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June 15, 2015

Summer 2015 Dance Presentations at Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center Festival

PRESS CONTACT

Marian Skokan, 212-875-5386

[email protected]

 

 

DANCE PRESENTATIONS AT LINCOLN CENTER

SUMMER 2015

 

New York, NY, June 15, 2015 – Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will present outstanding international and American dance companies and artists this summer as part of Lincoln Center Festival and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Details are below.

 

LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL presents

THE NATIONAL BALLET OF CHINA

July 8-12, 2015

David H. Koch Theater (Broadway at 63rd Street)

 

The National Ballet of China and National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra will perform two full-evening story ballets at this summer’s 20th edition of Lincoln Center Festival. The ballets represent distinctly different periods in Chinese history. The Peony Pavilion is a romance based on a 400-year-old epic masterpiece of Kunqu opera, choreographed by Fei Bo; and The Red Detachment of Women, a Company signature work choreographed by Li Chenxiang, Jiang Zuhui, and Wang Yangiao, was created in 1964 as a celebration of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.  The ballet, the first ever created in the young nation, and the company’s first full-evening-length work is marking a 50th anniversary in the 2014-2015 season.  There will be three performances of The Peony Pavilion and two of The Red Detachment of Women, taking place from July 8 – 12 in the David H. Koch Theater.

 

Tickets: Single tickets for all Festival performances are on sale now. Call CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, go to LincolnCenterFestival.org, or visit to the Avery Fisher or Alice Tully Hall box offices, Broadway at 65th Street, or call.

 

NATIONAL BALLET OF CHINA

Artistic Director Feng Ying

National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra

Music Director and Conductor Zhang Yi

Resident Conductor Liu Ju

 

The Peony Pavilion

July 8 at 8 pm.; July 9 at 7:30 pm.; July 10 at 7:30 pm

Ballet in two acts and six scenes

Adapted from Tang Xianzu’s play of the same name

Producer Zhao Ruheng

Adaptation and Director Li Liuyi

Choreographer Fei Bo

Composer, Music Arranger, and Orchestration Guo Wenjing

Set Designer Michael Simon

Costume Designer Emi Wada

Lighting Designers Michael Simon, Han Jiang

Approximate running time: 2 hours, including one intermission.

 

Main Characters:

Du Liniang: Zhu Yan (July 8, 10), Wang Qimin (July 9)               

Liu Mengmei:  Ma Xiaodong (July 8, 10), Li Jun (July 9)            

Flower Goddess Liniang: Zhang Jian (July 8, 10), Lu Na (July 9)

Kunqu Liniang: Zhang Yuanyuan (guest artist)

Ghosts of Black and White Impermanence: Zhang Xi and Wang Jiyu (July 8, 10)

            Yu Bo and Hu Dayong (July 9)

Chinese Flute Solo: Wei Lan (guest artist)

 

The Red Detachment of Women

Prelude and ballet in six scenes

July 11 at 8 pm and July 12 at 2 pm

Adapted from the film of the same name, screenplay by Liang Xin

Choreographers Li Chengxiang, Jiang Zuhui, Wang Xixian

Composers Wu Zuqiang, Du Mingxin, Dai Hongwei, Shi Wanchun, Wang Yanqiao

Composer of “The Song of Detachment” Huang Zhun

Stage Design Ma Yunhong

Lighting Design Liang Hongzhou

 

Main Characters:

Qionghua: Zhang Jian (July 11), Lu Na (July 12)

Hong Changqing: Zhou Zhaohui (July 11), Li Ke, (July 12)

Company Commander: Lu Di (July 11), Li Jie (July 12)

Xiao’e: Wang Ye

Xiaoping: Wang Hao (July 11), Zheng Yu (July 12)

Comrade in Arms: Zhu Yan (July 11), Hou Shuang (July 12)

Nan Batian: Li Ke (July 11), Zhou Zhaohui (July 12)

Lao Si: Li Jun (July 11), Jiang Wei (July 12)

Approximate running time: 2 hours and 15 minutes, including one intermission

 

Casts subject to change

 

MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAMS AND COMPANY

 

About The Peony Pavilion

 

The Peony Pavilion, one of the most famous love stories in the Chinese canon, was written as an opera by Tang Xianzu in 1598, the same year as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, to which it is often compared.  Teenager Du Liniang falls asleep in her garden and dreams of meeting Liu Mengmei.  She dreams that they fall in love, but when she awakens she becomes lovesick and dies. Her ghost descends to the underworld where it is decided that she was indeed supposed to marry Liu.  She returns to the garden and asks Liu to exhume her body and return her to life, but when he does, he is arrested for being a grave robber.  He is pardoned by the emperor.

