Dance Listings > Performances & Events

Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents "A Chronicle of a Pivot at a Point in Time" by Jamar Roberts

Company:
Works & Process at the Guggenheim

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, is proud to present the world premiere of A Chronicle of a Pivot at a Point in Time by Jamar Roberts, with music by David Watson on March 20 and 21, 2022 at 7:30pm. Taking place in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Peter B. Lewis Theater at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, all programs invite audiences to embrace artistic process and uniquely blend performance highlights with insightful artists' discussions.

In March 2020, just as the pandemic hit, Works & Process invited Jamar Roberts, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's resident choreographer, to create a Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commission. Roberts created Cooped, with music by David Watson, which was described by the New York Times as "one of the most powerful artistic responses yet to the COVID-19 crisis." As the pandemic wore on, following on the success of Cooped, Works & Process commissioned and supported Roberts with two bubble residencies at Petronio Residency Center in August 2020 and at Catskill Mountain Foundation in January 2021, during which Roberts created A Chronicle of a Pivot at a Point in Time with dancers Patrick Coker, Ghrai DeVore-Stokes, Jacquelin Harris, Courtney Celeste Spears, and Brandon Michael Woolridge, and commissioned music by Watson.

In January 2021, at the peak of the pandemic, to culminate a bubble residency, a digital highlight was produced of a rare indoor video performance commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim, and co-produced by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. In Fall 2021, the short solo "A Sketch from A Chronicle of a Pivot at a Point in Time," co-commissioned by the Asbury Park Dance Festival premiered.. The complete work will now have its long-awaited world premiere in the Peter B. Lewis Theater at the Guggenheim on March 20 and 21, 2022.

The program will also feature the premiere of a newly commissioned pas de deux by Roberts with dancers Isabella Aldridge and Spencer Everett, and a screening of Cooped. Roberts will participate in a moderated discussion.

Throughout the pandemic, Works & Process continued to provide opportunities for artists and pioneered the bubble residency to support their work safely. The spring 2022 season will feature the official world premieres of works created by New York artists – many representing historically marginalized performing art cultures – and incubated during the peak of the pandemic inside 2020-21 Works & Process bubble residencies. Alongside the commissions, Works & Process will present performance excerpts of and artists discussions about new works prior to their premieres at leading organizations including BAAD!, Federal Hall, Glimmerglass Festival, The Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Ballet. 

 

WORKS & PROCESS TICKETS 

$35, $15 partial view. Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available for purchase online only at worksandprocess.org.

House seats may be available for $1,000+ Friends of Works & Process. To purchase house seats, email friends@worksandprocess.org. House seats may be released to the public before performances.

 

Health and Safety Information

Every audience member must be fully vaccinated and will be required to show proof in person of vaccination authorized by the FDA or WHO against COVID-19 before entering the theater. Proof of vaccination may include a CDC Vaccination Card (or photo), NYC COVID Safe app, New York State Excelsior Pass, NYC Vaccination Record, or an official immunization record from outside New York City or the United States. Full vaccination is defined as being two weeks or more after receipt of the second dose in a two-dose series, or two weeks or more after receipt of one dose of a single-dose vaccine.

Visitors over the age of 18 will also be asked to show a photo ID.

At this time, children under the age of 5, for whom there is currently no available vaccination, will not be permitted to attend this performance regardless of the vaccination status of their guardian.

Bring your three-ply face mask, N-95, or equivalent to keep yourself and one another safe. All individuals will be required to wear a face mask at all times.

There is no coat check; please do not bring bags.

Do not attend if in the ten days leading up to the performance, you have tested positive or experienced COVID-19 symptoms or come into close or proximate contact with a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case. If you are unable to attend due to COVID-19 exposure, please contact boxoffice@guggenheim.org in advance of the performance.

An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public environment where people are present. Those visiting the museum do so at their own risk of exposure.

 

"A Chronicle of a Pivot at a Point in Time" is commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim and has been supported by Works & Process bubble residencies at Catskill Mountain Foundation and Petronio Residency Center. Co-commissioning for "A Sketch from A Chronicle of a Pivot at a Point in Time" was provided by the Asbury Park Dance Festival. Music commission supported by The Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation. Additional support from The O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation. Works & Process bubble residencies were made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Lead funding for Works & Process season is provided by Stephen Kroll Reidy with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Christian Humann Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Evelyn Sharp Foundation, The Geraldine Stutz Trust with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Works & Process has received support from the U.S. Small Business Administration Shuttered Venue Operators Grant and Paycheck Protection Program and NYC Employee Retention Grant Program.

