2015-2016 Art of Performance by The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

NEW STAGES 2015–2016: THE ART OF MAKING DANCE

Top: Dušan Týnek, Joseph’s Coat; Alex Ketley/The Foundry, Deep South; Kate Weare Company, photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang; Bottom: David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group, I Understand Everything Better, photo by Maria Baranova.

ART OF PERFORMANCE SPONSORS ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Bank of America DIRECTOR Gerri Aaron Huisking Family Fund of Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Charlotte and Charles Perret Publix Super Markets Charities Ina Schnell

PATRON Lucia and Steven Almquist Blalock Walters, P.A. Kathy and Michael Bush The Cowles Charitable Trust Cumberland Advisors Icard Merrill Dorothy and Charles Jenkins Macy’s Muse at The Ringling

Dick and Betty Watt Nimtz Nancy and Chuck Parrish Lisa Reese / The L. Marie Charitable Fund Stephen and Judith Shank SpringHill Suites by Marriott SunTrust Private Wealth Management Willis A. Smith Construction Woman’s Exchange Inc.

MEDIA SPONSORS ABC7—Your Suncoast News Bright House Networks Herald-Tribune Media Group

Sarasota Magazine Scene Magazine SRQ Media WUSF Public Media

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS FOR THEIR SUPPORT Dr. Susan M. Brainerd and Alan R. Quinby

Bernice Sapirstein Davis

The presentation of The Ringling’s Art of Performance is 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.

NEW STAGES 2015–2016 THE ART OF MAKING DANCE

Since its inception in 2009, The Ringling’s Art of Performance program has aspired to move beyond the mere presentation of contemporary art towards a more active and participatory role in the development of new works and productions. Opening this season of New Stages with two world premieres bears testament to the vitality of that commitment. It is an endeavor that relies on the support of an audience that is ready and willing to experience the creation of contemporary performance as it is being realized by living artists in their studios and on our stage. As composer John Cage remarked regarding the work of choreographer Merce Cunningham, “What it communicates is in large part determined by the observer.” The artist’s regard for – and confidence in – your willingness to emotionally and intellectual engage with resonant cultural themes lies at the heart of this year’s New Stages: The Art of Making Dance. We welcome your voice in an ongoing conversation about what informs, shapes, defines, and animates these diverse and dynamic creations of contemporary dance.

CONTENTS 2 New Stages 2015–2016 4 Deep South by Alex Ketley / The Foundry 14 Joseph’s Coat by Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre

NEW STAGES 2015: THE ART O F MAKI NG DANCE

NEW STAGES 2015-2016: THE ART OF MAKING DANCE

DEEP SOUTH Alex Ketley, The Foundry of San Francisco NOV 6 & 7, 7:30 PM Historic Asolo Theater

Following his success with No Hero (New Stages 2014), Alex Ketley engaged the people of America’s rural South in an exploration of their personal and cultural relationship to dance. The result is Deep South, a testament to our shared humanity as told through live dance and documentary video gathered as the artist traveled and danced throughout the southeastern US. RELATED PROGRAM:

Conversation with the Choreographer NOV 7, 2:00 PM Photo courtesy of artist

JOSEPH’S COAT Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre DEC 18 & 19, 5:00 PM Museum of Art, Turrell Skyspace

Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre returns with the full-length presentation of a new work inspired by The Ringling’s James Turrell Skyspace (previewed in New Stages 2015). Six dancers create an ever-evolving kaleidoscope – shifting, expanding, and contracting in rapid movements and subsequent stillness that evoke the permutation of Turrell’s sculpting of light. RELATED PROGRAM:

Conversation with the Choreographer DEC 19, 2:00 PM Photo courtesy of artist

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FOUR CHOREOGRAPHERS RETURN TO THE RINGLING IN AN ON-GOING EXPLORATION OF WHAT INFORMS, SHAPES, DEFINES, AND ANIMATES THEIR DIVERSE AND DYNAMIC CREATIONS OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE.

UNSTRUCK Kate Weare Company FEB 12 & 13, 7:30 PM Historic Asolo Theater

Kate Weare returns for her third New Stages engagement with UNSTRUCK—a new work in movement and sound, created in collaboration with composer Curtis Macdonald. In this intimate trio, Weare continues to reveal the power and clarity of spontaneous movement as she employs unceasing contact and energetic exchange to create an evermorphing sculpture of dance. RELATED PROGRAM:

Conversation with the Choreographer FEB 13, 2:00 PM Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang

I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING BETTER David Neumann / Advanced Beginner Group MAR 11 & 12, 7:30 PM Historic Asolo Theater

Through a union of theater and dance-making, David Neumann (Art of Performance’s first Artist Residency) incorporates technology, weather reports, and personal narratives in an exploration of our impulse to report on calamity, the consciousness of traumatic change, and of the human spirit in proximity to dying. RELATED PROGRAM:

Conversation with the Choreographer MAR 12, 2:00 PM Photo by Maria Baranova

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Deep South The Foundry

Concept, Choreography, and Video: Alex Ketley WORLD PREMIERE Historic Asolo Theater NOV 6 – 7, 2015

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ARTIST

RESEARCH COLLABORATION:

Alex Ketley Miguel Gutierrez, Sarah Dionne Woods Michelle Boulé PERFORMERS:

Aline Wachsmuth Sarah Dionne Woods Courtney Mazeika Marlie Couto with understudy

Michelle Galbraith MUSIC:

Collage by Tar@JMB TEXT COLLABORATORS:

Carol Snow & Maurya Kerr ADVISER:

Emily Coates

RELATED PROGRAM:

A CONVERSATION WITH THE CHOREOGRAPHER SAT, NOV 7 2:00 PM HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

Alex Ketley talks about his travels through-out the American South and how this research gave shape to Deep South. Free Admission; ticket required. Tickets available at Box Office

Deep South is the final work in a trilogy exploring what dance and performance means to the lives of people in rural parts of the United States, who typically have no or little exposure to contemporary concert dance. These projects were born out of a desire to understand what this type of work means when it is removed from its typical development and performance environments in the art-centric urban centers. What we have found through this trilogy is that these intimate discussions and impromptu performances around what dance means to the lives of Americans living in rural communities is a mechanism which tends to engender intimate stories and gives us a unique portrait of place. I was motivated to explore the Deep South because it is a part of the country with which I have had almost no interaction. In choosing Miguel Gutierrez as a primary collaborator, it was with the thought to complicate the process further and to partner with an artist I deeply admire so that we could discuss what, at times, felt like a very foreign culture. What we found was a place filled with vast richness, complication, beauty, and evershifting contradictions. It was a month spent driving around lost, meeting and talking with strangers, offering small on-the-spot performances, as well as improvisations in locations that piqued our interest. The South is a vibrant part of the United States, and I feel lucky to have spent the time we did there and to have all the facets we experienced as the soil in which this performance work has grown. Like the generosity we experienced in these rural communities and each interaction, I’m excited to share Deep South with you this evening.

