RIOULT Dance NY
In association with the Joyce Theater Foundation
presents

RIOULT DANCE NY

Artistic Director & Choreographer PASCAL RIOULT

Featuring
BRIAN FLYNN, JOSIAH GUITIAN, CHARIS HAINES, JERE HUNT,
MICHAEL SPENCER PHILLIPS, JANE SATO, SARA ELIZABETH SEGER,
ANASTASIA SOROCZYNSKI, MARIANNA TSARTOLIA, & HOLT WALBORN

Production Manager: SPENCER ANDERSON
Lighting Design: DAVID FINLEY & JIM FRENCH
Scenic Design: HARRY FEINER
Projection Animation: BRIAN CLIFFORD BEASLEY
Costume Design: RUSS VOGLER & KAREN YOUNG

Joyce Theater
175 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10011
(212) 242-0800 or www.joyce.com
June 17 through June 22, 2014


The Joyce Theater presents two programs featuring Pascal Rioult's powerful choreography and extraordinary dancers. The Rioult dance company is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a world-renowned assembly of creative choreography and dancers with incredible talent.


In Program A, MARTHA, MAY & ME, RIOULT pays homage to his mentors with a performance of May O'Donnell's Suspension, created in 1943, and Martha Graham's El Penitente, created in 1940. Rioult's own Black Diamond (2003) and Views of the Fleeting World (2008) complete the program.

Program B presents a World Premiere, Dream Suite, set to the music of Tchaikovsky, and the powerful Wien (1995). Program B also includes last year's premiere work, Iphigenia.

In Suspension, with music by RAY GREEN, dancers wear varying subtle tones of blue, moving slowly in a state of suspended balance and order, maintaining harmony using independent patterns. Then these patterns join, separate, energize, and create tension points for each other to maintain the order and balance of the whole. Because of the almost slo-mo grace demanded of the dancers, this piece is lovely, graceful, and unbelievable to watch.

El Penitente, with music by LOUIS HORST, has the look of primitive folk art. Born out of Martha Graham's fascination with the American southwest and a religious sect that believed in purification through severe penance, the dance has a simple formalism, episodic structure, and naïve, archaic gestures. A group of strolling players appear on stage and reenact Biblical vignettes, from Original Sin through salvation.

An abstract piece for two female dancers clad in only in black, Black Diamond achieves poetry through an almost cubist interaction. Each movement translates to qualities embodied by a black diamond: strength, beauty, purity, and mystery.

Views of the Fleeting World was inspired by the ancient woodblock prints of the Japanese master Hiroshige and the ingenious structure of Bach's musical score, “The Art of Fugue”. Red-skirted dancers move through the sounds of summer wind, a gathering storm, rain, and a flowing river to reflect the depth of human emotions connected to nature. The background and ephemeral red fabric admirably enhance the Asian elements and feel of this most enjoyable dance.

The drama Iphigenia, with music by MICHAEL TORKE, chronicles a young woman's transfiguration from innocent child to transcendental heroine. It focuses on King Agamemnon's decision to sacrifice his daughter, to the horror of his wife and his daughter's betrothed, Achilles. It culminates with Iphigenia's inevitable acceptance of her fate.

Wien cleverly turns the Viennese waltz's image of grace, clarity, and social refinement inside out, using it as a metaphor for the decadence and moral disintegration of society.

RIOULT Dance NY, as always, does not disappoint. Each piece has a unique nature, utilizing an enchanting blend of styles while injecting the contrast necessary to provide a wonderfully well-rounded evening of dance performance. Bravo, indeed.

-Karen D’Onofrio-