JUILLIARD DANCE PRESENTS CLASSIC WORKS BY MARK MORRIS,
TWYLA THARP AND LAR LUBOVITCH AND A NEW COMMISSION BY
OHAD NAHARIN IN JUILLIARD DANCES REPERTORY

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25 – SUNDAY, MARCH 29 IN JUILLIARD’S
PETER JAY SHARP THEATER

Juilliard Dance, under the artistic direction of Lawrence Rhodes, presents Juilliard Dances Repertory, Wednesday, March 25-Sunday, March 29, performing Mark Morris’s Gloria, Twyla Tharp’s The Fugue, Lar Lubovitch’s North Star and a new commission by Ohad Naharin, From MAX and THREE.  George Stelluto conducts the Juilliard Orchestra in Vivaldi’s Gloria in D, RV589 with chorus. Second, third and fourth-year dancers perform on this program which brings together three iconic works and a new creation from today’s most established choreographers.

Juilliard Dances Repertory performances take place Wednesday, March 25, Thursday, March 26, Friday, March 27, and Saturday, March 28 at 8 PM and Sunday, March 29 at 3 PM in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard, 155 West 65^th Street.  Tickets are $20, available beginning February 18 at the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office at Juilliard (212)769-7406, or through CenterCharge (212)721-6500.   The Box Office offers half-price tickets to students and senior citizens and accepts TDF vouchers.   Business hours are 11 AM-6 PM on weekdays. 

Created early in Mark Morris’s career, Gloria set to Vivaldi’s Gloria in D, RV589 and performed live by the Juilliard Orchestra and a chorus of singers from the School, is staged by Megan Williams with lighting by Michael Chybowski.  The work premiered December 12, 1981 at Dance Theater Workshop and was revised in 1984.  Gloria is now considered a classic work reflecting Morris’ deep sense of musicality and contemporary blend of pedestrian and spiritual movement.

Twyla Tharp created The Fugue in 1970, inspired in part by J.S. Bach’s A Musical Offering. Choreographed without music, The Fugue is accompanied by the sounds of the dancer’s rhythmic footfalls on an electronically amplified stage with intricate reversals, inversions, and re-sequencings of the primary 20-count theme. With lighting designed by Jennifer Tipton and costumes by Kermit Love, the original female cast presented one woman as bass, one as alto, and another as soprano, in choreographic tone. Juilliard will present one all-female and one all-male cast of the work staged by Jennifer Way and Tom Rawe, offering distinct “voices”.

Juilliard alumnus, Lar Lubovitch’s North Star (1978), set to music my Philip Glass with lighting by Craig Miller, is one of his six ‘trance’ dances from the 1970’s, exploring the kinetic potential of minimalist music in compositions by Steve Reich and Glass. Nine fourth-year dancers performed North Star with Lar Lubovitch Dance at City Center and Dance Theater Workshop during the fall 2008 season, as part of Lubovitch company’s 40^th anniversary.

Ohad Naharin’s commission From MAX and THREE, premiering in Juilliard Dances Repertory, is assembled from excerpts and re-workings of his repertoire staged with Yoshifumi Inao, with lighting by Avi Yona Bueno, realized by Nicole Pearce and costumes by Márion Talán.  A Juilliard alumnus, now the Artistic Director of the Batsheva Dance Company, Mr. Naharin choreographs from a movement style called “gaga,” which he created after back problems drove him to explore and reexamine his own movement impulses.  “Gaga” technique is rooted in unblocking the body, freeing dancers to move with unprecedented control, release untapped reserves of agility and find metaphysical connection. 

Juilliard Dance conducts an education outreach program to accompany Juilliard Dances Repertory, bringing several hundred New York City students in grades four through eight to attend an hour-long outreach concert on Friday, March 27 at 11:00 AM.   The program will introduce students to modern dance concepts, movement, and the choreographic process as well as the role of an audience member and great dance works of today’s choreographers.

