dancers

LAST CHANCE

TO SEE THE

40th ANNIVERSARY

AT CITY CENTER...

NOVEMBER 7, 2008
See what the critics are saying about the company at City Center

Lights, Sound, Costumes...Action!

The Company's National Tour Dates...Coming Soon to a city near you!

Meet some of the 14 dancers behind Lar's greatest works -- the 8 newest company members

Mucuy Bolles
Attila Joey Csiki
Kurt Douglas
Susana Garcia
Brian McGinnis
George Smallwood
Christopher Vo
Katherine Wells
SEE WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE COMPANY AT CITY CENTER
Men's Stories (2000)  Photo: Rose Eichenbaum
Men's Stories (2000)
Photo: Rose Eichenbaum

The Star-Ledger wrote: "The current engagement offers a chance to consider dances that...are rarely seen.  Dance fans should proceed to the theater without hesitancy or restraint."

The New York Times praised "the lush outpourings of movement that combine a balletic line and sweep with an earthier modern-dance undertone, one sequence piled on top of another. There are lovely images (particularly in pas de deux work) and fascinating constructions of pattern...Mr. Lubovitch has a wonderful architectural eye for construction: in big group pieces like the 1986 Concerto Six Twenty-Two and the 2007 Dvorak Serenade, he endlessly dissolves circles into diagonal lines or an odd number of dancers into alternating pairs, only to suddenly re-form them into the original patterns...Mr. Lubovitch is a master of the craft. It’s apparent, too, in the smaller-scale Jangle, a new piece set to the folk-based rhythms of Bartok’s Rhapsodies No. 1 and No. 2 for Violin and Piano. Here seven performers (costumed...by Ann Hould-Ward) move with czardas-influenced stamps and dashing jumps through varying solo and group configurations, evoking the good humor of casual street dances."

Bloomberg News wrote that the current engagement "reveals a great deal of what we've come to expect of this choreographer: grace, lyricism, easy musicality, clear structure and sentimentality... Lubovitch' presents lovely, accomplished dancers who reach occasional rhapsodic moments -- a key reason for his company's worldwide popularity."

Click here to buy tickets to the final 2 shows!

LIGHTS, SOUND, COSTUMES...ACTION!

Jangle (2008)  Photo: Sharen Bradford
Jangle (2008)
Photo: Sharen Bradford

Lar’s team of artists includes Tony-Award-winning costume designer, Ann Hould-Ward; world renowned costumer, Wendy Winters; composer Scott Marshall; and lighting designer Jack Mehler. 

---Ann Hould-Ward (profiled in a previous newsletter) brings to the company extensive experience in designing for film, theater and dance.  She has costumed more than 10 of Lar’s works, including both Men’s Stories and this season's City Center premiere of Jangle.  Both dances will be performed today and tomorrow (on Friday and Saturday nights) -- the final two performances of the company's 40th anniversary season at City Center.

---Costume Designer Wendy Winters dresses the dancers in floating chiffon whites for Dvorak Serenade.  Describing the look Wendy created for Lar's dancers, Deborah Jowitt wrote in The Village Voice: "In their floaty white clothes by Wendy Winters, they look like an assemblage of minor Olympians when they part to create an avenue for the entrance of a pair of tall deities."  Winters is a graduate of the Cal Arts dance program and the Institute of Culinary Education (Pastry Design) in NYC.  She is a New York City based costume designer and fashion stylist.  She has worked with other notable artists, such as Donna Uchizono, Bill Young/Colleen Thomas, Levi Gonzalez, Jodi Melnick, among others. 

---Bringing each performance to light is Jack Mehler, the lighting designer who has lit 7 works by Lubovitch, in addition to working extensively in opera, theater and dance across the nation.  His original design for the world premiere of Jangle provides an important sense of scale for the dance, and his design for the City Center premiere of Dvorak Serenade gives both focus and a sense of other-worldliness to the dance.  Both works are being performed tonight and tomorrow (Friday and Saturday at City Center).

