Event
Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company premieres TIMEBOMB
SEATS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR for FRIDAY thru SUNDAY
SHOW UP BY 6:50pm
FROM THE NEW YORKER:
"Gradually building up from a solo into a quartet, Timebomb doesnt explode all at once. Instead, eying each other warily as they work in the round, negotiating handholds and counterbalances in fraught encounters, the dancers suggest participants in the kind of complex schoolyard game that can turn brutal in an instant. A drum-heavy score helps sustain the tension, but its mostly Gwirtzmans choreographic craft and inventionsetting the free swing of limbs and bodies against forces of suspension and hesitationthat keep the work taut and surprising."
TENTH ANNIVERSARY-NEW SITE, NEW SEASON
The Company launches a brand new website to promote Timebomb, to commemorate
its past successes, and to usher in its next decade of dance-making. The
handsome, easy-to-navigate site features newly-published photographs by Lois
Greenfield, a brief (four minute) documentary film depicting the Company
preparing for the upcoming season, and a range of trailers and unedited
performance videos. These are not to be missed! Still at
www.gwirtzmandance.org, the Company's acclaimed former Encore site is easily
accessed from here too.
ABOUT TIMEBOMB
"No matter how many dark pieces Daniel Gwirtzman has turned out since
starting to choreograph in 1995, he's clearly a not-so-secret jazz baby
who's also a fan of Broadway," wrote Deborah Jowitt reviewing the Company's
last season, Encore. "A cockeyed optimist," wrote Eva Yaa Asantewaa
reviewing the Company's 2008 summer season, In The Studio, in which
Gwirtzman narrated a series of performances at NY City Center Studios.
With Timebomb, the pendulum swings dark again, a grey sky to Encore's bluish
pink. Timebomb, set to an infectious driving score, is a stylistic and
musical departure from the sunniness of Encore. Finding inspiration from
our lightning-quick, dense, technologically saturated culture, and its
demands on the individual, Timebomb is a meditation on the unpredictability
of life and the impact of the unexpected.
Combining Gwirtzman's signature choreographic blend of pedestrianism and
virtuosity, Timebomb depicts relationships through time; it is always clear
that we are watching recognizable people. Tension and relaxation, movement
and arrest, isolation and support, connections and dis-/missed connections
are themes resonating through the work. However, like all of Gwirtzman's
work, Timebomb is at heart a pure dance work, athletic and demanding,
existing through its own formal merits of exploring innovative movement
between the dancers through the manipulation of time and space. In this
regard Timebomb is a close cousin to past choreography of Mr. Gwirtzman's
such as Cycles and Chapters.
THE DANCERS
"The impressive Oren Bar-noy" (Merilyn Jackson, The Philadelphia Inquirer,
2001) has danced with the Company since 2000 where he has consistently
received praise for his intense performing, most notably as the central solo
figure in Cycles: "Oren Bar-noy's mysterious attack sends shock waves
through the bodies and behavior of the ensemble." (Eva Yaa Asantewaa, The
Village Voice, 2000)
Daniel Gwirtzman, danced with Garth Fagan Dance, and the Mark Morris Dance
Group before founding Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company. "A rangy man who can
command a stage just by spreading his arms." Elizabeth Zimmer wrote in The
Village Voice, 2005; "Gwirtzman gets under the skin of the music he loves,
blending casualness with precision. He's a tall, lanky, loose-limbed guy.
When he kicks a leg out, wheels his arms around, or indulges in spates of
very fast, intricate steps, he stirs up the space and makes it contract and
expand around him. He passes his style on to his lively performers without
impinging on their individuality." (Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice,
2007)
Stacy Martorana has danced with DGDC since 2005. "Martorana's infectious,
unfeigned pleasure in everything she does is one of the evening's delights."
(Jowitt)
Jamie Scott, a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company Repertory
Understudy Group, and faculty member of Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, has
been involved with the Company since 2002.
THE COLLABORATORS
Jeff Story is a Philadelphia based composer and pianist. He has composed
scores for a variety of dance companies including Philadanco, Ailey 2, The
Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet Met, and, since 2002, the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance
Company. More info is available on the website www.jeffstorymusic.com.
Composer/drummer Shawn Baltazor received his B.M. from William Paterson
University, where he was featured in performance with Wynton Marsalis, Clark
Terry, Joe Lovano, Kenny Garrett and Slide Hampton. Shawn has performed at
the Festival International des Musiques Noires d'Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire,
the Jazzablanca Festival in Morocco and the Risonanze Festival at the Teatro
Fondamenta Nuove in Venice, Italy; the JVC Jazz Festival, the River to River
Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, BB King's, and
the Tribeca Performing Arts Center and the PNC Arts Center (NJ).
Pamela Rapp is Baryshnikov Arts Center's technical director.
IN MR. GWIRTZMAN'S WORDS-"sitting on a powder keg of fear"
"Timebomb came about from thinking about where we are as a society right
now, and the pace in which we're living. Through technology we're trying
to make things simpler but all we're doing is making life more complicated.
Also, this idea of sitting on a powder keg of fear, waiting at any moment
for an explosion to go off, literally or metaphorically, this idea of the
many timebombs in our lives, unknown to us, waiting to detonate. As much as
we prepare and plan events, life unfolds in its own way, and every second of
the day someone's life is completely altered in tragic and irrevocable ways.
Whether it's a sudden illness, a freak accident, or a violent encounter, we
are always hoping that it's not us, but inevitably it comes at least within
our circle. I have also been reflecting on the rarity and the necessity of
pause. In the work there are several moments of pause. We arrest a moment,
it's not very long.but maybe that is. Who's to say we won't evolve to the
point where that's all we get, and we just have to charge in to our dock,
get booted up and we're ready to go?"
"His ideas about his work never interfere with their delicious physicality."
Elizabeth Zimmer (2002)
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LocationBaryshnikov Arts Center
450 W 37th St between 9th and 10th Avenues, 6th Fl
New York, NY 10018
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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