 

Tang’s 20-hour opera was staged in a landmark production for Lincoln Center Festival 99 by Chen Shi-Zheng. The NBC version, as choreographed by Fei Bo, is told with a tapestry of western and far eastern dance conventions. The music is a soundscape, arranged and orchestrated by composer Guo Wenjing, whose chambers operas The Night Banquet and Feng Yi Ting were presented at the Festival in 2002 and 2012, respectively.  For The Peony Pavilion he weaves together his own original music with works by Claude Debussy (Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faun, La mer), Maurice Ravel (Daphnis et Chloé and Ma mère l’oye), Ottorino Respighi (Feste Romane and Pini di Roma), Gustav Holst (The Planets), and Sergei Prokofiev (Scythian Suite). The ravishingly beautiful production is designed by Michael Simon, whose simple-seeming sets — a giant swing-like platform, some bales of twigs, a few massive silken blossoms — are shaped and dramatized by his and Han Jiang’s virtuoso lighting. The lustrous silken costumes are by Emi Wada. The ballet was premiered in 2008 by the NBC at Tianqiao Theater, Beijing, China. The ballet was invited to Hong Kong Arts Festival and was performed by NBC in Edinburgh Festival in August 2011.

 

About The Red Detachment of Women

 

NBC celebrates the 50th anniversary of The Red Detachment of Women, which at its premiere in 1964 represented a milestone in dance in China.  The most popular ballet to emerge from China’s Maoist revolution, it has been performed more than 4,000 times throughout China, as well as in many countries around the world. This visually stunning work in which the dancers are clad in Mao suits, bayonets and ballet slippers, takes place during the political chaos just prior to the Communist takeover (1927-37). In a marriage of Cultural Revolution principles and pirouettes, Red Detachment tells the story of a peasant girl who rises from servitude to join a crusading, all-female battalion of Red Guards to defeat the evil landowner who once enslaved her.

 

The ballet was based originally on a novel by Liang Xin, which was subsequently made into a feature film.  The idea to adapt it as a ballet grew out of a 1963 forum on literature and art, when the late Premier Zhou Enlai declared that the subjects for new works of art should come from the revolution, the people, and the spirit of the nation. In February 1964, NBC choreographer Li Chengxiang led a team to Hainan Island, where the novel was set, to gather materials and inspiration for a new production. The ballet premiered in September 1964 at Beijing’s Tianqiao Theater as The Red Detachment of Women. A 1971 film version of the ballet remains popular to this day. During the era of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), NBC was only allowed to stage Chinese works. Among them, The Red Detachment of Women and the other work, The White-Haired Girl (created by Shanghai Ballet), were the two most frequently performed ballets. The Red Detachment of Women toured throughout China in the 1960s and began touring abroad in the 1970s. 

The Red Detachment of Women combines the vocabulary of ballet and Chinese dance elements in distinctive ways. The work is devoid of some classic ballet idioms, like the male-female pas de deux with its lifts and supported turns, because Chairman Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, felt these did not reflect Chinese culture.  NBC last performed an excerpt of the work in the USA in 2011.

 

Founded in December 1959, The National Ballet of China gathers all of its outstanding artists from professional academies. Under decades of loving care and support from the government and friends of all social sectors, the Company never ceased enriching its solid Russian foundations with works of different schools and styles. The Company’s repertoire includes world classics like Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Giselle, Carmen, Onegin, and The Little Mermaid, in addition to its original creations, The Red Detachment of Women, The New Year Sacrifice, Yellow River, Raise the Red Lantern, The Peony Pavilion, and The Chinese New Year. By staging western ballets and creating works of its own with distinct national characteristics, the Company found a successful path for the development of Chinese ballet fusing styles of the classical and the modern, in addition to cultures of the nation and the world.

 

Over more than 50 years, the Company has proudly made achievements in training performers, stage productions, in addition to ballet promotion and education. Numerous ballet dancers, choreographers, musicians and stage artists have won major international awards, and made collaborations with international stars in their fields. The Company has a repertoire of nearly 200 ballets, some of which have been honored as Classic Chinese Art Works, and have enjoyed international fame.

