Tag Archives: Lazarus (Harris)

LAZARUS — LOS ANGELES PREMIERE

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“Nothing prepares you for the totality of Alvin Ailey: the aural, visual, physical, spiritual beauty… Everywhere you looked: sensory pleasure… It dawned on me that I was watching neither high nor low culture but rather a wholly unified thing.” — Zadie Smith, on seeing the Ailey company for the first time.

LAZARUS—the game-changing two-act ballet by choreographer Rennie Harris that created a sensation at its world premiere last year in New York—will be performed twice this week in Los Angeles as Dance at the Music Center welcomes back the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for a spring season.

The work was inspired by the life and legacy of troupe founder Alvin Ailey (1931–1989).

LAZARUS—ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

Wednesday and Saturday, April 3 and 6.

Shows at 7:30 pm. Dance Talks one hour prior.

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

135 North Grand Avenue, downtown Los Angeles.

Rennie Harris, Lazarus, 2018, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theaterin performance (2); Jacqueline Green in Lazarus; Michael Jackson, Jr., and Jeroboam Bozeman in Lazarus. Photographs by Paul Kolnik.

WINTER DANCE AT REDCAT

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This weekend, CalArts Winter Dance at Redcat takes an iconic turn with a presentation of works by revolutionaries Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Trisha Brown, Rennie Harris, Jiří Kylián, and Merce Cunningham, staged by dancers who carry deep histories of the choreographers’ practices and intentions.

Cunningham’s CANFIELD (1969) will be staged by his former company member Holley Farmer, Zollar’s SHELTER (1988) by fellow Urban Bush Women member Marjani Forté, and Brown’s SOLO OLOS (1976) by her former company member Samuel Wentz.

For CANFIELD, Ben Richter, Justin Scheid, and Davy Sumner will perform a score by Pauline Oliveros, and actor-vocalist Toritseju Danner and drummer Emilia Moscoso Borja will accompany SHELTER.

Kylián’s FALLING ANGELS is staged by Fiona Lummis, who danced with Nederlands Dans Theater in the 1989 premiere of the piece. Live percussion will be provided by drummers Brandon Carson, Katie Eikam, Jason Fragoso, and Kevin Good performing a composition by Steve Reich.

FACING MEKKA was choreographed in 2003 by Harris—whose new Lazarus for the Alvin Ailey company created a sensation in New York last week—and will be staged by Nina Flagg, a former member of Rennie Harris Puremovement.

CALARTS WINTER DANCE

Friday and Saturday, December 7 and 8, at 8:30 pm.

Redcat

631 West 2nd Street, downtown Los Angeles.

From top: Facing Mekka, Rennie Harris; Canfield, Merce Cunningham; Shelter, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar; Solo Olos, Trisha Brown; Falling Angels, Jiří Kylián; and Facing Mekka. All images from the CalArts Winter Dance Concert, November 2018, at CalArts. Photographs by Rafael Hernandez, courtesy CalArts. Special thanks to Kelly Hargraves and Margaret Crane.