickets are $20 and can
be reserved at www.dtw.org, www.gowanus.com or by calling 212-924-0077.
Cash for reserved tickets will be taken at the door. The Brooklyn
Lyceum is located at 227 4th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
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