Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance Presents MYTHOLOGIES and THE WINTER’S TALE Work In Progress
Company:
CHERYLYN LAVAGNINO DANCE
Cherylyn Lavagnino, Artistic Director of Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance (CLD), has announced the company’s upcoming performance at The Jack Crystal Theater, 111 Second Avenue, on Wednesday, June 14 at 7:30pm. The evening will feature a fully produced edition of Mythologies, Cherylyn Lavagnino’s 2021 choreographic work inspired by the stories of Ancient Greece, and sequential episodes of her newest theater-dance work in process, The Winter’s Tale, based on one of Shakespeare’s last great plays.
Ticket prices: $25 per person, $15 per student with proof of ID
Ticket link: https://buytickets.at/cherylynlavagninodance/903349
ABOUT MYTHOLOGIES
Mythologies is historically fictional work inspired by the stories of Ancient Greece in and around the time of the Trojan War. Characters include sensual sirens, ferocious Amazonian warriors, and the Sacred Band of Thebes. The sirens serve as bards, introducing each of the mythical characterizations. The Band of Thebes embodies camaraderie and the deeply committed loyalty these warriors held for one another. The Amazonian warriors demonstrate how strength, grace, and femininity can co-exist in a single body using the percussive and ethereal qualities of the pointe shoe. Lavagnino intermingles her characters in a partnering section bringing the male and female warriors into combative, ardent, and tender coupling, congruent with the fluid sexual practices during this period.
Mythologies is set to a commissioned score composed by Scott Killian (keyboard), Jacob Lawson (violinist), and Carol Lipnik (vocalist). The beautiful and mysterious music, introduced with text by writer and dramaturge Brian Sostek, creates a sonic voyage for Lavagnino’s choreography.
ABOUT THE WINTER’S TALE
Based on one of William Shakespeare’s last great plays, The Winter’s Tale is a story of improbabilities, loyalty, love and forgiveness, themes which align with Cherylyn Lavagnino’s long history of illuminating the various societal challenges faced by women. Her research into the main themes of The Winter’s Tale surround sexual politics and gender norms; at times a comedy and others a tragedy, the plot resides in a patriarchal society in which the role of women is constantly thwarted and limited by male dominance. Lavagnino uses poignant gestures, inspired by sign language, in her dance vocabulary to make the choreography more human and universal.
The Winter’s Tale is CLD’s third collaboration between choreographer Cherylyn Lavagnino and celebrated composer Martin Bresnick. Bresnick will compose the score in the coming year; during this creative development period, the company is using the music of Max Richter. A final, fully-produced edition of The Winter’s Tale is due to premiere in Spring 2024, at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City.
"Warm and heartfelt... beautifully choreographed and executed. Already a compelling piece of choreography and dance theater." - Critical Dance on The Winter's Tale (2022)
CLD DANCERS: Alexis Branagan, Dervla Carey-Jones, Justin Faircloth, Erin Gallagher, Dorothea Garland, Gwen Gussman, Corinne Hart, Barrington Hinds, Michael Miles, Emma Pajewski, Philip Strom and Claire Westby.
ABOUT CHERYLYN LAVAGNINO, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/CHOREOGRAPHER
Cherylyn Lavagnino earned an MFA in Dance under the mentorship of Lawrence Rhodes from New York University’s (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts, as well as a BA in Philosophy from the University of Southern California. Lavagnino’s professional dance career spanned worldwide as a soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet, a principal dancer with Arizona Ballet Theatre, as well as a principal dancer with Ballet del Espacio in Mexico City under the direction of Michel Descombey. She has performed a range of classical repertoire and contemporary work by choreographers including George Balanchine, Jerome Robins, Jose Limon, John Butler, Hans Van Manen, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Margo Sappington, John Butler, and Tere O’Connor. The diversity of these experiences has informed the dialogue between classical and contemporary in her work with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance. Ms. Lavagnino is an Alpert Award nominee for choreography. Lavagnino has had successful commissions at Princeton University, Intermezzo Dance, Indianapolis City Ballet, Southern Methodist University, University of Utah, and Repertory Dance Theatre, as well as recipient of a space grant residency from the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Lavagnino served as Chair of the Dance Department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts from 2006–2014 and as a full-time faculty member from 1987-2022. In recognition of her superior work, Lavagnino won NYU’s prestigious David Payne Carter Award for Excellence in Teaching (2003). Lavagnino served as Visiting Professor of Dance at the University of Utah for the 2021-2022 academic year. She teaches professional ballet locally in NYC and internationally, instructs summer residency programming and company class for Abraham.In.Motion, the professional training program at Ballet Hispanico and masterclasses in Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, and Prague. She continues to develop a creative exchange with the Beijing Dance Academy and the Conservatory and Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Lavagnino received NYU's prestigious Global Research Institute grant for travel and research in Prague (2018).
“Eloquence must be something Lavagnino asks of her dancers. You often feel the movement as it courses through their bodies gently or fiercely. The distortions don’t look like examples of the new virtuosity, and at their best, they seem to proceed from emotional states. The dancers gaze intently at one another and the space, while the choreography bends the ballet choreography to suit whatever possesses them or invades them from the music.” - Deborah Jowitt, Arts Journal
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