FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2019-2020 Pittsburgh Dance Council Images
THE PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST ANNOUNCES
2019-2020 PITTSBURGH DANCE COUNCIL SERIES
Celebrating its 50th season as a presenter of contemporary dance programming!
PITTSBURGH—The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces the 2019-2020 Pittsburgh Dance Council Series, celebrating its 50th season as a presenter of contemporary dance programming in the Cultural District. The Trust is honored to continue this long-standing tradition of connecting our region and its diverse audiences of all ages to the world through the Pittsburgh Dance Council programming, these exemplary artists, and their artistic genre.
“My goal for this milestone anniversary is to create a dance season that honors tradition while bringing the future into focus. This season’s dance offerings reinforce our love of dance and, I hope, uncover new things that excite us,” shares Randal Miller, Director of Dance Programming and Special Projects for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. “We also express our admirable recognition to Jeanne Hays Beaman, American dance educator and administrator, who founded the Pittsburgh Dance Council in 1969. We are grateful to our Advisory Board, sponsors, and patrons who have wholeheartedly supported dance over the last half of a century.”
The 50th anniversary season of the Pittsburgh Dance Council, a division of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, showcases several U.S. premieres and dance companies from around the world, including MOMIX (United States), ODC/Dance with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (United States), Sarah Reich (United States), Malpaso Dance Company (Cuba), Rocío Molina (Spain) (U.S. premiere), and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Presenting Sponsor BNY Mellon (United States), plus two special event U.S. premieres by Compagnie Furinkaï (France) and Un Poyo Rojo (Argentina).
This season’s dance offerings provide artists and audiences with an opportunity to experience dance in various Cultural District stage settings, including the Benedum Center, Byham Theater, Greer Cabaret Theater, and August Wilson African American Cultural Center, as well as in the downtown neighborhood at Trinity Cathedral. The 50th anniversary season also features one free outdoor dance spectacle in June, as part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s 2019 Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival.
2019-2020 Pittsburgh Dance Council Season
MOMIX
September 21, 2019 | Byham Theater
County of Origin: United States
Choreography: VIVA MOMIX
Under the direction of Moses Pendleton, one of America’s most innovative and widely performed choreographers and directors, MOMIX is recognized internationally for presenting work of exceptional inventiveness and physical artistry. In addition to stage performances worldwide, MOMIX has worked in film and television, recently appearing in PBS’ Dance in America, and in commercials for Hanes and Target.
VIVA MOMIX is a collection of the most iconic pieces from the company’s illustrious repertoire and includes several fantastic new works by Pendleton. Surreal, wondrous and massively creative, MOMIX astonishes audiences with nothing more than light, shadow, props, and the human body.
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ODC/Dance
with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh
November 6-9, 2019 | Trinity Cathedral
Country of Origin: United States
Choreography: Path of Miracles
Journey through the stunning Trinity Cathedral with San Francisco-based company ODC/Dance in an immersive dance presentation, Path of Miracles. The piece describes the Camino de Santiago, the ancient Catholic pilgrimage across Northern Spain. Alongside dancers and choir, audience members also become sojourners and are guided through the Cathedral to experience the piece in four movements.
Debuting to sold-out audiences and widespread critical acclaim in San Francisco last year, Path of Miracles shares its inspiration and name with a spectacularly beautiful 2005 choral work by British composer Joby Talbot. The score will be performed live by the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh.
This presentation is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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Sarah Reich
January 16-18, 2020 | Greer Cabaret Theater
Country of Origin: United States
Choreography: New Change
Sarah Reich has emerged as one of the new leaders in the art form of tap dance. Named by Dance Magazine as one of the “25 To Watch” in 2017, Reich has become a pop culture ambassador for the art form, appearing on FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance and touring the world with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox.
In her debut album New Change, Reich explores the use of tap as the main percussion element within a jazz ensemble. Featuring all-original compositions written by Reich herself and inspired by tap rhythms, New Change puts a fresh spin on the beloved art of tap dance. Reich will be joined on stage by a full band and a special guest dancer.
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Malpaso Dance Company
an associate company of Joyce Theater Productions
February 22, 2020 | Byham Theater
Country of Origin: Cuba
Choreography: Tabula Rasa (Ohad Naharin), Face the Torrent (Sonya Tayeh), Ocaso (Osnel Delgado)
Hailing from Havana, Malpaso Dance Company is one of Cuba’s most sought-after dance troupes. Emphasizing a collaborative creative process, Malpaso is committed to working with top international choreographers while also nurturing new voices in Cuban choreography.
One of the evening’s works, Ohad Naharin’s Tabula Rasa, premiered with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 1986. More than 30 years later, Naharin has restaged the piece specifically for the Cuban company, breathing new life and experience into this rarely-performed piece.