 

As a renowned company with sound international influence, the National Ballet of China serves as an excellent cultural envoy and important window of the nation, to spread the essence of Chinese culture. Meanwhile, it has also been endeavoring to present high standard performances to the Chinese audience, and promote the art form in universities, communities and among children. In accordance with its motto “United, Pragmatic, Self-independent, and Enterprising,” the Company members are following in the steps of their hard working predecessors, and making enormous strides to realize their progressive dream.

 

Fei Bo, Resident Choreographer of the National Ballet of China, is from a family of traditional opera practitioners. Fei Bo began studying Chinese traditional dance in 1992. He began choreographing at the age of 16 and started to learn modern dance choreography at Beijing Dance Academy in 1998. He joined the National Ballet of China in 2002 and has since created many pieces for the company. Since the age of 24 he has collaborated with such renowned choreographers as Philippe Decouflé and Akram Khan. He won the award for best choreography at the International Ballet Competitions held in Helsinki, Shanghai and Beijing, as well as the best modern dance prize at USA YAGP.

 

When performing around the world, he tries to use eastern perspectives to converse with western art. He was invited by the Hong Kong Ballet to create the piece A Room of One's Own. In 2011, he helped former Royal Ballet principal dancer Tamara Rojo, who is currently the artistic director of the English National Ballet, to create a solo dance piece, Life is A Dream. This collaboration was made into the documentary Fusion Journey, by CNN. In 2012 he was invited to the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow to stage one of his pieces. In addition to The Peony Pavilion, his choreography includes Bolero, A Room of One's Own, Confucius 2012, Hamlet, On the Road, Once Upon A Time, Over There, Pisces, and Sacrifice.

 

Programs, artists and ticket prices are subject to change.

Endowment support for the Lincoln Center Festival 2015 presentation of the National Ballet of China is provided by Blavatnik Family Foundation Fund for Dance.

 

The Lincoln Center Festival 2015 presentation of the National Ballet of China is made possible in part by generous support from Yang Lan and The Joelson Foundation.

 

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Lincoln Center Festival 2015 lead support is provided by American Express

 

Major Support provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

 

Lincoln Center Festival 2015 is also made possible by The Shubert Foundation, Nancy A. Marks, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, Yang Lan, The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Katzenberger Foundation, Inc., Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia, Jennie and Richard DeScherer, The Grand Marnier Foundation, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Marubeni America Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, the Goethe-Institut, Federal Foreign Office of Germany, ITOCHU International Inc., The Joelson Foundation, Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater, Sharp Fund PLD at The New York Community Trust, Great Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center.

 

Public support for Festival 2015 is provided the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and National Endowment for the Arts.

 

Endowment support is provided by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Nancy Abeles Marks.

Now in its 20th season, Lincoln Center Festival has received worldwide attention for presenting some of the broadest and most original performing arts programs in Lincoln Center’s history. The Festival has presented nearly 1,371 performances of opera, music, dance, theater, and interdisciplinary forms by internationally acclaimed artists from more than 50 countries. To date, the Festival has commissioned more than 42 new works and offered some 142 world, U.S., and New York premieres. It places particular emphasis on showcasing contemporary artistic viewpoints and multidisciplinary works that challenge the boundaries of traditional performance. LincolnCenterFestival.org

 

LINCOLN CENTER OUT OF DOORS presents

 

The 45th season Lincoln Center Out of Doors the popular free, summer festival runs from July 22 through August 9, 2015.  Dance events are featured among 100 free performances, films and talks. These are listed below, chronologically by date and in performance order. A complete schedule of events is available at: LCOutofDoors.org.

 

DANCE EVENTS

 

FRIDAY, JULY 24

 

7:30 pm – Damrosch Park Bandshell

Dorrance Dance: “The Blues Project Revisited” with Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely

Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely

Building on the critical and popular success of The Blues Project, which played to sold-out houses at Jacob’s Pillow and the Joyce Theater, choreographer-dancer Michelle Dorrance and composer Toshi Reagon will introduce new material (both music and choreography) at Out of Doors this summer, in The Blues Project Revisited. This tap show “like no other” (The New Criterion) weaves together music that’s “a little bit country, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll…but also very funky” (The Boston Globe) by Reagon with her BIGLovely band, with virtuosic solo and ensemble numbers by members of Dorrance Dance, some of the most brilliant tap interpreters performing today.  Bessie Award-winning tap dancer and choreographer Michelle Dorrance is founder and artistic director of the company which she formed to present tap in compelling new contexts that incorporate street, club, and experimental dance forms.

