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Jean Lenihan: dance and other movements

Dissolving Ballet (and disappearing tickets)

January 9, 2010 by Jean Lenihan

Chalnessa Eames & Lucien Postlewaite

Chalnessa Eames & Lucien Postlewaite

Tickets are flying fast for the first official, full-length concert by Whim W’Him, Olivier Wevers’ brand new supergroup Seattle dance company — so please get over to the OTB site now!

Besides being a superstar performer, Belgian-born Wevers has true choreographic talent — his phrases are never arbitrary; always probing at matters physical or psychological; there’s something mesmerizing about the gooey, sticky way his phrases come together. His dancers are all at the top of their form and can do anything. His collaborators are fantastic: composer Byron Au Yong and costume designer Michael Cepress are both giving all to this project.

From Whim W’Him’s site, Olivier writes:

Inspired by Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” 3Seasons is a radical take on our disposable world. It draws together dancers from PNB, Spectrum Dance Theater, and the Seattle community in a thoughtful reimagining of Vivaldi’s music by composer Byron Au Yong.

We humans tend to think we own everything. We dominate the world. Our actions have grave consequences for the earth, if often unintended. How can we be more responsible and aware of the planet we inhabit? By recognizing the primacy of change, variability, unpredictability. By accepting vulnerability, responsibility and loss. By dancing in time with the rhythms of nature. By not forgetting hope. These are the themes of 3Seasons.

Before each show a random drawing…
Whichever of Vivaldi’s original seasons is picked will be omitted from that show. In its place, music will be played for the corresponding season from the suite composed by Byron Au Yong. Neither dancers nor audience will know ahead of time which season is going to be replaced.

Which season ends the particular performance determines if it closes on a note of hope or gloom…

Tickets to Friday’s show are gone. You can still get seats for Saturday or Sunday. Move it.

Filed Under: ballet, contemporary dance

About Jean Lenihan

Formerly the staff dance critic for the Seattle Times, Jean Lenihan now lives in Los Angeles where she's written for the … [Read More...]

About Fresh Pencil

This blog began as an aggregation of published freelance pieces on a wide range of dance-makers and touring troupes, from Miss Prissy to ABT premieres to  Benjamin Millepied to Ryan Heffington. Nowadays I often review and write straight into this blog.

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