CHOREOGRAPHER BIOS:  

Lar Lubovitch founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company 40 years ago. In the years since, he has choreographed more than 100 dances for his New York-based company, which has performed in nearly all 50 American states as well as in more than 30 foreign countries. Born in Chicago, Mr.Lubovitch was educated at the University of Iowa and The Juilliard School in New York. His teachers at Juilliard included Antony Tudor, José Limón, Anna Sokolow and Martha Graham. He danced in numerous modern, ballet, jazz and ethnic companies before forming the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. Works created by him (and the Lubovitch company) are also performed by many other select companies throughout the world, including the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project and Netherlands Dance Theater.  Mr. Lubovitch’s Broadway credits include Into the Woods (for which he received a Tony Award nomination) and The Red Shoes (for which he received the 1993-94 Astaire Award from the Theater Development Fund) and The King and I. He recently devised the musical staging for Walt Disney's stage version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin. In 2004 he was honored with the Elan Award.  Mr. Lubovitch also has made a significant contribution to the advancement of choreography in the field of ice-dancing. Most recently, he founded the Chicago Dancing Company, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to present a wide variety of excellent dance and build dance audiences in his native Chicago.  For his visionary risk-taking in establishing the Festival, Mr. Lubovitch was named a "2007 Chicagoan of the Year" by the Chicago Tribune.

Mark Morris was born on August 29, 1956, in Seattle, Washington, where he studied with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson.  He performed with Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, Eliot Feld, and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble, and in 1980 formed the Mark Morris Dance Group.  He has since created more than 120 works for the company.  From 1988-1991, he was Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium where he created works including The Hard Nut; L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato; and Dido and Aeneas. In 1990, he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov.  His work is in the repertory of San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Boston, Pacific Northwest, Dutch National, New Zealand, Houston, English National, and Royal ballet companies.  Mr. Morris has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, English National Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. In 1991, he was granted a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship.  Mr. Morris has received eight honorary doctorates to date including one from Juilliard in 2001.  In 2006, he received the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Mayor’s Award for Arts & Culture and a WQXR Gramophone Special Recognition Award.  He is the subject of a biography by Joan Acocella (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) and Marlowe & Company published a volume of photographs and critical essays entitled Mark Morris’ L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: A Celebration.  Morris is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.  In 2007, he received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival lifetime achievement award.

Ohad Naharin, Choreographer and Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company, began his training as a dancer with the Batsheva Dance Company. He came to New York one year later at the invitation of Martha Graham to join her company, as well as to make use of a scholarship to the School of American Ballet. After a year with the Martha Graham Dance Company, he continued his studies at The Juilliard School as well as with Maggie Black and David Howard. He then joined the Maurice Béjart Company in Brussels for one season and made his choreographic debut in 1980 in the Kazuko Hirabayashi studio in New York. From 1980 to 1990 he performed and worked in New York, where he lived with his wife; the dancer Mari Kajiwara who died of cancer in 2001. In 1990 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Batsheva Dance Company.  Mr. Naharin has been the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1998, two New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards (for Naharin's Virus at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2002 and for Anaphaza at the Lincoln Center Festival in 2003), a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2004, the prestigious Israel Prize for dance in 2005 and a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by the Hebrew University in 2008.

Since graduating from college in 1963, Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than one hundred thirty-five dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed three Broadway shows, written two books and received one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, nineteen honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the Jerome Robbins Prize, The Kennedy Center Honors and many grants including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1965, Ms.Tharp formed Twyla Tharp Dance, creating 80 pieces including Nine Sinatra Songs and In the Upper Room. When TTD merged with American Ballet Theatre, she created over a dozen works. She also choreographed for Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, NYC Ballet, Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, Martha Graham Company, American Ballet Theatre, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet.  Broadway credits include When We Were Very Young, The Catherine Wheel, Singin’ In the Rain, Movin’ Out and The Times They Are A-Changin’.  Film credits include Hair, Ragtime Amadeus, White Nights and I’ll Do Anything.  For television, Ms. Tharp choreographed Sue’s Leg for PBS Dance In America, co-produced/directed Making Television Dance directed The Catherine Wheel for BBC-TV; co-directed Baryshnikov By Tharp. Her books are Push Comes to Shove and The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life. Today Ms.Tharp continues to write, create and lecture around the world.