 

Toshi Reagon’s hold-nothing-back approach to rock, blues, R&B, country, folk, spirituals, and funk has been described by The New York Times as “a love of mixing things up...[her] vocal style ranges from a dirty blues moan to a gospel shout to an ethereal croon.”  Reagon has performed with artists Lenny Kravitz, Lizz Wright, and Ani DiFranco, and collaborated on dance and theater projects with Urban Bush Women, Jane Comfort and Company, and LAVA, among others.

The presentation of “The Blues Project” by Dorrance Dance was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

This event is part of The New York State Presenters Network Presenter-Artist Partnership Project made possible through a regrant from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

 

Saturday, July 25

 

10 AM – JAFFE DRIVE / TOLL PORTE-COCHÈRE

Family Day

Baby Loves Disco – A Family Dance Party

Family Day kicks off with this popular dance party for toddlers, preschoolers, and their grownups.  Baby Loves Disco features music from the 70s & 80s, spun and mixed live by real DJs, plus interactive elements like face-painting, egg-shakers, and other music makers, adding to the fun. Soon to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Baby Loves Disco was started by professional dancer (and mom) Heather Murphy, in Philadelphia, was brought to New York City by Ropeadope Records founder Andy Hurwitz, and now takes place in more than 20 cities across the U.S.

 

11 AM – JOSIE ROBERTSON PLAZA

Family Day

Lil Buck

The dance theme continues with a demonstration and performance geared to families by the virtuoso of jookin’ Lil Buck.  Buck has put his own distinctive stamp on the street dance that originated in Memphis, incorporating ballet which he studied there growing up, to dazzle audiences and dance critics alike.

 

12 PM, 5 PM, 5:30 PM, 6 PM – JAFFE DRIVE / TOLL PORTE-COCHÈRE

Bridgman|Packer Dance: Truck

This site-specific work is performed inside a 17-foot box truck, which will be “parked” on Lincoln Center’s pass-through, underground drive. Truck combines live performance and film projections—both pre-recorded and captured live—to transform a utilitarian object, and an unexpected Lincoln Center location, into a magical space. Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, Guggenheim Fellows in Choreography, are acclaimed for their innovative integration of choreography and video technology that transforms the partnering form into a stage where image and reality collide.  “The most thrilling dance work this reviewer has seen in recent memory…flat-out exhilarating” is how The Boston Globe described a Bridgman|Packer Dance performance. Truck will be repeated multiple times on Saturday, July 25.

Made possible in part by the Harkness Foundation for Dance.

 

3:30 PM – JOSIE ROBERTSON PLAZA

Heidi Latsky Dance

Choreographer and former principal dancer for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Heidi Latsky challenges preconceptions and prejudices about beauty with compelling works that feature an integrated company of disabled and non-disabled dancers.  She and her company performed GIMP, one of her most celebrated projects, at Out of Doors in 2012. GIMP examines the uncompromising ways we are often identified or defined by our physicality—a theme carried through to this summer’s project with wheel chair athletes. Lincoln Center’s event will feature wheelchair athletes in a work choreographed by Latsky that exploits the vastness of the main plaza.  To mark the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Heidi Latsky Dance will present site-specific works at various locations around New York City throughout July, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office, Art Beyond Sight, and Dance/NYC.

 

4 PM – JOSIE ROBERTSON PLAZA

National Dance Day

Dancers of all ages and abilities are invited to gather around Lincoln Center’s Revson Fountain for National Dance Day. Launched in 2010 by So You Think You Can Dance co-creator Nigel Lythgoe, National Dance Day is an annual celebration that encourages Americans to embrace dance for fun and good health. Special guests and group routines will be announced closer to the July 25 date, and the public can visit the Lincoln Center Out of Doors website to learn and practice the routine.

Presented in association with the Dizzy Feet Foundation

Made possible in part by the Harkness Foundation for Dance.

 

Family Day is supported by Disney.

