Tag Archives: Michael Keegan-Dolan

MICHAEL KEEGAN-DOLAN’S SWAN LAKE

Matthew Bourne, with his aggressive male swans and nightclub scenes, took Swan Lake in one direction. Michael Keegan-Dolan’s short, Tchaikovsky-free take—LOCH NA HEALA (SWAN LAKE)—goes somewhere else altogether. Inspired by a number of folktales, including “The Children of Lir,” and updated to present-day Ireland, Keegan-Dolan gives us predatory priests, suicidal depressives, and Mikel Murfi as a goat, leading up to an exhilarating, shambolic climax.

This dance-theater-performance art hybrid—performed by Keegan-Dolan’s company, Teaċ Daṁsa, and co-presented by UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance and the Ford Theatres—will be at Royce Hall for one night only. The trio Slow Moving Clouds will perform their score onstage.

LOCH NA HEALA (SWAN LAKE)

Saturday, November 9, at 8 pm.

Royce Hall, UCLA

10745 Dickson Court, Los Angeles.

Michael Keegan-Dolan / Teaċ Daṁsa, Loch na hEala (Swan Lake), November 9, 2019, Royce Hall, UCLA, from top: Rachel Poirier (left) and Alex Leonhartsberger (foreground); Michael Murfi, (left) Leonhartsberger (sitting), Erik Nevin, Zen Jefferson and Keir Patrick; Leonhartsberger (left), Patrick, Murfi, Nevin, Jefferson, and Dr. Elizabeth Cameron Dalman; Murfi, Nevin, Dalman, and Patrick; Poirier, Latisha Sparks, Carys Staton, and Anna Kaszuba. Photographs by Reed Hutchinson, images courtesy and © the photographer, the choreographer, the artists, and CAP UCLA.

CAP UCLA DANCE SEASON 2019–2020

Alastair Macaulay was unambiguous. Closing his 2018 review of the world premiere of FOUR QUARTETS—a collaboration between choreographer Pam Tanowitz, artist Brice Marden, and composer Kaija Saariaho—with the following paragraph, the former New York Times dance critic made its case for posterity:

If I am right to think this is the greatest creation of dance theater so far this century, we’re fortunate that FOUR QUARTETS will travel to other stages. I long to become more deeply acquainted with the many layers of its stage poetry.

The drawback for Los Angeles audiences is that this landmark work will be performed at Royce Hall in early 2020 only twice—a highlight of a remarkably strong CAP UCLA 2019–2020 dance season.

The season begins at Redcat, where Adam Linder presents THE WANT—a contemporary opera/performance piece based on a play by Bernard-Marie Koltès, with music by Ethan Braun.

Sankai JukuUshio Amagatsu’s all-male troupe of Butoh dancers, performing MEGURI—will be at Royce for one night only, as will Michael Keegan-Dolan’s Teaċ Daṁsa (House of Dance) in a new interpretation of SWAN LAKE, featuring a score by Slow Moving Clouds.

The great ballerina Wendy Whelan will dance at Royce, for two nights, in THE DAY. Choreographed by Lucinda Childs with a score by David Lang, Whelan will be joined onstage by cellist Maya Beiser.

The dance season closes in April 2020 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with the Dance at the Music Center co-presentation of PALERMO PALERMO, a 1989 work by dance legend Pina Bausch and Tanztheater Wuppertal.

See link below for details.

CAP UCLA 2019–2020 SEASON OF DANCE

From top: Sankai Juku, Meguri; Adam Linder, The Want, photograph by Shahryar Nashat; Michael Keegan-Dolan, Teaċ Daṁsa, Swan Lake, photograph by Colm Hogan; Maya Beiser, Wendy Whelan, Lucinda Childs, and David Lang, The Day; Pina Bausch, Palermo Palermo, photograph by Jochen Viehoff; Pam Tanowitz, Brice Marden, and Kaija Saariaho, Four Quartets, photograph by Maria Baranova. Images courtesy and © the artists and photographers.