LIMÓN DANCE COMPANY PRESENTS JOSE LIMÓN’S ‘MAZURKAS’ – FIRST COMPANY REVIVAL IN 20 YEARS ALONG WITH LIMÓN’S ‘THE MOOR’S PAVANE’ and ‘COME WITH ME’ by RODRIGO PEDERNEIRAS, MUSIC BY PAQUITO D’RIVERA
Tuesday & Wednesday, January 15 & 16 at 8 PM
Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Ave. (entrance on 25th Street)
“A lovely sequence of dances to Chopin music, pre-dating Robbin’s Dances at a Gathering by a decade and using the Mazurka as a base for choreography…in Limón there is no classical base but a marvelous understanding of how to translate national and character dance to the stage.” Mary Clarke, The Dancing Times, London, 1993
The Limón Dance Company announces the revival of Limón’s “Mazurkas,” out of the Company’s repertory for twenty years, January 15 & 16 at Baruch Performing Arts Center. Music will be played live by Venezuelan pianist Vanessa Perez. The program will also feature Limón’s masterwork “The Moor’s Pavane,” and the joyous “Come With Me,” a special Limón company commission with choreography by Brazil’s Rodrigo Pederneiras, director of Grupo Corpo, and music by renowned Cuban musician/composer Paquito D’Rivera.Performances are sponsored by JPMorgan/CHASE.
“Mazurkas,” created to music by Chopin for an ensemble of seven dancers, was premiered August 15, 1958 at the American Dance Festival. Limón created this exquisite work as a tribute to the heroic spirit of the Polish people – the original title, in fact, was “DANCES (in honor or Poznan, Wroclaw, Katowice and Warszawa”).
Reviewing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Nancy Goldner noted that “Mazurkas is beautiful in its own right, but what is fascinating about the dance from a historical perspective is that it foreshadows a form that has become a staple of the contemporary ballet repertory…Although none of the individual dances tells a story or is explicitly atmospheric, the piece as a whole accrues a dramatic texture through contrasts in the music itself.”
“Mazurkas” has been staged by former Limón dancer Sarah Stackhouse, who has established herself as a major stager of Limón works for both the Limón Company and groups around the world.
Also on the program is Limón’s 1949 masterpiece “The Moor’s Pavane,” subtitled “Variations on the theme of Othello.” Set in the form of a pavane and other dances of the high Renaissance, the legend is told of the hapless Moor, his wrongfully suspected wife, the Moor’s treacherous friend, and his wife. “The Moor’s Pavane” is performed around the world, and is or has been in the repertories of numerous ballet and contemporary dance companies, including American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Bayerisches Staatsballett, Ballet Nice Mediterranee, and sjDANCEco.
“Come With Me” was a special commission by the Limón Dance Company as part of its 65th Anniversary celebration last year. Brazilian choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras collaborated on the project (over Skype) with composer Paquito D’Rivera for this “major popular win,” according to Eva Yaa Asantewaa, who went on to note that “The Limón dancers not only took to D’Rivera’s mellow Latin Jazz but clearly relished Pederneiras’ penchant for erect posture, lilt, and fleet movements. If coolness can be said to sizzle in space like surges of electricity, they are cool personified.” (Dance Magazine, June 201
www.limon.org
©2013 Danza Ballet