 

7 PM – DAMROSCH PARK BANDSHELL

Lil Buck

Lil Buck returns to get the evening off to an electrifying start. “When Charles ‘Lil Buck’ Riley performs it’s as if he’s gliding on water, defying gravity.  Jookin’ is his dance. And he’s been called the Baryshnikov of it,” is what Wynton Marsalis said introducing a profile of the dance phenom on CBS This Morning in January. Buck has astonished audiences in performances with Madonna at the Super Bowl halftime show and at the Grammy Awards, danced to Saint-Saëns The Swan with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and premiered a new work with French visual artist J R at New York City Ballet last year. The New York Times proclaimed jookin’, “the single most exciting young dance genre of our day, featuring…the most sensationally diverse use of footwork.”  NOTE: Lil Buck’s performance is followed by music sets by Wycliffe Gordon and His International All Stars and Randy Newman.

 

Sunday, July 26

 

3 PM – HEARST PLAZA

Chinese American Arts Council Dancers: From Chinatown with Love

Featuring dazzling costumes and a live traditional Chinese music ensemble, Lincoln Center favorites, the singers, actors, dancers and acrobats of New York’s Chinese American Arts Council open their afternoon performance with a traditional Lion Dance and continue with a program that includes the Sword Dance, martial arts demonstrations, excerpts from the musical-theater work, The Bound-feet Liu Jinding Crashes Four Gates, and other traditional Chinese dance and music works.

 

4 PM, 4:30 PM, 5 PM, 5:30 PM, 6 PM – JAFFE DRIVE / TOLL PORTE-COCHÈRE

Bridgman|Packer Dance: Truck

See above, Saturday, July 25.

Made possible in part by the Harkness Foundation for Dance.

 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 1

A CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF GEOFFREY HOLDER

 

In an exceptional career spanning more than 50 years, the late Geoffrey Holder left an indelible mark in the fields of dance, theater, film, and the visual arts. Lincoln Center offers a tapestry of events on Holder’s birthday, August 1, in celebration of a New York City icon and Renaissance man of the arts. Highlighted by the premiere of a new co-commissioned work by acclaimed choreographer Garth Fagan, performed by his company, along with a solo performance by celebrated dancer Carmen de Lavallade, Holder’s wife and life-long muse, the day-long celebration also includes the screening of a documentary about the life and work of the couple, preceded by a panel discussion.  A companion multi-media exhibition, The Genius of Geoffrey Holder, is on view at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

 

Schedule

 

1 pm – Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center - Amphitheater

Panel discussion:  The Life and Work of Geoffrey Holder, speakers TBD

 

2 PM – Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center - Amphitheater

Carmen and Geoffrey

This joyful documentary celebrates two giants of the dance and theatrical worlds: dancer/choreographer/ actress Carmen de Lavallade and multi-hyphenate Geoffrey Holder. Wife-husband team Linda Atkinson (a student of Carmen’s) and Nick Doob (Academy Award-winner for From Mao to Mozart) capture the intimate chemistry between quietly brilliant Carmen and larger-than-life Geoffrey. The film features interviews and performance footage of friends and colleagues including dancers Judith Jamison, Gus Solomons, Jr., Dudley Williams, Ulysses Dove, and Alvin Ailey. “What you see is more than an outstanding, five-decade creative collaboration; it’s one of the dance world’s great love stories,” declared Dance Magazine.  Archival film clips, some of which have never been seen by the public, will be shown following the documentary.

(2006, 79 Minutes)

 

7:30 pm – Damrosch Park Bandshell

Garth Fagan Dance

Garth Fagan turns 75 in May, and he and the company he founded nearly 45 years ago are going strong. “Ensconced in the top rank of America’s most distinguished, contemporary choreographers,” (The Star-Ledger) Fagan’s ever-evolving dance language draws on modern and post-modern idioms and ballet, and powerful roots in Afro-Caribbean dance. 

 

Program:

New Work co-commissioned by Lincoln Center Out of Doors – Tribute to Geoffrey Holder

 

Prelude

“Discipline is Freedom”

(September 1981, revised May 1983)

Choreography by Garth Fagan

Music by Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) and Max Roach

Lighting Design by C.T. Oakes

Costumes by Amanda Horne

 

Thanks Forty (Excerpts)

(November 2010)

Choreography by Garth Fagan

Music by Dmitri Shostakovich, Bonga Kuenda, and Gerald Albright

Lighting Design by Hideaki Tsutsui

Costumes by Lena-Marie Bell

 

No Evidence of Failure (Excerpt)

(November 2013)

Choreography by Garth Fagan

Music by Monty Alexander

Lighting Design by Lutin Tanner

Costumes by Garth Fagan

 

