Season Features Four World Premieres, Seven Major Commissions, Nine Artists on U.S. Debut Tours, and Companies Based in 17 Countries Spanning Five Continents
The Walker Art Center announced its 2009–2010 performing arts season today, which features four world premieres, seven major commissions, nine artists on U.S. debut tours, and companies based in 17 countries spanning five continents, continuing its long tradition of supporting the freshest and most significant developments in contemporary performance from around the world.
Commenting on the 2009–2010 season, McGuire Senior Curator of Performing Arts Philip Bither said: “This year’s programming offers a window on some of the most arresting and influential live performance work being made around the world. The season’s dance schedule is perhaps our most globally minded ever, offering movement artists from Japan, Senegal, Congo, Indonesia, India, Brazil, New Zealand, Germany, and the U.S. combining traditional and experimental influences to dramatically move the art form forward in myriad intriguing ways. We also embrace the continued explosion of fascinating new sounds coming out of the worlds of rock and pop music, along with an ongoing commitment to contemporary jazz, world, and alternative classical forms. In addition, a spectrum of adventurous theater and performance includes a co-presentation with the Guthrie Theater, our first major collaboration in five years, of acclaimed provocateur/playwright Enda Walsh and Druid Theater’s The Walworth Farce as well as the intensely intimate and interactive one-on-one conceptual work of Germany’s Rimini Protokoll as part of the annual Out There series.”
In a season rich with commissions and world premieres, artists are crossing cultural and national boundaries to collaborate on important new work. Featured will be the world premiere of Ragamala Music and Dance and Cudamani’s Dhvee (Duality) (October 1–4), a glorious dance-theater spectacle inspired by the stories of the Hindu sacred text Ramayana that features 25 Indian and Balinese musicians and dancers, extravagant costuming and sets, and the powerful polyrhythms of the visually sumptuous gamelan orchestra; the world premiere of Reggie Wilson/Andréya Ouamba’s The Good Dance: Brooklyn/Dakar (November 12–14), a landmark three-year collaboration that links American dance/theater-maker Reggie Wilson and his Brooklyn-based Fist & Heel Performance Group with Congolese contemporary dance creator Andréya Ouamba and his award-winning Compagnie 1er Temps Danse, based in Senegal; Erik Friedlander’s Block Ice & Propane (December 5), a collection of cinematic cello compositions combining photographic images and sound by jazz/new music phenom Friedlander (John Zorn, Laurie Anderson) that draws inspiration from years of family road trips taken by his father, famed photographer Lee Friedlander; the world premiere of avant-garde New York theater troupe Radiohole’s Whatever, Heaven Allows (January 21–23 ), a star-spangled American meta-melodrama inspired by film director Douglas Sirk’s 1950s potboilers, Milton’s epic Paradise Lost, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; the world premiere of Bill Frisell/Rahim AlHaj/Eyvind Kang’s Baghdad/Seattle Suite (February 6), an evening featuring Grammy Award–winning guitarist/composer Frisell, unquestionably one of the most revered musicians in the jazz world, joined by Iraqi refugee and oud master Rahim AlHaj and acclaimed violist and erhu player Eyvind Kang (Beck, Blonde Redhead, Laurie Anderson, Sunn O))), Secret Chiefs) for an adventurous program of East-meets-West compositions; Morgan Thorson/Low's Heaven (March 4–6), an ensemble dance and vocal piece created during a Walker residency that explores the various manifestations of ecstasy—emotional, physical, and communal—present both in religious practices and in the ritualistic nature of dance in performance. Thorson collaborates with Low’s Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, who perform the music and vocal orchestration they wrote for the work live. The season’s concluding commissioned work is John Jasperse Company’s Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies (May 20–22), a piece seasoned with Jasperse’s distinctively humorous yet intellectually rigorous choreography featuring movement for six performers and music composed by Hahn Rowe for a chamber ensemble and electronics with lighting, sets, props, and even oddball magic tricks designed by the multitalented Jasperse.
Season Preview with Philip Bither
The public is invited to a free 2009–2010 Performing Arts Season Preview on Thursday, September 10, at 7 pm in the McGuire Theater. Philip Bither will discuss the more than 25 dance, music, and theater events that make up what promises to be an exciting season.
Target Free Thursday Nights sponsored by Target.
Tickets for the 2009–2010 performing arts season go on sale Friday, July 10. Unless otherwise noted, advance tickets are on sale by phone (612.375.7600) and online at tickets.walkerart.org.