---Scott Marshall created an original music and audio collage for Lar’s Men’s Stories, which was commissioned in 2000.  Marshall’s other commissioned work includes Woody Allen’s film, Small Time Crooks, among others.  Deborah Jowitt in The Village Voice said, “Scott Marshall’s impressive score makes heavy use of Beethoven – the Emperor and Piano Concerto No. 3 – but also smears it or lets other elements fade up through it: his own music, sound effects, a Jewish-sounding melody, an operatic soprano, pop songs, a father-son sex talk, a calliope, and more.  These fragments seem keyed to the ‘portraits’ of particular dancers.  And whenever Beethoven’s voice sounds clear again, it cloaks them all in glory.”

Each accomplished designer adds a rich layer to Lar's work. There are only two chances left to see the company at City Center.  Click here to reserve your seats!

THE COMPANY'S NATIONAL TOUR DATES...
COMING SOON TO A CITY NEAR YOU!

As soon as the company concludes its 40th anniversary season this weekend at City Center, it will return to the road -- traveling to the final 12 cities on its 23-city international tour through February 2009.  See the tour schedule below to find out where you can catch the company in a city near you!


Salt Lake City, UT. November 18.
Click here for concert information

Chicago, IL. November 21 & 22.
Click here for concert information

Minneapolis, MN. December 5.
Click here for concert information

Neuss, GERMANY. December 8 & 9

Boston, MA. December 12 & 13.
Click here for concert information

Philadelphia, PA. January 8-10.
Click here for concert information

San Francisco, CA. January 15.
Click here for concert information   

Aspen, CO. January 18.
Click here for concert information

Avon, CO. January 20.
Click here for concert information

Bellingham, WA. January 23.
Click here for concert information

Portland, OR. January 28.
Click here for concert information

Seattle, WA. February 5-7.
Click here for concert information

MEET SOME OF THE 14 DANCERS BEHIND LAR'S GREATEST WORKS -- THE 8 NEWEST COMPANY MEMBERS

Mucuy Bolles

dancers
joined the Lubovitch company this year.  She was born in Komchen, Mexico.  She is an alumna of Walnut Hill and upon graduation placed first in the modern division of the NFAA ARTS competition.  During her career she has danced for Feld Ballet, Elisa Monte Dance, Zvi Dance, Buglisi/Foreman Dance, Complexions, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.  On Broadway, she has performed in The Red Shoes, The King and I, The Lion King, and the national tour of The Lion King-Gazelle Tour.
Attila Joey Csiki
dancers
joined the Lubovitch company this year.  Born in Toronto, Canada, of Hungarian parents, he began his training with the National Ballet of Canada academy.  Upon relocating to New York City, Csiki received a scholarship to the School of American Ballet.  At the age of 19, he moved to Tokyo, Japan where he performed works by prominent choreographers such as Jiøí Kylián, Sir Peter Wright, William Forysthe, Nacho Duato, Mauro Bigonzetti, Anthony Tudor, Kenneth McMillan, Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine.  He accepted a soloist contract with the Du Capital Ballet of Toulouse, France.  Returning to the US, he danced as a guest artist with Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, Peoria Ballet Illinois, Roger Jeffery, Dance Form Productions, Thomas/Ortiz Dance, Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance, and the National Ballet of Guatemala.
Kurt Douglas
dancers
joined the Lubovitch company this year.  He received his BFA in Dance from the Boston Conservatory under the direction of Yasuko Tokunaga, where he was the recipient of the Ruth Solomon Ambrose Scholarship Award.  He performed with the Boston Dance Theatre and the Boston Conversatory Dance Theatre in works by Limón, Taylor, Curran, Graham and Lubovitch.  Douglas danced with the Limón Dance Company from 2001-2008, where he was the first African American dancer to perform “Iago” in The Moor’s Pavane, one of Limón’s most famous works.  Douglas received a 2002 Princess Grace Award and was honored to perform for His Serene Highness Crown Prince Albert of Monaco and the Royal Family.  Douglas was honored by Dance Magazine and named one of the “Top 25 to Watch” in the January 2006 issue.  He has also danced with the Thang Dao Dance Company, Ballet Hispanico, Sean Curran Dance Company and the world famous “Radio City Rockettes” during their Holiday Christmas Spectacular in NYC. 
Susana Garcia
dancers