– Alex Ketley, Artistic Director Continued on next page

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ALEX KETLEY is an independent choreographer and the director/co-founder of The Foundry in San Francisco. Formally a classical dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, he performed a wide range of classical and contemporary repertory in San Francisco and on tour throughout the world. In 1998, he left the San Francisco Ballet to co-found The Foundry in order to explore his deepening interests in choreography, improvisation, mixed-media work, and the collaborative process. With The Foundry he has been an artist in residence at many leading art institutions including Headlands Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Yard, the Santa Fe Art Institute, the Taipei Artist Village, ODC Theater, the Ucross Foundation, and the Vermont Performance Lab. The Foundry has produced fifteen full evening length works that have received extensive support from the public, funders, and the press, as well as a number of single-channel video pieces that have screened at international video festivals. As a choreographer independent of his work with The Foundry, Alex Ketley has been commissioned to create original pieces for companies and universities throughout the United States and Europe. For this work he has received acknowledgement from the Hubbard Street National Choreographic Competition, the International Choreographic Competition of the Festival des Arts de Saint-Saveaur, the National Choo-San Goh Award, the inaugural Princess Grace Award for Choreography, the BNC National Choreographic Competition, three CHIME Fellowships, four Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography Residencies, the Gerbode-Hewlett Choreographer Commissioning Award, and the National Eben Demarest Award. His pieces and collaborations have also been awarded Isadora Duncan Awards in the categories of Outstanding Achievement by an Ensemble, Outstanding Achievement in Choreography, and Outstanding Achievement by a Company. For 2011, in addition to commissions from Ballet Leipzig and the Juilliard School, his AXIS Dance Company work To Color Me Different was presented on national television through an invitation from the show So You Think You Can Dance. With The Foundry in 2012 he was deeply engaged in a new project entitled No Hero, which explored what dance means and how it is experienced by people throughout more rural parts of the American West. The video projection Alex created for No Hero was nominated for a 2012 Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design. In 2013, he began an appointment as a Lecturer at Stanford University’s Department of Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS). He was also awarded the first Princess Grace Foundation Choreography Mentorship Co-Commission Award (CMCC), a MANCC Media Fellowship, and a Kenneth Rainin Foundation New and Experimental Works Grant, which he used to work on a collaborative

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DEEP SOUTH project with Miguel Guiterrez in 2014 exploring rural communities throughout the Deep South. Also in 2014, he created and premiered the dance film The Gift (of Impermanence), which has screened at film festivals internationally as well as winning the 2015 Artistry Award from the Superfest International Disability Film Festival.   Along with his direction of The Foundry and his various independent projects, Ketley helped Summer Lee Rhatigan create The San Francisco Conservatory of Dance in 2004, an organization where he still serves as an adviser, teacher, and the Resident Choreographer. Stemming from a classical foundation, the school is deeply invested in advanced students learning and growing though the engagement of contemporary choreography. Continued on next page

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ARTIST

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THE DANCERS ALINE WACHSMUTH graduated with a BFA from Florida State University. During her time there she had the privilege of meeting with a wide range of choreographers through Dance Repertory Theater and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. Since moving to the Bay Area in 2008, she has danced with LEVYdance, HereNow Dance Collective, and The Foundry. She has also taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and set Alex Ketley’s choreography at institutions throughout the US and Europe. For her work with The Foundry she is also a recipient of the Isadora Duncan Award. This is her first year back in the studio as a new mom of 10-month-old daughter Amara. Alongside her dancing, Aline runs her own private practice called True Balance Rolfing. SARAH DIONNE WOODS is from Los Angeles, CA and started her dance training at LA County High School for the Arts. She moved to the Bay Area to continue her training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She was a member of LEVYdance from 2012-2014 and is currently dancing for The Foundry. Sarah has had the pleasure of performing with Bay Area companies Kristin Damrow & Company and Sharp & Fine. She teaches contemporary dance at Marin Dance Theater and choreographs for her collaboration projects with her fiancé Bob LaDue. COURTNEY MAZEIKA was born and raised in Austin, TX. She graduated in 2013 from UT Austin where she attained a BFA in Dance. She then trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance under the direction of Summer Lee Rhatigan. Courtney has performed works by choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, Tom Weinberger, Bobbi Jean Smith, Katherine Hawthorne, and others. Currently she dances with The Foundry, teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and coaches gymnastics.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ARTIST

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DEEP SOUTH MARLIE COUTO began her dance training at the age of two in San Diego, CA. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from the Boston Conservatory in 2013, she moved to the Bay Area to join The Foundry and work extensively with Summer Lee Rhatigan at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, where she is currently on faculty. Additionally, Marlie has had the pleasure of working closely with Christian Burns, Bobbi Jean Smith, and Ouroboros Shadow Pictures. PROJECT COLLABORATORS MIGUEL GUTIERREZ lives in Brooklyn, NY, and makes performances. His most recent body of work is Age & Beauty, a suite of queer pieces in three parts. Part 1 premiered as part of the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Part 2 premiered at AMERICAN REALNESS, and Part 3 premiered at Live Arts at the Fisher Center at Bard College. Other recent work includes And lose the name of action, HEAVENS WHAT HAVE I DONE, Last Meadow, and Storing the Winter (in collaboration with Mind Over Mirrors). His work has been presented at several festivals and venues, including Berliner Festspiele, Tanzhaus Zürich, Festival D’Automne and Centre Pompidou in Paris, Kampnagel in Hamburg, Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, CounterPulse in San Francisco, TBA Festival in Portland, On the Boards in Seattle, Festival Transameriques in Montreal, and Festival Universitario in Colombia. In 2010, he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, United States Artists, and Foundation for Contemporary Art. In addition, his work has been supported by MAP Fund, National Dance Project, National Performance Network, National Endowment for the Arts, Jerome Foundation, Creative Capital, and New York Foundation for the Arts. He is the recipient of three New York Dance and Performance Bessie awards, two for his own work and one for his work as a dancer for John Jasperse. He also performed for Alain Buffard, Deborah Hay, Jennifer Lacey, Jess Curtis, and Joe Goode. He has a long and active history as a teaching artist, mostly recently at Camping at CND Paris and Rhode Island School of Design. He has choreographed music videos for Diane Cluck, Holcombe Waller, and Le Tigre, has sung with Antony and the Johnsons, My Robot Friend, Nick Hallet, and Vincent Segal, has released an EP as The Belleville, and has created the sound for several of his own works. His book of performance texts WHEN YOU RISE UP is available from 53rd State Press. He maintains a blog at Stargayze.com and his short essay The Perfect Dance Critic has been featured in several international Continued on next page

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DEEP SOUTH publications. His work is discussed in Jenn Joy’s book The Choreographic, recently published by MIT Press. He is featured as a talking head in David Thorpe’s documentary Do I Sound Gay? From 2006 to 2015, he served as a volunteer mentor for the Theater Development Fund’s Open Doors program, introducing NYC public high school kids to contemporary dance and performance. He invented DEEP AEROBICS, which was used to warm up the audiences on The Knife’s recent tour, and he was recently certified as a Feldenkrais Method practitioner. He studies voice with Barbara Maier. MICHELLE BOULÉ is a Brooklyn-based maker, teacher, performer, and BodyTalk Practitioner. Her choreography has been presented in NY at Danspace Project, River to River Festival, American Realness, Come Together: Surviving Sandy, ISSUE Project Room, Mount Tremper Arts Festival, and The Kitchen. Her work has toured to Dublin, Riga, Winnipeg, Philadelphia, and Chicago. She began working with Miguel Gutierrez in 2001 and received a 2010 New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for her performance in Last Meadow and a 2015 Bessie nomination for her body of work with Gutierrez. Other artists she has worked with include John Jasperse, Deborah Hay, John Scott, and Donna Uchizono. Awards: Cloud Prize, Boekelheide Creativity Award, Jerome Foundation Travel & Study Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants, Brooklyn Arts Exchange Space Grant, DanceWEB. Residences: Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life, Movement Research, DanceHouse (Ireland), and SKITE (France). She has taught at universities and dance institutions in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

SPECIAL THANKS: Deep South was made possible by the generous support of the Historic Asolo Theater, the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography MANCC, the Princess Grace Foundation’s Choreography Mentorship Co-Commissioning Award (CMCC), the Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s New and Experimental Works Grant, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. The Foundry would also like to thank Ben Pryor for his assistance in managing the logistic for the research portion of the project, and to all the people who generously shared their time and stories with us in the South. Also to Miguel Gutierrez for being such a deep part of this project both in the research and as an inspiration for what has been developed for the live work.

