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Season Tickets Available Now at 612-624-2345

Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Ocean
September 11-13—8 p.m.
Rainbow Quarry, Waite Park, near St. Cloud, Minnesota
(an hour northwest of Minneapolis)

Season Tickets Available Now at 612-624-2345
Single tickets on sale now to the general public through
the Walker Art Center at walkerart.org/tickets or 612-375-7600.

“Inspired by the writings of James Joyce, ‘Ocean’ is a work of spiritual elation and refined eroticism, incipient narratives, historical echoes, and glowing classical beauty.”
—Lynn Garafola, Dance Magazine.

“Ocean is a work dance lovers might long to see often, for this piece for 14 dancers is a gorgeous spectacle, conceptually complex yet sensuously gratifying . . . . Like the sea itself, Ocean teems with life. It is a vision of creation constantly reshaping itself into ever more wondrous forms.” —The New York Times

Experience Merce Cunningham and John Cage's monumental Ocean like never before--on the floor of Rainbow granite quarry 100 feet below the earth's surface. This once-in-a-lifetime production of Cunningham's most ambitious work, produced in such an audacious and breathtaking manner, involves not just the full 14-member Cunningham company, but an electronic score by David Tudor, and Andrew Culver's orchestral score inspired by John Cage, performed by 150 classical instrumentalists from the St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra, along with other guest players from across the state of Minnesota who will encircle the audience at the bottom of the quarry.

Acclaimed filmmaker and longtime Cunningham collaborator Charles Atlas will stage a five-camera shoot of the entire production which will become a living record of this stunning work.

Recognized as among the most artful and physically fluent dancers in the world, Cunningham's dancers embody his exquisite abstractions and choreographic inventions with a virtuosic elasticity, fluidity and precision. Marsha Skinner took her inspiration for the lighting from Moby Dick and for the costumes from Homer's "wine-dark sea."

People who don't drive on their own can take chartered busses from the Walker Art Center to Rainbow Quarry. The performance begins before people step off the busses that descend the winding roads leading from the surface to the bottom of the quarry bowl. There, they will emerge not into a theater but an environment. A stage, circular seating, and scenic design above the stage are being built for this production, along with lighting trusses, concessions, and bathrooms. More information on bussing and dining options will be available soon.

Coproduced by the Walker Art Center and the Cunningham Dance Foundation, with the Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict and Northrop Dance at the University of Minnesota. Major support is generously provided by Sage and John Cowles and the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Presenting program. Additional support provided by The Minneapolis Foundation: Goodale Arts Fund, Leni D. & David Moore, Jr. / The Moore Family Fund for the Arts, and the Dale Schatzlein and Emily Maltz Fund; HRK Foundation: Hayes Fund, Hynnek Fund, Art and Martha Kaemmer Fund, Pugsley Fund, and the Mary H. Rice Foundation; Russell Cowles; Josine Peters; Molly Davies; Michael J. Peterman and David A. Wilson; Noa and Ted Staryk; Penny Rand Winton; and the Sewell Family Foundation.

Media partner Charter Communications. Special thanks to Martin Marietta Materials and the city of Waite Park.

This revival of Ocean is a co-commission of the Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, MN and Dance Umbrella. Major support is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and members of the Board of Directors of the Cunningham Dance Foundation. The filming of Ocean is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support provided by The Ford Foundation and Save America's Treasures, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

The Walker Art Center’s Dance Season is sponsored by Gray Plant Mooty.

Past Performances at Northorp: 1981, 1987, 1989, 1993, 2000, 2005

Compañia Flamenco José Porcel
Alma Flamenco
Tuesday, October 7—7:30 p.m.

Season Tickets Available Now at 612-624-2345
Single tickets available August 4

“Tall and thin, executing his dance from within, [José Porcel] interpreted a paso de dos with delicacy and pride…. The public, on its feet, didn’t rip their shirts, but applauded to the point of exhaustion.” —Salvador Domiguez, Theatre Criticism

Born in Seville, José Porcel began performing the passionate folkloric dances of his Spanish ancestors at the age of 13. Today, the charismatic Porcel leads his own internationally renowned flamenco company, with a focus on unique choreographic interpretations of traditional flamenco styles.

In this rarely performed program, Alma Flamenco, Porcel and company present a range of flamenco styles with tremendous vivacity and nuance. The selections range from a taranto (a sensual duet of intertwinement) and a rondena (a colorful women’s section of light, harmony and rhythm), to the farruca and solea, joyous group works of choreographic complexity.

The evening also includes Porcel in two dynamic solos: the virile seguirilla and a largely improvised alegrias, with which he secures his connection with the audience through robust footwork and powerful personality.

Key to the company’s success is its respect for the flamenco trinity: song, music and dance. Throughout the program, the company’s spirited singers, guitarists and percussionist power the dancers’ bodies, minds and hearts.

