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| FEBRUARY 15, 2009 |
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40th Anniversary Tour a Rousing Success!
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Atilla Joey Csiki, Rasta Thomas and Jay Franke in Little Rhapsodies. Photo: Chris Duggan.
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Last week the Lubovitch company completed its 40th anniversary tour of 23 cities with a series of 4 performances in Seattle, WA. Like our recent City Center performances, the repertoire for the tour featured primarily new and recent dances, but it also includes a few classic works spanning much of the company’s history: Concerto Six Twenty-Two (1986), Men’s Stories (2000), Dvorak Serenade (2007), Little Rhapsodies (2007) and Jangle (2008).
The tour kicked off with performances at the country’s two most renowned dance festivals – American Dance Festival (Durham, NC) and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Becket, MA) – in June & July 2008, and has continued to 23 cities in all, including (among others) Cincinnati, Dallas, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Portland, and finally, Seattle.
Reviewing the company's performance, the Cleveland Plain Dealer noted, "Dance lovers greeted Lubovitch's ensemble as if a stageful of heroes had arrived. And this was understandable. In three of their artistic director's creations, the dancers brought exceptional polish and athleticism to their duties...the performances had plentiful flair, elegance and vitality." The Minneapolis Star Tribune added that, "Lubovitch's capacity for creating physically and emotionally complex dances is not only intact but also evolving into new and intriguing realms."
To see a broad collection of reviews from a majority of the cities on the tour, click here.
Audiences across the country are very eager to see the Lubovitch company perform the works that he creates. But, to balance this audience demand with the company’s desire to continue creating new work as well, the company will alternate periods spent touring with those spent creating in the studio. Now that the year-long 40th anniversary tour is ending, the company is eager to get back into the studio to start work this spring on its next new dance.
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Lubovitch and Franke named 2008 Chicagoans of the Year! |
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| Lar Lubovitch. Photo by Arkady Lvov. |
For his visionary risk-taking in establishing the Chicago Dancing Festival, Lar Lubovitch was named Chicagoan of the Year -- for two years in a row, back-to-back -- in 2007 by the Chicago Tribune and in 2008 by Chicago Magazine. In 2008, Lubovitch shared the honor with company dancer Jay Franke, co-founder of the festival. The award was announced last month.
Produced in cooperation with Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) and the City of Chicago, the festival premiered in 2007 with a FREEone-night-only dance concert at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park on August 22nd. More than 8,000 people attended the performance, which featured dancers from seven leading American companies.
Last year (in 2008), the second annual festival was expanded to include three days of FREE programming at a total of three venues in the city (the Harris Theater, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park). In its second year, the festival attracted more than 12,000 people across three days of programming.
For 2009, the festival will grow to span four FREE nights with the addition of a 4th performance at the Auditorium Theater, in addition to performances at the three theaters from last year. The festival will take place from August 17-22, 2009. For more info, visit the festival's website at www.chicagodancingfestival.com.
The programming for this year's festival will be announced later this spring. It is expected to encompass more than 20 dance companies. |
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Our Creative Efforts Need Your Support Now!
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| Rasta Thomas in Elemental Brubeck. Photo by Erin Baiano. |
As the Lubovitch company completes its triumphant 40th anniversary tour, we are looking ahead to the first of several creative projects. The first is a major new dance that will complete the company’s trilogy of works set to jazz scores. Lar first investigated the possibilities of jazz in 2005 with two huge hits – Love’s Stories (set to Kurt Elling’s idiosyncratic and evocative renditions of American standards) and Elemental Brubeck. (set to the music of Dave Brubeck). Love’s Stories premiered in Chicago, and Elemental Brubeck premiered the same year in Paris.
The new third work, completing the trilogy, is scheduled to be created this April and May. Lar and the dancers are eager to start work. In light of the economic downturn, we need your help now more than ever. The cost of creating this new dance will be $185,000 (for dancers’s salaries, studio rental, music royalties, design fees for lighting and costumes, and costume construction).
We ask you to help us create this work. Visit www.NYCharities.org to make a donation to support the creative work of the Lubovitch company now and throughout 2009. |
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Special Discount Offer by Doug Varone and Dancers!
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Doug Varone and Dancers
2009 NYC Season at the Joyce Theater
Feb 24 - Mar 1, 2009
20% DISCOUNT: ORDER BY FEBRUARY 20
(ENTER CODE: LLDC)
Not valid for $19 tickets; Restrictions apply.
For 8 years, Doug Varone was a principal dancer in the Lubovitch company, before leaving to start his own dance company 23 years ago. Two weeks from now, Doug Varone and Dancers will present the NYC premiere of Alchemy, 2000's riveting Tomorrow, set to the music of Reynaldo Hahn sung live by mezzo-soprano Theodora Hanslowe and the joyous Lux (2006) to Phillip Glass's propulsive score The Light.
We look forward to seeing you at the Joyce.
Get your tickets today!
Visit www.joyce.org or call JoyceCharge at 212.242.0800 |
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Order your Broadway tickets here -- you save and the Lubovitch company gets a 5% contribution!
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Order your Broadway tickets through GiveNik.com. You save & the Lubovitch company gets a 5% contribution! Click here to view GiveNik discount offers and to place your order.
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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. |
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