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mancc

maggie allesee national center for choreography

Raising the value of the creative process in dance

MANCC (pronounced man-see) is one of two national centers for choreography in the world located in a major research institution, and operates from one of the premiere dance facilities in the United States - the Florida State University School of Dance. Choreographic Fellow Alex Ketley returned in August 2015 for his fourth engagement with MANCC to continue to develop Deep South, the third in a trilogy begun with No Hero and No Hero: Vermont. www.mancc.org • info@mancc.org • 850.645.2894 Photo: Alex Ketley’s Deep South Residency at MANCC Photo by Chris Cameron

TICKETS: RINGLING . O RG 941. 360 . 7399

Joseph’s Coat

Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre Choreography: Dušan Týnek

WORLD PREMIERE THE RINGLING MUSEUM OF ART DEC 18-19, 2015 IMAGES: JOSEPH’S COAT PREVIEW IN THE HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER, MARCH 2015.

DANCERS:

Alexandra Berger Gary Champi Ann Chiaverini Jessica Cipriano Ned Sturgis Timothy Ward COSTUMES:

Dušan Týnek MUSIC:

Kyema (Intermediate States) from Trilogie de la Mort (1998) by Éliane Radigue AFTER:

Joseph’s Coat (2011) by James Turrell (1943- ), The Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, USA

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RELATED PROGRAM:

A CONVERSATION WITH THE CHOREOGRAPHER SAT, DEC 19 2:00 PM TURRELL SKYSPACE IN THE RINGLING MUSEUM OF ART

The challenges and opportunities of creating the site-specific work Joseph’s Coat are discussed by Dušan Týnek. Free Admission; ticket required. Tickets available at Box Office

With the premiere of Dušan Týnek’s sitespecific work, Joseph’s Coat, The Ringling’s Art of Performance program continues its ongoing “conversation” with the James Turrell Skyspace. “Turrell’s work,” observes Elaine A. King in Sculpture magazine, “induces introspection, prompting observers to look at their own viewing processes. His inquires incite us to pause and probe our inner selves and encourage us to reconsider our own connection to and comprehension of the outside world.” To date, our explorations of Turrell’s objectless art of time and space have been in the company of musicians and composers: John Luther Adams’ The Light Within, Meklit Hadero’s Walk Up, and Robert Mirabal’s Music of the Sun (New Stages 2013-14). For this, our first choreographed engagement with the Skyspace, Dušan Týnek brings the music of the contemporary French composer, Éliane Radique into the conversation. In the Kyema (intermediate states) of her epic Trilogie de la Mort, the composer explores the six states of consciousness as defined by the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It is to this music that six dancers move throughout the space in ever-shifting, expanding, and contracting formations that evoke the permutations of Turrell’s sculpted light. Týnek, having been personally tutored by Merce Cunningham in blending the impulsive and spontaneous roots of free dance with the rigors and traditions of both modern dance and ballet, utilizes concise and distinct phrases of movement to embody the idea of a patchwork coat. As this theme is developed, the movement accelerates into a visually complex feast that is provocatively realized in an ever-evolving architecture of perception. In Turrell’s words, we are “seeing ourselves see.” Continued on next page

THE COMPANY OF DANCERS ALEXANDRA BERGER has danced with Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre since its inaugural debut at the Kitchen in 2003. While maintaining her career with (DT)² through the years, she has also had the pleasure of dancing for Pat Catterson, Merce Cunningham (RUG 2007), Douglas Dunn, Rosalind Newman, and Matthew Westerby, among others. Alexandra teaches Gyrotonic® & Gyrokinesis® at Fluid Fitness and at The Mark Morris Dance Center. She has also taught modern dance technique in Massachusetts, Florida, Poland, and Russia. Berger holds a BFA from The New School and is proud to call Brooklyn her home. GARY CHAMPI graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Cognitive Science and a minor in Dance. He is currently employed by the Merce Cunningham Trust and has participated in numerous Cunningham repertory workshops and special projects. Gary dances for H.T. Chen & Dancers and has previously had the pleasure of working with Diane Frank, Robert Moses, Ronnie Reddick, and Natalia Duong. He also choreographs, teaches, and dances with a Hip Hop group in New Jersey. Gary joined (DT)² in 2015. ANN CHIAVERINI, originally from Pittsburgh, PA, joined (DT)² in 2006 and has since performed with the company in NYC as well as on tours throughout the US, Poland, Russia, and Serbia. She has also performed in New York with The Metropolitan Opera, Bard Summerscape Opera, Martha Clarke’s Garden of Earthly Delights (Off-Broadway), Edisa Weeks/Delirious Dance Company, Nancy Meehan Dance Company, Stephan Koplowitz, and

PHOTO COURTESY OF ARTIST

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JOSEPH’S COAT in Michigan with Eisenhower Dance Ensemble and Michigan Opera Theatre. Ann has taught ballet, modern dance, and arts-in-education programs for organizations including American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Tech, Windhover Center for the Performing Arts (MA), and Oakland University (MI). Ann holds a BFA in Dance from The Joffrey Ballet School/New School University. JESSICA CIPRIANO is a native of CT and holds a BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. In 2013, she completed a 6-month Fellowship at Lincoln Center Education, where she created and performed in the premiere of her work So Our Habits As Shadows. Jessica has performed with Balasole Dance Company and Winston-Salem Festival Ballet. She is also passionate about sharing dance with young children and currently teaches at DanceWave and Cynthia King Dance Studio, as well as in public schools throughout Brooklyn. NED STURGIS is from Minneapolis, MN and has a BFA from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He was a member of TU Dance (Toni Pierce- Sands and Uri Sands), Theatre Forever, Twin Cities Ballet, Walker Art Center Momentum Dance Works, and Shapiro & Smith Dance. Ned has also shown his own choreography at the MN Fringe Festival. He joined (DT)² in 2012. TIM WARD trained at the New Orleans Center for the Creative and has a BFA in dance from Juilliard. He was a member of the Merce Cunningham Repertory Understudy Group and has performed with Douglas Dunn & Dancers, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, White Wave Young Soon Kim Dance Company, Tze Chun Dance Company, Mary Seidman, Wendy Osserman, Kira Blazek, Lucie Baker, Carlye Eckert, Cori Kresge, Gallim Dance and Pat Catterson. He joined (DT)² in 2012. ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DUŠAN TÝNEK is known internationally for his striking blend of theatricality and musicality in formally structured modern dance and has been called “an undoubted talent” by The New York Times. Týnek’s choreography is unmistakable for its original and sophisticated movement invention and ingenious use of space. Over the past ten years, critics and audiences have praised his imagination, command of structure, and genuine ability to convey emotion and atmosphere through an original dance vocabulary that naturally bonds classical and modern techniques. Since founding his own company in in 2003, Týnek has created over 20 major dances, choreographed for opera, and held eight criticallyacclaimed seasons in major dance venues throughout NYC, including one Continued on next page NEW STAGES 20 15