Carmen de Lavallade performs The Creation, the 1972 solo choreographed and scored by Geoffrey Holder, accompanied by vocals by the Ebony Ecumenical Ensemble. Dancer and actress Carmen de Lavallade made her professional debut as a principal dancer with The Metropolitan Opera. Her career has spanned stage and film and she has collaborated with celebrated choreographers including Agnes de Mille, Glen Tetley and John Butler. Writing about a performance of The Creation, The New York Times said, “Anyone who has seen Miss de Lavallade whip through an arm ripple suggesting a river or first man standing upright for the first time will never forget her artistry.”

Made possible in part by the Harkness Foundation for Dance.

 

The Ebony Ecumenical Ensemble was founded in 1979 by renowned musical director, musicologist, and activist Bettye Franks Forbes. The Ensemble's wide-ranging repertoire brings together a body of work encompassing the African American religious experience. Included in the repertoire are traditional and contemporary spirituals, anthems, hymns, and gospels. One of New York City's great cultural treasures, The Ebony Ecumenical Ensemble has performed throughout the United States and abroad.

 

Related Event - Exhibition

July 23 – August 29, 2015 – The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts,

Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, PLAZA Corridor Gallery

The Genius of Geoffrey Holder

Born and trained in Trinidad, Geoffrey Holder revealed his genius in his long career in dance, theater, film, music, and art. As a choreographer, designer, director, dancer and actor, Geoffrey Holder is well represented in all of the research and circulating collections of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.  The multi-media exhibition will cover his performing career, his Tony Award-winning work as director and costume designer for The Wiz, and contributions to the repertory of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and Dance Theatre of Harlem.

 

Sunday, August 2

 

1 pm – Hearst Plaza

Heritage Sunday

Opening Doors: Celebrating Immigrant New York

For the 17th edition of Heritage Sunday at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Center for Traditional Music and Dance presents a program commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Hart-Celler Act, the landmark U.S. immigration bill that changed the demographic makeup of the U.S. Also known as the Immigration and Naturalization Act, it opened doors to countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and parts of Europe that had historically been closed to immigrants. The afternoon features music and dance performance traditions from some of the New York City immigrant communities that witnessed robust growth after the bill’s passage.

Abdoulaye Diabaté and Super Manden is an ensemble of master musicians led by lauded Malian-born singer Diabate who is steeped in the Malian griot tradition; The Boodoosingh Tassa Drummers, formed by Queens native Ryan Ali, performs high-energy drumming based on indigenous musical forms from Trinidad and Tobago; Calpulli Mexican Dance Company specializes in the regional dances of Jalisco, Michoacan, Puebla, and Veracruz, along with compelling interpretations of traditional Aztec dances; Csurdöngölo Folk Ensemble, accompanied by acclaimed Hungarian folk music band Életfa, offers a high-energy survey of traditional Hungarian music and dance, as well regional traditions from Slovakia and Transylvania; Ikhlaq Hussain, virtuoso sitarist, a descendant of a centuries-long line of master musicians from Delhi Gharana (India), including a 13th-century Islamic Sufi master, was relocated with his family to Pakistan during the post-colonial partition. Emigrating to the U.S., Hussain was granted permanent U.S. residency on the basis of his extraordinary musical gifts.

Presented in association with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and the Center for Art, Tradition and Cultural Heritage

 

7 pm – Damrosch Park Bandshell

Ache: Lavagem da Rua

Featuring: Gilson Menezes Santos Dorea (Tatau do Araketu), Alexandre Cortes de Barros, and a section of Baianas, Members of the Afoxe of Filhas de Gandhy and Drummers from Brazil; Something Positive from Trinidad; Legacy Circle from the Dominican Republic;  

Ashe Dance from Haiti; Amma McKen; and Grupo Oriefun from Cuba

Presented in association with the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute

                                                                 

Throughout the African Diaspora, traditional sacred thought and practice regards the road and crossroads as a metaphor for the journey of life. Ache: Lavagem da Rua marks the cleansing of the road traveled to assure that one’s life path is open, free of unnecessary obstacles.  The groups performing represent countries of the African Diaspora, including Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and others, all celebrating the different roads of song, music, and dance traveled on a path to a joyful destiny.