Company Website: http://www.joseporcel.com/

Royal Winnipeg Ballet
Carmina Burana, Concerto Barocco
Saturday, November 8—8 p.m.

Season Tickets Available Now at 612-624-2345
Single tickets available August 4

“The company has never looked more resplendent, more assured, or more ravishing... a jewel box of sumptuous dancing...at every moment, the energy and youth radiating from the stage is palpable.” –Vancouver Sun

Founded in 1939, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet holds the triple distinction of having a royal title (bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II), enjoying its status as Canada’s premier ballet company, and being the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America. The company, currently under the artistic director of André Lewis, is nonetheless critically and popularly acclaimed for its adventurous programming, and its artistically versatile, technically astute and youthful dancers.

This program includes resident choreographer Mauricio Wainrot’s much-loved version of Carmina Burana, based on Carl Orff’s powerful and recognizable score. (Just the chorus “O Fortuna,” is one of the most-sampled pieces of music in history, and has been used in countless commercials and film scores.)

Inspired by medieval texts discovered in a monastery, the songs of Carmina Burana are alternately despairing and contemplative, uplifting and passionate as they express universal themes of the human condition. Wainrot’s singularly bold and fluid choreography embraces such themes with a lush lyricism. His Carmina Burana is widely noted as a cornucopia of movement richly set in Carlos Gallardo’s industrial tableaux of metal framing and translucent panels.

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet will complement Carmina Burana with Concerto Barocco. George Balanchine's precise, inventive choreography for ten women and one man is a vivid interpretation of Bach's ‘Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor'. The piece exemplifies the American classical style in its extraordinary poetry, pristine beauty and musicality.

Past Performances at Northorp: 1969, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1977

Company Website: http://www.rwb.org/

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company
Mixed Repertoire of three pieces t.b.d.
Friday, December 5—8:00 p.m.

Season Tickets Available Now at 612-624-2345
Single tickets available August 4

“[The pieces] demonstrate Lubovitch’s musicality, plus his gift for creating clever steps and filling the stage with patterns that swirl and reconfigure like an errant constellations viewed in speeded-up time.” —The Village Voice

Forty years ago, Lar Lubovitch started his own modern-dance company in New York City, and continues to enjoy popular and critical acclaim around the globe. While he’s watched many dance trends come and go, Lubovitch’s own lush aesthetic has remained constant, entrancing audiences with waves of passionate movement performed by dancers whose technical rigor complements their open-hearted expansiveness.

Recognized as one of the nation’s leading modern-dance choreographers, Lubovitch has also created choreography for jazz-dance companies, ballet troupes, Broadway shows and Olympic-medalist ice dancers. But it’s Lubovitch’s poetic modern-dance works, imbued with his singular musicality that audiences have enjoyed for decades.

This program includes several of Lubovitch’s recent large-scale romantic works, in which texture and mood, eloquence and rigor are conveyed through his 12-member troupe. Breathtaking, sophisticated, mesmerizing and exuberant are just some of the plaudits critics have bestowed on Lubovitch’s current work.

Past Performances at Northrop: 1977, 1983

Company Website: http://www.lubovitch.org/

Russian National Ballet Theatre
Sleeping Beauty
Friday January 30, Saturday January 31—8:00 p.m.

Season Tickets Available Now at 612-624-2345
Single tickets available August 4

“Joyful! A corps de ballet of beauty and style, led by stylish and gifted principals.”—Moscow Daily

Founded in Moscow during Perestroika in the late 1980s, the Russian National Ballet is a vibrant company dedicated to the timeless traditions of classical Russian ballet and the invigoration of dance as an art form in Russia. Since the appointment of Sergei Radchenko, a legendary soloist with the Bolshoi Ballet, as artistic director in 1994, the Russian National Ballet has renewed its focus on upholding the grand, national tradition of the major Russian ballet works.

For this engagement, the Russian National Ballet’s first in Minneapolis, the 50-member troupe performs Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty, with live orchestra playing Tchaikovsky’s score. A full-length ballet in three acts based on Charles Perrault’s well-known fairy tale, The Sleeping Beauty was the crowning jewel of Petipa’s illustrious career and is often considered one of the finest achievements in classical ballet.

A spectacular yet refined blend of traditional mime, expressive pas d’action and rigorous divertissements, the extraordinary choreography takes place within a lavish theatrical setting. Kings and queens, evil and beneficent fairies, and a beautiful princess and a charming prince combine with magical stage effects and courtly splendor in perfect evening of ballet.