joined the Lubovitch company this year.  She was born in Barcelona, Spain, where she began her dance training at the age of 10 at the Institut del Teatre, national school for dance.  She received a scholarship for intensive training at the Victor Ullate School for Ballet in Madrid and won numerous dance awards including the Honor Award for best dance career and 1st Prize at the Castellón Young Dancer’s Competition in 1997.  She danced with the International Dance Companies IT Dansa, under the direction of Catherine Allard and Metros, directed by Ramon Oller.  Among others, she has danced works of the following choreographers: Duato, Vandekeybus, Naharin, Godani, Hanna, and Kylián.
Brian McGinnis
dancers
joined the Lubovitch company this year.  He began his dance training at the age of seven in Worcester, MA with Jo Ann Warren.  His commitment to modern dance includes the companies of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, David Parson Dance Company (4.5 years), and Elisa Monte Dance (4.5 years).  McGinnis graduated from The Julliard School with a BFA under the directorship of Benjamin Harkarvy in 1997.  For the past decade, McGinnis has had numerous opportunities to teach master classes alongside his various national and international touring experiences.  He is currently a guest teacher at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC and continues to impress upon the local communities of many cities the importance of modern dance.
George Smallwood
dancers
joined the Lubovitch company this year.  As a graduate of Southern Methodist University.  Smallwood holds a BFA in Dance Performance and a Bachelor of Business Administration with an International Focus.  Shortly after graduation, Smallwood joined the Parsons Dance Company where he performed the company’s signature solo, Caught.  As co-founder of Battleworks with choreographer Robert Battle, he continues to perform with the company and has taught master classes and re-staged Mr. Battle’s works across the US.  Smallwood was Ballet Master for Tremaine Dance Conventions and has been seen in productions of Oklahoma!, Crazy for You, Music Man, White Christmas, Seven Brides…, and 42nd Street at the St. Louis MUNY.  He danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company in the 2007-08 season.
Christopher Vo
dancers
joined the Lubovitch company this year.  He received a BFA in 2008 from The Juilliard School, under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes.  He is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, 2004; the winner of the Martha Hill Young Artist Award, 2005; and a recipient of the Princess Grace Dance Scholarship, 2007.  Over the past few years, Vo has danced the works of choreographers such as Battle, Brenner, Van Dijk, Feld, Forsythe, Hougland, Lang, Limón, Naharin, Tharp, and Varone.  He is a proud graduate of the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. 
Katherine Wells
dancers
joined the Lubovitch company this year.  She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she received the bulk of her training under Jorge Vizcarrondo.  She was a founding member of Mark Foehringer Dance Project/SF and has also danced with Colorado Ballet, Oakland Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s im’ij-re, and Robert Moses’ KIN.

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company

Mission:  The Lubovitch company was created to realize the artistic vision of Lar Lubovitch, one of the foremost contemporary choreographers in the United States.  The company exists: (1) to create new work; (2) to perform those works (and facilitate the performance of those works by others) both in our home base of New York City and around the world; and (3) to teach people of all ages, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds, in order to increase awareness and appreciation of dance.

History:  Over the past 40 years, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company has gained a reputation as one of the world's leading modern dance companies and has performed in virtually every state of the US and in more than 30 foreign countries.  Lar Lubovitch has been cited by The New York Times as "one of the ten best choreographers in the world," and the company has been called a "national treasure" by Variety.  The company is primarily focused on the creation of new dances, sometimes in collaboration with other top companies.

Contact:  The Lubovitch company is located at 229 West 42nd Street, New York NY 10036.  You can reach us at (212) 221-7909 or Lubovitch@aol.com.  Or visit our website at www.lubovitch.org.

Support:  Programs of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as by American Mastepieces: Dance, Irene Diamond Fund, Brooke Garber & Daniel Neidich Fund, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Joyce Theater Foundation, McMullan Family Foundation, National Dance Project, Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation, A. Woodner Fund and numerous additional generous individuals, corporations and foundations.

Memberships:  The Lubovitch company is a member of Dance/USA, Dance/NYC, ART/NY, Americans for the Arts and the Arts & Business Council of New York.