WHAT I DID FORSYTHE LOVE
The Music Center begins its 2016-17 dance season this Friday, October 21, 2016, with Celebrate Forsythe, a remarkable evening devoted to the works of William Forsythe. Equally special is that three separate ballet companies will each perform in the program. For more than 45 years, the innovative Forsythe has been broadening the world of dance by pairing ballet with modern and very contemporary music. Also through October 23, there will also be a display at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of costumes from Forsythe’s works, many which he designed himself.
PROGRAM:
“Pas/Parts 2016” – performed by San Francisco Ballet
Choreography: William Forsythe
Music: Thom Willems
Scenic and Lighting Design: William Forsythe
Costume Design: Stephen Galloway
Originally choreographed for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1999 and re-choreographed for the San Francisco Ballet, Forsythe’s “In Pas/Parts 2016” uses stylistic differences–visible in the steps, but also in the ballet’s structure–to enhance the counterpoint. The ballet’s name suggests a series of parts that are evident in the flow of solos, duets, trios and other groupings that appear in sections tailored to showcase each dancer.
“The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” – performed by Pacific Northwest Ballet
Choreography: William Forsythe
Music: Franz Schubert (Allegro molto vivace from Symphony No. 9 in C Major)
Scenic and Lighting Design: William Forsythe
Costume Design: Stephen Galloway
The piece, which displays all of the traditional accoutrements of classical dance, including tutus, point shoes, virtuosity, lyricism and a friendly display of formal manners between the sexes, premiered in a 1996 performance by the Ballet Frankfurt and was first performed by Pacific Northwest Ballet in 2015. Here, Forsythe showcases a breathtaking display of classical technique that illustrates how he sees the ballet vocabulary as part of a range of choreographic possibilities. The ballet is an overt celebration of the dancers’ ability to make technical difficulty into a triumph of physical mastery.
“Artifact Suite” – performed by Houston Ballet
Music: Johann Sebastian Bach, Eva Crossman-Hecht
Lighting & Costume Design: William Forsythe
An exciting work with an enormous amount of dancers. This is an edited version of an evening-length ballet, Artifact, created in 1984 for Ballet Frankfurt. Forsythe has shortened the ballet into a stunning piece that preserves all of the original choreography’s striving innovation and power. “Artifact Suite” deconstructs and reconstructs the rules of traditional ballet without denying its traditional technique. Rules are both extended and broken in this work whose powerful images perturb theatrical imagery and push the play of optional illusions to their limits.
photos by Erik Tomasson
Celebrate Forsythe
Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance
at The Music Center
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave
Friday, October 21, 2016 at 7:30
Saturday, October 22, 2016 at 7:30
Sunday, October 23, 2016, at 2:00
for tickets, call 213.972.0711
or visit The Music Center