Company Website: http://www.sara-artists.com/RNBT/russian_nat_ballet_eng.htm

Batsheva Dance Company
Three
Wednesday, February 18—7:30 p.m.
Co-presented with Walker Art Center

Season Tickets Available Now at 612-624-2345
Single tickets available August 4

“[In] the mercurial, shape-shifting world of Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva Dance Company, dancers inhabit a vacillating physicality that takes them from human, to dancer, to animal, to machine, all in one phrase…. and it is genius.” Countercritic.com

Batsheva Dance Company returns to Northrop with artistic director Ohad Naharin’s masterwork, “Shalosh” (Three). Hailed as raw and elegant, violent and tender, the 70-minute work for 17 dancers includes three provocatively titled sections: Bellus (“beauty”), Humus (“earth”) and Seus (either “this” or “not this”), performed to music from Brian Eno and the Beach Boys to Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

Founded in 1964 by the Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild and Martha Graham, the Tel Aviv-based company has flourished under Naharin’s direction. Naharin trains his dancers in his own rigorous physical method called Gaga, a movement language designed to free the body while making it flexible, strong and self-aware.

Whether hurtling through space, assuming a precarious balance or elastically sculpturing their bodies, the dancers remain exquisitely attuned to one another, resulting in a breathtaking sensuality and emotional power. Naharin’s artistic integrity and innovation have earned Batsheva an accolade-wreathed reputation.

One of most riveting and sought-after dance companies in the world, Batsheva presents works of exquisitely rendered complexity, and the sublime Three is a work to linger over.

Contains partial nudity.

Watch a preview of Three

Past performances at Northrop: 1995, 2004

Company Website: http://www.israelcentersf.org/culture/2003-2004/batsheva.html
(official website under construction)

Limón Dance Company
Missa Brevis
Thursday, March 19—7:30 p.m.

Season Tickets Available Now at 612-624-2345
Single tickets available August 4

“[‘Missa Brevis’] is a song of a strong and simple people, a song of thanksgiving for deliverance from the unspeakable horrors of war. Its dances express a deep awareness of the wonder of life, and the transcendent joy at its resumption…. Here the movement seems to spring directly from the heart.” -Dance Magazine

In 1958, Mexican-born choreographer José Limón created his masterpiece Missa Brevis, in response to war and the indomitable spirit of humanity. Limón and his fledgling company had just toured Poland, where against a background of war-ravaged cities they discovered people whose optimism and willingness to rebuild were profoundly inspiring. In honor of the people’s “heroic serenity,” as Limón wrote, he created Missa Brevis, a communal hymn against war and in celebration of the human spirit.

The evening-length work, set to Zoltan Kodaly’s magnificent Missa Brevis in Tempore Belli (for organ and choir), blends Limón’s expressive modern-dance idiom with folk-dance patterns and Christian iconography rendered through gesture. In this dance mass of affirmation and rebirth, communities cluster and circle in fear and hope, while single dancers burst forth in solos of anguish, passion and spiritual uplift.

Witness not only a part of dance’s artistic heritage created anew, but a timeless work of perseverance and faith. For this performance, students from the University of Minnesota’s Dance Department will join the 12-member Limón Dance Company. The Oratorio Society of Minnesota will perform Kodaly’s score.

The Oratorio Society of Minnesota is a 60-voice choral ensemble based in the Twin Cities. Since its inception in 1980, the Oratorio Society of Minnesota has been delighting audiences with performances of the great works of choral literature Society members are of all ages and from all walks of life and all have considerable choral singing experience. The 2008-09 season is the first under new Artistic Director, Matthew Mehaffey, and will feature music from 5 centuries of choral literature. For more information please visit http://oratorio.org

Past performance at Northrop: 1976

Company Website: http://www.limon.org

Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg
Eugene Onegin
Friday April 24, Saturday April 25—8:00 p.m.

Season Tickets Available Now at 612-624-2345
Single tickets available August 4

“Boris Eifman doesn’t just choreograph ballets, he creates dynamic, theatrical, visionary works that delve into characters’ lives in the most exiting, probing, titillating and wondrous ways.” --Los Angeles Times

Eifman Ballet, based in St. Petersburg, has revolutionized the concept of Russian classical dance—with its rigor, purity and exquisite line—by fusing those traditions with expressive modern investigations of narrative and character.

Fast on the heels of his Red Giselle, Russian Hamlet and Anna Karenina performed in previous Northrop engagements, the prolific Boris Eifman has now turned his choreographic attention to another work of literature: Pushkin’s 19th-century novel of love, morality and loyalty, Eugene Onegin, which Tchaikovsky also scored as an opera.

In the tale a jaded aristocrat comes to regret his spurning of a lovelorn girl, which Eifman explores in his new ballet with psychological acuity and emotional drama.

Sumptuous costumes, magical staging and atmospheric lighting generate a theatrical spectacle in which the corps de ballet ebb and swirl with dramatic intensity, while the soloists embody their characters with artistic integrity and emotional truth.

A singular company, the Eifman Ballet speaks the language of Russian ballet, but with a contemporary inflection all its own. In Eugene Onegin, Eifman transforms another classic with an expressive power unique to dance and his original vision.

Past performances at Northrop: 2000, 2002, 2007

Company Website: http://www.ardani.com/eifmanabout.htm