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Rocío Molina
March 25, 2020 | Byham Theater
U.S. Premiere
Country of Origin: Spain
Choreography: Caida del Cielo
Spanish choreographer Rocío Molina has coined her own artistic language based on a reinvented traditional flamenco style which respects its essence but embraces the avant-garde. A graduate of the Royal Dance Conservatory in Madrid, Molina was awarded the National Award for Dance by the Spanish Ministry of Culture at age 26.
In Caida del Cielo (Fallen From Heaven), Molina contrasts light and darkness, celestial and savage. Accompanied by a live band, Molina’s dancing goes deep into her roots while pushing the norms of movement and gender, making a loud declaration that flamenco is an expression of freedom that cannot and should not be domesticated.
This show contains partial nudity that may not be appropriate for all audiences, suggested for ages 13+.
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Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Presenting Sponsor BNY Mellon
May 5, 2020 | Benedum Center
Country of Origin: United States
Choreography: Program will include contemporary works, and Revelations.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater embodies six decades of groundbreaking achievement in modern dance. Mr. Ailey once declared, “I want to hold up a mirror to my audience that says ‘this is the way people can be; this is how open people can be.’” Now more than ever, we need the power of dance to bring us all together, connected by our common humanity. It’s why we say: you don’t just see an Ailey performance, you feel it.
As the first company ever presented by the Pittsburgh Dance Council in its inaugural season, it’s only fitting that Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will complete the Dance Council’s 50th anniversary season. The evening’s program will feature contemporary works that touch on timely topics and the beloved classic, Revelations.
2019-2020 Pittsburgh Dance Council Special Events
Compagnie Furinkaï
June 14-16, 2019 | Free and open to the public | Point State Park
(Also presented as part of the 2019 Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival)
Exclusive U.S. City Premiere of Origami, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Country of Origin: France
Choreography: Origami
From Compagnie Furinkaï comes Origami, a bold collaboration between Franco-Japanese dancer/choreographer, Satchie Noro, and French designer/builder, Silvain Ohl, with music composed by Fred Costa. Inspired by the Japanese art of paper folding, Origami introduces an unlikely pairing: a monumental, 40-foot shapeshifting shipping container and a gravity-defying dancer.
Throughout the performance, the enormous steel red box shifts continuously, creating an unstable yet intriguing stage for the dancer to move in and around. The astonishing duet reorients the shipping container from a globalized and globalizing device to an artifact generating new kinds of relationships, a driving force behind Origami.
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Un Poyo Rojo
September 14, 2019 | August Wilson African American Cultural Center
(Also presented as part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Multiple Choice Events)
U.S. Premiere
Country of Origin: Argentina
Choreography: Un Poyo Rojo (Work is titled in the same name as the dance company)
An explosive spectacle that brilliantly unites theater, dance, sport, and acrobatics, Un Poyo Rojo is a humorous piece based in body language and movement. Set in a dressing room, two men challenge, fight, and seduce each other in this highly enjoyable duet.
Originally conceived for a variety show in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2008, Un Poyo Rojo is a play that uses body language to explore the limits of contemporary language with regards to movement and its subsequent interpretations. The piece is a provocation, an invitation for us to laugh at ourselves and, at the same time, to accept ourselves entirely.
This show contains mature content that may not be appropriate for all audiences, suggested for ages 13+.
Tickets
Single tickets (as low as $10) for the 2019-2020 Pittsburgh Dance Council season will be available at a later date at TrustArts.org/DANCE, by calling 412-456-6666, or in person at the Box Office at Theater Square, 655 Penn Avenue.
Subscription packages are available for $60-$330. Subscriptions can be purchased in packages of 4 show, with pricing beginning at $40. To subscribe, call 412-456-1390. Groups of 10 or more tickets, please call 412-471-6930. For more information visit, TrustArts.org/DANCE.
The Pittsburgh Dance Council joined the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust as a programming division in 2002. The mission of Pittsburgh Dance Council is to bring the best contemporary dance companies from around the world to the Cultural District. Each season, Pittsburgh Dance Council presents diverse, world-class contemporary works, including U.S. and world premieres.
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has overseen one of Pittsburgh’s most historic transformations: turning a seedy red-light district into a magnet destination for arts lovers, residents, visitors, and business owners. Founded in 1984, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is the cultural and economic revitalization of a 14-block arts and entertainment/residential neighborhood called the Cultural District. The District is one of the country’s largest land masses “curated” by a single nonprofit arts organization. A major catalytic force in the city, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a unique model of how public-private partnerships can reinvent a city with authenticity, innovation and creativity. Using the arts as an economic catalyst, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has holistically created a world-renowned Cultural District that is revitalizing the city, improving the regional economy and enhancing Pittsburgh’s quality of life. Thanks to the support of foundations, corporations, government agencies and thousands of private citizens, the Trust stands as a national model of urban redevelopment through the arts.
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