 

Jamar Roberts is the Resident Choreographer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Mr. Roberts has made four works on the Company, all to critical acclaim: Members Don't Get Weary (2016), Ode (2019), A Jam Session for Troubling Times (2020), and Holding Space (2021). He has also set Gemeos on Ailey II. Mr. Roberts is a graduate of the New World School of the Arts and the Ailey School and has danced for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and Complexions. Mr. Roberts won the 2016 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer and has performed as a guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. Commissions include Vail Dance Festival, Fall for Dance, The Juilliard School, BalletX, MoveNYC, New York City Ballet, and Works and Process at the Guggenheim where he created the film Cooped. The March on Washington Film Festival invited Mr. Roberts to create a tribute to John Lewis and he has also made a film for the LA Opera entitled The First Bluebird in the Morning. Mr. Roberts was a Director's Fellow at NYU's Center for Ballet and the Arts and was recently featured on the cover of Dance Magazine, previously having been on the cover in June 2013 and been named one of "25 to Watch" in 2007. He first joined the Ailey Company in 2002 and retired from dancing in 2021.

 

David Watson is an experimental musician. A guitarist, bagpiper and advocate for intelligent listening, his work encompasses improvisation and composition in a wide variety of contexts. Originally from New Zealand, he has lived and worked in New York City since 1987. In New Zealand, he had co-founded the experimental record label Braille Records and organized national and international music festivals there. He settled in New York and into the nascent scene around the Knitting Factory. He has worked intensively with a wide range of extraordinary artists, including Chris Abrahams, Robert Ashley, Frisner Augustin, Marcia Bassett, Tony Buck, Che Chen, Anthony Coleman, David First, Alastair Galbraith, Frode Gjerstad, Shelley Hirsch, Samara Lubelski, Chris Mann, Christian Marclay, Sean Meehan, Ikue Mori, Bill Nace, Andrea Parkins, Lee Ranaldo, Talibam!, Yoshi Wada, Alex Waterman, John Zorn, $75 Bill, amongst many others. His bagpipe work has created a new vocabulary for the instrument. His double CD for composer Phill Niblock's XI label "Fingering an Idea" was described in The Wire as, "shimmering lines piling-up like an old Terry Riley piece." While his disc "Throats," on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label, was described by Volcanic Tongue as "brain rearranging massive walls of constantly shifting drone". Recently, Niblock created a new piece "Bag" using his playing as source material. The trio Glacial is an ongoing collaboration with two highly acclaimed partners, Lee Ranaldo and Tony Buck. Watson's guitar playing was for many years a staple in performances of John Zorn's seminal piece Cobra. He has an ongoing commitment to interdisciplinary work. This includes the collaboration with visual artist Cindy Bernard, adapting the historical drama The Inquisitive Musician to explore conflicts of class, literacy and control within music-making. He has made many scores for dance, notably for choreographer Moriah Evans and Jeremy Nelson. Also music for films, notably for Matthew Barney, Abigail Child, Laura Parnes, Martin Lucas and Fred Barney Taylor. He has a deep personal interest in processions and parades and has created new works for this form. As an experimental musician, he is drawn to combinations of order and disorder. He has created a piece for two marching pipe-bands in Hobart, Australia; a musical game piece performed in an empty storage facility in Los Angeles; and a sonic progress, for an ad hoc brass band through the city of Wellington. He founded and organizes the New York City music performance series WOrK which has presented over fifty concerts since 2015 and is predicated on exploring what experimental means to practitioners today.

 

Works & Process at the Guggenheim 

Described by The New York Times as "forward thinking" and "an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process," since 1984 Works & Process has welcomed New Yorkers to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed performers and creators of the performing arts. Led by Producer Caroline Cronson and Executive Director Duke Dang, Works & Process nurtures and champions new works, shapes representation, amplifies underrepresented voices and performing arts cultures, and offers audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers. Artist-driven programs blending performance highlights with insightful discussions are, when permitted, followed by receptions in the rotunda, producing an opportunity for collective learning and community building while also helping to cultivate a more inclusive, fair, and representative world. Approximately fifty performances take place annually in the Guggenheim's Frank Lloyd Wright–designed, 273-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. Annually Works & Process produces a program at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain as well. In 2017 Works & Process established a residency program inviting artists to create newly commissioned performances made in and for the iconic Guggenheim rotunda. In 2020 Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions was created financially support 84 new works and over 280 artists and nurture their creative process during the pandemic. To forge a path for artists to safely gather, create, and perform during the pandemic from summer 2020 through spring 2021, Works & Process pioneered and produced 250 bubble residencies supporting 247 artists, made possible through the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. On March 20, 2021, after over a year of shuttered indoor performances and with special guidance from New York State's Department of Health, Works & Process was the first cultural organization to reopen live, indoor ticketed performances in the rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.