92Y Harkness Dance Center Presents Kurt Jooss’s "The Green Table" (LIVE + VIRTUAL)
Company:
92Y
The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center announces the New York City premiere performance of Kurt Jooss’s The Green Table by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, celebrating the work’s 90th anniversary. Jooss, pioneering choreographer, dancer and theoretician, and “one of the world’s most brilliant dance minds” (The New York Times) stood among the great figures of 20th-century dance. Hailed in The New Yorker by dance critic Joan Acocella as “the world’s most famous antiwar ballet,” this prescient anti-war masterpiece is as resonant today as it was when first performed in 1932 during Hitler’s rise to power. Cinematic, packed with drama, visually stunning and still shocking, it’s a profoundly human work of social protest. Jooss’s genius for expressing emotion with “piercing truth and vibrant theatricality” has lost none of its power in the passage of time; his message of the futile, relentless tragedy of war is powerfully apposite today. The live performance is on April 6 at 7:30 pm ET and will also be livestreamed and available online for 72 hours.
Following the performance, policy experts Dr. Stephen Biddle and Janine di Giovanni discuss the work and its relationship to war, policy and atrocity with David Rubenstein, who comments, “I look forward to my conversation with these two experts whose remarkable writing and experience enables them to contextualize the work within the policy and experience of war.”
“We’re in a similar geopolitical situation today as in 1932 when Kurt Jooss created The Green Table, with diplomats and policy experts negotiating in an effort to avert war,” comments 92Y Harkness Dance Center Director Taryn Kaschock Russell. “The timing couldn’t be more apropos for this powerful piece, combined with a discussion by policy experts. 92Y has long been known for conversations with world leaders and diplomats, and for presenting iconic works of art. It’s appropriate that this work is being performed on the same stage where such politically-motivated and ground-breaking choreographers as Alvin Ailey (Revelations), Pearl Primus (Hard Time Blues) and Paul Taylor himself (Seven New Dances) premiered their work.”
"The Green Table by Kurt Jooss is a seminal work in the canon of 20th century dance, one that I have wanted to bring to the stage for quite some time," comments Paul Taylor Dance Company Artistic Director Michael Novak. "Although it is a work usually performed by ballet companies, I knew the Taylor dancers would execute it with abandon, ferocity and precision. I am thrilled that our first NYC performance will take place at the Kaufmann Concert Hall Stage at 92Y, which holds a special significance for our Company since Paul Taylor premiered Seven New Dances in 1957 on the same stage."
“This masterwork is both timeless and timely,” comments 92Y Board Chair Jody Gottfried Arnhold. “We’re thrilled that audiences in our hall and those watching virtually around the world, will see Paul Taylor Dance Company present their New York City premiere of this cinematic and visually stunning work at the 92nd Street Y.”
92Y’s historic Kaufmann Concert Hall is being transformed to accommodate this production, with seats removed to add a stage extension for the set and two grand pianos. The Green Table has an original score by F. A. Cohen that will be performed live by musicians of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. This performance is made possible thanks to major support from Jody and John Arnhold | Arnhold Foundation.
92Y Health & Safety Protocol
MASKS MUST BE WORN BY EVERYONE over the age of 2, regardless of vaccination status. ADULTS AND CHILDREN AGE 12+ MUST SHOW PROOF OF VACCINATION UPON ARRIVAL AT 92Y. THANK YOU for doing your part in helping to keep everyone in our community safe.
Photo Credit: Ron Thiele
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