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Brooklyn Ballet's Spring Season Runs From Thursday, April 20 – Sunday, April 23, 2023
Lynn Parkerson, Artistic Director of Brooklyn Ballet, sent us a POSTCARD from a rehearsal of "Scripture" on April 13, 2023.
In Rejoice! The Village Dances, Brooklyn Ballet presents an evening of live music and dance, with two signature ballet and street dance mash-ups by Lynn Parkerson and Michael “Big Mike” Fields plus a masterwork by Antony Tudor. Music by Bach, Soler, and Igor Stravinsky.
Dancers: Anna Antongiorgi, Audrey Borst, Jonalyn Bradshaw, Alexis Branagan, Bret Coppa, Nicole Federov, Michael “Big Mike” Fields, Valentina Fory Olaya, Tristan Grannum, Catie Kirch, Bobby “Anime” Major, Kieran McBride, Aoi Ohno, Ladell “Ocean” Thomas, Akiko Tokuoka
Musicians: Mun-Tzung Wong, piano, Titilayo Ayangade, cello
Singers: Sofia Campoamor, Audrey Fernandez-Fraser, Clifton Massey, Matt Robbins, David Stech
20 years in, one week out!
Tweaking, crafting, layering, still finding space for whole swathes of open movement sections amidst hardcore, neo-classical ballet vocabulary, strict choreographic structures, street dance moves, and with Igor Stravinsky in tow.
Thinking about places — Anthony Tudor’s Fandango (1963) takes place in a sunny town square in Madrid, our Spiders, Cooks, and Moodswings (2013) on a sunny triangle in Flatbush, an intimate neighborhood bar, a boisterous restaurant. A day in the life.
Remembering this 10-year-old work, the inspiration coming from being in a restaurant as they open for early lunch, the characters in the place — from the hostess to the cooks, to the servers, the bussers, the dishwashers, the manager — pristine communication happening amidst several languages spoken, getting the job done, and unison eye-rolling when the difficult customer, a regular, enters the place.
At today’s rehearsal, Saúl, our lighting designer is seeing my new work, Scripture, for the first time. He has known my work for years, so I’m nervous. He will be truthful. I see him engaging, taking it in — the piece is working. There is still the final minute to "choreograph."
Where is this piece going? Maybe we are already there.
Thinking about the music for Scripture, Bach’s masterwork, 'Jesu miene Freude,' is less accompaniment than container, a vessel for the collective. How audacious of me to choose this music, its power, the deep faith of the composer, the very idea of the body/divine.
Places — not Madrid, not Flatbush — no place, every place, space and the body, sacred space.
Bach’s motet, the container, the dancers inside, all of them, who they are, their contributions, their connections to each other, to themselves, what we’ve created together. The audience is inside too. Saúl asks the dancers to bring themselves to the audience, then bring the audience in.
Let’s just say it: there is no art form more connected to God in Man, Jesus, than dance. We are the body, transformed, transfixed, transfigured, transcendent. We suffer, and there is joy.
