How does human intimacy fare in a world bewitched by speed and technology? This question is central to “Stardust,” David Roussève’s most recent dance/theater work, which is scheduled for its local premiere at Peak Performances, February 6-9.
Using a sound score that juxtaposes the creamy warm romanticism of Nat King Cole with the rough-edged, hip-hop-based original music of d. Sabela grimes, Roussève’s choreography is divided between lush, jazz-inflected dancing, and the frenetic, angular expression of the protagonist’s anxious mind. The dance, in which grief and joy, beauty, and horror collide, marks Roussève’s first work without spoken text, and the first without the choreographer in the leading role. In Stardust, the protagonist, a gay African American teen, is never seen on stage; his emotional and spiritual situation is expressed in unanswered text messages that are projected onto a screen.
Cari Ann Shim Sham’s video art, serving as a backdrop for Rousseve and his 10 performers, illuminates the tension between the heightened sense of connection and concurrent loneliness created by the cyber-age. Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns was the dramaturge. Christopher Kuhl designed the lighting and Leah Pieh, the costumes.
at Montclair State University in NJ, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, MA, Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA, and UCLA’s Royce Hall, and The Getty Center in Los Angeles.
Abroad, the company has been seen at the American Center, Paris; Birmingham Repertory Theater, Birmingham, England; Biennale de la Danse, Lyon, France; Internationales Sommer Theater Festival, Hamburg, Germany; Carlton Festival, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; Mercardo Cultural Festival, Bahia, Brazil; and Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, England.
Tour engagements for REALITY always include community activities that feature a wide range of master classes, workshops, video screening, lectures, open rehearsals, and post-performance discussions for an equally wide range of (often disempowered) communities.
Roussève has made dances for the Houston Ballet; Salt Lake City’s Ririe-Woodbury; Ballet Hispanico; the Atlanta Ballet; Pittsburgh’s Dance Alloy and Denver’s Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater.
In addition to being named a 2004 Guggenheim fellow, Roussève’s awards include the Cal Arts/Alpert Award in Dance, “First Place Screen Choreography” at the IMZ International Dance Film Festival, a Creative Capitol Fellowship, a New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award, three Lester Horton Dance Awards, two Irvine Fellowships in Dance, a California Arts Council Choreography Fellowship, seven consecutive fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Association of Black Princeton Alumni. In 1996 Roussève joined UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance. Roussève served as Department Chair from 2003-6 and is currently Professor of Choreography.