JOSEPH’S COAT that was named a NYC top 5 dance highlight of the year by The New York Times. In addition to many project grants, Týnek has been recognized with commissioning grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the Harkness, Greenwall, and O’DonnellGreen Music and Dance foundations. He has also been the recent recipient of fellowships from the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy and The Hermitage Artist Retreat in Florida. Týnek received his BA from Bard College where he studied dance as well as the natural sciences, an influence that is vividly present in his work today. Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre’s recent 10th anniversary season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2013 included three dances that explore the confluence of science and mythology. As a dancer, Týnek has performed with numerous choreographers and companies including several modern dance pioneers. He owes much of his training and inspiration to Lucinda Childs as well as Merce Cunningham, who personally tutored him while Týnek served as an understudy for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Týnek performed and toured with a host of NYC-based modern dance companies – most notably Lucinda Childs, Douglas Dunn, and Molissa Fenley – and Dance Works Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He was also a regular member of (DT)² for the company’s first seven years. Týnek has taught and set work on students at colleges and universities around the US and in Europe. He was the winner of the first Choreographic Fellowship competition at the University of Kansas where he set his acclaimed work Transparent Walls. This work became the first installment of Trilogy, a collaboration with the highly acclaimed composer Aleksandra Vrebalov and the string quartet ETHEL. Týnek possesses a gift for understanding and working innovatively with music, both classical and contemporary, and is known for constantly defying expectations and challenging himself, his dancers, and audiences in new directions.

As an undergraduate at Pomona College in Claremont, CA, JAMES TURRELL received a degree in perceptual psychology – laying the foundation for his life’s work exploring the perception of light within created spaces. The artist’s Quaker upbringing has also played a role in his creations. Characterizing it as a “straightforward, strict presentation of the sublime,” our experience of his work, which requires deliberate thought as well as patience, parallels the contemplative practice of the Quaker tradition. Joseph’s Coat by James Turrell (2011) was made possible through the generous support of The Peter A. Vogt Family; Robert and Beverly Koski; and Dick H. and Betty Watt Nimtz with special acknowledgement to the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation and to Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing.

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NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE FRIDAYS AT 1:00 PM & 6:30 PM HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

$20 / $18 for Ringling Members

Join us for HD-screenings of productions from the U.K.’s National Theatre. Each broadcast is filmed in front of a live audience with cameras positioned to ensure that cinema audiences get “the best seats in the house.” NOV 13 HAMLET Benedict Cumberbatch takes on the title role of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Run time: 3.5 hours DEC 11 EVERYMAN Everyman explodes onto the stage starring Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role. Run time: 90 minutes JAN 8 BEAUX’ STRATAGEM George Farquhar’s wild comedy of love and cash. Run time: 3 hours

JAN 22 CORIOLANUS Shakespeare’s searing tragedy of political manipulation and revenge. Run time: 3 hours FEB 5 JANE EYRE Charlotte Brontë’s story of the trailblazing Jane is as inspiring as ever. Run time: 3.75 hours FEB 19 SKYLIGHT An “Encore” screening of the David Hare hit—back by popular demand! Run time: 2.75 hours MAR 4 BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS David Hare has fashioned yet another tumultuous play on an epic scale. Run time: 2.5 hours MAR 18 AS YOU LIKE IT William Shakespeare’s glorious comedy of love and transformation. Run time: TBD

2016 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

BE THE FIRST TO KNOW BE THE FIRST IN LINE Join us on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:30 PM and be among the First to Know our exciting plans for the 2016 Ringling International Arts Festival. First to Know attendees will also enjoy First in Line priority ticketing when RIAF tickets go on sale following the program that evening. Seating is limited to 250 Contact the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office to reserve your seats now: 941.360.7399 or ringling.org

NEW STAGES 2015–2016: THE ART OF MAKING DANCE

ART OF PERFORMANCE SPONSORS ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Bank of America DIRECTOR Gerri Aaron Huisking Family Fund of Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Charlotte and Charles Perret Publix Super Markets Charities Ina Schnell

PATRON Lucia and Steven Almquist Blalock Walters, P.A. Kathy and Michael Bush The Cowles Charitable Trust Cumberland Advisors Icard Merrill Dorothy and Charles Jenkins Macy’s Muse at The Ringling

MEDIA SPONSORS ABC7—Your Suncoast News Bright House Networks Herald-Tribune Media Group

Sarasota Magazine Scene Magazine SRQ Media WUSF Public Media

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS FOR THEIR SUPPORT Dr. Susan M. Brainerd and Alan R. Quinby

Bernice Sapirstein Davis

NEW STAGES 2015–2016 THE ART OF MAKING DANCE

Since its inception in 2009, The Ringling’s Art of Performance program has aspired to move beyond the mere presentation of contemporary art towards a more active and participatory role in the development of new works and productions. Opening this season of New Stages with two world premieres bears testament to the vitality of that commitment. It is an endeavor that relies on the support of an audience that is ready and willing to experience the creation of contemporary performance as it is being realized by living artists in their studios and on our stage. As composer John Cage remarked regarding the work of choreographer Merce Cunningham, “What it communicates is in large part determined by the observer.” The artist’s regard for – and confidence in – your willingness to emotionally and intellectually engage with resonant cultural themes lies at the heart of this year’s New Stages: The Art of Making Dance. We welcome your voice in an ongoing conversation about what informs, shapes, defines, and animates these diverse and dynamic creations of contemporary dance.

NEW STAGES 2015: THE ART O F MAKI NG DANCE

NEW STAGES 2015-2016: THE ART OF MAKING DANCE

DEEP SOUTH Alex Ketley, The Foundry of San Francisco NOV 6 & 7, 7:30 PM Historic Asolo Theater

Conversation with the Choreographer NOV 7, 2:00 PM Photo courtesy of artist

JOSEPH’S COAT Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre DEC 18 & 19, 5:00 PM Museum of Art, Turrell Skyspace

Conversation with the Choreographer DEC 19, 2:00 PM Photo courtesy of artist

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FOUR CHOREOGRAPHERS RETURN TO THE RINGLING IN AN ON-GOING EXPLORATION OF WHAT INFORMS, SHAPES, DEFINES, AND ANIMATES THEIR DIVERSE AND DYNAMIC CREATIONS OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE.

UNSTRUCK Kate Weare Company FEB 12 & 13, 7:30 PM Historic Asolo Theater

Conversation with the Choreographer FEB 13, 2:00 PM Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang

I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING BETTER David Neumann / Advanced Beginner Group MAR 11 & 12, 7:30 PM Historic Asolo Theater

Conversation with the Choreographer MAR 12, 2:00 PM Photo by Maria Baranova

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Joseph’s Coat

Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre Choreography: Dušan Týnek

WORLD PREMIERE THE RINGLING MUSEUM OF ART DEC 18-19, 2015 IMAGES: JOSEPH’S COAT PREVIEW IN THE HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER, MARCH 2015.

