Bard College Dance Presents Two Programs of New and Historical Works in the Fisher Center, April 29 to May 2

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard College Dance Program closes the year with two concert programs of new and historical works, featuring choreography by Trisha Brown, Bill T. Jones, members of the Bard dance faculty, and the Judson Dance Theater. The Bard College Faculty Dance Concert will present two evening performances on Thursday, April 29 and Friday, April 30, at 8:00 p.m. and one matinée on Saturday, May 1, at 2:00 p.m. A second program, “Celebrating Judson,” will be presented on Saturday, May 1, at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, May 2, at 2:00 p.m. There will be a post-performance discussion on May 2. All performances will be held in LUMA Theater of the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $15 (free with Bard ID). For reservations and information, contact the box office at 845-758-7900, or go to fishercenter.bard.edu.

The Bard College Faculty Dance Concert (April 29, 30, May 1) includes new works by faculty members Jean Churchill, Peggy Florin, and Aileen Passloff performed by members of the dance faculty and students of the Bard Dance Program. Faculty member Leah Cox of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will perform Jones’s work, Floating the Tongue. Students will perform Trisha Brown’s Group Primary Accumulation (1973) as a prelude to the 2010 SummerScape Festival, which features a broader selection of work performed by the Trisha Brown Dance Company.

Works selected for “Celebrating Judson” (May 1, 2) underscore the Bard Dance Program’s place in the postmodern movement and showcase the artists of the Judson Dance Theater. Performed primarily by current students and alumni/ae from the Bard Dance Program, these concerts include works by significant Judson artists such as Trisha Brown, Toby Armour, and Aileen Passloff, who is in her 40th year on the faculty at Bard. “Celebrating Judson” highlights not only how Judson Dance Theater has influenced Bard’s dance program through Passloff, but also the impact that the Judson movement had, and continues to have, on the broader contemporary dance community. The concert features a three-piece retrospective of works by Passloff, a new work by Armour, a solo by Albert Reid, a solo homage to James Waring, and a film of a work performed by Arthur Aviles. Group Primary Accumulation will also be performed in this concert. During a panel discussion following the performance on May 2, David Vaughan, author, dancer, choreographer, and archivist for the Cunningham Dance Foundation, will moderate a conversation between the choreographers regarding their connection to one another and how the Judson movement has influenced their work. The Bard College Dance Program will reprise the concert on Friday, June 4, at 7:00 p.m. at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. The “Celebrating Judson” concerts are made possible in part by the generous support of S. Asher Gelman ’06 and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation. For more information, visit inside.bard.edu/dance.

About the Judson Memorial Church and Judson Dance Theater
In the 1950s the Judson Memorial Church, located in Greenwich Village, made space available to artists for art exhibitions, rehearsals, and performances and assured these artists—who included Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, and Robert Rauschenberg—that they could have the freedom to experiment in their work without fear of censorship. The Judson Dance Theater, which began in 1962, provided a venue for dancers and choreographers such as Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Steve Paxton, David Gordon, Yvonne Rainer, and Aileen Passloff to create and show their work. In addition to visual art and dance, the Judson Memorial Church also supported poetry, theater, and music.

ABOUT THE BARD COLLEGE DANCE PROGRAM
The Bard Dance Program sees the pursuit of artistry and intellect as a single endeavor. We believe that the study of the body is a cognitive act demanding both physical practice and academic exploration. We focus on dance and choreography as a performing art with an interdisciplinary scope. Students are exposed to areas of inquiry that represent the broader contexts in which the art form exists, in and outside of the arts. We expect students to take risks—risks that call on their participation as citizens of the world and cultivate their perceptive sensibilities. We foster the discovery of a dance vocabulary that is meaningful to the dancer/choreographer and essential to her or his creative ambitions. This discovery leads to the cultivation of original choices—choices informed by a full exploration of a student’s surroundings, choices that find expression in new and dynamic ways. We prepare dancers for the versatility and integration necessary to face the questions: Where will dance go next? What will the next dance revolution look like and where will it come from? We believe that serious inquiry in all areas of the liberal arts is critical to the development of the whole person and to the success of our future artists.

This event was last updated on 03-30-2010

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