 

Thursday, August 6

 

7 pm – Damrosch Park Bandshell

We Like It Like That! A Boogaloo Celebration

Joe Bataan with special guests

Ray Lugo and the Boogaloo Destroyers with special guest Richie Ray

ABAKUÁ Afro-Latin Dance Company

DJ Turmix

Latin boogaloo is a product of the melting pot of New York City, a colorful expression of 1960s Afro-Latino soul, rocketing to popularity from the streets of El Barrio, New York’s East Harlem, and being reborn today and introduced across the city and points beyond. Taking its title from the boogaloo anthem made famous by bandleader and pianist Pete Rodriguez, the Damrosch Park concert pairs pioneering legends with today’s practitioners who are claiming and reinventing the sound for new audiences. Boogaloo innovator Joe Bataan and his band roll out irresistible hits from the early days. Ray Lugo’s good-time, hip-swinging originals pay homage to the style’s giants, including his special guest, Latin Music Hall of Famer Richie Ray, one of Latin music’s most influential pianists. New York’s ABAKUÁ Afro-Latin Dance Company offers works from its rich repertoire choreographed by founder Frankie Martinez, as in-demand DJ Turmix—who has played an important role in the genre’s resurgence with his monthly BOOGALOO! Party at club Nublu—spins some of the era’s Latin gems.

 

All LINCOLN CENTER OUT OF DOORS events are FREE; no tickets required

 

Visit LCOutofDoors.org for complete schedule.

 

ABOUT LINCOLN CENTER OUT OF DOORS

Inaugurated in 1971, Out of Doors began as a small festival of street theater in collaboration with Everyman Theater (co-founded by actress Geraldine Fitzgerald.) Over its 44-year history, Out of Doors has commissioned more than 100 works from composers and choreographers and presented hundreds of major dance companies, renowned world-music artists, and legendary jazz, folk, gospel, blues and rock musicians. It has highlighted the rich cultural diversity of New York City with its annual “La Casita” project which offers poetry and spoken word, along with music and dance performances. Out of Doors has partnered with dozens of community and cultural organizations including the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, Center for Traditional Music and Dance, and the Chinese American Arts Council. Lincoln Center Out of Doors 2015 is produced by Jill Sternheimer.

 

Dance events at Lincoln Center Out of Doors 2015 are made possible in part by the Harkness Foundation for Dance.

 

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Lead support for Lincoln Center Out of Doors 2015 is provided by Bank of America.

 

Additional support is provided by PepsiCo Foundation, Disney, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, The New York State Presenters Network, Great Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, the Friends of Lincoln Center, and Young Patrons of Lincoln Center.

 

Public support for Lincoln Center Out of Doors 2015 is provided by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Tom Finkelpearl, Commissioner, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

 

Operation of Lincoln Center’s public plazas is supported in part with public funds provided by the City of New York.

 

Endowment support is provided by PepsiCo Foundation.

 

Additional endowment support provided by The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation.

 

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Artist Catering Provided by Zabar’s and Zabars.com.

 

MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center.

 

United Airlines is a Supporter of Lincoln Center.

 

WABC-TV is a Supporter of Lincoln Center.

 

“Summer at Lincoln Center” is supported by Diet Pepsi.

 

Time Out New York is Media Partner of “Summer at Lincoln Center.”

 

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Lincoln Center Festival and Lincoln Center Out of Doors are presentations of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) which serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 15 series, festivals, and programs including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Artist Program, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Books, Lincoln Center Dialogue, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, Midsummer Night Swing, Martin E. Segal Awards, Meet the Artist, Mostly Mozart Festival, Target Free Thursdays, and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations.  In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion campus renovation, completed in October 2012. 

 

Lincoln Center is committed to providing and improving accessibility for people with disabilities. For information, call the Department of Programs and Services for People with Disabilities at (212) 875-5375

 

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Additional information, photos and videos available at Lincoln Center Press Room: http://aboutlincolncenter.org/press-room

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FOLLOW LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: facebook.com/LCFestival

Twitter: #LCFestival

 

FOLLOW LINCOLN CENTER OUT OF DOORS ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Facebook: facebook.com/LCOutofDoors

Twitter: @LCOutofDoors

 

FOLLOW LINCOLN CENTER ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Facebook: facebook.com/LincolnCenterNYC

Twitter: twitter.com/lincolncenter

Tumblr: lincolncenter.tumblr.com/

 

LincolnCenter.org or AboutLincolnCenter.org

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