DANCERS:

Alexandra Berger Gary Champi Ann Chiaverini Jessica Cipriano Ned Sturgis Timothy Ward COSTUMES:

Dušan Týnek MUSIC:

Kyema (Intermediate States) from Trilogie de la Mort (1998) by Éliane Radigue AFTER:

Joseph’s Coat (2011) by James Turrell (1943- ), The Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, USA

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RELATED PROGRAM:

A CONVERSATION WITH THE CHOREOGRAPHER SAT, DEC 19 2:00 PM TURRELL SKYSPACE IN THE RINGLING MUSEUM OF ART

The challenges and opportunities of creating the site-specific work Joseph’s Coat are discussed by Dušan Týnek. Free Admission; ticket required. Tickets available at Box Office

PHOTO COURTESY OF ARTIST

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NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE FRIDAYS AT 1:00 PM & 6:30 PM HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

$20 / $18 for Ringling Members

2016 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

NEW STAGES 2015–2016: THE ART OF MAKING DANCE

ART OF PERFORMANCE SPONSORS ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Bank of America DIRECTOR Gerri Aaron Huisking Family Fund of Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Charlotte and Charles Perret Publix Super Markets Charities Ina Schnell

PATRON Lucia and Steven Almquist Blalock Walters, P.A. Kathy and Michael Bush The Cowles Charitable Trust Cumberland Advisors Icard Merrill Dorothy and Charles Jenkins Macy’s Muse at The Ringling

MEDIA SPONSORS ABC7—Your Suncoast News Bright House Networks Herald-Tribune Media Group

Sarasota Magazine Scene Magazine SRQ Media WUSF Public Media

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS FOR THEIR SUPPORT Dr. Susan M. Brainerd and Alan R. Quinby

Bernice Sapirstein Davis

NEW STAGES 2015–2016 THE ART OF MAKING DANCE

Since its inception in 2009, The Ringling’s Art of Performance program has aspired to move beyond the mere presentation of contemporary art towards a more active and participatory role in the development of new works and productions. It is an endeavor that relies on the support of an audience that is ready and willing to experience the creation of contemporary performance as it is being realized by living artists in their studios and on our stage. As composer John Cage remarked regarding the work of choreographer Merce Cunningham, “What it communicates is in large part determined by the observer.” The artist’s regard for – and confidence in – your willingness to emotionally and intellectually engage with resonant cultural themes lies at the heart of this year’s New Stages: The Art of Making Dance. We welcome your voice in an ongoing conversation about what informs, shapes, defines, and animates these diverse and dynamic creations of contemporary dance. NOV 6 – 7

DEEP SOUTH

DEC 18 – 19

JOSEPH’S COAT

FEB 12 – 13

UNSTRUCK

MAR 11 – 12

I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING BETTER

Alex Ketley, The Foundry of San Francisco Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre Kate Weare Company David Neumann / Advanced Beginner Group

Tickets: $30, $25 / $27, $22.50 for Members ringling.org or 941.360.7399

NEW STAGES 2015–2016: THE ART O F MAKI NG DANCE 1

Kate Weare Company Kate Weare, Artistic Director Douglas Gillespie, Assistant Director

HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

FEB 12 - 13, 2016

RELATED PROGRAM:

DANCERS:

A CONVERSATION WITH THE ARTISTS

Nicole Diaz

SAT, FEB 13 2:00 PM

Kayla Farrish

HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

Ryan Rouland Smith

Julian De Leon Douglas Gillespie

The artists of Kate Weare Company share insights into Weare’s choreographic style as it has developed and evolved since the company’s first New Stages engagement in 2011. Free Admission; ticket required.

Keira HeuJwyn Chang Managing Director Mike Faba Lighting Supervisor/Stage Manager Madysen Luebke Volunteer Coordinator

Tickets available at Box Office

The presentation of Kate Weare Company is 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.

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VOLVER (2015) Choreography: Kate Weare Dancers: Douglas Gillespie, Julian De Leon Music: Violeta Parra Volver a los Diecisiete Lighting Design: Mike Faba Thank you to Peter McNaughton for teaching us to walk softly

– Pause –

DARK LARK

(Excerpted from 55-minute work, 2013)

Choreography: Kate Weare Dancers: Nicole Diaz, Kayla Farrish, Douglas Gillespie, Ryan Rouland Smith Composer: Christopher Lancaster Lighting Design: Mike Faba Original Lighting Design for BAM Fisher: Brian Jones

Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang

Costume Design: Sarah Cubbage Dark Lark is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project cocommissioned by Bates Dance Festival in partnership with Brooklyn Academy of Music, Florida Dance Association, Juniata College and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). Dark Lark is made possible with generous support from New Music USA’s 2013 Live Music For Dance Program, New York Foundation for the Arts BUILD Program, The Jerome Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and The New York Community Trust.

- Intermission – Continued on next page

Photo by Paula Lobo

UNSTRUCK (2015) Choreography: Kate Weare Dancers: Julian De Leon, Nicole Diaz, Ryan Rouland Smith Original Score: Curtis Macdonald featuring performances by Christopher Tordini, contrabass Patrick Breiner, tenor saxophone & clarinet Curtis Macdonald, alto saxophone. Costume Design: Brooke Cohen Lighting Design: Mike Faba The creation of Unstruck is supported by The Joyce Theater Artist Residency, CalArts Evelyn Sharp Summer Choreographic Residency, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as by Weare’s 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship. Unstruck is cocommissioned by The Joyce Theater, CalArts, and American Dance Festival. Kate Weare Company’s Unstruck is a recipient of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project Touring Award, 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.

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KATE WEARE (Choreographer and Artistic Director) is recognized as a preeminent American choreographer whose dances are lucid, layered, and visually sophisticated yet speak with emotional clarity to a broad swath of viewership. Raised by a painter and a printmaker in Oakland, California, Weare draws on visual art sources, language, poetry, contemporary music, psychology, and nature in her work. Called by Dance Magazine, “the voice of the it’s complicated generation,” Weare just celebrated her Company’s 10th anniversary season at BAM. Recent awards include: The Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship Award in 2014, Inaugural BAM Fisher ArtistinResidency and Commission Award in 2013, White Bird’s Barney Creative Prize in 2015, Inaugural Evelyn Sharp Summer ArtistinResidency at CalArts in 2014, Joyce Theater Creative Residency Awards in both 2014 and 2011, Princess Grace Fellowship in 2009. Weare’s 2013 debut in Next Wave Festival led to her Company’s 2015 season at BAM Fisher as part of the BAM/DeVos Professional Development Program. Her newest work is cocommissioned by Joyce Theater and ADF and slated to premiere at both venues in 2016. Companies worldwide have asked Weare to travel and set work on their dancers; recent commissions include Cleveland’s Groundworks Dance Theater and ODC/San Francisco. Weare always enjoys working with students, most recently as Guest Faculty at Princeton University as well as The Juilliard School, NYU/Tisch, Virginia Commonwealth University, Keene State University, and Marymount Manhattan, among others. Committed to collaborating with composers, Weare has commissioned original scores from (and her company has performed live with) many extraordinary musicians such as Michel Galante and NYC’s Argento Chamber Ensemble, SFbased violinist David Ryther, SFbased old time band The Crooked Jades (Jeff Kazor & Lisa Berman), composer Barbara White of Princeton University, Brooklynbased indie band One Ring Zero (Michael Hearst & Joshua Camp), electroacoustic cellist/composer Christopher Lancaster, and saxophonist/ composer/producer Curtis Macdonald. Kate Weare Company has been presented nationwide by Jacob’s Pillow, American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, ArtPower at UC San Diego, Ringling Museum of Art, Dance Celebration Philadelphia, Spring to Dance St. Louis, Northrop Concerts and Lectures at the University of Minnesota, and Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, among many other venues. In New York the company has been presented by Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Joyce Theater, Fall for Dance at New York City Center, The 92nd St. Y, Symphony Space, The Skirball Center, Dancemopolitan at Joe’s Pub, Dance Theater Workshop, and Danspace Project. Continued on next page

