New York Theatre Ballet's Spring Season 2019 Season + Company News
Company:
New York Theatre Ballet
New York Theatre Ballet
Announces
Spring Season 2019 Season
and Company News
New York Theatre Ballet announces the spring REP program and company news from Founder & Artistic Director Diana Byer on the cusp of celebrating NYTB's 40th Anniversary.
New York Theatre Ballet at Danspace Project
March 14-16, 2019
The company returns to Danspace Project for their fifth season with:
- Richard Alston's The Seasons, one of the Best Dance Picks of 2018 by The New York Times. A serene and limpid meditation on the cycle of a year in Nature, the music has an extraordinary clarity with images of Quiescence (Winter), Creation (Spring), Preservation (Summer) and, intriguingly, Destruction (Fall), which all come from Indian philosophical thought;
- Matthew Nash's 1983 take on The Elements of Style, from Strunk and White's classic guide to writing;
- Merce Cunningham's Scramble (1967) the first piece whose designer, Frank Stella, was selected by Jasper Johns after his appointment as artistic advisor of the Cunningham Co. It consists of eighteen sections whose order could be changed, or omitted. The music by Toshi Ichiyanagi (Activities for Orchestra) is scored for western instruments. NYTB's Scramble is part of the Merce Cunningham Centennial Celebration.
NYTB REP performances are made possible, in part, through the Danspace Project's Community ACCESS Series that provides subsidized off- season rental opportunities for Danspace Project community members.
Tickets are $25 and are available at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35026/production/1004338.
NYTB Company News
Planning the NYTB's 4Oth celebration next season, Sir Richard Alston (Knighted in this New Year's Honours) has accepted the post of Resident Choreographer for the next two Seasons. He made his first commissioned work for New York Theatre Ballet, A Rugged Flourish, in 2011 and his second The Seasons. He has also remounted Light Flooding Into Darkened Rooms and Such Longing for NYTB.
William Whitener joined the artistic staff this season as Artistic Advisor and Rehearsal Director. The scope of his contribution to Diana Byer's team is invaluable with his collected wisdom as former lead dancer with Twyla Tharp, Joffrey Ballet, and Artistic Director of Kansas City Ballet for 17 years.
Veteran performing arts producer Alyce Dissette, has just reached her first Anniversary as NYTB's Executive Director.
ABOUT NEW YORK THEATRE BALLET
Diana Byer (Founder and Artistic Director)
With its ever-expanding repertory, New York Theatre Ballet's cutting-edge programming brings fresh insight to classic revivals paired with the modern sensibilities of both established and up-and-coming choreographers. Going strong after 40 years, New York Theatre Ballet's diversity in repertory explores the past while boldly taking risks on the future.
Biographies
Sir Richard Alston (Knighted in this New Year's Honours) choreographed his first work in 1968. He went on to choreograph for Robert Cohan's London Contemporary Dance Theatre before forming Britain's first independent dance company, Strider, in 1972. In 1975 he came to New York to study for two years. His teachers included Merce Cunningham, Carolyn Brown, Viola Farber, Valda Setterfield, Gus Solomons Jr., and Alfredo Corvino. On his return to Europe he worked internationally as choreographer and teacher. In 1980 he was appointed Resident Choreographer of Ballet Rambert, becoming the company's Artistic Director from 1986-1992. During his time there he created 25 works for Rambert, besides being commissioned to create works for the Royal Danish Ballet (Dances from the Kingdom of Pagodas, 1982) and the Royal Ballet (Midsummer, 1983). As Artistic Director of Rambert, he commissioned work from Merce Cunningham (Touchbase, 1991); Lucinda Childs (Four Elements, 1988, designed by the painter Jennifer Bartlett); and David Gordon (Mates, 1987). In the repertoire also were Antony Tudor's Dark Elegies, Merce Cunningham's Septet and Doubles, and Frederick Ashton's Capriol Suite. In 1994 he formed his own company, when he took up the post of Artistic Director of The Place. Over the past 24 years, Alston has made over 37 pieces for his company. He made his first commissioned work for New York Theatre Ballet, A Rugged Flourish, in 2011 and his second The Seasons. He has also remounted Light Flooding Into Darkened Rooms and Such Longing for NYTB.
William Whitener performed worldwide and on Broadway with The Joffrey Ballet, Twyla Tharp Dance, Bob Fosse's Dancin', New York City Opera and Martha Clarke's Garden of Earthly Delights. He choreographed over sixty dances for Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Ballet Hispanico, New York Theatre Ballet, Seattle Repertory Theater, Seattle Opera and John Curry's Ice Theatre. He has also created dances for stage and television for Ann Reinking, Tommy Tune, Bill Irwin and Faith Prince and staged the debut of American Ballroom Theater at The Kennedy Center and BAM. Mr. Whitener has set Twyla Tharp's ballets in the U.S and France and assisted Mr. Robbins with pre-production for Jerome Robbins' Broadway. He served as Artistic Director for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal and Kansas City Ballet. He was an evaluator for the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, a jury member of Benois de la Danse and has served on a variety of panels including the NEA and Pew Charitable Trust Fund. He has taught ballet, modern dance and composition at Harvard University Summer Dance, Cornish College of the Arts, University of Washington, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Pacific Northwest Ballet and was the Director of Dance at Concord Academy.
Alyce Dissette has worked on more than 90 productions and projects with internationally known performing, visual, film, and digital artists in a wide range of venues from staff member in the Metropolitan Opera presentations department to former Executive Producer of the PBS national TV series AliveFrom Off Center/AliveTV. She was Director of one of the first international digital art works competitions New Voices, New Visions sponsored by Paul Allen, the Voyager Co., and WIRED magazine presented at Lincoln Center. Ms. Dissette has served on the Boards of the Alliance of Resident Theatres (ART)/New York, Dance/USA, and is currently on the Board of ODC Dance in San Francisco. She continues to produce the works of Ain Gordon and David Gordon and has been working with both artists in various capacities since the 1980s. She became the Executive Director of New York Theatre Ballet on January 1, 2018.
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