Touring Repertoire
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THE HALLOWEEN PROJECT (2017) Anticipated World Premiere of untitled project 2017 Choreography: Karole Armitage An immersive choreographic experience for Halloween. Walt Disney's black and white 1929 animation, The Skeleton Dance, is considered to be one of the greatest cartoons ever made. Full of musical and visual puns created in a flat, herky-jerky animation style, it brims with imagination and rigor. It is a mood piece without story or character, but full of late night frolicking. The creative team is taking The Skeleton Dance as a jumping off point for a live action rendition. Disney’s composer, Carl Stalling used a comic paste up method of combining unrelated classical melodies and pop tunes with original bridge music. We are taking Stalling's mashup as the model, adding elements inspired by the street theater of the Jacmel Haitian Carnival. Electronics, home-made instruments, live foley, performers deconstructing their own skeletal structure, spell-casting Witches, twerking Skeletons, dancing Eyeballs, and other frights will come to life in a contemporary dance macabre. EMV (Energy Made Visible)Anticipated World Premiere 2018 Concept, Direction, Choreography: Karole Armitage Set: Karole Armitage and Clifton Taylor EMV, conceived by Director/Choreographer Karole Armitage, explores altered states of consciousness. Dreams, erotic transport, mystic ritual, trance and shamanistic traditions of the Amazonian Rainforest flow across the stage as a series of hallucinations. Inspired in part by the work of Harvard Ethnobotanist, Wade Davis, Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, EMV responds to contemporary and traditional cultures in their search for expanded consciousness and spiritual belief through altered states for a trippy experience, mingling the miniscule with the infinite. Anticipated Touring personnel (12): Karole Armitage, 9 dancers, Technical Director/Lighting Supervisor, Stage Manger/Company Manager |
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FOUR SEASONSFour Seasons - A Spinning Planet (2014)World Premiere Nov 22, 2014 New York City Center Concept, Direction, Choreography: Karole Armitage Four Seasons - A Spinning Planet is a dance designed for young people and their families based on stories about our planet, inspired by ancient and timeless fables from around the globe. The movement, choreographed by Karole Armitage, is woven around charming props and puppets designed by Doug Fitch. Two narrators, one adult and one child, provide humorous commentary on dance and music with insight into the trials and tribulations of the animal characters. The witty dialogue by Craig Shemin, known for his work as a writer for the Muppets, is often hilarious and always entertaining. Musical selections range from the Baroque to the 21st century including some of the world’s most cherished classics by Vivaldi, Shostakovich, Offenbach. Copland, and Rossini with lesser know masterpieces by John Adams, Samuel Barber, Eric Satie, and Albert Roussel as well as Max Richter’s Recomposed, a contemporary reimagining of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The lighting is by long-time Armitage collaborator, Clifton Taylor.Fables by Aesop and de la Fontaine are interwoven with stories from China and Native America cultures. Ten animal stories are brought to life by a menagerie of lions, ants, hares, bulls, bears, and frogs within a living forest. The stories provide a lovely glimpse into the beauty and fragility of the natural world while offering insight into the bonds that tie humans to each other and to nature. Touring personnel (11): Karole Armitage, 7 dancers, Lighting/Sound Supervisor, Stage Manger/Prop Manger, and a Wardrobe Manager. |
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Ligeti Essays (2006)Choreography: Karole Armitage The dance is choreographed to a suite of three, jewel-like song cycles composed by the late György Ligeti. In these haiku-like compositions, Ligeti expresses the full gamut of our complex and contradictory natures: from the humorous to the trivial and sarcastic, with passages of languorous, beautiful daydreams. The ballet is set off to perfection by David Salle’s stunning set. Touring personnel (10): Karole Armitage, Stage Manager, Tech Director, 7 dancers. Watch excerpt here |
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Rave (2001) Choreography: Karole Armitage
Rave is a celebratory happening mixing dance, capoeira (a Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, dance, and music), voguing (an underground African-American and custom of social performance and fashion show appropriation begun in Harlem in the 1960s), wushu (Chinese martial arts), and catwalk for 26 dancers in iconic costumes ranging from Marilyn Monroe to an American Indian chief. All of the dancers paint their bodies in bright colors from head to toe – skin is orange, purple, green, gray, blue. Rave is constructed on Vogue Dance twisted through the lens of mixing many different movement forms into a celebration of life as a combination of ball, ballet and carnival for the 21th century. Rave requires a minimum three-day workshop for 18 local dancers (9 women and 9 men) to learn sections of the choreography. This is followed by two days of rehearsal with the full cast prior to a public performance. The teaching residency can be done with the full company present or AG!D can sent a company member ahead to teach the material to local dancers. AG!D provides the costumes for all dancers. Ideally the women dance on pointe. The technical level of the pointe work is not difficult. All guest dancers have to donate a pair of clean pointe shoes or ballet shoes that can be painted in the color of their costume.Additional dancers must be provided by the presenter, pending approval by Karole Armitage. Any fees for additional dancers are the responsibility of the presenter. Touring Personnel (10): Karole Armitage, Stage Manager, Tech Director, 7 Dancers. Watch excerpt here |
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