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DANCERS NICOLE DIAZ began her training in Miami, Florida, where she later joined Momentum Dance (2007-2009), performing as part of Art Basel, the Miami Dance Festival, as well as Momentum’s annual residency in Oaxaca, Mexico. In 2013, Diaz graduated cum laude from the University of South Florida with a BFA in Dance Performance where she participated in works by Doug Varone, Michael Foley, Rosie Herrera, Colleen Thomas, and Ben Munisteri. She has both studied and performed solo work in Paris, France as part of USF’s Dance in Paris program, before moving to New York City in 2013. This is Diaz’s second season with Kate Weare Company. JULIAN DE LEON began his dance training at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in California. In 1997, he moved to London, England to study at the Laban Center for Movement and Dance. In 2000, he joined Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance Company. De Leon moved to San Francisco, CA in 2003 where he danced for KunstStoff, Janice Garrett and Dancers, and Margaret Jenkin’s Dance Company. In 2007, he moved to New York City and danced with Stephen Petronio Company for seven years. This is De Leon’s first season with Kate Weare Company. KAYLA FARRISH was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina into a dance loving family. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Arizona in 2013 and was granted the Gertrude Shurr Award for excellence in modern dance and passionate dancing. Since moving to New York, she has had the opportunity to work with wonderful choreographers including Aszure Barton and Artists, Helen Simoneau Danse, Gallim Dance, Chris Masters Dance, Bryn Cohn, Elena Vazintaris, Bare Dance Company, Schoen Movement Company, Matthew Westerby Dance Company, CEMA Dance, and others. She is excited for her first season with Kate Weare Company. DOUGLAS GILLESPIE (Assistant Director) received his BFA in Dance from Florida State University and joined Kate Weare Company in 2007. Gillespie currently serves as the Company’s Assistant Director and regularly teaches on behalf of the Company, most recently at The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch Summer Program and Gibney Dance Center. Last year he was also a performer in PunchDrunk’s Sleep No More, Shakespeare’s tragedy through the lens of film noir. Gillespie’s own student commissions include group work for Sante Fe College in Gainesville and a quartet for Cleveland State University.

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KATE WEARE COMPANY RYAN ROULAND SMITH hails from Colorado where he graduated from the Denver School of the Arts. A recipient of the Carpenter Scholarship, Smith graduated cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in dance and choreography. While at VCU he performed works by guest choreographers Stephanie Batten Bland and Kate Weare. From 2012-2013, Smith was a scholarship recipient at American Dance Festival, where he worked with John Jasperse and Reggie Wilson as well as performing in the first reconstruction of Bill T. Jones’ Love Redefined. This is his first season with Kate Weare Company. Continued on next page

Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang

COLLABORATING ARTISTS BROOKE COHEN (Costume Design, Unstruck) is based in New York City. Select dance credits include: Five Objects (In Isolation and Solitude) for Second Avenue Dance Company, Rosa Encadenada for Buggé Ballet, It’s Getting’ Deep and The Sound of Silence for NYU Dance. Select theater credits include: Snow Orchid (Miranda Theatre Company), Villainous Company (Rachel Reiner Productions), And if You Lose Your Way… Or, A Food Odyssey (Mud/ Bone Collective), and Ragtime (College of New Rochelle). Brooke is very excited about her first design collaboration with Kate Weare Company and would like to thank Kate for the opportunity. SARAH CUBBAGE (Costume Design, Dark Lark) Credits include: Drop Down, Light, Garden, Bright Land, Leanto, Kate Weare Company; Idyll, Paradigm, chor. Kate Weare; Radio Show, Brick, Number 6, Kyle Abraham/Abraham. In.Motion. OffBroadway: Reflections of a Heart, A Year with Frog & Toad. Regional: Evita, The Wizard of Oz, 39 Steps, I Hate Hamlet, Northern Stage; The Ladies Man, Corpse!, Curtain Call Theatre; Catch22, Aquila Theatre Company. Film: A Clerk’s Tale, dir. James Franco; So Over You, dir. Karen Odyniec; Seconds, dir. Marcin Stawarz; Welcome, dir. Maja Milanovic. Other NYC: Hater, Ohio; The Magic Flute, Gargoyle Garden, Manhattan School of Music; Don Giovanni, Hofstra; As You Like It, The Tempest, NY Shakespeare Society; Alice In Wonderland, Center For Contemporary Opera. MFA: NYU/ Tisch School of the Arts; Member USA 829. MIKE FABA (Lighting Design) is a Lighting Designer and Production Manager for theatre and dance. Recent designs include Dark Lark and Unstruck for Kate Weare Company; Wednesday Morning, 11:45 for Pilobolus Dance Theater; New Voices at Symphony Space and the Steinheart School; Dance Iquail at the Harlem School of the Arts; Girls with Dreams at La MaMa; and Telemachus, Darling at The Abrons Center. Mike is also the Production Designer for the Brooklyn BEAT Festival, where he has designed work at venues across Brooklyn, including GreenWood Cemetery, The Brooklyn Public Library, The Brooklyn Museum, The Kumble Theater, Metrotech Plaza, and others. Lighting Supervisor credits include Pilobolus Dance Theater, Martha Clark’s Angel Reapers, and WNYC’s Radiolab Live: In the Dark. CHRISTOPHER LANCASTER (Composer, Dark Lark) is an electroacoustic cellist composer living in Brooklyn, New York. He trained as a classical cellist and continues that discipline in his work with technology. Lancaster’s inspiration comes from his many collaborators from film, dance, and music, and he is always reshaping and recreating the sounds and songs his instrument can create. His solo work has focused on live performance and he is a devout believer in the transformative power of live music and art. In the field of dance, Lancaster has worked with Bill T. Jones, Kate Weare, Brian Brooks, Marina

KATE WEARE COMPANY Mascarelli, NDT, Lyon Opera Ballet, Dance Forum Taipei, Skanes Dansteatre, Staccato Danca Contemporanea, Nicholas Leichter, Camille Brown, Sean Curran, Paradigm, Complexions, and others. He had the privilege of performing his music for President Obama at The Kennedy Center Honors in 2010. He is a founding member of the bands Tranimal and Loving You. CURTIS MACDONALD (Composer, Unstruck) is a Brooklyn based saxophonist, composer, and producer whose works blend composition, sound design, and improvisation. He was recently co-awarded the first Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation Prize for his collaboration with choreographer Aszure Barton on the dance Awáa, and he has won commissions from Aszure Barton & Artists, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Hubbard Street Dance, Munich Ballet, the Museum of Modern Art, and Larry Keigwin choreographing for The Juilliard School. Macdonald is originally from Canada and moved to New York in 2003 to attend the New School University for Jazz and Contemporary Music. He has released two recordings as a bandleader, teaches sound design at Parsons School for Design (The New School), and is a member of the great American composer and instrumentalist Henry Threadgill’s Ensemble Double Up. This is his first collaboration with Kate Weare Company. THANKS A very special thank you to the inimitable Dwight Currie and Michael Kohlmann to whom we dedicate this evening’s duet, Volver, in celebration of our ongoing partnership and in honor of love itself. Our gratitude to the entire staff at The Ringling Museum and The Historic Asolo Theater for hosting our company; to Aaron Muhl and the tech staff for their excellent support in the theater; and last but not least, our heartfelt thanks to our audiences here in Sarasota! KATE WEARE COMPANY www.kateweare.com Board of Directors: David Stein, President John Goldman, Vice President and Treasurer Keira HeuJwyn Chang, Secretary Kurt Perschke Kate Weare Advisory Board: Jeanne Collins, John Elderfield, and Will Maitland Weiss

NEW STAGES 2015–2016: THE ART O F MAKI NG DANCE 9

I Understand Everything Better Advanced Beginner Group

Concept/Direction/Choreography: David Neumann HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

MAR 11 – 12, 2016

PERFORMERS: Tei Blow

RELATED PROGRAM

John Gasper Jennifer Kidwell David Neumann Sound Design: Tei Blow Associate Sound Designer: Eben Hoffer Text: Sibyl Kempson with David Neumann Lighting Design: Chloë Z. Brown Video Design: Christine Shallenberg Set Design: Mimi Lien

A CONVERSATION WITH THE ARTIST SAT, MAR 12 2:00 PM HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

David Neumann shares the personal journey that led to the creation of I Understand Everything Better. Free Admission, ticket required Tickets available at Box Office

Costume Design: Erica Sweany Creative Producer: Meredith Boggia Administrative Director of ABG: Amanda Brandes Associate producer: Mabou Mines Project Advisors: Dr. Pamela Barton, MD Rick Davis, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Kei Okada, End-of-life Caregiver and Hospice Nurse

The presentation of I Understand Everything Better is 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.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE This piece emerged from an intense moment in my life, one that most people must go through, and one that forever shifted my perspective on the borders between life and art. Of all my work to date, I Understand Everything Better blurs that boundary most. My parents died on either side of Hurricane Sandy. My mother, suddenly in the summer. My father, having a longer journey, died a few weeks after the storm made landfall. I started this work nearly a year later. I Understand Everything Better is both fiction and truth, “riding the fine line between the purely presentational and the deeply personal,” to quote our collaborator, Sibyl Kempson. What you will see tonight is an attempt to articulate the experience of one’s consciousness while dying (and with that, the experience of those taking care of the dying), all told using influences from traditional Japanese theatre. Never an attempt to imitate said forms, I Understand Everything Better shares some formal elements with both the Noh and Kabuki theatres, and with that, the desire to engage and activate our imaginations. As it turns out, I don’t think I understand anything better, but I’ve certainly felt significant change since my parents’ deaths. It is indeed a new perspective—a type that only loss can bring—and one that’s sent me here, to share this piece with you. Thank you for coming. – David Neumann Continued on next page

Photo by Maria Baranova

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ADVANCED BEGINNER GROUP is a collection of artists across many disciplines and approaches that, under the direction of David Neumann, come together for specific projects. We make work that is at its core an irrational response to our perceived place in the universe. We make our pieces from scratch, bringing to word, action, and proximity a delighted embrace of our contradictory lives. Words and actions can only point to experience. We actively attempt to create experiences that are difficult to describe. MABOU MINES (Co-Producer) is a collaborative theater ensemble based in NYC. Founded in 1970 by JoAnne Akalaitis, Lee Breuer, Philip Glass, Ruth Maleczech, Fred Neumann, and David Warrilow, the current Artistic Directors are Lee Breuer, Sharon Fogarty, Karen Kandel, and Terry O’Reilly, along with Associate Artists: Clove Galilee, Maude Mitchell, and David Neumann. The company has created more than sixty original works and adaptations of classics for the theater. Their work has been presented at theaters in New York City and throughout the United States, North and South America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and Asia. Mabou Mines has received close to 100 awards and citations for excellence, including OBIE Awards for General Excellence and Sustained Achievement and the Edwin Booth Award. DAVID NEUMANN/Advanced Beginner Group’s original work has been presented in New York at PS 122, New York Live Arts, The Kitchen, Central Park Summerstage (where he collaborated with John Giorno), Celebrate Brooklyn, Symphony Space (where he collaborated with Laurie Anderson), and The Whitney. ABG has also performed at the Walker Art Center, Alverno College, MASS MoCA, and the American Dance Institute, among others. Neumann was a performer for many years working with, among others, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Big Dance Theater, Doug Elkins, Doug Varone, and Sally Silvers. Recent projects include: Choreographer on An Octoroon at Soho Rep/Theater for a New Audience; directing Geoff Sobelle in The Object Lesson at BAM Fischer (Bessie Recipient for Outstanding Design, 2015); Futurity, co-produced by Soho Rep and Ars Nova; and Hagoromo with Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto at BAM. He is currently professor of theater at Sarah Lawrence College. Neumann is the recipient of three New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards, including most recently, a 2015 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production for I Understand Everything Better. Additionally, he has received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award, an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship (Noh immersive), and support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Creative Capital, NYFA, and National Dance Projects, among others.

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ADVANCED BEGINNER GROUP TEI BLOW (sound design/performer) is a performer and multimedia designer based in Brooklyn, NY. Born in Japan and raised in the United States, Tei’s work incorporates photography, video, sound, and their media artifacts. His designs have appeared at BAM, Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, The Public Theater, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Wadsworth Atheneum, and at theaters in over 30 major cities around the world. He is one-half of Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble who are currently working on The Art of Luv (Parts 1-22), a multipart group meditation on the nature of love and longing. Blow recently was awarded a 2015 New York Dance and Performance Award (‘The Bessies’) for Outstanding Sound Design of I Understand Everything Better. He makes music with the band Frustrator on Enemies List Home Recordings. CHLOË Z. BROWN (lighting design) is a Brooklyn based lighting designer, production manager, and stage manager. She was the Director of Production at New York Live Arts and Dance Theater Workshop from 2002 - 2013. She is currently the Production Manager for Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company. In her work as a designer she collaborates with many NY based directors and choreographers, including: Ivy Baldwin, Laurie Berg, Andrew Dinwiddie, Jeanine Durning, Juliana May, Sarah Maxfield, David Neumann, Heather Olson, Brian Rogers, Vicky Shick, Chris Yon, and many more. In 2005, she was honored with a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for her lighting of Amanda Loulaki’s La la la la, Resistance (The Island of Breezes) at DTW. Prior to her work at DTW, she toured nationally and internationally with Susan Marshall and Company, David Dorfman Dance, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and many others. She loves her work. JOHN GASPER (performer) is an actor, musician, and writer. He is a founding member of St. Fortune Theater Collective, with whom he has created works such as Wood Music (Great Plains Theater Conference), Whiskey Jack (NYFringe, JACK), and Engagement (Dixon Place). He is a member of Sibyl Kempson’s 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr. and Perf. Co (Let Us Now Praise Susan Sontag); Designated Movement Company (Whither Goest Thou); and Trusty Sidekick Theater Company (Campfire; Up & Away). He plays saxophone and clarinet in Czech Neck, an ever-evolving free improv noise collective; keyboards and synths in Major Magics, a psychedelic dream pop band; and curates the Slipped Discs Rec. net label. Continued on next page

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EBEN HOFFER (Associate Sound Designer) is an actor and a sound designer originally from Portland, OR. He is a co-artistic director of Tugboat Collective, a theater company creating original works. Recent performance: Theater Reconstruction Ensemble’s You On The Moors Now (HERE), Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble’s Everything One In The Disc Of The Sun (Kate Werble Gallery), Superhero Clubhouse’s Big Green Theater (Bushwick Starr), and Tugboat Collective’s Poor Sailor (The Brick). Recent sound designs include Martha Graham Dance Company, Big Art Group, SITI Company Conservatory, and The Flea Theater. He makes music with bands Frustrator and The Copper Look. SIBYL KEMPSON’s (playwright/performer) plays have been presented in NYC, Austin, Omaha, Minneapolis, Bonn, and Baltimore. Current collaborators, along with David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group (also Restless Eye, 2012) include Elevator Repair Service (Fondly, Collette Richland, New York Theatre Workshop, fall 2015). She was a 2015 Artist-in-Residence at Abrons Arts Center, where her fledgling 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr & Perf Co. presented its first production Let Us Now Praise Susan Sontag, continuing collaboration with Messrs. Neumann, Blow, and Gasper. She holds an MFA from Brooklyn College. Her plays are published by 53rd State Press, PAJ, and PLAY: A Journal of Plays. JENNIFER KIDWELL (performer) is a performing artist. Recent projects include work with Robert Wilson/Toshi Reagon/Bernice Johnson Reagon (Zinnias: the Life of Clementine Hunter), Pig Iron Theatre Co. (I Promised Myself to Live Faster, 99 Break-Ups), and visual artist Joe Scanlan as Donelle Woolford (Dick’s Last Stand, Whitney Biennial 2014). With Scott Sheppard, she is creating the original duet Underground Railroad Game (FringeArts 2015, ANT Fest 2014), and is currently at work on an original quartet, Those With Two Clocks with Jess Conda and Melissa Krodman. She is a proud cofounder of JACK (Brooklyn) and the current TCG Fox Fellowship Resident Actor with Pig Iron. MIMI LIEN (set design) is a designer of sets and environments for theater, dance, and opera. Having arrived at set design from a background in architecture, her work often focuses on the interaction between audience/ environment and object/performer. She is an artistic associate with Pig Iron Theatre Company and The Civilians, resident designer at BalletTech, and co-founder of JACK, an art/performance space in Brooklyn. Frequent collaborators include Dan Rothenberg, Sarah Benson, Les Waters, Anne Kauffman, Eliot Feld, Blanka Zizka, and Alec Duffy, among others. Her work has been presented at the Prague Quadrennial, and her sculpture exhibited at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. Mimi has received a Lucille Lortel 14 N EW S TAGE S 2 01 5 –2016

ADVANCED BEGINNER GROUP Award, American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award, Barrymore Award, Drama Desk nomination, Bay Area Critics Circle nomination, and was selected to participate in the NEA/TCG Career Development Program. She is also a recipient of an OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence in Design and a 2015 MacArthur Fellowship. CHRISTINE SHALLENBERG (video design) is a multimedia artist whose work spans installation, research, performance, and community engagement. Shallenberg’s diverse body of work, which ranges in scale from performative physical encounters to mediated light and sound installations to choreography for audience investigates issues of intimacy, perception, identity, and transformation. Christine also worked as the Lighting Director for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for whom she designed Second Hand, Antic Meet, Nearly 90² and more than 30 unique Event performances seen around the world. She is currently teaching Wearable Technology and Soft Computing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. ERICA SWEANY (costume design) designs and builds things for infants, weirdos, and folks looking to transform, align, or be guinea-piggish. A jackof-many, she was most recently in the original cast of Honeymoon in Vegas on Broadway, appears in a few TV shows, and as a lead in the feature film, It Had to Be You starring Cristin Milioti. She is a writer of music, inventor of apparatuses, master mender of her own many mistakes, and dedicated learner. Working on this project is one highlight of the decade and she is grateful. Continued on next page Photo by Maria Baranova

MEREDITH BOGGIA is an independent creative producer who believes in making space for diverse artists and audiences to experience artistic excellence. She has served as staff and consultant at such institutions as The National Dance Museum, MASS MoCA, Dance Theater Workshop/New York Live Arts, the Wasaic Project, MAP Fund, AUNTS, and others. She is overjoyed to work with luciana achugar, Katie Workum, Kimberly Bartosik /daela, Rebecca Lazier, Emily Johnson / Catalyst, Mallory Catlett, Sibyl Kempson, Ivy Baldwin Dance, RoseAnne Spradlin and, most certainly, the amazingly insightful David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group. A special thank you to David, as well as the whole team. AMANDA BRANDES has spent 13 years working with arts and education nonprofit organizations. In addition to working with ABG, she is currently Manager of Institutional Relations at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, focusing her portfolio on arts education. Previously, she worked in the development office at the Educational Alliance and as the General Manager for both The New Group and the Dorset Theatre Festival. She has filled consulting and producing roles with Keen Company, Red Bull Theater, Urban Arts Partnership, and Studio 42, to name a few. In addition to her AB in English and Theater from Princeton University, she holds an MA in Cultural Studies and Media Theory from the University of Chicago. Someday, maybe, she hopes to understand everything better…! SPECIAL THANKS to the advisors whose expertise and passion inspired us to no end; to Orlando Pabotoy, Andrew Dinwiddie, and Jesse Heffler for originating roles and launching ideas; to Pam Rapp at BAC and Joshua Higgason for sharing their equipment; to Josh Rice and Ben Williams for standing in and being prepared; to Jennifer Calienes for believing in this work early on; to the collaborators for engaging so bravely and intelligently; to the performers for upping the game; to my love, Erica for keeping it real; to Fred, Honora and Chris for continuing guidance and love; to Advanced Beginner Group Board members Sue Killam, Pamela Barton, Amanda Brandes; to the Asian Cultural Council (New York and Tokyo offices), John Oglevee, Tak Kasahara, and Omura Sensei of the Kita Nohgakudo; and to Meredith Boggia and Amanda Brandes for tireless guidance and steerage. Advanced Beginner Group acknowledges support in the form of technical residencies from The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, The Banff Centre Theatre Arts Residency Program, and BRIClab at BRIC. I Understand Everything Better was created with development and residency support from MASS MoCA and a joint residency, supported by MASS MoCA and Jacobs Pillow Dance, supported by the Hunter Family Foundation; and with the support of a MacDowell Fellowship. 16 N EW S TAGE S 2 01 5 –2016: THE A RT OF M A KING DA N CE

ADVANCED BEGINNER GROUP This presentation of I Understand Everything Better 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. I Understand Everything Better was also made possible in part from a grant from the David and Leni Moore Family Foundation I Understand Everything Better had its world premiere at American Dance Institute (ADI) in Rockville, MD in March 2015, where it also received production development support from ADI’s National Incubator residency program. Many thanks also to the generous individuals who have supported this work (list as of April 8, 2015): Elizabeth Abrahamsen, Jennifer Brandes, Katherine Chopin, Anne DeAcetis, Jill Godmilow, Liriel Higa, Jennifer Ikeda, Andy Kelso, Danny Kopel, Sonja Kostich, Deborah Lohse, Trey Lyford, Mia Morris, Evren Odcikin, Tari Pantaleo, Rakesh Satyal, Joe Stackell, Amy Stollmack, Douglas and Georgia Thackway, Sarah Tortora, and Martin Wechsler. ADVANCED BEGINNER GROUP www.advancedbeginnergroup.org. Board of Directors: Dr. Pamela Barton Amanda Brandes Sue Killam David Neumann

2016 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

BE THE FIRST TO KNOW BE THE FIRST IN LINE Join us on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:30 PM at the Historic Asolo Theater and be among the First to Know our exciting plans for the 2016 Ringling International Arts Festival. First to Know attendees will also enjoy First in Line priority ticketing when RIAF tickets go on sale following the program that evening. Seating is limited to 250 Contact the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office to reserve your seats now: 941.360.7399 or ringling.org